Review of My First Girlfriend is a Gal
Hajimete no Gal is the perfect representation of the dreck the anime industry tirelessly manufactures: vapid harem twaddle devoid of spirit and interested solely in selling BluRays to wide-eyed otaku who think seeing uncensored anime panties is a wonderful way to spend 5000 yen. The reality is that Hajimete no Gal is worth less than a meal at Matsuya. The difference between a harem anime that is well-received versus one that is not is that the popular ones tend to have a certain level of craftsmanship: they look nice-- particularly when focusing on the curvature of the female cast-- and have catchy openings and voiceacting to drive the senses awild. If one was looking simply for some cheaply-produced masturbation fodder, why not, after all, just watch some 'hentai' (as the boys in the west call it) instead?
Hajimete no Gal begs that question repeatedly.
It is deeply uncertain about whether it wants to be a serious romance or flat-out pornography, and so it attempts to be both. And thus it fails to an almost astounding level.
Repeatedly (often more times in a single episode than can be counted with one hand) the anime will showcase the excessively-censored fantasies of Junichi-- the worthless protagonist-- where Yame and other members of the obligatory harem troupe force themselves on him sexually, begging for sex in the middle of a classroom, a karaoke booth, or some other absurd location that few would ever consider a good idea. Of course this exists because the anime does not have the courage to legitimately have sexual relationships portrayed within the show, and of course it leverages these scenes as an excuse to sell more BluRay copies to sexless otaku who have never walked into an R-18 store before.
The 'romance' of Hajimete no Gal may well be nonexistent, as Yame and the rest of the female cast never give a single reason for why they are interested in Junichi, much less why they so crave his penis. Yame agrees to go out with him, presumably, because she finds him fun to tease - but then blushes like a 10-year-old at the idea of a kiss. What? I'm sorry, but if you're going to sell an anime on the basis of it having a cast of gal characters - the gal trend being defined by promiscuity - then they should actually be such. If you wish to portray a story with toddlers who think 'indirect kisses' are a thing (and, good lord, this show has that aplenty), then please look to KyoAni's Chuunibyou for inspiration instead of hardcore pornography.
Junichi makes Ichika from Infinite Stratos and Rito from To Love-Ru seem tolerable by comparison. He is a spineless loser whose only goal in life is to lose his virginity (as if anyone in Japan these days actually cares if a high school student hasn't had sex), yet when presented with the opportunity to have sex, cowers like a baby or imposes self-righteousness upon them as if he is now somehow above having sex despite his constant, pathetic attempts at such for the entire series. His friends poke fun at how he might be a cuckold, but in reality, he is the embodiment of one, doing nothing when she sees another man hit on his supposed girlfriend, later throwing a tantrum about how worthless he is and how she deserves that man instead, only to get jealous when he later sees them talk to each other. Whining about how pathetic you are is not an attractive feature, and Yame and crew would do well to leave him aside until he grows up and grows a pair - something unlikely to happen in the event of future seasons. (Let us hope such events never come to pass.)
The rest of the cast is also comprised of cretinous wastes-of-space who do nothing to enhance the quality of the show or make it any less infuriating. You have Nene, the obligatory childhood friend character, massive (and frankly impossibly so) breasts included, who refers to Junichi as "onii-chan" and who he of course disregards despite her sex appeal and constant advances because, hey, treating your old friends like trash is a cool thing for anime protagonists to do. Other additions include Yui-- I had to look up her name as I couldn't remember it-- who is conveniently a lewd Nico Nico Douga streamer despite her rich, 'flawless' behavior at school, and Ranko (her name being a pun on the Japanese word for gangbangs...) whose only purpose in the anime is to beat people up, yell at Junichi and attempt to force sex upon him (sometimes both occurring simultaneously). Finally, there is Yame's aforementioned male friend-- a cackling douchebag and dreadful antagonist who behaves in no way resembling an actual human being-- and Junichi's three, pathetic friends who do little else but act jealous towards him and follow him around in the event that one of his harem members might so much as glance in their direction. If the only thing defining these kids and keeping their friendship together is their virginity, then, hey, maybe they were never actually friends in the first place?
Thankfully, there are only ten episodes, presumably because they used so many tropes that there are no longer any more cards left to pull from the hat. Onsens scenes, beach scenes where the protagonist lathers lotion onto the girls-- you name it. All the asinine trash the anime industry loves is here for your eyes and ears to feast upon. Hooray. Yahoo.
Hajimete no Gal looks cheap and sounds cheap. None of the fantasy scenes are arousing in any way, nor are the obscured pantyshots the show is so desperately marketing. It has about the same production quality as the average pornographic anime, which makes it a wonder why it couldn't have just been such instead. Even with the decreased characterisation and story a pornographic format would have involved, it would still have been a better anime. At least then it might actually be transparent and honest with itself.
I'm going to be quite blunt. Hajimete no Gal sucks. It is not quite abysmal, nor does it win the award for worst harem anime (Infinite Stratos is still a bit more egregious), but it still sucks. Don't watch things that suck.