Review of My First Girlfriend is a Gal

This. Is. Trash. Personally, I'm not a big fan of calling anime trash because I know that even if I don't personally like it there are likely others who do like it, and that enjoyment of it provides enough benefits to those watchers that at the very least they have a purpose. But this anime is the truest definition of trash. Not only is it devoid of anything that could be considered quality but it is massively insulting to its subject matter, to its viewers, and to anyone that could have the grave misfortune of watching this anime. Where does it go wrong? A better questionwould be where does it go right. Just one look at it and you can likely already tell a big problem. Lots of big exposed breasts, an ecchi tag. This would lead one to think its a show that doesn't even try to be good, that uses fanservice and oversized breasts to sell copies. A show without any artistic integrity. And all of that is true. But that oversells it. There are many shameless ecchi series that have no thought put into their plot or story and try to get by fanservice. And certainly most of them aren't good, but there are two key differences. One, that even amongst those shows Hajimete no Gal is significantly lacking in quality. Two, those anime aren't insulting unlike Hajimete no Gal.

When you look at the main character and his friends it's hard not to see this show as insulting to its primary demographic. The main character's bros are all a bunch of creeps who's ideas about girls are problematic. It's clear from the very first episode that they seem them as nothing more than as sex objects. The first episode has them talking about women's breasts as if that's all that matters. (To them a girl without breasts has no value and isn't worth their attention.) Even when getting close to some girls, or at least having the option to, they still seem more interested in seeing them naked, making them kiss each other, or just watching them in bikinis, more than they do interacting with them. It's as if they solely exist just for their amusement. It's disgusting. And let's not forget about the oversized acorn whose sole purpose in the show is to talk about how much he likes elementary school aged girls, and wants to love them. Yup, you heard me right. And he does nothing else but that. I'm not sure what the point of his character is because it's not funny! He even gets a job at a day care. Why do they let this happen? And while the MC is not like that himself, he still hangs around these guys. He excuses their behaviour even though it's the type of garbage that should be disavowed. Besides he's not really that different himself. He frequently thinks of his own girlfriend in ways that can get him laid or get him to see her panties. He only decides to drag out his "confession" to her so he can catch more glances of her panties. He may be better but he's still pretty much scum.

You may look at these characters and wonder why they're so insulting. They're just characters, right? Well, think about how harems work. They operate on the idea of a self-insert protagonist. You're supposed to be inserting yourself into this loser. The audience is supposed to be able to relate to these people. Furthermore, this is the anime's interpretation of otaku. As men deluded with the outside world that are unable to see it as anything more than fuel for their boners. How is that not insulting? Not to mention, completely wrong.

I shouldn't need to explain how this show is insulting to women. Between the male characters opinions and attitudes on them and the typical fanservice it should be pretty obvious. I'm not one to think that fanservice is inherently insulting to women but in a show like this, it is. When the main role of them seems to be them being slobbered over it's hard not to find it insulting. Especially when every male character in the series is playing 3D chess to try to get them to do something lewd or to see their naked body.

And then the obvious, it's insulting to the viewer because it doesn't give a damn about quality. Now this maybe true of other shows. But when you combine it with how insulting it is it all builds up to be an insulting superpower. Hajimete no Gal isn't conserned with being good. It isn't even conserned with being nice. It's selling sleazeballs and fanservice and hoping that it'll work out well enough. They don't even follow the manga well and instead replace it with this drivel. Is there no stop to their insult brigade?

You may get it now that it's insulting, but how about that quality?

Well it's terrible. The characters are boring and under developed. Only the main Gal girl has enough going for her to make her interesting and even with that, she isn't. Most of the plot is the type of stuff that is found in most generic harems. I don't need to go into it because if you have watched any other generic harem you'll already know what this'll be like. And if you haven't then I suggest you watch those other more popular harems instead because they play them so much better. Situations arise just to give the MC more girls in his harem, as well as to push as much fanservice as possible. What makes Hajimete no Gal special is that the harem comedy scenes feel so much more unrealistic than normal. It all feels like a set up to terrible jokes (that have been done a thousand times before no less) and fanservice. None of it feels natural or feels like the natural reaction of the characters. At least most harems are able to get that part right and feel real even if they are trashy.

For some reason Hajimete no Gal also tries to do a more serious romance arc which not only clashes against its lighthearted comedy base but is also completely mangled and poorly done. The reactions of the characters are overblown for the sake of driving the narrative and it's hard to believe that everything so conveniently fits into the storyline they want. It's bad writing 101. They even add in an obviously bad baddie because screw nuance.

And for a fanservice anime, it doesn't look pretty at all. At least if the animation and art were nice there would be a point to watch this but it all looks pretty ugly, and if you watch with the censors it takes it up to nauseating. For a show that relies on fanservice the art needs to be good or else what is the point of that. Apparently Hajimete no Gal missed the memo on that because it didn't even try.

And that's basically what it is, an insulting stupid generic harem comedy that has no idea how to write any part of itself well. Please for your own sanity don't watch it. I'm sure that there is something much better for whatever reason that you would want to watch this show. Please watch that instead and leave this to die. The less that watch this drivel, the better.