The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to be My Childhood Friend Vol. 4 Review

Tags: Comedy, Romance, Harem, Slice of Life, School Life

Sub-Tags: Misunderstandings, Introverts, Childhood Friends, Idols

Cover Illustration for Volume 4

Synopsis:

Only One Can Win!

Finally, the screenplay is complete, and Ryou Takamori and the crew can start filming their short movie! After borrowing equipment from Ai Himejima’s agency, they head to a faraway beach to shoot one of their scenes. It’s not all fun and games, however, when an argument breaks out between Hina Fushimi and Shizuka Torigoe— and that’s before Ryou learns Hina and Ai are auditioning for the same role in a musical! He roots for both, but he knows only one of them can pass… (Source: Yen Press)

A Battle of Love and Acting!

Film Antics and Stagnation

Marking my 200th post on this blog site, my latest read finds me returning to a series filled with potential blossoming romances. For the latest outing of The Girl I Saved on the Train’s story, its cast of characters move on to the next stage of making a movie – starting filming.

As part of shooting for a movie, Ryou and his potential lovers have plentiful opportunities for harem hijinks and misadventures. However, through reading this volume, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that this series is suffering from a short burst of stagnation. Four volumes in, and on the romance side of this rom-com, the lack of progression has started to wear thin.

For as much as I find the constant run-around between Ryou, Hina, Ai and Torigore entertaining, it’s becoming ever more apparent that this series can’t sustain itself on this content alone. At some point, something will need to take place to move both parties from their current seats of complacency and toward an eventual confession.

Something to Strive For

Thankfully, not everything about the series falls under the category of stagnation. Featuring in the latter half of the novel, the author makes a great realisation of the main character’s motivations and development.

One of the principal themes of the series is about the actualisation of one’s future. By the end of this volume, three of the main characters have moved closer to realising their possible futures – Hina, Ai, and Ryou. Hina and Ai, despite the former’s setback, have come to the decision that they want to follow a career in acting. In the same vein, Ryou has also discovered a possible path to ambition, finding himself behind the camera. Seeing others display their talents has unlocked his talents for directing and scriptwriting. 

Ryou discovering his first moments of ambition and purpose holds potentially great things for the series’ future, especially if Ryou’s new purposeful outlook leads to development in romance.

The Girl I Saved on the Train’s fourth volume provides an overall mixed experience. Whilst the series’ usual mix of hijinks continues to be entertaining, the romantic aspect of the story leaves something to be desired.

Fortunately, the final moments of the story save this volume somewhat. Renewing a sense of ambition and purpose into several of the main characters can only mean good things for the future of the series. With their goals set in motion, it provides some more room for a potential romance to finally blossom.

The Girl I Saved on the Train Vol. 4

My Rating: 6.5/10

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You can read the fourth volume of this series digitally and physically through the list of distributors found on the Yen Press website.

The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to be My Childhood Friend Vol. 3 Review

Tags: Comedy, Romance, Harem, Slice of Life, School Life

Sub-Tags: Misunderstandings, Introverts, Childhood Friends, Idols

Cover Illustration for Volume 3

Synopsis:

A RIVAL CHILDHOOD FRIEND APPEARS!

Hina Fushimi continues her enthusiastic pursuit of Ryou Takamori, but when another old friend of Ryou’s transfers to their high school, she learns her status is not as unique as she thought. With Ai Himejima’s arrival on the scene, Hina and Ryou’s relationship hits a snag. The two girls compete for Ryou’s attention, and both take bold measures to win him over—especially Hina. However, he still remains oblivious to their feelings! On the upcoming school field trip, will this change? (Source: Yen Press)

Another Childhood Friend Appears!

Moving back to rom-coms, my latest review looks at The Girl I Saved’s third volume as a new childhood friend heats things up!

After the last volume’s revelations, The Girl I Saved’s latest volume sees the return of Ryou and Hina’s childhood friend, Ai Himejima. Returning as a late-season transfer student, her appearance causes trouble in more ways than one, especially for Hina as she’s yet another rival and causes a rift in her and Ryou’s relationship.

As if that wasn’t enough, the school trip is on the horizon and with all romantic rivals in one group, there’s sure to be no end of trouble!

Much to nobody’s surprise, the latest instalment features many more misunderstandings as Ryou remains blissfully unaware of the feelings of the women around him. This time, the author serves to further complicate matters by adding yet another love interest and childhood friend, Ai Himejima.

I’m still not totally sold on her character so far. She doesn’t quite have the instant chemistry with Ryou that Torigoe has, or even Hina, for that matter. I don’t think the volume did enough with her character, though that seems to be changing after the revelations in the epilogue.

What I did like are her interactions with Hina as two childhood friends in love with the same person. I love the fact that they’re always at odds and are constantly arguing with each other, trying to one-up each other in Ryou’s eyes.

On top of a new love interest, Ryou is finally given a character that’ll actually serve as his friend. Deguchi fits into the mould of a pervy friend type and seems to have a little bit of a connection with Torigoe. Although, his best moments are alongside Ryou through the girl’s eyes as they romanticise their friendly interactions.

The school trip arc is fine, Hina and Ryou get close once again but it leads nowhere, something that mirrors the entire feel of the series so far. Exchanging development for misunderstandings and adding possible romantic targets is fine to start with, however, at some point, the story has to move forward.

We are approaching the fourth volume and everything is at a standstill, nothing has changed and there seems to be no action on either Ryou’s or Hina’s part to move to the next step.

Overall, as much as I wished to enjoy this volume, I’m starting to feel that the gimmick is running thin. There are aspects to like here, I still like Torigoe and Ryou’s new friend is a good addition. Going forward I need to see more development, I need things to start moving and I need more focus on Ai and the reason she quit being an idol.

The Girl I Saved on the Train Vol. 3

My Rating: 7/10

I hope you enjoyed my review and would love to see what you thought of the volume in the comments!

You can read the third volume of this series both digitally and physically from the list of distributors on the Yen Press website.