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REVIEW: The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses GN 1-2




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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1372
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 2:09 pm Reply with quote
Mei being so vision-impaired but managing to get to school unaware of missing her glasses is something that strains my credibility to the breaking point. Perhaps she's far-sighted (presbyopic). She can see things on the street just fine, but can't focus on anything closer than a few feet away.

This series is cute, but mostly harmless. I'm not sure if I'll keep up with it.
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ExplodingPrinny



Joined: 15 Nov 2022
Posts: 43
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 3:05 pm Reply with quote
She has to get REALLY close to things when she forgets her glasses. They use it to fluster her boy and show the comical way she tries to read.

I was beginning to think she was forgetting her glasses on purpose.
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AnimeFlyz



Joined: 31 Aug 2015
Posts: 367
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 3:12 pm Reply with quote
I binged this entire series and it gave me overload of diabetes.
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blahmoomoo



Joined: 27 Jan 2020
Posts: 466
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 4:11 pm Reply with quote
It works well as a weekly read on Comikey, but reading it in volume-length chunks probably isn't ideal for a series like this. The most recent chapters on Comikey make up an arc though, and Mie is a much better defined character now.
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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1372
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 5:21 pm Reply with quote
ExplodingPrinny wrote:
I was beginning to think she was forgetting her glasses on purpose.


I haven’t ruled out this possibility.

I expect blahmoomoo is correct that this works better in smaller chunks.
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me_barron



Joined: 14 Sep 2014
Posts: 174
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 6:30 pm Reply with quote
Seems cute. Can't wait for the anime. So, is it Mie or Mei? The Synopsis portion uses Mie, but the Review portion repeatedly uses Mei.
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spacedin



Joined: 08 Apr 2023
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 6:34 pm Reply with quote
dm wrote:
Mei being so vision-impaired but managing to get to school unaware of missing her glasses is something that strains my credibility to the breaking point. Perhaps she's far-sighted (presbyopic). She can see things on the street just fine, but can't focus on anything closer than a few feet away.

ExplodingPrinny wrote:
I was beginning to think she was forgetting her glasses on purpose.


The target demo is middle school and slightly older boys who want a girlfriend - their first - but fear rejection. So any hook, gimmick or cliche that depicts a male lead that they can identify with getting romantic attention from a cute girl that spares the self-insert the possibility of humiliating rejection is going to have a real shot. Why not just depict the girl as walking up to the guy, saying "I like you" and asking him out? Well to this cohort - not the top student, soccer team goalie, rich kid, handsome popular guy, lead saxophonist or even someone who has had a girlfriend before - that actually seems "less realistic" to them than a girl who keeps forgetting her glasses. Or a girl with such a bad case of social phobia that she has to write on a notepad to communicate.

Now this trend does have positives. It depicts romances that build up over time by people who take time get to know each other, learn to respect each other, become friends, mature socially and emotionally etc. It avoids the "heads over heels in love with someone that I barely know for utterly superficial reasons", romantic rivalries and other stuff associated with harems. And then you have the anime romcom tropes that are just stalking horses for arranged marriages. Take Kenjiro Hata: does the Hayate the Combat Butler harem for 15 years and then pivots to "how different is this from a marriage arranged by his parents to a girl that he barely knows especially considering that a gorgeous girl that he has known for years already liked him!?!?" Tonikawa.

So this is an age and demo appropriate fantasy that is "fine" and in many ways an improvement. I just wish that they could be accompanied by a batch of works that depicts this demo confronting these fears, getting burned a few times and getting past them.
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JustMonika



Joined: 17 Jan 2022
Posts: 992
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 6:56 pm Reply with quote
spacedin wrote:
dm wrote:
Mei being so vision-impaired but managing to get to school unaware of missing her glasses is something that strains my credibility to the breaking point. Perhaps she's far-sighted (presbyopic). She can see things on the street just fine, but can't focus on anything closer than a few feet away.

ExplodingPrinny wrote:
I was beginning to think she was forgetting her glasses on purpose.


The target demo is middle school and slightly older boys who want a girlfriend - their first - but fear rejection. So any hook, gimmick or cliche that depicts a male lead that they can identify with getting romantic attention from a cute girl that spares the self-insert the possibility of humiliating rejection is going to have a real shot. Why not just depict the girl as walking up to the guy, saying "I like you" and asking him out? Well to this cohort - not the top student, soccer team goalie, rich kid, handsome popular guy, lead saxophonist or even someone who has had a girlfriend before - that actually seems "less realistic" to them than a girl who keeps forgetting her glasses. Or a girl with such a bad case of social phobia that she has to write on a notepad to communicate.

Now this trend does have positives. It depicts romances that build up over time by people who take time get to know each other, learn to respect each other, become friends, mature socially and emotionally etc. It avoids the "heads over heels in love with someone that I barely know for utterly superficial reasons", romantic rivalries and other stuff associated with harems. And then you have the anime romcom tropes that are just stalking horses for arranged marriages. Take Kenjiro Hata: does the Hayate the Combat Butler harem for 15 years and then pivots to "how different is this from a marriage arranged by his parents to a girl that he barely knows especially considering that a gorgeous girl that he has known for years already liked him!?!?" Tonikawa.

So this is an age and demo appropriate fantasy that is "fine" and in many ways an improvement. I just wish that they could be accompanied by a batch of works that depicts this demo confronting these fears, getting burned a few times and getting past them.


Demographic can be irrelevant though. I was leaving the Army and going through my first divorce 20 years ago and this series is perfect for me, lol
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Cryten



Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 997
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 7:15 pm Reply with quote
JustMonika wrote:
Demographic can be irrelevant though. I was leaving the Army and going through my first divorce 20 years ago and this series is perfect for me, lol


Many people outside of demographic targets enjoy media, but the demographic target does inform choices in design.

@spacedin: I feel like Tonikawa did manage to put the effort into its setup to justify its zany setup. And its genuine approach to their relationship earns it many points. Yes it is similar to arranged marriage couple stories I getcha, but we spend the establishing episodes seeing just how taken Nasa is with Tsukasa to upend his life up to that point. Tsukasas motivation remain an interesting hook of the show.
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spacedin



Joined: 08 Apr 2023
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2023 7:29 pm Reply with quote
Cryten wrote:
JustMonika wrote:
Demographic can be irrelevant though. I was leaving the Army and going through my first divorce 20 years ago and this series is perfect for me, lol


Many people outside of demographic targets enjoy media, but the demographic target does inform choices in design.

@spacedin: I feel like Tonikawa did manage to put the effort into its setup to justify its zany setup. And its genuine approach to their relationship earns it many points. Yes it is similar to arranged marriage couple stories I getcha, but we spend the establishing episodes seeing just how taken Nasa is with Tsukasa to upend his life up to that point. Tsukasas motivation remain an interesting hook of the show.


You are correct about the demo target informing choices. Bakuman was great with showing how that works. As for Tonikawa, I agree that it is excellent, just as Combat Butler was a very good early harem that puts the modern Sword Art Online wannabes to shame. But it is still marrying off two people who barely know each other at the end of the day.
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Swissman



Joined: 11 May 2006
Posts: 768
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2023 11:12 am Reply with quote
Cryten wrote:
JustMonika wrote:
Demographic can be irrelevant though. I was leaving the Army and going through my first divorce 20 years ago and this series is perfect for me, lol


Many people outside of demographic targets enjoy media, but the demographic target does inform choices in design.

That's not wrong, but Square Enix's Monthly Gangan Joker website advertises itself as a magazine with a broad selection of genres, ranging "from cute adolescent stories to dark fantasies that tickle men's fancy, or four-panel comedies recommended for tired office ladies", so it's not specifically targeted to a classic shounen/shoujo/seinen/josei demographic like the content and art of Suki na ko ga megane o wasureta seems to suggest. I myself enjoy reading the manga and I'm a male in my mid-forties. It's one of those sweet iyashi-kei manga which heal my soul, lol.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2133
PostPosted: Mon May 08, 2023 1:17 pm Reply with quote
Swissman wrote:
That's not wrong, but Square Enix's Monthly Gangan Joker website advertises itself as a magazine with a broad selection of genres, ranging "from cute adolescent stories to dark fantasies that tickle men's fancy, or four-panel comedies recommended for tired office ladies", so it's not specifically targeted to a classic shounen/shoujo/seinen/josei demographic like the content and art of Suki na ko ga megane o wasureta seems to suggest.


For the curious, other manga in the magazine include Akame ga Kill, Kakegurui, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated, Inu x Boku SS, Happy Sugar Life, several of the Umineko adaptations, One Week Friends, and The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious. So I guess that gives an idea of the range.
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