May 3, 2018
I was completely blown away by this series. I will wholeheartedly admit that I was drawn in by the sweet, sweet oppai, and as such, I wasn't expecting anything aside from glorious eye candy. Wow, was I foolish.
I was expecting a shallow show with even shallower characters purely designed for nothing more than sex appeal (not every show is a masterpiece, nor even tries to be). I made judgements about it before I ever watched it, and this is actually a recurring theme throughout Hajimete no Gal. If you can sit through the objectively poor first episode, it'll pay off in spades.
The cast is full
...
of (mostly) enjoyable characters, overflowing with depth you'd never think possible from a show with such an ecchi thumbnail. Almost everyone undergoes some form of REALISTIC character growth. Aside from Nene Fujinoki, everyone has at least one moment where they get to be the best version of themselves. Even the deeply disturbing pedophile Minoru gets his time to shine. Almost all of these moments exhibit that people are rarely as shallow as your first impression of them. If there's one thing that you should take away from this anime, it's that "don't judge a book by its cover" isn't just some tired cliché. Nearly everyone in this show has a complexity to them not found in many other ecchi comedies. Everyone from Yame herself to the desperate (yet deeply, deeply enjoyable) creep Shinpei is more than they first appear. Yame appears in the first episode with very ill-fitting clothes, and acts like a stereotypical "gyaru/gal," who have a connotation of being very sexually promiscuous. Whether it's for attention, or they just know what they want, it's a style of dress often associated with sexuality in a negative way. This couldn't be further from Yame's personality. She's fairly modest. Not in the way she dresses, mind you, but her personality and attitude towards relationships.
Shinpei immediately comes across as a desperate creep, and that isn't untrue of him, but he's just shameless, not a villain. He isn't afraid of what people think, and he can actually be very considerate and intelligent when he wants to. In serious situations, he's surprisingly quite the gentleman.
Ranko, Yame's friend, has her own reasons for being around Yame, and despite coming across as a flirt, she's a very protective and loyal individual. She tests Junichi's motivations in her own way, and, without giving much away, she uses her sexuality not as a crutch for the show to lean on, but as a vehicle to have a mature, meaningful dialogue about a topic that the show itself even introduced as juvenile. She does a lot for the show in all three of its main corners: comedy, ecchi, and a genuinely emotional plot. In my opinion, no one showcases the pillars of the show more than Ranko.
Even Boa makes enormous strides as a person, but you'll have to watch it yourself for anything spoiler-free there.
This is, without a doubt, the most well done non-fiction setting I've ever seen in an anime. It's by no means the best thing ever, but it does so well in every category that it's truly something special, and it does it in a mere ten episodes. It's the first time I've ever seen so much done with so little.
Hajimete no Gal was a massively enjoyable trip when I wasn't even expecting one. I was lured in by the spectacular boobage, but found myself not even thinking about the ecchi aspect by the end. It was a surprisingly emotional ride, and it caused me to take stock of myself. I like to consider myself an open-minded person, but I was judging the show like so many of the characters were being judged. Even though there're times when you'll find yourself shaking your head at them, these deep characters have plenty to offer both the plot and "plot."
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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