Warning: Massive Spoilers Ahead

Brief Synopsis
The plot is centered around the main protagonist Natsuo Fuji. After his dad remarries to a woman named Tsukiko Tachibana, Hina and Rui enters his life as his stepsisters. Natsuo and Hina both develops romantic feelings for each other and becomes entangled into a teacher-student relationship. To avoid a full-blown scandal, Hina is transferred to teach at another high-school and forced to break things off with Natsuo so he can pursue his dreams of becoming a novelist. After moving on from his relationship with Hina, Natsuo continues to grow as a writer. Natsuo wins the Shinkousha Literary Award as his first milestone achievement, enters University and is taken under the wing of a renowned writer Togen-Sensei and ends up developing feelings for Rui.

Personal Thoughts
After finishing the manga, the whole story really felt like a love story between Natsuo and Hina, but for one way or another they cannot get together because of obstacles along the way that seem rather contrived. I’m not against Natsuo being with Rui, however, a large chunk of the chapters were dedicated to their relationship, yet it somehow felt like their relationship was not progressing along. Rui and Natsuo would be in a relationship, then have some misunderstandings and have a little falling out before repeating the same thing. Rui then breaks up with Natsuo because of the burden they’ve placed on each other. They broke up because Rui seemingly gave some thought about it and it seemed to be an opportunity for the two characters to later come back as more fully and complete characters, but this could have been handled better.

It becomes clear at this point in the plot, that Rui is more concerned about trivial things in their relationship rather than Natsuo’s dream. Natsuo has stressed time and time again the importance of writing to him, which is why I make my case for Hina. What I came to realize was that rather than the amount of time they’ve spent together, Hina was an integral part of Natsuo’s dreams, and she understood him better than Rui. Something about them, was much deeper and overbearing than what Rui and Natsuo had together. Hina from start to finish, held onto and protected Natsuo’s dreams and made him who he was by the end of the manga. This is like how Natsuo made who Rui was by the end of it. If there was anyone who deserved Natsuo better, it would have been Hina. I’m not saying this out of pity for her. At the end of the manga when Kobayashi spilled the beans that Hina loved him all along, the break-up and transfer was to protect him, that she suppressed her feelings for him while supporting his dreams it became almost like a revelation to Natsuo. Shortly after this scene, Natsuo became firm in his decision to be with Hina.

In short, Natsuo learned about love while being with Rui, but ultimately it was with Hina that would bear the fruit of his love. Therefore, there was no doubt in my mind that Natsuo and Hina were always meant to be and even sooner if she made her intentions and objectives more transparent to Natsuo. It was even mentioned that Natsuo did not marry her because he felt sorry for her, but rather she was someone that completed him. Some may argue that Hina should focus on her own life, instead of Natsuo's and while i do agree, that just shows how much she loves him. While I did not have a problem with Hina and Natsuo being toghether, how they got together was an issue.

My main problem is how poorly handled Natsuo, and Rui’s relationship was and how dirty they were done. A large chunk of the story, as mentioned, was dedicated to them. Near the end, they even had a baby together, therefore it made no logical sense to me that Natsuo would be willing to throw this all away for a last ditch effort to be with Hina. They made preparations for the wedding, they spent a whole chapter or two figuring out how to convince their mother to go ahead with the wedding, and Natsuo even swore to her that he will make Rui happy then flips around like its all for naught. For Hina fans, they were also done dirty by how slapped together it seemed with her getting put into a coma. There was barely any interaction between Natsuo and Hina after she woke up from her coma. I felt like they needed to add more wholesome scenes rather than fast forwards to bridge the time they couldn't interact with each other. If anything, a better ending would be for Hina not to be in a coma and accept Rui and Natsuo or for Rui and Natsuo to stay broken up while slowly pacing the story and reveal to Natsuo everything Hina has done to this point (I mean they were going to do that anyways) to rekindle their love.

While I was not particularly fond of the ending, I wouldn’t say it completely ruined the whole experience or totally killed off any character development. In the end, we do see Natsuo, and Rui succeed and grow. If there’s one thing Natsuo learned, it was as Togen-Sensei would put it “the nuances of life”. I do appreciate the author’s efforts to make a satisfying ending where all characters would be happy, and I did enjoy some side stories and side characters. To name a few, I loved Kobayashi (The MVP of the entire manga), Misaki Oguri, and Serizawa. In another world, Serizawa could have been a potential great love interest for Natsuo. Overall, I thought the side casts were well done and the manga had great individual scenes although the sum of its parts were sometimes messy.

As for the main characters, i wish that Natsuo would have been more decisive. He even said himself that choosing Rui was not a small afterthought but a decision he carefully chose. If he was going to choose Hina, he should have chose her before Rui even got pregnant. Actually, there were many signs that Hina gave Natsuo that he failed to pick up and only realized at the end that sparked his change of heart. Aside from that, Rui's jealousy and incompetence when it comes time to support Natsuo as his gf really shows at Chapter 216 especially when Natsuo is always ready to support her. Rather than doing that, she should have more confidence in her ability to support him especially when they pledged to be toghether forever at the inception of their relationship. There was no reason to put Natsuo deeper into the rabbit hole.

Conclusion
Domestic girlfriend, while not perfect, was an enjoyable read for me that provided me a rollercoaster of emotions. If you are fond of 80s TV dramas that provide fast dramatic developments, with a hint of excitement then I'd say give this manga a shot. On art and panel design alone, this manga passes with flying colors. Art is absolutely stunning and clean. The manga is not a complete dumpster fire and I personally enjoyed some side stories, side characters and interactions between the main characters. It was also exciting to see Natsuo challenge his dilemmas and go through many trials and tribulations. While the end of the journey left a sour taste in my mouth, overall i'd say the journey itself was entertaining.

Thanks for reading, Arigatou Gozaimasu!