Tomo-chan Is a Girl! is a brand-new romantic comedy of the Winter 2023 anime season. The tomboyish heroine, Tomo Aizawa, is determined to win her childhood friend's heart, but Jun, the boy in question, sees the karate-loving Tomo as "one of the guys." Thus begins Tomo's quest to prove her femininity to her crush without losing herself in the process.

Tomo is fairly grounded and relatable as a 21st-century teenage girl, and the anime's core premise taps into some interesting themes about modern girls and their identities. Tomo has joined a growing trend where anime girls defy rigid, traditional gender norms while still having a distinctly feminine identity. The same is true of Nakanaka Omharu, a supporting character in Komi Can't Communicate.

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How Tomo Aizawa Balances Her Tomboy & Girly Sides in the Anime

Tomo Aizawa smiling and blushing.

The Tomo-chan is a Girl! anime is a good-natured critique of long-standing gender norms, all in the context of a likable tomboy trying to impress her crush. Tomo Aizawa's self-image involves two halves, with one being her traditionally girly side and the other being her outwardly masculine behavior, including her rough speech and love of karate. In Tomo's mind, she strikes a fair balance between these two halves and can flip between them easily, but her classmates tend to only see the boyish half.

Even Tomo's friend Misuzu Gundo is skeptical about Tomo's half-and-half lifestyle, and Misuzu clearly favors traditionally girly girls. She is personally loyal to Tomo as a friend, but Gundo also represents society's pressure for girls to be traditionally feminine at all times -- something Tomo simply cannot accept. Gundo pressured Tomo to be more like a "normal" or conventional girl in Tomo-chan's first episode, but Tomo resisted. She loves karate and is true to her boisterous, somewhat boyish personality, and she can't stand the idea of being dishonest to herself. Tomo is all about personal authenticity -- a sympathetic and inspiring part of her character arc that helps drive the story's romantic comedy. Even if society and Gundo disapprove, Tomo must be true to herself as a boyish but also girly person.

This means that Tomo's conflict is mainly external, as she is already comfortable with her dual nature. It's the other students and her friends who get confused or doubt her because of her outwardly boyish ways. Tomo is therefore on a quest not for self-acceptance or to change herself but rather to change everyone else's perception of her. Tomo will likely be a static character for all the right reasons -- a stable and consistent protagonist who affects the lives of everyone around her. Along the way, Tomo might have minor doubts and some insecurities about herself if progress is slow, but otherwise, she is confident in who and what she is as a person. That makes her the new Nakanaka Omoharu, another anime girl who defies old-fashioned norms without completely tearing them apart.

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How Tomo & Nakanaka Promote a New Kind of Modern Girl

Omoharu Nakanaka laughs theatrically in Komi Can't Communicate.

In Komi Can't Communicate, the chunibyo character Nakanaka Omoharu also defies rigid gender norms, much to the yandere Ren Yamai's annoyance. Ren is a fashionable and popular girl who heavily favors traditionally feminine things on all levels, including how a girl's bedroom should be furnished and what a girl's hobbies and lifestyle should be like. It's great that Ren finds happiness in all this to build her identity, but she used it as an excuse to criticize her classmate Nakanaka's own lifestyle. In Ren's eyes, Nakanaka was doing it all wrong -- a "faulty" girl whose lifestyle was too masculine, such as involving video games and otaku culture, with an un-feminine bedroom to match.

Nakanaka and Ren clashed over what a modern Japanese girl should be like, and in the end, no one's mind was changed. They each stuck to their brand of modern femininity, which is the point. There is no single "right" way to be a modern girl -- or a modern boy for that matter -- as it's a matter of personal preference and lifestyle. Traditionally feminine things still have a place in the modern world, be it cosmetics, frilly pink things or daydreaming about the perfect wedding, but there's room for equally valid alternatives. Nakanaka's boyish lifestyle isn't a threat to Ren's traditionally girly ways -- it's simply an alternative. It's about having more options, not replacing things.

Similarly, Tomo helps prove that 21st-century girls like her can choose to be more tomboyish and mix their girly side with more masculine pursuits such as rough language, martial arts and more. Tomo's lifestyle isn't a threat to traditional feminine ways, just an alternative lifestyle that co-exists with classic femininity. Anime girls like Tomo can deviate from traditional feminine norms as they like, while girls like Ren Yamai and Gundo stay on board with old-fashioned girlhood, which is equally valid. Even if her classmates and even her crush don't appreciate it at first, Tomo is living up to Nakanaka's example that there are not just one but many ways to be a wonderful, beautiful modern girl that anyone can like.