It's rare to find a manga that's so unabashedly about friendship between girls without any sexual or romantic undertones. "Just a Girl" is just sweet, and although it often verges on the saccharine, saccharine is sometimes just what I want to read.

What really stands out to me about "Just a Girl", though, is its treatment of non-Japanese people. Usually "foreigners" become static light-haired stereotypes in manga, but here they are portrayed realistically and without exoticism, probably thanks to the author having studied in America.

This series is very innocent. Maybe innocent series were more common in early to mid 1990s manga series, which was when this series was published. But it's too innocent, to the point of boring. Not average like the other poster said, but it works out the same, whether you call it average or too innocent, it ended up boring either way. Probably good for a 8 year old girl, but there are way more romance mangas with more story tension than this bit of a snore-fest manga.

Completely average. The characters are interesting enough, but I doubt you’ll remember it a week after you read it. It's a nice little diversion if you do like Shoujo though.

... Last updated on March 6th, 2008, 5:51pm