One day, while the three women are dining and drinking at an izakaya as usual, complaining about the men they have dated, a mysterious and handsome young man with blond hair named Key tells them that they remain unmarried because they are always talking about "If I had done..." or "If he had been...".

Written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura, Tokyo Tarareba Girls was serialized in Kodansha's josei manga magazine Kiss from the March 24, 2014,[8] to April 25, 2017.

[13][14] Tokyo Tarareba Girls inspired three spin-off manga series, also written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura.

The first manga series, titled Tokyo Tarareba Girls Extra Edition: Tarare-Bar (東京タラレバ娘番外編 タラレBar, Tōkyō Tarareba Musume Bangai-hen: Tarare-Bar), features Tara and Reba—the talking codfish milt and liver mascots from Rinko's fantasies—running a bar and giving relationship advice in response to reader-submitted questions.

[33][38] At their 2019 Anime NYC panel, Kodansha USA announced they licensed the series for an English-language release, to be made available digitally on December 24, 2019.

[47] A 10-episode live-action television drama series adaptation of Tokyo Tarareba Girls was broadcast on Nippon TV from January 18 to March 22, 2017.

[3][48] The series was directed by Seiichi Nagumo, Yuma Suzuki, and Naoko Komuro, and written by Yūko Matsuda.

It starred Yuriko Yoshitaka as Rinko, Nana Eikura as Kaori, Yuko Oshima as Koyuki, and Kentaro Sakaguchi as Key.

It was also directed by Yuma Suzuki and written by Yūko Matsuda, with the cast of the 2017 television drama series returning to reprise their roles.