Draw Me Like One of Your Japanese Girls

They say healing is hard. But sometimes it’s just about zoning out. Being stupid on purpose. Watching colors flicker on a screen and laughing like a child who’s forgotten the war in its chest. That’s what I needed right now. And that’s what I found in Comic Girls. It’s soft like cotton candy after crying. Four broken girls. Drawing manga. Living together. Nobody tries to be a hero. They’re just sad and messy and trying. That’s more than I can say about most people. Kaoruko is fifteen. And too small for all this pain. She draws those little four-panel comics, the kind you read and forget in ten seconds, but she still tries. Kaoruko ranks last in a reader poll and cries alone in a hallway.

I’ve been there, minus the comics. They tell her to gain experience, like that’s a button you press. So she moves into a dorm for girl mangaka. A home for lost souls. There’s Koyume, the shoujo dreamer with stars in her eyes and hearts in her margins. Ruki draws soft porn with a blush, but her mind is shy and tired. And Tsubasa. God, I love Tsubasa. She’s the cool tomboy, draws guys beating each other up, and wears confidence like armor. I wanted to be her. Or hold her hand. Or both. They draw. They cry. They sleep late and wake up with smudges of ink on their cheeks like war paint. They whisper about deadlines like ghosts might hear them. They make each other laugh.

Sometimes that’s all we need. Each other and a stupid joke and a little screen light in the dark. I watch them while I melt. I don’t need plot. I need softness. Cute girls, dumb gags, no stakes. It’s perfect. It’s enough. In this world of burned-out dreams and cold coffee, Comic Girls is my blanket. It doesn’t fix anything. But it reminds me I’m still warm somewhere. Random normies want to be beamed into a fantasy world after they die. With magic, dragons, and big-boobed elves. And here I am. Wishing to be isekaied into a sun-drenched dormitory full of adorable manga girls, living their best lives along chasing eccentric, colorful and never-ending ambitions.