Self-confessed otaku Mieri finally has her first relationship with her dream girl Ash, a fellow androgynous butch! From reciprocal romantic feelings to a first heartbreak, follow along Mieri’s (exaggerated!) autobiographical story and watch over her quest to do whatever it takes to win Ash or herself back.
Relationship Context
💥 Couple Dynamic
Mieri and Ash – Gap Couple
Mieri has never been in a relationship ever. Ash has never been in a same-sex relationship before.
❤️ Mieri – Overeager Disaster
- Felt set back in her journey to find a fellow butch girlfriend
- Zero dating experience but eager to learn and fix
- Soon-to-be graduate determined to do anything for the relationship
💛 Ash – Steady Soul
- Working adult who had only dated guys previously
- Charmed by the awkwardly cute Mieri
- Has her baseline for a long distance relationship
| Title | The Girl That Can’t Get A Girlfriend |
| Author | Hiranishi Mieri |
| Status | Completed, 2023 |
| Genre | Modern Yuri |
| Tags | Autobiographical, Comedy, Slice-of-life, Self-growth |
Review
| Category | Rating (0-3) |
|---|---|
| Romance | 🌸🌸 Heartwarming attempts |
| Intimacy | 🔥 Few and demure |
| Story | 📝📝📝 Plentiful |
| Pacing | 🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️ Fast-paced |
| Emotional damage | 🥺🥺 Hurts but not an overkill |
| Fluff | ☁️ More laughter than fluff |
Story Overview
The Girl That Can’t Get A Girlfriend is a funny yet reflective non-love story about:
– Awkward butch-loving butch’s first ever relationship
– Intensity of a first relationship and heartbreak
– Learning how to be yourself again
Key Themes
Butch pairing frowned upon by WLW community:
Mieri does not identify as a femme and is acutely aware of her preferences to date a girlfriend who is butch presenting, like herself. This wasn’t taken well by her queer female friend who told her, a butch, to just date femme and be a butch x femme couple. Butch x butch pairings are treated as an oddity.
Feeling disheartened, she questioned what is normal and decided that a lady dating another lady is already not the norm in society. Shortly after she got outraged at the outdated man-woman assignment aka butch-femme pairing even in women-loving-women (WLW) relationships, and decided to embrace her own preferences and honour her own feelings.
She does however face lots of challenges and competition trying to find a butch to date, be it from dating apps or via school gatherings!
Intensity of a fast and furious relationship:
We see Mieri being self-conscious of her zero dating experience and her various self-imagined hiccups as she navigates her first dating experience. Idealising her date Ash as a godly being, the happy relationship unfortunately started and ended all in a month.
Through that month, Mieri saw herself trying new things like being more initiative during dates, caring about her health more, and being open to new experiences. At one point she was struck with the realisation that she can never find someone else to connect at this level of openness.
It sucks when the break up happened due to circumstances and unspoken expectations, but Mieri viewed it as a problem she caused and something she can fix to make it all better again. Alas, she learnt the hard way that a relationship can never be a one-sided effort.
Personal Review
This is less so a love story, but a self-reflective one about love. From the title and cover we can already tell this story’s main premise, with a super glorified full coloured andro looking character on one side, and a goofy black and white character offering a heart. It does not disappoint in delivering the comedic moments!
Those moments complement the more painful moments of a first relationship, heartbreak, and the desperate attempt to repair what has been broken. This story is based on modern life and derived from the author’s personal experiences albeit with some changes, giving it an extra relatable touch for the reader.
The ideal of a proper pairing type does in fact reflect certain expectations of the WLW community even to this date. However, with butch x butch pairing content becoming more common, this unrealistic ideal is being broken slowly but surely.
That relationship didn’t seem healthy with how fast things were going. I can resonate with the various factors such as lack of knowledge of dating vs relationship, lack of acceptance from closed ones, and more. Mirei just wants to feel happy and accepted in a relationship with someone she likes. Don’t we all wish for such simple joys in life?
Final Thought
The Girl That Can’t Get A Girlfriend throws me punches even when I was expecting them, and each punch carries a lesson. It reminds us that while we all desire a first loving relationship to last forever, reality can be unforgiving. There is no villain in this story about love, but there is definitely someone who hit her rock bottom and got herself back up and stronger.
My Rating: 10/10 highly recommended!
What was something you did after your first heartbreak?
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