Tonogaya, Volume 1 Cover Art, The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl, Square Enix.
The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl – Information
Author of Story: Miyuki Tonogaya
Chapter Count: 11 volumes (English), 70 digital chapters
Status: Ongoing
Check out The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl Square Enix page
Or, read The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl digitally on Manga Up!
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- None so far!
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl – Plot Summary
If you love chill, laid-back romances and slice of life style stories, you’ll probably really like this manga! The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl has a very wholesome and fun rom-com plot. It is also known by an alternate title: The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague.
Himuro (the ice guy), is a descendant of a snow woman (Japanese folklore yokai). When he feels strong emotion, whether positive or negative, he often creates cold environmental reactions. This can include ice, snow, snowflakes, blizzards, and even cute little snowmen. He works at the same company as Fuyutsuki; a beautiful, cool, stoic woman who he is crushing on very hard.
This adorable josei manga is a collection of short, quick chapters. It has really cute characters with fun personalities, and a unique twist with yokai characters. Alongside their coworkers, Himuro and Fuyutsuki enjoy their day-to-day work life, and slowly learn more about each other.
This rom-com manga is so stinkin’ cute and super funny. It really exceeded my expectations, so I can confidently say that The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl is totally worth the read!
Tonogaya, Volume 2 Cover Art, The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl, Square Enix.
Why I Enjoyed The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl
This manga is such a cute rom-com story. Himuro is a funny guy with big emotions and very enthusiastic reactions to his coworker Fuyutsuki. He tries to stay calm and collected on the outside, but is definitely an open book.
It’s super obvious he has feelings for his coworker, and his Kansai accent often slips out; especially while he fanboys over her in his mind. His personality is what brings the most fun and excitement to the plot of The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl.
In other words, he’s a total cinnamon roll. His character loves flowers and really likes cats; but unfortunately cannot touch either one. He also thinks everything Fuyutsuki does is adorable. I love their dynamic, and Himuro makes me laugh so much with his reactions in this manga! And of course, Fuyutsuki looks especially cute and sweet in the manga!
I also like the art style of this manga series a lot. It feels cute and detailed; I really love the way the shading looks in this manga. I especially love how much effort goes into Himuro’s embarrassed face each time, and how adorable Fuyutsuki looks when she blushes, too!
I really love seeing the art style improve and get more detailed as the story progresses. It’s one of my favorite parts of reading a manga series, and you can really see the change in this manga!
Each chapter of this manga is a short and cute mini-story that will either make you laugh or warm your heart (or maybe both). It’ll give you a little bit of secondhand embarrassment, but in a good way! The humor is so fun, too. Not only thanks to Himuro and Fuyutsuki, but also their coworkers.
The supporting characters in The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl are so cute and add some fun to the story as well; some of them are also yokai, such as a phoenix or fox-human. We even get some side-couple stories that are extremely cute and add more interest into the “ice guy” and “cool girl” plot!
This adorable manga was adapted into an anime as well, but it sort of gives a slightly different vibe. I would recommend trying both! Especially because the anime doesn’t strictly follow the manga series chapter-by-chapter.
Tonogaya, Volume 4 Cover Art, The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl, Square Enix.
It does include most of the plot points from the manga, but sort of at random; it also occasionally seems to switch the story up here and there, by either adding to or leaving out a few things from the manga. Or, perhaps they are scenes that haven’t been translated to English in the manga yet; I can’t say for sure. In terms of romance, the anime doesn’t reach as far as the manga does.
Perhaps if we get a season 2, we’ll see that progress animated. Either way, I enjoyed both versions! Especially considering the voice actors did an amazing job in the anime.
Any Cons?
I don’t have many cons for this story; it is so enjoyable, cute, and well done. Perhaps if you’re an impatient reader, you may not like this slow-burn romance. There’s also just one very small scene of the manga that I’ve seen some readers complain about, but not everyone will interpret it the same way. Continued but with small spoilers in the next two paragraphs…
Basically, as part of his yokai features, Himuro turns smaller (like, into his child-self but still has the awareness of his adult self) as if he “melts” from heat. There is one very small manga cliché that occurs where the characters fall on top of each other, but while Himuro is in this form.
While the manga does not show or suggest anything explicit at all with this scene, some readers felt uncomfortable since this scene is commonly used as an intimate trope in romance. It sort of depends on how you interpret this very brief scene, so I wanted to mention it here.
Final Thoughts
The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl was so much fun to read. It was so exciting to see the main two characters grow closer. It felt like a lovely slow-burn romance, which is my absolute favorite. I really liked that even though it seemed like the characters would get together quickly, they actually take their time to build feelings and get to know each other well as two adults.
I also absolutely adore characters like Himuro; he’s such a doting and expressive cutie. I am looking forward to reading more of this adorable rom-com manga, and highly recommend it!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Miyuki Tonogaya, The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl, Square Enix, 2022.
