New Game!

Synopsis

Aoba Suzukaze is a high school graduate and an aspiring character designer. She joins the video game company Eagle Jump, known for the game that she profoundly loves—Fairies Story. At Eagle Jump, Aoba is placed into a team of six, which includes the lead character designer for the original Fairies Story game, Kou Yagami. Getting mentored by her role model, Aoba strives to become a better character designer and learn the ropes of the video game industry. New Game! revolves around the buoyant lives of Aoba and her team members. Together, the girls put their sweat and tears into the production of the new upcoming video game, Fairies Story 3—the third installment of the Fairies Story series. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

I'm going to be honest, I've dropped this before. I only finished it after needing a palate cleanser from the last, way more dramatic manga I read. Story: 6/10 There's kind of a story? It more about Aoba's career progress really. There are some mini-arcs though. Not anything bad, but nothing particularly good either, just what's needed to have progression in Aoba's character. It's not really a problem of course, you aren't reading this for the riveting plot, are you? The author always makes sure to keep things in motion to prevent it becoming to static. For example, new characters are introduced every so often and thecircumstances surrounding the game development change as well. All this makes sure it keeps the manga fresh instead of staying in status quo hell. Art: 6/10 Pretty good, 4koma but there's good characters design (you'd hope so in a manga like this) and everyone looks distinctive. Characters: 7/10 Pretty endearing characters. There are many of them but they're introduced over a while so it's not confusing. They all have distinct personalities. Their interactions are the core of this and they're quite cute. The character dynamics are great and everyone gets a chance to shine or hang out in different combinations. They all have goals that they work towards so they never become boring and it make them feel more real. Overall: 6/10 Personally I didn't find this manga very funny but I think the relaxing atmosphere of the characters just hanging out (and working) is great. I'm giving this a very conditional recommendation here. I said before that I dropped it, maybe if you can enjoy pure CGDCT with a dash of drama or read a little of this at a time just to relax then this might be for you. Good • All the characters actually have goals, something where being in a corporate setting helps this manga Bad • A fair bit of fan-service. It's frontloaded mostly so it peters out by the end but there's still some • A lot of yuri-bait • There's a sort of romance between two characters that never goes anywhere, the one relationship that is actually mentioned to be romantic (one-sidedly anyway)