This was an excellent graphic memoir from Mieri Hiranishi. It was definitely relatable and I know so many people in the same situation(s) that Mieri was in. I think it's such an important read for many because of that, as it doesn't just describe the ups and downs of her dating life, it lays out the lessons she learned from those experiences. While it was presented in such a hilarious way (the art is wonderful and I love how she draws herself sillier than everyone else), it tackles a very serious and deeply personal topic and how she overcame the distress it put her in.

I also love that in her author's note she makes it a point that it may seem like she's being she's not talking about these girls in the best light (especially Ash) but she didn't want to sugarcoat what happened and she actually doesn't feel any animosity. She's grateful for the time and the experience. I appreciate this because so many other girls are going to find themselves in similar situations and they need to see what others have done to get through what feels like the worst time of their lives. It's not just an outlet for her feelings but a warning to others that obsessing over a relationship is unhealthy, especially after it ends, and that you really should be focusing on making yourself happy (because it also in turn makes others happy to be around you).

This was such a great read! The art style was great and really expressive, which allowed for this volume to air on the more humorous side. I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author, and I hope they get a chance to create more manga (that hopefully gets licensed as well!).

I didn’t expect to like this manga as much as I did because I normally don’t get too invested in narratives that center around dating. However, Hiranishi’s humorous tone in both words and art won me over. While dating is not something I personally relate to, the journey of self-discovery and loving yourself is one I do understand and one that I think many other readers will relate to as well.

A funny and bittersweet autobiographical manga about the author's quest to find the girl of her dreams.  If you liked My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, I bet you'd like this too!  The art is simple but effective.

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the copy I received in exchange for an honest review.

The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend is an autobiographical manga about self-loathing, self-discover, and ultimately, thankfully, a story of self-acceptance and love. Mieri introduces herself to us as a Japanese office worker living in the U.S., setting up what will be the narration she will provide for the overview of her young life. In middle school she found herself attracted to anime women, but didn’t realize until she was in college that she was gay. She takes us through her journey from repressed tomboy to self-actualized adult, but that journey is anything but easy. The line that summarizes the experience of this book best happens late in part two, “Little did I know that Ash would become my first girlfriend and that we would break up after a month of dating and that I would spend 4 years in hell trying to get over her."

This book is brutally honest and you watch someone deal with the entire spectrum of emotions tied to your first love and your first breakup. There is a lot to enjoy here even if it's not the most action packed or fast paced story. You find yourself rooting for her if only because she never truly gives up on herself. She keeps hoping and finding ways to try to move forward.

A very real and at times very relateable biographical comic about the ups and downs of finding love as a nerdy self-conscious butch.

This was so fun and silly AND inspiring 😤 An autobiographical diary of the mangaka's struggle to get a girlfriend but the real girlfriend is learning how to value yourself along the way.

Haven't read a lighthearted short manga in a long time and this was a perfect moodlifting read!

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc

A great read, a very good journey and love the artstyle and it the story audiences can connecct with.

I felt way too much of this on a spiritual level, and wasn't prepared for how close to home it felt. Losing yourself to a relationship is such a difficult, and common thing, and there's something here that felt so uncomfortable but so relatable at the same time that I can't quite put my finger on it. I loved every second, despite how much it made me want to apologise to half my friends when I was a teenager/young adult for falling way too hard. Mieri does a great job of showing just how complex dating is, and finding out who you are within those constructs.

Thank you to Netgalley and VIZ Media for the ARC.

I don't think that Hiranishi's sense of humor jives with mine very much which influenced my perception of this autobiographical manga, but by the same token others will enjoy it for the very same reason. Your mileage may vary. Regardless, I was overall intrigued by the story and found myself recalling My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (though this manga does not have the same level of darkness and sex).

People with a tendency to ruminate will doubtless find themselves empathetic to Hiranishi's plight and feel a certain weight lift off of them once she starts to self-actualize. Pouring all of yourself into your relationship with another person is a trap that's easy to fall into if you have low self-esteem.

The initial chapters felt disconnected from the rest of the main "story," such as it is, about Hiranashi experiencing heartbreak with her first girlfriend beyond contextualizing what was to come. I wish that they weren't included, personally; they almost turned me off of reading the rest of the manga. If I've heard butch/femme dichotomy arguments once I've heard them a hundred times.

That said, there were other relatively unrelated pieces that charmed me. I couldn't help the grin on my face upon Hiranashi presenting a Yami Yugi figurine to her friend at a café on Valentine's Day.

Overall, I appreciate the value of this autobiographical manga and think that it will be an enjoyable, relatable story for many readers if not me specifically beyond the "being a queer otaku" part, hahaha.

A really enjoyable and relatable manga. The author explores previous relationships and her dealing with the emotional turmoil that comes with a breakup and self-love.

The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend is an autobiographical manga that was originally self-published online and is now being released under VIZ Media’s VIZ Originals imprint.

The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend
Written by: Mieri Hiranishi
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: February 14, 2023

Mieri Hiranishi was self-publishing The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend manga online during the COVID-19 pandemic, while having a day job as an office worker in the United States. In the author’s note, Hiranishi says that she started writing the manga because of the pent-up frustrations she had about not being able to find a girlfriend and wanted to make fun of herself for it.

Naturally, the manga starts at the beginning, when Hiranishi realizes that she likes girls, and follows what happens when she develops her first crush on one in college. It’s one of those crushes where she gets to a point where she decides she’s going to try to change who she is in the hopes that it’ll gain her the attention of her crush. But, as you can probably guess, things don’t turn out the way Hiranishi thought they would. Whether you’re gay, straight, or whatever sexual preference you may have, I think most people can relate to Hiranishi’s wanting to be what she thinks her crush wants. Even if you never went to the point of actually trying to change for that person, I think that at some point, most of us wished or wondered if we would be more appealing to the person we were interested in if we made even just a slight change to ourselves.

Hiranishi then details some of her experiences using a dating app while on a trip home to Japan, and it culminates with her meeting a woman named Ash. The two start dating, and they seem to have a great chemistry together. But after they’ve been together a month, it’s time for Hiranishi to return to the United States. But the long distance relationship doesn’t work out, and Ash breaks up with Hiranishi. The rest of the volume focuses on Hiranishi’s desire to try to win Ash back and all the emotions she goes through. Even though the situation doesn’t work out the way Hiranishi hoped it would, we get to see her reach the point of acceptance and doing what she needs to do to improve her own life by putting herself first.

As I read The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend, I found it to be very relatable. What Hiranishi goes through in this manga can be experienced by anyone, regardless of whether they’re gay, straight, lesbian, or whatever their preference may be. At the end of the day, no matter what your sexual preferences are, experiences of love and relationships are universal. I have a feeling that it’s that sense of relatability that helped Hiranishi’s self-published online version of the manga find its success with readers.

Right at first, the art style in the manga might seem a little off-putting. But when you realize that one of Hiranishi’s goals with his manga was to poke fun at herself, it makes the character designs (especially how she designed herself) make a lot of sense. And it also makes sense that she drew both her first crush, as well as Ash, to look “bishonen,” as you can see on the front cover of this manga.

I found The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend to be a quick, yet enjoyable, read. If you have an interest in reading autobiographical manga, then I would suggest giving this title a try.

Wonderfully endearing, amusing, and equal parts awkward; The Girl That Can't Get a Girlfriend is a realistic representation of the struggles of someone coming of age while also dealing with coming out of the closet. This story honestly depicts the feelings of reciprocation and rejection, and one could almost feel the feelings of the author via muscle memory. Realistic as it may be, Mieri Hiranishi doesn't short us on the humor, and frustration one goes through when starting a relationship. This is a must-read for anyone who is going through similar experiences and for those who have been there - regardless of preference.

My reviews are done in video format. I recommend following the link below to view the content as I've intended it.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRsF2R7k/

Hello everyone, I'm here today to review The Girl that Can't Get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi. For full disclosure, the publisher gave me a copy for free.

Now I didn't expect this autobiographical manga to be so relatable, given how boringly hetero I am, but the moment Hiranishi pines for a short-haired GF? I was like, "Bruh, same." When her brain takes off to the shadow realm the moment her crush acknowledged her? I felt that. I nearly died when she ran away from her own phone after a girl proposed a date. Fun fact: if your phone can't catch you, you don't have to respond.

I did enjoy this a great deal as a comedy since one of my favorite pass times is laughing at my old teenage self. He was such a dork and I'm glad time killed him. However, I do think the overall message is shallow. It's good Hiranishi discovered that she is valid and allowed to do things for herself because they make her happy. That the cure for insecurity is confidence, which comes from self-care. I'm not moved by those obvious revelations, but I don't think it ever hurts to hear again.

All in all, this was a delightful one-shot that I recommend.

*Special thanks to the publisher VIZ Media and NetGallery for an advance copy of this book for review purposes.

I'm so glad the bio manga, one of my favourite genres, is becoming more common nowadays! Many others I've seen have compared this manga to "My Lesbian Experience with Romance" and they're not wrong! However this one is definitely more humour based and I don't think I've laughed this hard audibly reading a book since before pandemic times. Mieri has incredible self-deprecating humour, both with her jokes and illustrative portrayal of herself. However she never does it in a malicious way - portraying how well we all really do tend to like ourselves but know we're just goblins cosplaying as functioning adults.

This is a book I can see people all people relating too. And full of awesome advice and red flags for those starting on their relationship journey. Mierie has opened up a very intimate part of her life and put herself out there - I've already seen people in some reviews saying she overreacted to being dumped by her first girlfriend. Yes her relationship that took her *years* to recover from only lasted a month, but mental health just BE like that. It's a jerk. Something like a whirlwind romance (that crashed and burned in just a few weeks) can set off the first in a domino downward spirial of depression. She not only was dealing with being dumped, but being poor, in college, thrust into adulthood, then the Japanese work force, and then a physical health crash.

I love this for the same reason I loved "Lara Dead keeps Breaking up with Me". Because we honestly need these books about breakups -not daytime soap opera breakups- but ones about real(istic) relationships. Without media literacy on topics like this, we don't get to learn what healthy recovery from toxic or unhealthy relationships looks like. 

Lastly, I can't forget the art. Fun, loose, silly and just dang beautiful to look at. This is one of my top books of 2023.

The Girl That Can't Get a Girlfriend is an autobiographical manga that tells Mieri Hiranishi's failed love story. It follows her college years, covering her relationships and struggles with relationships. It is a funny and heartwrenching LGBTQIA+ story that will have you wanting Mieri to have better luck and make stronger decisions later. 

It is a great story for those entering the dating scene and those who struggle with self-confidence and dating. It has lots of positive messages learned the hard way, so readers will find a lot to take from it. Readers who have been in the dating game will likely recognize a lot of their own missteps too. A charming and heartstring tugging read for sure.

This was a fun, comedic take on a queer bio. I found it relatable and enjoyable the whole way through. Sadly, I just was hoping for a little more substance for it. It's still a lovely volume. I would definitely recommend reading it.

I reviewed this title for Booklist. Please see Booklist for the complete review and full feedback regarding this title.

If you're a fan of manga storytelling as a therapeutic device, emotional maturity as a marker of personal growth, or of people being able to laugh at their own expense, this is for you. If you think people should go to therapy instead of making art out of their life experiences, you should skip this and maybe work on your empathy. That said, while I don't have a lot in common with the author at this point in my life, I found The Girl That Can't Get a Girlfriend to be an entertaining and endearing book. I wish the author the best and hopefully they can figure out how to have a relationship while living their best life. (I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.)

This was a fun manga. I wouldn't say it was necessarily my favorite but this is also my first memoir read in manga format so maybe that is why I didn't connect with it as much as I wanted to. I will say overall this was fun and the art was really good. The book had a good message overall and I would definitely recommend it.