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My First Girlfriend is a Gal
Episode 6

by Theron Martin,

How would you rate episode 6 of
My First Girlfriend is a Gal ?
Community score: 3.8

At this point in the story, Junichi's friends have pretty much accepted that he has a hot girlfriend now, and they're working to back him up – whether he wants the help or not. The result is this episode, which is almost entirely about Junichi's friends cooking up a (partially self-serving) elaborate scheme to help Junichi get more intimate with Yukana. And as Junichi himself suspects, things aren't going to go so smoothly when a group of certified losers tries to manipulate romantic affairs. Since this is fully expected, the only real questions remaining are exactly how badly things are going to go and how funny it's going to be in the process.

At least on a humor level, the episode is a mild success, as their scheming generates possibly the series' funniest scene to date. It's all precipitated by SHINPEI's suggestion that Junichi concoct a scenario where the gang all gathers at Yukana's house for a King Game. (For those not familiar with the game, participants take turns drawing numbered sticks and whoever draws the “king” stick gets to give numbered participants one order.) Although he doesn't initially make this clear, SHINPEI's plan is to rig the game so that Yukana and Junichi will be compelled to kiss. He underestimates how much of a “decent guy” Junichi has become though, thinking to himself that Yukana surely wouldn't be happy getting forced into kissing like that. He also doesn't want any of the other girls present (Ranko, Nene, and Yui) dragged into this, so he decides to “take one for the team” and rig the game so that the guys wind up kissing each other instead.

So yeah, this is pretty much another “libido loses” scenario for Junichi. Sure, he might still have his hot fantasies about Yukana, but since he actually has a legitimate girlfriend, he's also determined to do things right. Yukana definitely isn't clueless to his efforts, either. She may tease him about how he's too timid to actually try an aggressive move, but she also notices that he made sure the girls stayed out of SHINPEI's scheme. I rather like that they're continuing to play her as both somewhat smart and more than a little brash. It's a nice change of pace from love interests who are some combination of dumb or clueless with timid or aggressive.

It looks like Yui hasn't given up on Junichi, either – or perhaps she sees the group forming around him as interesting too? Either way, I still don't see her as a serious romantic option for Junichi, and her presence does allow her to bounce off the nemesis Ranko. Meanwhile, Ranko clearly hasn't given up on Yukana, even if she does support Junichi as boyfriend material.

Next episode looks like it's going to be a part-time job story, so I don't see any shift from the ordinary shenanigans any time soon for this series. That isn't ever going to make it a good show, but it's doing just enough right to keep from being a bad one.

Rating: B-

My First Girlfriend is a Gal is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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