English Dub Review: My First Girlfriend Is a Gal “My First time at Yame-san’s House”

4 busty gals, 2 awkward perverts, a pedophile, and Junichi. Prepare for the worst King’s Game.

This has really become one of the most uncharismatic rom-com animes of the season. It has everything it needs to be a decent one. Our main girl, Yukana, has a very positive atmosphere to her, exhibiting the shows very few cute and heartwarming moments. The rival girls, Ranko, Nene, and Yui, have distinct personalities and they clash well with one another. Junichi is as bland as dirt apart from his perverted edge but acts satisfactorily for the girls to fluster and sexually tease. So, if all these characters together would have made a bare bones romantic harem comedy, what obvious bunch of despicable, tired and dull characters has completely undermined everything? Do I even have to ask? Junichi’s friends, of course, they are without question the weakest aspect of the show. Due to their combined role of perverted temptation, they are written in such a fashion that they are irredeemably gross so that Junichi looks better by comparison. Today’s episode capitalizes on this.

OVERVIEW

It starts off with Junichi’s friends pressuring him into getting Yukana and the girls to play the King’s Game at her house so Junichi can put the moves on her. However, it gets more cringe-inducing when Junichi fails to read any of the romantic signs from Yukana and Junichi’s friends arrive to get the girls to do indecent things during the King’s Game. To go into specifics would be to spoil the really dull and cringy time they have but to boil down the events, Junichi’s friends want to make out with the girls and Junichi has the romantic social skills of trout. This comes across so forced in so many ways when the friends are included because no longer can it be just a game with the comedic surprise of fan service at Junichi’s expense. That just becomes a calculated assault from guys who see all the girls as objects and not actual girls. Plus, a pedo who can’t give less of a damn.

This puts the guys in a very unappealing light, making it hard for me to laugh at their “quirky awkwardness.” Not to mention Junichi isn’t much better. It really becomes a redundancy when 2 of the 3 pervert boys act just like Junichi when all horny. For the past several episodes, nothing has evolved in the relationship between him and Yukana due to this and that makes it so boring to watch. Junichi himself places the story at a standstill until the narrative is forced to make him a slightly less reprehensible guy to forcefully move the narrative along.

OUR TAKE

If My First Girlfriend Is A Gal was actually about the gals then it would be far superior quality. The girls exhibit the most character and yet are still underwritten especially Yukana who hasn’t exhibited a character other than slight tease and nervous about romance. The guys make the show really awkward to view as the narrative just nonstop pushes to have them added to every aspect of the show rather than focus on the title character. This episode, in particular, was just hard to stomach and sit through for that reason. It’s not cute, fun or anything in between. This is just grating and I hope more than anything the pervert boys’ presence is downgraded or at least disconnected from the gals.

SCORE
2/10