REVIEW: Fan/Girl x Call/Boy (manga, vol. 1) by Kotora Aoshima, translated by minami

Fan/Girl x Call/Boy is, I believe, a romance series, although it looks to be slow burn. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review: 

Sakurako is a painfully shy, introverted shut-in who has hired Fuji, a call boy, in an effort to better understand the feelings of her favorite character in the adult game she plays. Although she covers up all of her merchandise, an accident results in Fuji finding out that she's a fan of the game. Happily for the both of them, it turns out that Fuji loves the same game, although he's a fan of a different character than Sakurako. Fuji instantly transforms from a smooth professional into an enthusiastic fanboy, geeking out over her merchandise, and the two of them spend the evening playing Smash Bros. It's the start of a lovely friendship, although it takes a bit for Sakurako to realize that Fuji genuinely sees her as a new friend and not a client and/or someone he feels sorry for.

Right, so I preordered volume 2 pretty much immediately after finishing this volume. This was so sweet and nice.

Sakurako reminded me a bit of Komi from Komi Can't Communicate - both are awkward, cute, have enormous amounts of social anxiety, and you just kind of want to hug them and tell them to take a deep breath. From Sakurako's perspective, Fuji is a dazzling extrovert who makes being around people look effortless. His smoothness and charm is part of the mask he wears for work - the reality is more complicated, and I look forward to learning more about him in future volumes. Something about his character design looked really familiar to me - maybe some combination of Frieren's Himmel and some other character?

I'm very curious about Sakurako as well. The one glimpse we've had of her mother, it looked like she'd viewed Sakurako's interests as an annoyance and embarrassment for a long time. At the same time, Sakurako doesn't seem to have a job, she doesn't seem to be hurting for cash, and there's a mention of her having bought all her merchandise with saved up allowance money, so it looks like her parents are supporting her financially. Whatever the details of her backstory turn out to be, her family is clearly less warm and loving than Fuji's.

Ugh, I wish I could read the next volume already. I'm definitely looking forward to when it releases in February.

Extras:

A bonus comic and a page of translation notes. The notes didn't explain what "malding" meant, so I had to look it up myself. To no one's surprise, I am behind on my slang. But seriously, do people actually use that out in the wild?