Forum - View topicHokkaido Gals are Super Adorable! (TV)
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11299 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable! (TV) Source: Manga (ongoing @ 12 volumes, by Kai Ikada) Demographic: Shounen Animation Studio: Silver Link, Blade Genres: comedy, romance Themes: school Plot Summary: High school boy Tsubasa moves to Kitami City up in Hokkaido, where he meets a "gal" at a bus stop. The sight of her standing alone against the white snowscape, bare-legged despite the freezing cold, captures his heart. Air Date & Platform: January 8, 2024 (Monday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 12 episodes Last edited by Tony K. on Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23774 |
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Episode 1
So the formula here is that MC freaks out, like, every two seconds. How long will I be able to tolerate this? Who knows? Whether I stick with this is going to depend on how amusing the secondary characters are and we haven't really met any of them, yet. |
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Yttrbio
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"Guys, I want to phone it in this week. Let's go full pander and just make a show about chicks looking all sexy-like."
"Great! And also, have a male character screaming over every scene." I guess it's the harem version of the laugh track. |
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1125 |
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It seems to me that a couple of anime have come out recently that were primarily made because some studio boss somewhere was hoping to capitalize on the success of My Dress-up Darling.
And what these anime tend to focus on is the "Good hearted gyaru hangs around a wallflower" part. What these anime seem to forget is that there were specific other anime before My Dress Up Darling that had a good hearted gyaru and a wallflower. My First Girlfriend is a Gal for example. And there were tons of anime that more generally had a popular girl being attracted to an otaku, which is basically the same formula. And they weren't automatically successful. I can't figure out why these anime don't focus on one of the other parts that made My Dress Up Darling a hit, which was having an MC who had a specific skill or passion before he met a gyaru, one that helped him know who he was and gave him and the gyaru a solid connection. He wasn't just protagonist A, the dweeb with a good heart. The reason I bring this up is that Gojo also spent a good (ridiculous) amount of time screaming and backing away from Kitigawa, and that was easily the most annoying part of the show. If Gojo's tailoring skills and meticulous attention for detail hadn't lined up with Kitagawa's passion for cosplay, they wouldn't have had a solid connection to get them through all that, and they wouldn't have gradually developed a connection and chemistry. I guess they would have just had to be attracted to each other for, y'know, inexplicable love reasons. Not only that, the show wouldn't have had anything else to focus on besides their vague romance. It would have basically been this show. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23774 |
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Yep, the whole gyaru hangs around an ordinary dude is practically a genre, now. I'm guessing a lot of future mangakas and anime producers spent most of their school years wishing they had the sack to talk to da gyarus.
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3652 |
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For me, it basically was this show. People got upset when I said so at the time, but I never felt My Dress Up Doll really elevated itself above other shows of this type. It registered as just another wish fulfillment hot-chick-brings-guy-out-of-the-dumps show. I think it's a bit unreasonable to ask the audience to notice the subtleties of your characterization when you're constantly screaming in their ear. Part of it is that I don't see any chemistry in these highly unequal relationships. It's the flip side of the "super-isekai-boy comes across helpless loli girl" setup, but it has the same problem. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1919 |
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To be fair, seeing Gojo working so hard and having actual skill and dedication made it believable that an attractive girl could see something she likes in him, this despite all the screaming whenever she gets slightly close to him. It indeed also made for a shared interest between the two that allowed for the build up of a relationship/bond of trust.
Hokkaido Gals has none of that though. The mc has shown nothing of note or charm yet besides him constantly screaming, blushing or turning into a spastic robot. The sheer amount of those moments in one episode is also a tad egregious. As for the gal in question, sure, she is cute, but she can not make up for the guy constantly screaming in the back. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1125 |
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Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don't. I don't worship at the Dress-up Darling shrine, or anything (see references to Gojo spending so much time being annoying), but I bought the DVD, which is my acid test for whether I really like a show or not. What made it believable for me was that Kitagawa was portrayed so consistently as a freak who only lived halfway in the real world from episode one. She never got stigmatized for it because of her looks, but none of her friends shared her passions, and they were basically only surface acquaintances. if you paid attention, all the places where she took Gojo (except for the beach where she stayed on a blanket while her friends went in the water) were places she went alone. She had no real family either. She had a whole other life apart from high school where she was basically alone, and it was the life she really cared about, and Gojo fit into it. Maybe it was fantasy, but at least they put some work into it. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23774 |
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I remember My Dress-up Darling being several cuts above the usual gyaru/simp nonsense as well. Mind you, because more than 5 minutes have elapsed since I've seen the show, I can't cite specifics but I do have memories of liking it. As has already been noted, what elevated that show was that the MC had a strong interest in something other than, "zomg, a gyaru is talking to/touching me!"
My favourite gyaru show of all time - probably because it wasn't in the gyaru/simp genre at all - was Gal & Dino. As the title indicates, it was about a gal who finds a dinosaur in her apartment one day as often happens. It's definitely a YMMV show but it really tickled my funny bone. You know how some Japanese humour is super accessible to Westerners and some... isn't? Gal & Dino certainly veers closer to the latter. Apparently it was made by the same wacky crew who brought us Pop Team Epic, a show that has successfully resisted all my attempts to get into it. Boy would I ever love a second season of Gal & Dino. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1919 |
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Gal & Dino was a lot of fun, some of the jokes were really out there, but they put 120% of their energy into it and were quite creative with the segments.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I for one am not a good judge, because I was actually expressing recently how I am a big fan of gyaru characters, and apparently a big sucker for these sorts of romances, hopefully without an actually offensive depiction or MC. Agreed that so far there really isn't much to the main character, with not really much there other than he came from Tokyo and is a totally average schmuck.
I guess that I am kind of curious of the Hokkaido girl being a gyaru, with I can't imagine it would be comfortable dressing like that in the cold. Was she trying to get his attention with how she ended up guessing, because I can't imagine she wouldn't expect something. The whole getting herself dirty with the creamy liquid was pretty groanworthy, mostly because to me it feels like it is the sort of fanservice that takes the power away from her. Am wondering how she let herself fall asleep with her guest there, which was clearly rude she has otherwise come across as conscious, but I guess showed some character of the guy and she was apologetic and ran after him to apologise. Her motive to invite him over would have to be that she wanted to hear about Tokyo from him, but there wasn't much of that. @ Blood- & smurky turkey I unfortunately couldn't stand Pop Team Epic, it is like this raw nerve I feel where I have trouble regarding things that feel like it makes fun of you for trying to care, purposefully wasting my time. So I never was able to continue Gal & DIno when I noticed the connection. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23774 |
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@ DP - but presumably you weren't enjoying Gal & Dino even before you were aware of the Pop Team Epic connection, right? I say presumably because if you had been enjoying it, I can't imagine you'd drop it simply because the same team had created a show you didn't like.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I think it was pretty easy to feel the similar vibes that I wasn't surprised looking it up back then. I just remember something about it that I tried to put up with but just disliked. But I don't want to knock that you like it Blood-, cool that that you liked it.
Weird off tangent, but Gushing Over Magical Girls had a couple of background characters, one a short girl with pigtails, and a tall girl with long hair and a ribbon. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1919 |
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While the mc mumbling and stumbling like an idiot is one big annoying cliche (thankfully there is less of it in the second episode), the show does have a fair amount of charm to it setting wise. Seeing some more of what there is to see and do in Hokkaido such as the festival and the unique cuisine is interesting. It also helps that Fuyuki is a charming person who is not too over the top (besides her clothing choices that is).
So yeah, I like the show enough to keep watching as long as the mc manages to keep his shit together. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1125 |
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The setting got a big boost because I'm getting snowed in here. Just the kind of atmosphere an anime about some rural winter garden would get bonus points from. Nevertheless, I was preparing to dump this anime after episode 2 during the first half, but things picked up for me a bit when Granny showed up and brought a little conflict with her. Chump-san calmed down a little bit. Gyaru-Chan stepped up in the face of snobbery, and the show became more engaging for me. So I'm still in too. |
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