Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. The typical Japanese beauty is a girl whose modest, elegant, proper, well-manner, and has a set of morals that they believe and follow. This is the exact opposite of the gyaru. Gyaru is the Japanese word that loosely translates into gal. The term originally sprung up in the 70s and was mainly used to describe a style of fashion girls were into but has since then come to be seen in a negative light. Many people classify gyarus as girls who wear an excessive amount of makeup along with flashy clothing and jewelry. Along with these traits, they also have tan-skin, speak slang, and are often seen as troublemakers who would hang out with the wrong crowd and were considered loose girls who will sleep around with any men for the right price. Over the last few years, manga artists who grew up around or experienced the gyaru culture in their life have since then wrote stories exploring this culture. Some re-iterate the fact that gyarus are bad while others try to view them in a positive light. One of the mangas that tries to do this is Hajimete no Gal. Also known as My First Girlfriend is a Gal, the manga is just what the title says it is, a romantic story about a school boy getting a girlfriend who is a gal. The manga was written by Meguru Ueno in 2015 and still on-going to this day. In 2017 the small anime studio NAZ took the manga and turned it into a 10-episode anime. This would be the studio’s third anime adaptation. The other two before this were Hamatora an anime I’ve never heard of and Dramatical Murder which many people forgot existed. This doesn’t bold well for us. Let’s see what excitement a gal can give us, this is Hajimete no Gal.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Hajimete no SEASON” by Junjou no Afilia. This was an opening that I’ve heard a lot of people like but I’m really not seeing the appeal of it. It’s not a bad song, it’s energetic, but other than that it doesn’t do anything to distinguish itself from other energetic openings I’ve heard.
Our ending is “GAL-tic Love” by Erabareshi. At first the song sounds awesome but after those first 5 seconds the song becomes another generic energetic song about love. Just like the opening, it leaves no impact on me.
Episodes 1-5
We open with our main character Junichi voiced Shintarō Asanuma (Crow from Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds) a second year high school student who has just started a new semester and you know what that means, Spring is in the air and couples are out in full force which makes Junichi jealous because he wants a girlfriend so he can cash in his virginity card (dude you’re like 16 or 17 years old. I can understand you wanting to enter the gates of Heaven but still, there’s more to life at this age than that). He begins to wonder why he’s doesn’t have a girlfriend yet (well it sure doesn’t help that his trio of friends are open perverts with one of them being a lolicon) and we see he’s already got a few girls in his life already such as Nene his childhood friend with the body of a loli and world-class boobs (oh hey, I didn’t know Hestia was in this anime) and the class beauty Yui (who has to be a closet sadist. All the signs are there. Long dark hair, red eyes, black high-knee socks, and a gentle voice. She’s practically screaming I’m a sadist). One of his friends hands him a porn magazine where he drops it and it lands at the feet of our female lead Yukana a gyaru with a hot body voiced by Yuki Nagaku. She calls him disgusting and continues on her way and our perverts love it (are these the clones of the Jacks because the world can barely handle two of them?). As a joke, the perverts convince Junichi to confess to her saying that she’ll be easy because she’s a gyaru (that’s a little racist) and he goes through with it where against the very logic of the world she agrees to be his girlfriend (What. The. Fuck?).
So in episode 2 Junichi’s friends find out he’s dating a hot girl and they’re pissed (you should have asked her out yourselves). One of his friends warns him again about how loose gyarus are and says that she’ll most likely try to set up a situation where they’ll be alone together like a karaoke bar, where they’ll have fun, sing songs together, and then finish up with sex (have her sing into your mike Junichi. Also, for those of you starting to date or plan on dating, here’s some sound advice. Don’t listen to your idiot friends). Yukana announces their relationship to the whole class and there just as shocked as the idiots (like I said, this defines all logic in the world). After school, Yukana invites Junichi to a karaoke bar where Junichi is freaking out (and Yukana has a good singing voice). He eventually starts to calm down after doing a duet with her and starts to realize he’s overthinking this whole situation (you think?) and decides to stop thinking about what his idiot friend talked about and just enjoy himself. Of course once the scenarios his friend talked about start to occur he starts to get anxious and begins having an internal struggle on what to do next until his cool self (we all have a Sakamoto inside of us) tells him to go in for the kiss before getting down and dirty. He goes in for the kiss but is stopped by a noticeable nose hair which kills the atmosphere and they decide to go home where Yukana said she had a lot of fun and wants to do it again. We also find out she’s pure, she’s never kissed anyone before in her life and was just as nervous as Junichi about that kiss.
Nothing much happens in episode 3. We get to meet Ranko the childhood friend of Yukana who is also a gyaru (if anything she’s the image of what most think of when they think of gyaru). We start with Ranko putting a love letter in Junichi’s locker asking to meet him where he goes to meet her and she tries to seduce him only for him to hold back his urges and it gets interrupted by Yukana (there’s plenty of him to go around ladies). Yukana properly introduces Ranko to Junichi and us and on their next day off the three go out shopping together where some guys try to hit on Yukana and even though Junichi does his best to keep her safe, it’s Ranko who saves her from them (you embarrass me Junichi). As Junichi is feeling pathetic, Ranko is there, invites herself in, and tries to have sex with Junichi (scene here: https://youtu.be/wSRrwiK0fJs) but once again he fights off his urges (now if he could just fight off douchebags we’ll be good to go). This of course angers Ranko who reveals that she’s in love with Yukana as well and has been even since they were kids. Yukana was Ranko’s only friend so to watch her get taken away by Junichi who is nothing more than a pervert who gets easily manipulated by his friends (seriously man, learn to think for yourself) you can understand why she’s so piss. Yukana shows up not hearing their conversation and Ranko plays off the situation as her testing Junichi to make sure he was a good guy. Yukana believes this and things seem to go back to normal (except for the fact Junichi’s girlfriend has a best friend who’s about to go all Yandere Stimulator on us).
Episode 4 focuses on Yui (and we see just how messed up the girl is). In Yui’s mind everybody exists to serve her (i.e. give her compliments, shower her with praise, and make her the center of attention) except for Junichi as he is her loyal dog (who is in constant heat and needs to be neutered ASAP) that follows her around everywhere she goes and wags his tail for her and no one else (I told you she was a sadist. Maybe not 100% but at least 50-65%). As you can imagine she’s pissed that Junichi is focusing all of his attention on Yukana and not her, so she tries to split them up by confessing to Junichi on the school roof (classic setup) but Junichi turns her down and this causes her to snap on him (scene here: https://youtu.be/Oj4-YC0KX7M). She threatens to show Yukana a video of them on a date in a café but Ranko and the 3 perverts come in to rescue him. Ranko threatens to expose Yui’s big secret which is her being a net idol called Boa (no, not the singer Boa) who has developed a large fanbase online calling them all her loyal servants and wears a ridiculous amount of make-up with dyed hair to hide her identity. One of Junichi’s friends managed to figure out her identity and told the others where Ranko overheard him. Yui gives Junichi the SD card of their date, pays off Ranko to keep quiet about Boa, and the perverts voluntarily agree not to tell anyone because they are gentlemen (no you’re not. You’re just using this to have an edge over everyone else).
Episode 5 focuses on Nene (Corbin: Who? (Nitsuj): The childhood friend of Junichi. We met her in the first episode. (Corbin): Not ringing any bells. (Nitsuj): The loli with the big boobs who’s legal. (Corbin): Oh yeah, her). In the episode Nene has transformed herself into a gyaru in the hopes of charming Junichi and stealing him away from Yukana. Her plan really doesn’t work as she speaks in slang that nobody uses anymore and Yukana finds her so small and adorable that she doesn’t even think of her as a threat. When this fails, Nene decides to take the initiative and sneaks into bed with Junichi (how does she keep getting into his room unnoticed?) and offers her virginity to him. Naturally, Junichi says no because he values the feelings Nene has for him and doesn’t want to take advantage of them just to lose his virginity (in other words, he’s not going to act like a jackass). Nene gets dressed and takes her leave calling him cool (yeah, that was cool. Not Sakamoto level cool but still cool) but despite getting rejected she has no intention of giving up on Junichi and vows to become a cooler gal then Yukana to win Junichi over.
Episodes 6-10
Episode 6 solidifies the fact that Junichi is asinine. Once again he allows his friends to control him and convince him to invite himself, them, and the rest of the main girls to Yukana’s house for a friendly afternoon of playing the King’s game. Normally, I wouldn’t care for this but here are the main problems with this setup. For starters, it’s the first time he’s ever gone to his girlfriend’s house. Why are you inviting all your friends over when you know how stupid and perverted they are? Second, Yukana’s parents are out meaning this was his chance to have some much needed alone time with her (he’s a fucking idiot). The girls arrive first and stop whatever romantic situation Yukana and Junichi were cooking up (scene here: https://youtu.be/_9R5lptC5ps) and then the perverted trio come over where one of them is dressed like Kirito from SAO (I shit you not), the other looks like some wannabe yakuza, and the lolicon has carrying around recorders (and that worries me greatly). So, they play the game where everything seems normal and fun until the perverts decide to rig the game where they all get kissed by girls and help Junichi out with Yukana. This is part where Junichi redeems himself a little and spoils their plan by rigging it so that he and the perverts have to kiss each other. The original plan was for Junichi to kiss Yukana however he doesn’t want to kiss Yukana through a game, but rather wants to kiss her by his own free will as well as her own free will (good man).
In episode 7 it’s the start of summer vacation and everyone agrees to get part-time jobs so they can all go to the beach. Two of the perverts go to work in an anime book store (it sounds fun but it’s a lot of work) while the lolicon works at a daycare center (that is a terrible idea. If this guy doesn’t get arrested by the end of this series I’ll be shocked because they focus on this guy way more than they should). As for Junichi, he gets a job working in the kitchen of this cosplay café where the girls are also working there as waitresses (and give them credit, they actually use costumes from other animes). For the rest of the episode we see everyone hard at work in their jobs (with the occasional funny moment or in the case of the lolicon disturbing moment. This joke was funny at first but now, it’s starting to get downright disturbing). Near the end of the episode, the café has a special event day where the girls have to read light novels to the customers, the only problem is the light novels are very erotic (how erotic you ask? Well, what do you guys know about a series called Masou Gakuen HxH?). We actually do get a few moments of the girls reading a few passages from the novel (with some parts even exciting Yukana. Ohhhhh~, she like-a the dirty stuff). Junichi steps up and actually speaks out against this unfair treatment to the girls (looking pretty cool I might add) to the manager who doesn’t care what he thinks until he receives a call from the owner (thanks to Yui) who forces him to cancel the special event and give the girls full pay for what they would have been making at the event. That was their last day of work and our two lovebirds in training agree to have some alone time while on their trip.
Episode 8 is the beach episode and it’s as predictable and cliché as you would imagine. The girls look sexy in their bikinis (Nene getting the most provocative one for obvious reasons), the boys try to peep on the girls while in the baths but Junichi tries to sabotage them only to fall into their trap and get ditched as a traitor. The boys trigger the inns traps and don’t get to see the girls. We finally get a moment where Junichi and Yukana have some alone time to talk to each other without any outside distractions (thank God. You may think I’ve been skipping out on their alone time on purpose but no, this is like the first real time they’ve had the chance to be alone and talk with each other without interference from the others or Junichi being and idiot and screwing himself over. In the manga the two actually have a number of times where they were alone together and actually talked with each other. We see Yukana tease him for his failed advances and him overreacting to every little thing. But through these experiences we learn that they’re both new at this whole dating thing and are trying to figure each other out. Both are dependent on their friends for advice instead of just taking things slow, being open with each other and doing it their way. Hell, most of Yukana’s provocative advances were at the suggestion of Ranko who was trying to break them up. The manga focuses more on the relationship between Junichi and Yukana and them trying to understand each other. Here, the anime seems more concerned with establishing Junichi’s relationship with the others and not Yukana. Turning this whole thing into a harem which the manga wasn’t really about). After the credits we see the mother of all clichés, Yukana meeting a boy from her past (we’re seriously playing this card with only 2 episodes left?).
So despite my pleads, in episode 9 they play the cliché card with this new guy named Dai being a friend of Yukana from middle school (excuse me for a moment. *Gets up and walks out of the room* DAAAAAHHHHH~). As you would imagine this Dai guy has all the things Junichi lacks. Good looks, confidence, charm, and an air of cool around him (and he can also think on his own without relying on his idiot friends). The episode follows this cliché set up to a T. Junichi is jealous of Dai and gets the wrong idea about Yukana and him. It certainly doesn’t help the situation when Yukana doesn’t outright tell Junichi what her relationship with him was like in the past and saying that she never had any romantic interest in the guy in the first place (I mean you’ve seen how Junichi is, he’s not the most confident guy out there and whether Yukana realizes it or not, she’s a very cute girl that anyone would be lucky to date. The fact that she chose Junichi still boggles the mind). Junichi doesn’t do himself any favors either as he starts to think that his relationship with Yukana was all a lie and she was just leading him on to get a good laugh and as you would imagine this makes Yukana sad and angry because she really does like Junichi and the other girls also abandon him calling him selfish and uncool for labeling Yukana like that (and this is why I hate this cliché. This sentence right here. Yukana and Junichi are both at fault here. Yukana for not realizing how self-conscious Junichi is, explaining her relationship with Dai, and not being more open with him. I mean, has she even told Junichi how she feels about him? Junichi confessed his feelings to her but she hasn’t openly replied to them which is why he’s so uncertain about their relationship. Does she really like him, or is he just there to past the time? Junichi’s at fault for not trusting Yukana, labeling her, listening to his idiotic friends, and also not being more open with her. Yet, despite this, everybody will put Junichi in the wrong and Yukana in the right because he made her cry. This whole situation could have been solved with them just getting it out in the open and talking about it even if that meant arguing with each other. DAAAAHHHHHH~). Once Ranko sees all the distress Yukana is in thanks to Junichi (scene here: https://youtu.be/UklOMfiRi3A) she finds him and is about to beat the living hell out of him (in a family restaurant of all places) but before she can get a good punch in Junichi has already realized his mistakes and confesses that he loves Yukana and won’t let anybody but him have her (than what are you waiting for, go earn some glory). Ranko lets him go and tells him to go to Yukana but before he can leave Dai walks in with his posse and we find out he’s a straight up asshole (oh yeah, I forgot about this cliché). The nice guy routine was just an act, in truth he was trying to break up Junichi and Yukana because it gives him pleasure breaking up couples (oh you are a sad little fucker aren’t you?) and he wants to (as Bevis and Butthead would say) score with Yukana calling her nothing more than a slut. Ranko is about to go punch him but Junichi gets up and the episode ends with him about to walk up to Dai (you end at possibly the best part. DAAAAAAHHHHH~).
In the final episode Junichi and Dai step outside to fight where Junichi can’t even throw a proper punch (oh my God this is embarrassing. Can you at least show me you have a pair?). He does manage to tackle Dai to the ground and bite his ankle (no! Break the ankle! Break the ankle you entitled wuss) but even that doesn’t faze Dai. Ranko and the 3 perverts step in to fight telling Junichi to go to Yukana (oh you worthless *beep*! You can’t beat this *beep* asswipe by yourself! You’re a *beep* *beep* *beep* and a *beep* beep* on the face of the Earth) where they manage to beat Dai’s followers but Dai tries to escape and after knocking down a little girl (big mistake) the pervert who likes loli goes into Hulk mode and scares the living crap out of him until Ranko grabs him and kicks him in the balls (puny asshole) and then feeds him to the loli pervert. Back with Junichi he texts Yukana to meet him behind the school and she shows up eventually where he gets on his knees, bows his head and apologizes to Yukana for hurting her and admitting that at first he asked her out on a whim and only cared about losing his virginity (sounds like a new member on Tinder). But as time went on he came to love her and all the things about her such as how she doesn’t judge people, her innocent smile, how she’s cute when she sulks and how she always believes in him (that’s a big one. Also, give Junichi points for just listing off all the things he likes about Yukana without hesitating). Yukana forgives him, they make up, and they go out for a date in the amusement park at night just as Junichi always dreamed (and she’s considerate of others. That’s a big thing). They have a good time, take a commemorative photo, and the date ends with Yukana kissing him on the lips (scene here: https://youtu.be/dW8csnrIGwk). As the credits roll we see everything has returned to normal the next day and with our strange couple blushing around each other out of embarrassment from what happened last night.
Final Thoughts
What a disappointing adaptation to an otherwise decent manga. The anime is full of clichés, deviates greatly from the manga, makes the characters bland, forgetful, and unlikable at times. Rather than just follow the manga and focus on the relationship between Junichi and Yukana and show the struggles and mistakes they each make in their relationship, the anime tries to turn it into another uninspiring harem anime and misses the whole idea that the author was going for. The animation isn’t really all that good and the music isn’t all that inspired or interesting. We get a few laughs here and there and the fanservice can be good but the anime as a whole is just a disappointing watch.
Final Score
The Hajimete no Gal is 2/10. A complete failure as an anime adaption. Do yourself a favor, don’t watch the anime, read the manga it’s way better. The manga does a better job of exploring the characters, adding developments to the story, and actually focuses on the relationship between Junichi and Yukana and them becoming closer as a couple, instead of trying to turn the series into a harem. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All videos, clips, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment in the comment section or send your comments, feedback, or request to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com
And follow me on twitter for updates and other stuff: https://twitter.com/ProjectNitsuj