English Dub Review: My First Girlfriend Is a Gal “My First Half-Assed Gal”

Would you lose your virginity to a gal that you considered your sister? Would you make pedo jokes too?

Spoilers Below

I’m so utterly disgusted by this week’s episode of My First Girlfriend is a Gal. I know that is starting off very strong but there’s just no other way I can concisely put that despite all of the stupidity, pandering sexualization and Junichi’s friends we had to deal with in the last episodes this is the worst episode yet. It at first starts with just on the surface annoyance which includes Junichi’s pedo friend getting free rein to make more of his “classic” child loving zingers. But then it really just dissolves all the good grace I had with the gal aspect of the show and makes our new gal Nene’s true introduction emotionally manipulative and shallow.

Nene Fujinoki, played by Brittany Lauda, is the close best friend archetype that has fallen in love with Junichi but Junichi sees her as more a sister than any potential love interest. So, in today’s episode, she shows off her dedication by changing her appearance to look more like a gal and then sneaks into Junichi’s bed to grind her boobs against him. As we learned with Ranko in episode 2, apparently sexually assaulting guys is hilarious. Now it’s Nene’s turn to make her stance against Yukana, Ranko and Yui as another Gal in the lining for Junichi’s affections and the episode follows all her attempts to mimic what a gal sounds like and getting under Yukana’s skin.

Although the one plus for the episode is that Nene’s attempts to get under Yukana’s skin, even forcefully pushing her boobs into Yukana’s to dwarf her in breast side, our main gal really doesn’t care. In fact, she takes the whole situation in stride being very genuinely friendly with her and open to having her boobs rubbed up against Nene’s. Now ignoring the sexual assault aspect of the encounter, Yukana endears me here as this solidifies what she finds confidence in. In any situation involving her body and sexual contact she is completely open and flirty, never backing down and rolling with everything she is comfy with. But as seen in episodes 2 and 3, what she does lack confidence in are her relationships. Every situation that involves Junichi moving into more intimate relationship actions or neglecting his relationship responsibilities to Yukana that does bother her a lot. Even though we really have had so little consolidated screen time dedicated to her character the writers made her reactions detail a confident and social gal with worries about wanting a serious and devoted relationship.

Then on the other side, you got Junichi chanting internally how he just wants to lose his virginity to her. Truly she has found a partner to get that devoted relationship with. But even if we ignored that disgustingly shallow attitude towards Yukana, we get the more disgustingly shallow attitude toward Nene and her feelings as well. Spoilers or not, it’s plain as day that Nene has been in love with Junichi since they were kids which is the typical romance narrative trope. However, what really kneecaps this whole plotline and makes it more disturbingly cringy than anything is that they never talk about it. There is never a real scene where Junichi actually answers to Nene’s feelings even when Nene has become so desperate for his attention that she reaches her craziest obsessive point. That reality is really just brushed away with Junichi reverting to “I see you as a sister” and nothing else which makes Nene come off pathetic, hopelessly trying for a guy who is emotionally unavailable and makes Junichi come off awfully indifferent as he just wants Yukana to be his first.

Junichi every episode is becoming less and less of a likable character and this has nothing to do with his perverted nature. On the contrary, like I will state time and time again if Junichi was just a loner pervert in the class that would have been more than enough perverted comedy for the series. The gals are the true stars of the romantic and comedy aspects anyway so why clutter it up with more stupid pervert characters? Junichi though has become stupider not due to being more or less perverted but by becoming a pushover to the circumstances around him. He has lost the drive to stand up and actually act as a character. He more or less just lets everyone push him around and he retorts with a dry straight man line or wacky perverted screaming. It makes him come off stale and dull as a protagonist and makes me beg to see him make more active decisions in the show to be the romantic antagonist for Yukana so they can have chemistry.

On a final note, I am sick of this show’s insistence on Junichi’s friend being a pedo joke. Different age of consent laws in Japan notwithstanding, it is not funny how they have written it. Ever. It comes across as more disgusting than anything and asks why? Why the hell are we being subjected to this unfunny creep and every character reacts nonchalantly about it? Now I am not saying pedophile jokes are completely off the table of comedy. That would be ridiculous. Comedy is subjective and given different circumstances people have made funny jokes involving pedophiles before and since this show. My issue is that Junichi’s pedo friend is a one trick pony. He isn’t even a character. Just a tool to make fat guy jokes and pedophile jokes and that is all. He never helps within the narrative to progress it, he just takes up space and weirds you out while doing so.

I really didn’t want to come to this episode really hating it as unlike a lot of other reviewers I am enjoying the gal portions a lot more than the pervert comedy. But it has become apparent that the writers have no idea how to balance the perverted with the romance and make it still an endearing comedy. Hopefully, Nene as a character will become less of a shallow man stealer and Yukana can bring more color and vibrancy to the show and cast. Last thing though. Stop with the pedophile humor. Please.