Webcomic / Ganbare Douki-chan

Good luck, Douki-chan. You're going to need it.^note Left to right: Senpai-san, Douki-chan and Kouhai-chan. Not pictured: Douki-kun and Intern/Shinjin-chan

Ganbare Douki-chan^note がんばれ同期ちゃん, roughly "Good Luck, Douki-chan" or "Hang in There, Douki-chan" is an office Romantic Comedy web-manga started in September 2019 by Yomu (previously famous for Miru Tights).

The series revolves around the titular Douki-chan, a young Office Lady who's a star in the contracting company she works at, mostly for her devotion to her job, and general skill at getting said job done. Her skills at work don't seem to translate to her skills at communication, however. For a while she's been trying to muster the courage to admit her love to Douki-kun, the man who joined the same year as her, and whom she has an unrequited crush on. However, more and more girls seem to be pining for his attention, leaving her in the shadows and adding bumps in the road in terms of making their relationship official.

As of this writing, nine volumes have released for the series so far, and the series has received a web-anime adaption for the Fall 2021 season.

An omnibus release of the first three volumes (also serving as a remake of said volumes) has been produced, having released on December 28th, 2021. A second omnibus has released around the same time in 2022.

The web-manga finished on May 14th, 2023, after 3 years of weekly updates with the occasional mid-week update in-between.

The series was updated every Monday at 8/9AM in Tokyo (UTC +9:00, Sunday at 7/8PM EST, 6/7PM EDT). Anime episodes aired an hour earlier.

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The web-manga and anime contain examples of:

• The Ace: Her anime bio, along with a few panels, state that Douki-chan is indeed one of the company's best workers. However, this is counterbalanced by her clumsy, dismissive personality.
• A-Cup Angst: Douki-chan not only has to put up with more confident and aggressive girls, she also has to compete against their taller and more buxom physiques. She's very visibly annoyed when breasts are in focus. Conversely, Intern-chan, who is arguably flatter than Douki-chan, shows no sign of this (In fact, some recent art shows she's rather proud of the fact).
• Adaptation Expansion: The main web manga consists mostly of single-page pinups, with the occasional set of manga pages. To compensate, the anime adaption adds in scenes or full separate storylines in-between the scenarios.
• Always Someone Better: The general driving force of the plot. Both Senpai-san and Kouhai-chan are more seductive and voluptuous than Douki-chan, as well as being considerably more forward and flirty. Despite this, as they both realize, Douki-chan has a better chance with Douki-kun than either of them.
• Ambiguously Bi: While Kouhai-chan is Douki-chan's first and most persistent rival for Douki-kun's affection, there are several hints throughout the story that indicate she has feelings for Douki-chan as well. Of note is after a long night out with the three as well as Senpai-san, Douki-chan wakes up the next morning next to an almost-nude Kouhai, who had accompanied Douki-chan back to her apartment on account of Douki-chan getting so drunk during the evening.
• Animal Motifs: Racoon dogs (tanuki) for Douki, foxes (kitsune) for Kouhai.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Intern/Shinjin-chan delivers these in spades:
  • The December 13th, 2021 update treats us to this interaction:
    Intern: Mai-chan, you should really... ...Nevermind, you'll probably get angry.
    Senpai/Maiko: Say it. I won't get mad.
    Intern: Maybe stop pretending to be a mature woman and be more honest with yourself?
  • And this prior interaction with Douki:
    Intern: Senpai, are you a virgin?
    [Douki wild takes]
• Author Appeal: Yomu's love for tights carries into this series, as all the girls in the cast wear some form of pantyhose most of the time.
• Bait-and-Switch: A set of comics in the first person have it so that Douki-chan answers a series of questions about her past and her love life, making the viewer think that she was talking to Douki-kun about it all. Cue the final strip in this series, where it reveals she was actually talking to her parents, who think she's finally snagged a boyfriend (it hasn't happened yet).
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Kouhai-chan has a pair.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: One update cites this as the reason Kouhai-chan chases the Doukis around so much, as both made an attempt to stand up for her during her earlier years at the company. The beach chapter also includes her being frustrated at having to go to such lengths for them to notice her presence. Obviously (at least for Douki-chan) the feelings are not shared. At all.
• Bluff Worked Too Well: To avoid revealing her crush, Douki-chan puts on a façade of not actually having feelings for Douki-kun. This inadvertently leads to Douki-kun being heartbroken on White Day, fully believing she doesn't love him and turning to Kouhai-chan instead.
• Brick Joke: A one-off page involves Kouhai-chan smelling Douki-kun's jacket, much to the ire of Douki-chan. Some months later, the tables turn.
• Butt-Monkey: Who else but Douki-chan herself? The entire plotline of the series revolves around her being put through hell by her coworkers, be it one-upped by them in romance, or simply having her own advances quickly intercepted.
• Cannot Spit It Out: A dual variant, as both Douki-chan and Douki-kun clearly have feelings for each other, but neither can build up the nerve to confess to the other. This leaves an opening for the other women in the series to try and woo Douki-kun for themselves.
• Cheated Angle:
  • While most characters in the series are designed with asymmetrical hairstyles that work well from all angles, Douki-chan's trademark shorthair ponytail cannot be fully seen from dead-on. Because of this, when seen from the front, the tail is drawn oddly jutting out from the left or right of her face. (However, there are few examples where the trick is particularly obvious.)
  • This is generally averted in the anime adaption; most front-view shots do obscure the ponytail.
• Chekhov's Gag: Whenever Douki-chan believes Douki-kun has been taken by one of the other girls, she has erotic dreams involving the two. During the White Day arc, one of these dreams, having been spurred by Shinjin-chan digging into Douki-chan for refusing to admit her feelings, is one of the final pushes she needs to admit her love.
• Chekhov's Gun: The seemingly inconspicuous gift Kouhai-chan hands to Douki-chan ends up having the former's work phone in it, pointing her to the location of the Doukis and subsequently ruining Douki-chan's confession.
• Continuity Nod: A few are sprinkled throughout the series:
  • After the aforementioned phone incident, Douki-chan has since wisened up to such tricks, and is rightfully suspicious of being handed another gift by Kouhai-chan.
    Douki: There isn't some kind of eavesdropping device inside, is there...?
    Kouhai: Why would you say something so mean!?
  • A June 2021 story arc references the very first page of the series with Douki-chan mentioning Kouhai-chan's potential to "accidentally" have her share a room with Douki-kun, the very same trick Douki herself pulled.
    Intern: No one would do something like that, would they? You're just a worrier.
    Douki: [whose face is now fully red] Y-Yeah, I guess so...
  • Very early into the series, Senpai mentions having run into Douki-chan before, before brushing it off, not being able to fully remember. Turns out they have, and it didn't take anything but seeing Douki in glasses to jog that memory.
    Senpai: Eh...that was...you?
• Cosmic Plaything: Any advances Douki-chan makes will be intercepted or skewed, and few ever work in her favor. Expect the ones that seemingly do to end with some sort of negative outcome.
• Covert Pervert: Really, both of the two Doukis count:
  • Douki-chan is more extreme with her perversion, as she often has Erotic Dreams and misinterprets many scenarios as having sex.
  • Douki-kun, in comparison, is only really thinking of seeing Douki-chan in suggestive clothes.
• Crossover: With the similarly structured Twitter illustration series Tawawa on Monday on the week of July 27th, 2020 (Douki-chan's 29th installment and Tawawa's 284th installment). Tawawa's Kouhai-chan and Douki-chan both make plans for a "date" later on in the evening, giving their respective coworker love interests some worry. What they were really doing is drinking together. This serves as the setup for the Douki and Tawawa collaboration comic, where Douki and Kouhai's respective companies are allowed to have a joint venture.
• Cuteness Proximity: Douki-kun has a weakness for cats, which Douki-chan uses to get him to hang out with her on a weekend where she's cat-sitting. Ironically, this backfires on Douki-chan - Douki-kun is so enamoured by watching and playing with the cat that Douki-chan ends up taking the feline away from him out of jealousy.
• Death Glare: While Douki-chan will do little more than freak out or sulk when intercepted, Kouhai-chan instead shoots an absolutely chilling glare at the interceptor.
• The Dog Bites Back: Douki-chan often ends up retaliating against Kouhai-chan's advances, whether directly or not.
• Dramatic Irony: The whole series runs on Douki-chan constantly worrying that the guy she likes will be stolen away by all of the other gorgeous girls in her office space, but time and time again the story emphasizes that Douki-kun only has eyes for her. Not that he'll be admitting this any time soon.
• Dream Reality Check: Douki-chan tugs on her own face and realizes her Hail Mary kiss on Douki-kun and Douki-kun's confession directly after isn't a dream.
• Erotic Dream:
  • Douki-chan's dreams, whether it be her thinking of herself going to town, or her imagining Douki-kun "having fun" with whoever seems to have bested her.
  • Senpai-san is quick to lampshade Douki-chan's tendency for this during the White Day 2023 arc.
    Senpai: Had a nightmare, did you?
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first few updates to the series focus entirely on Douki-chan and her erotic dreams. The overarching series conflict, along with Kouhai-chan, did not make an appearance until February 2020.
• Ecchi: Very much a series of this type. The series has consistently toed the line between simply teasing the reader and outright depicting sex scenes.
• The Faceless: Zig-zagged with Douki-kun, though in the shots in which his face is fully shown, he is simply rendered without eyes. Downplayed later on, where he has faded eyes in the pin-up pages, with manga panels still retaining the standard eyeless appearance. Finally subverted in comic #219, where Douki-kun has full-fledged eyes in shock as Douki-chan finally kisses him. This is completely averted from then on to mark their Relationship Upgrade; Douki-kun always has a fully-drawn face.
• Fatal Flaw: Douki and Senpai end up with their own set of flaws:
  • Douki-chan's distinctive introverted personality ends up getting her into trouble more often than it doesn't, as it hinders her ability to simply be upfront with her feelings.
  • Senpai-san is an opposite case, as she ends up being too assertive, as it's later revealed that Senpai-san's aggressive stance on a potential relationship with Douki-kun is what gets her rejected by him in college.
• First Girl After All: Douki-chan is the protagonist of the series and the one we're introduced to first, but in terms of the chronological story Douki-kun's oldest relationship is with Senpai, who was in college with him. We later learn that Douki-kun had his eye on Douki-chan long before they started working for the same company; he was crushing on her as far back as college, when she was just a waitress.
• Foil: Any of the "named" girls have personality traits Douki-chan herself consistently struggles with:
  • Kouhai is more assertive with her advances and is much less bashful in comparison to Douki.
  • Senpai is calm and reserved, the opposite of Douki's constant on-edge outlook of their relationship.
  • Intern/Shinjin-chan is honest and to-the-point, in comparison to Douki constantly beating around the bush.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Douki-chan, Kouhai and Senpai all have their moments. Kouhai in particular makes it clear to Douki she actually looks forward to competing with her.
• Harem Genre: With the variation that the focus character is not the one the harem forms around, but one of the haremettes. The point-of-view is still squarely in Douki-kun's perspective, but you see very little of him contrast to Douki-chan and the other girls.
• The Lancer: As said above, Shinjin/Intern-chan is still a foil to Douki-chan in terms of honesty, but, unlike Kouhai or Senpai, instead opts to help her become more assertive and honest with her advances.
• Living Mood Ring: Downplayed. Most if not all characters have their eyes change to a certain color when expressing extreme emotion.
• Minimalist Cast: Only the 5 named characters are shown in the series, with any other character appearing as The Faceless.
• Mirror Character: Despite Senpai-san being more assertive than Douki-chan, both share a lot of character traits, including their will to struggle through any bad moment, love of drinking, and having each other as an Unknown Rival.
• Moment Killer: Christmas 2021 features Douki-kun and Douki-chan making plans to get together after work, but Douki-kun later declines since he has to go to a photo shoot. After this, he gets to leave the shoot early in order to make time for Douki-chan (at Maiko's behest), and for once he and Douki-chan get to spend a romantic Christmas evening alone together...that is, until they get a bite to eat. While Douki-chan's off in enamored bliss, she fails to notice that Kouhai interrupted them to join their table.
• Nameless Narrative: Taking a page out of Tawawa on Monday, none of the main characters aside from Senpai-san^name Maiko Okuzumi are given a name, and thus are Only Known by Their Nickname.
• Obliviously Beautiful: Douki-chan is somewhat unaware of how attractive she is, partly due to her Heroic Self-Deprecation when she compares herself to Senpai-san and Kouhai-chan. This is particularly egregious when it comes to Douki-kun, who finds her gorgeous.
• Protagonist Title: Even the title's cheering Douki-chan on.
• The Rival: Kouhai-chan is one of Douki's most frequent (and most aggressive) adversaries, with many plots being kickstarted by her inserting herself into the situation.
• Say It with Hearts: Kouhai-chan's standard form of speech, often including a pink speech bubble to go with it. Of course, this disappears when she drops the act.
• Screw Destiny:
  • Kouhai-chan is a subscriber to this philosophy, as she has unironically stated that she doesn't believe that the "protagonist" will prevail.
  • Douki-chan herself chooses to follow this when confronted with the thought of remaining the eternal loser who jealously watches her crush develop a relationship with another girl; as she rejects her destiny, she pulls Douki-kun in for a kiss.
• Shared Universe: With Yomu's previous series, Miru Tights. The main schoolgirl trio of Miru Tights make background cameos on one illustration, characters wearing the uniform of the school from that series make other appearances and it is later revealed that Senpai-san is the older sister of teacher Yuiko Okuzumi from the same series. A drawing from Yomu featuring a younger Intern from her high school days hints that she attended the school that Miru Tights takes place in as well.
• Shipper on Deck: Shinjin-chan is very quick to realize that Douki-chan has a crush on Douki-kun, so she puts her full support on their relationship.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Douki-kun only has eyes for Douki-chan, even though he's the target for most of the girls in the story. That is, regardless of his shared past with Senpai-san, and Kouhai-chan's clinginess.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: While she's more likely to get the rug pulled under her, Douki-chan does end up winning a few times:
  • The 2021 cherry blossom chapter sees her finally getting a bit of alone time with Douki-kun after a year of struggling to get the chance.
  • The 2022 Valentines Day and White Day chapters have her and Douki-kun get each other gifts without any catch or twist.
  • A May 2022 chapter has her finally succeed with a date with Douki-kun. As fate would have it, though, Kouhai had a score to settle at the workplace.
• Title Drop: Senpai gives Douki-chan some genuine words of encouragement during the White Day arc.
• Tranquil Fury: On the rare occasion in which Kouhai-chan ends up on the losing side, she does not take it well (see the Death Glare example above).
• Unknown Rival: The anime bio states that Douki sees Senpai-san as her romantic enemy, but the prior character sheet shows that the feelings aren't shared (Senpai-san is stated to be "amused by" Douki). Recently, however, this seems to be changing.
• Wham Episode: White Day 2023, where Douki-chan refusing to be upfront about her affection for Douki-kun's gift leaves him heartbroken, causing him to distance himself from her and even start having feelings for Kouhai-chan instead! To make matters worse for the poor girl, not even Shinjin-chan chooses to bat for her, instead ribbing her for her fatal mistake. The arc culminates in Douki-chan finally realizing her self-sabotage and kissing Douki-kun.
• Wild Take: Fitting for an overreactive character like Douki-chan, she often displays these during her freakouts.
• Woman Scorned: Senpai-san's affections were previously rejected by Douki-kun when they were university students, though she has made readily apparent that she doesn't have the intention of backing down even now.