Standing on stage... are the coolest girls you'll ever imagine.
Tenka Momose, a high school freshman that can sing and dance... she's pretty and smart to boot! She's good at everything but love. One day she meets Erian Satou, and was pulled in by her passionate dedication to becoming an idol. This is the story about two young girls chasing after their K-Pop idol dream!!
Girl Crush is a shoujo manga by Tayama Midori, serialized in Comikey since 2021. In fact, it's an in-depth narration and description of the current K-pop idol industry, in which our main characters just happened to be involved in.
Girl Crush contains examples of the following:
- Dope Slap: Played for Laughs. Tenka actually slapped Xi-on in the face, hard, because she was still delirious from fainting during her performance. Bonus point for the Freeze-Frame Bonus dialogue she chose from a few weeks ago, when she's just blindly taking notes from a random K-drama.Xi-on: You slapped an idol's face, asshole...
- Expy: Becuase of licensing and copyright issues, all of the entertainment companies and their associated idol groups are fake, derived from Real Life examples. For instance, the "Big Three" in the manga (YW, ARC, LJH) are obviously inspired by the real thing (SM, JYP, YG). Their main threat, SP Productions, is also clearly inspired by HYBE Labels, with their boy idol group GENUINE an expy of BTS.
- Even their upcoming project, a joint reality TV competition series, is a direct derivative of Produce 101.
- Idol Singer: The whole premise of the manga, combined with a healthy dose of Korean Pop Music.
- Korean Pop Music: The cast, when grouped together, have assigned positions and roles for their members.
- Vocalist: An individual who has the best singing skills and technique out of all the members, singing the most lines and/or the hardest notes (highnotes, adlibs, etc.). Min-chae, May, and Mi-yu are of this group.
- Dancers: Members with the best dancing skills and technique in the group, very athletic, and sometimes assigned dance breaks on their own. Ji-woo, Rebecca, and Han-sol are of this group.
- Rapper: Usually only one exists in the group, specifically assigned to handle the rap parts, because the genre and style of the group doesn't allow for much space for rap in their songs. Ga-hyoun is the only named specialist in this area, though Ji-woo often switches to this role when necessary (or had her ass handed to her in competition for the other roles).
- Visual: Simply put, the best looking/most attractive member of the group. Tenka and Xi-on belong to this group, though of course they're far more than just a pretty face.
- The Leader: The member in charge of guiding the group. They're often the bridge between the members and the management. Tenka, Soo-ah, and Hyoo-na are of this group, and LJH usually only assigns this role to a capable all-rounder, instead of a specialist.
- Magic Skirt: Intentionally subverted. Most female trainess wear short pants to cover their modesty. Erian even highlighted this trope during her school's festival.Erian: Um... people aren't supposed to see my underwear, right?Tenka: I'll lend you my pants!
- Squee: Both Han-sol and Ga-hyoun trembled, rolled around, and squealed at the video of Go-nu Tenka recorded. Funnily enough, Tenka has predicted this before.Tenka: I think Han-sol might die...
- Technician Versus Performer: There are numerous examples in the manga, such as Tenka vs. Erian, Min-chae vs. May, Ji-woo vs. Rebecca, etc. During one of LJH's monthly evaluations, Mr. Lee and Xi-on discussed this trope at length, with the former preferring his trainees to bias towards the performer side, while the latter constantly criticizing the lack of technique in both performing and preparation for one of the teams.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Quite impressively done in the manga. The girls (bar Min-chae) are usually seen in different clothes every single time we see them practice or perform, while still staying true to some colour-coded schemes (Hyoo-na, for example, almost exclusively wears black).
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: While kinder than most examples, one of LJH's trainees eventually got the axe, just like most other trainees out there, after Tenka's team beat hers. While it's played more realistically, there exists a constant fear of being fired among the trainees
