Mariko "Mari" Kumakura is a Shrinking Violet who doesn't have any real friends. One day Akko, a pretty Genki Girl in class, decides to spontaneously befriend her. Mari is unsure about being friends with her but ends up going along with it. Inevitably, Akko helps Mari come out of her shell while Mari helps Akko with her studies and the two quickly become best friends. With Akko's help, Mari makes many new friends and Mari finds herself happier than she's ever been in her life.But wait... Mari starts wondering why she's feeling so jealous of the thought of Akko gaining a boyfriend and castigates herself for feeling so possessive. She's starting to blush a lot in Akko's presence and Akko's touch is making her heart race. Could Mari be falling in love with her best friend?Girl Friends is a finished Yuri Genre manga by the female MangakaMorinaga Milk, and it is considered a modern classic by a large portion of fans of the genre. New readers should expect lots of Gayngst and Will They or Won't They?. It has been licensed in the US by Seven Seas Entertainment in the form of two Omnibus Collections, with both volumes debuting in the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list on the week of their release. It has also been licensed for digital distribution by Jmanga.com, allowing the manga to be purchased in English worldwide.
Beautiful All Along: Mari's cute, but never really put any effort into her appearance until Akko came along with her fashion magazines, haircuts, and make-up.
Lampshaded in chapter 16 when Tamamin tells Akko that Mari "was able to become cute and fashionable because of your help." Akko responds by agreeing at first, and then reconsidering and stating that Mari had always been cute.
Between Akko and Mari in a non-canon gag at the beginning of chapter 19.
Tamamin drew a rape manga featuring their teacher and a couple classmates.
Book Dumb: Akko. Considers it a major accomplishment the one time she doesn't have to write any make-up exams.
Cannot Spit It Out: Mari, who tries to cover up any slip of her feelings as just being friends. And then Akko as well, after Mari's confession.
The Casanova: Sugi seems to be a female version. She always has at least five boyfriends at her beck and call, and her one stab at monogamy only lasted for a couple of pages.
Censor Suds: Subverted. When Mari and Akko are taking baths at the same time, they send each other photos with their cellphones. Akko starts it with a (somewhat) modest photo. Mari decided to reply after deliberately applying this. Akko finds it extremely cute... and drops a couple (possibly seductive) full-body shots on her.
The Chikan: The focus of Sugi's day in the limelight. It isn't the molesters that are her problem, though—it's the salarymen that inevitably come to her rescue, ask her for her contact information, and try to be her protector from then on. And the molester of this chapter is her first love, her old elementary school teacher—awkward...
Digging Yourself Deeper: Subverted. At one point, Kuno catches Mari staring at Akko, to which Mari admits it's because she finds Akko cute. She tries to cover and winds up stammering about how soft her skin looks, thinking that just made her crush more obvious, but it deters the other girls onto a skin care topic.
Disappeared Dad: Akko's dad is mentioned once as a throwaway comment, then never mentioned again.
Forceful Kiss: Mari and Akko's second and third kisses.
Foreshadowing: Chapter 21: Tamamin, the otaku of the group, suggests Harada, Mari's newly-ex-boyfriend should try cosplay. "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Tamamin and Harada are dating.
Gayngst: So much... (although mostly from Mari's side)
Akko eventually inverts it, saying that them both being girls helps their relationship, as they can be clingy in public and have people just chalk it up to a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship.
It's mostly abated by now in both their cases, although there's still plenty of Angst/Wangst.
I Have This Friend: How Akko tries to get advice from Sugi about her relationship with Mari, more than once. Sugi plays along, but barely—she just can't help teasing them.
The Internet Is for Porn: The first time the Internet was used in the series involved Akko using it to surf for porn as research for her planned first time with Mari.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Which may be the main cause of Akko's obliviousness to both Mari's feelings as well as her own.
The Loins Sleep Tonight: Akko's night with a guy after a party, to her great embarrassment and irritation. He has one of the predictable reactions. And now he's Kuno's boyfriend.
Lonely Rich Kid: Akko is shown to be fairly well-off with her mother just giving her money for whatever she wants. Her home life is also shown to be very lonely before she and Mari hook up, in contrast to her social life.
Even in her social life, she doesn't seem to have any long-lasting friendships, as she notes that none of her classmates from junior high have called her since.
Parental Abandonment: Averted with Mari. Possibly played straight with Akko, whose father is a DisappearedDad and whose mom never has time for her. Case in point: Akko's childhood is depicted as watching TV by herself, and taking shopping trips by herself as well. The kicker comes in the Graduation chapter, when Akko's mom showed up and Akko is honestly surprised.
Product Placement: Almost every chapter. Mostly for makeup/beauty products and perfume, which is somewhat strange considering Girl Friends is serialized in a magazine targeted at men.
Shout Out: Several, using cosplay. Tamamin suggests that Harada should cosplayLelouch in chapter 21.
In chapter 32 it's stated that a girl in Mari and Akko's class named Hakamada wants to become a mangaka. This is believed to be a shout out to Morinaga's fellow yuri mangaka, Hakamada Mera.
In the final chapter there's a picture of Tamamin and her boyfriend dressing as Miku and Kaito.
Their First Time: Subverted twice, for both Akko and Mari. With Akko, the guy she was with experienced The Loins Sleep Tonight because he'd had too much to drink, and she was too embarrassed to admit to anyone that she couldn't turn a guy on. In the latter's case, she let Akko believe that she had slept with Harada, for a number of different reasons. The truth does come out, eventually. Moments before the two of them play this trope straight. **Causing nosebleeds everywhere…
, allowing the manga to be purchased in English worldwide.
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