English Dub Season Review: My First Girlfriend Is a Gal Season One

My first girlfriend maybe a gal but one of your current friends is a pedophile… there is something wrong with this show.

Now I opened up the first of my reviews by detailing what a gal is. For a recap, a Gal, or more commonly known as Gyaru, in Japan is a fashion- and peer- conscious teen. They are often characterized by having heavily bleached or dyed hair, highly decorated nails, dramatic makeup, and fashion that originated from Japanese street fashion in the 1970s. Basically, think of the West’s valley girl archetype. With that said… why did this show even need to be about gals, to begin with? They never once explored the culture of gals, they more just half-heartedly listed them through the show’s cut short lineup of harem girls. I’m just gonna leave the “gal” aspect on the sideline as the show clearly does already plus this anime has MUCH bigger problems.

My First Girlfriend is a Gal is an ecchi high school comedy, filled to the brim with likely bachelorettes that want to fall in love with our human piece of trash a.k.a. Junichi Hashida played by Alejandro Saab. Now, what is the problem for Junichi in his idyllic life as a perverted loser who with his three other “friends” Shinpei, Keigo and Minoru enjoy porn openly and with shame? Well quite clearly, they are all massive virgins with the charisma of mold but just to mess with Junichi his friends set him up to confess to the class’s gal, Yukana Yame played by Jamie Marchi. Even though he plainly only sees her for the massive balloons on her chest, he goes ahead and begs her to be his girlfriend and Yukana wanting… something… agrees. Thus, begins a tale of a hopeless and pretty unlikable pervert will make all the girls swoon for him, which includes his girlfriend’s lesbian best friend who wants to sexually assault him, his delusional and sadistic classmate and his childhood best friend with the body of a 12-year-old and the breasts of two deflated basketballs.

I apologize if I’m slinging so much crap at the show already right out of the gate. After sitting through 10 episodes of four hateful perverts sexually objectifying these girls and the response to that is to flip it around and sexually objectify/molest the main man… I don’t really feel it deserves your time or mine to view it. But let’s break this down to really stick it to this crap. Starting from the top, Junichi is a terrible pervert character. Now I’m not saying this as some prude who hates perverted characters, one of my favorite animated characters is Ocichi Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka and he was a perverted idiot beyond measure. What makes Junichi such an unlikable asshat is the writing always pushes him towards a non-active position. His choices are not his own and when he is placed into the many seductive situations all he does is just… nothing. Well, that and have really nonsensical fantasies where different parts of his psyche interact with one another. A fantasy segment so unnecessary they cut it out of the show midway through.

Now from an optimistic standpoint to be the comedic straight man to such wacky sexy events can lead to good comedy. I can prove that because later in the season when he finally starts acting and reacting to these situations it actually makes him develop a character. He’s a pervert, yes, but he’s overly cautious and doesn’t want anyone to see him in any shameless position. I can get behind a guy like that who truly wants to impress his girlfriend but has no experience to really know how to do it. But that is only when he tries. Junichi does not until it’s far too late in the season to save itself. However, I won’t say that Junichi is the worst part of this anime. That honor goes to Shinpei, Keigo, and the show’s pedophile Minoru.

Yes, I dropped that bomb. Minoru played by Cris George is simply that a pedophile. He may not do any really heinous stuff on screen but this anime loves to joke about just how much he loves lolicon. Now lolicon is one thing, I’m not gonna shame people who like it because as long as it’s just fake girls no one gets hurt. I do have a bone to pick with writing a comedic character whose jokes entail him getting a van to pick up little girls, have romantic conversations with little girls at his daycare job and watch videos in class of little girls, the one in question being of a girl giggling as a dog licks vanilla ice cream off her. Even if you ignore the innuendo with the video one this anime is just beating you over the head with Minoru being a pedophile. Even the characters themselves know it as his friends constantly tell him he’s a horrible person and should be in jail.

Congrats. They can state the obvious but do they ever do anything about their friend’s pedophilic tendencies? Of course not! In fact, it’s another one of Junichi’s friends Shinpei who pitches him the idea to work at a daycare. I just find this idea that we’re watching a story trying to make a light-hearted spin on a pedophile. There have been characters in anime who are pretty horrible people played off as comedic characters. There are countless amounts of those types but the better ones realize that they are horrible people, they play to the audience showing a disconnect between their horrible action and how they view and act towards it. In those cases, the shows themselves realize their actions aren’t the comedic factor but how they react brings in the comedy. Minoru is just a piece of pedophile crap and we are supposed to find it “quirky” that he is one? Piss off. Junichi’s other two friends are basically forgettable crap stains but Minoru is hands down the reason I will never recommend this show to anyone.

Which is sad because beyond the crap from the boys in this show the girls could very well bring a lot to the table. If they only had the time to because each girl is given their own archetype to play with but the show gives them zero time to develop anything. Actually, I take that back partially, Ranko, Nene, and Yui, after their bare-bones introduction, by later episodes, do exhibit new dynamic reactions to flesh out their personalities making me able to see them as potential candidates for Junichi. Now, what about Yukana? What do we know about her by the end of this season?

…

She’s nice. She has no shame about touching boobs with other girls’ boobs. She for some reason gets shy at romantic moments with Junichi. That’s it. I’m not trying to be an ass about this Yukana doesn’t give a lot that can really ascertain a reason behind her actions. Like there is never even a partial reason given why she chooses to go out with Junichi in the first place. She just comes across as a tease for no particular reason and while I do find that teasing and shy aspects cute for her I don’t see a character behind those actions. I see her as a plot device for Junichi’s growth and with Yukana so stale as a love interest that really doesn’t help the growth of anything. Well, maybe my disdain for the show.

OUR TAKE

And disdain is right. I can see the glimpses of a funny and romantically cute show trying to break free. But it’s just muddled by mainly the pedophile and perverted humor from the guys that clouds any chance of anyone taking the time to find the good bits. If My First Girlfriend Is a Gal was initially and consistently on the level of writing as the later 2 episodes then it would have been so much more endearing. The gals made that aspect of the show tolerable and we didn’t get to know really anything about gals. The perverted guys made this anime intolerable. It just leaves me disappointed at what this could have been but regardless don’t watch this show. It’s writing already cost it two episodes, two other gals from the harem and the 1st voice actor for pedo’s character. This anime does not deserve your time.