In a world where fucking one’s stepsister is okay, two series come to mind. America’s pornhub and Citrus. Ah shit, I meant Domestic Girlfriend and Citrus. So coming off finishing both of these series (on the latest chapter of Citrus +) I thought I might as well take the two and compare how much they exactly have in common. By doing so mind you there will be spoilers of both series and as it turns out these two are much more similar than one might initially think. So let’s do this.
First things first I want to point out the general plot of the stories and exactly what is different. Domestic Girlfriend follows a high schooler who wants to be writer Natsuo who happens to have a love affair with his teacher Hina. Unable to be with her he winds up sleeping with a girl he meets at a mixer Rui, this instantly sets up a major pace change compared to Citrus. Since it took like, I don’t know 50 chapters for Mei to say I love you to Yuzu. Naturally, Natsuo’s father re-marries making both Hina and Rui his new stepsisters, the same as Citrus expect the mother re-marries making Mei and Yuzu stepsisters.
It is also important to note that Natsuo jumps back and forth between the sisters while Yuzu stays true to Mei and eventually Mei gets to the point where she only has the eyes for Yuzu even though the whole world apparently has a lesbian hard-on for her.
The first thing that I took away that was similar was the push and pull from Mei, it played a lot like Hina’s but differently. Hina was trying to be an adult, knowing that she was a teacher and she could never be in a relationship with a student in good faith. While Mei, and her anti-social personality disorder ways can’t figure out her own feelings, reeling in and pushing away Yuzu pretty much whenever it suits her. This leads to Yuzu blowing up on her, kinda like Rui does on Natsuo, they both have the same effect as well, forcing the other half to accept the feelings they have and start a relationship.
Mei is hands down a sociopath though.
This is something I actually think Domestic Girlfriend does much better than Citrus and it could just be due to the fact Domestic Girlfriend had a lot more time in respect to chapters. Rui and Mei are of the same vein, and at the start of Domestic Girlfriend, it is very apparent. Rui is standoffish, cold, and logical to a fault, only sleeping with Natsuo in the beginning simply because she wanted to know what the experience was like and she was confident she would never see him again (funny how that played out) but over time she grew into a character that I would crown best girl of the series whereas Mei 50 some odd chapters in has yet to make much ground in that respect.
Oddly enough, where two characters are at their truest is the note scene. When Hina and Natsuo get discovered by the school board she is forced to transfer and keeping the whole ordeal under wraps until the day of it comes as a shock to everyone. Distraught and confused Natsuo finds a letter from her, explaining that they had been caught and she was too weak to face him in person, that she indeed loved him but the world was damned to keep them apart. This of course leads Natsuo into a crushing depression but ends with him penning some of his best work. Mei pulls the same shit but for a different reason and honestly, it is the best showing she has. Knowing that she has an arranged marriage she moves into her grandfather’s house, stating that she wants to be with Yuzu, that she was too weak to face her but the world had different plans, that it would be better if they didn’t see or talk to each other. Yuzu actually takes this fairly well in comparing the two situations, and instead of writing a great short story, she ends up creating an echo chamber with all her friends and family stating she should be with Mei.
The outcome are a bit different as well, when Natsuo finds Hina she sends him away, stating she had moved on when she clearly hadn’t creating a window for her younger sister Rui. Mei when confronted by Yuzu’s confession (and proposal) accepts it, turning down her arranged marriage and confronts her family’s strict code of honor stating that she wants to be with Yuzu.
What really set’s these two stories apart isn’t so much substance but pace. The whole step-sibling love story can have only so many paths and where these two have similarities (dare I say the author of Domestic Girlfriend, Kei Sasuga might have gotten some ideas from Citrus.) how they go about telling the story is quite different. Citrus is slow, like really slow, like, much slower than you would expect a series would be given Mei kisses Yuzu almost right away. Whereas Domestic Girlfriend starts with fucking and never lets off the accelerator.
All and all I liked both of these series and ranked them in the 6-7 category overall. And even though when I was reading Citrus many moments made me reflect back to Domestic Girlfriend, common themes playing between the two. I am excited to see how Citrus + plays out as the ending of the original run was rather lackluster, granted the ending of Domestic Girlfriend wasn’t much better (it was a lot more strange, however) but both stories do a decent enough job filling a niche in the genre, as I personally think both are worth the read.
I look forward to fleshing this side of my blog out more, as comes with writing the more I do it better the content becomes. And I look forward to growing it together with all of you. Thank you.
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