Tag: hokkaido gals are super adorable

The Year in Manga

TiberiusLeave a comment

What I’ve been reading this year

Right before we get to the crux of this post, I had a second look at my notes and noticed a gap between November 28 and December 12. I forgot to fill that in in time so before we properly wrap it up, next week will be something of an intermission discussing a controversial video game even by RockStar’s standards. Here’s a few vague hints: Jack Thompson tried to have it made illegal, it was banned in several countries, including the US at first, and the real kicker, it’s primarily a stealth game, so you get rewards when you knock skulls around without people noticing. Now for the real focus of this post.

The end of the year is on the horizon and before we close out the Year of Cordis Die, let’s recap some of the manga I’ve been pirating. I’ve talked at length about manga I’ve been pirating and recommending for as long as this blog has been up, some series I’ve recommended and others I haven’t mentioned yet. So for this post, there will be updates on what I’ve been reading this year, coupled with some looks at manga I’ve yet to mention on the blog. Here’s some series I have lined up, unordered:

  1. Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi/is Mega Cute/Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable
  2. Torako, Anmari Kowashicha Dame Da Yo
  3. Shihai Shoujo Kubaru-chan
  4. Redo of Healer (T^T)
  5. Hitomi-chan is Shy Around Strangers

Some of these are familiar to the long-timers, others I haven’t spoken a word of once on this blog, even in passing. Take these as holiday recommendations to get you through the time-honored tradition of repeating yesterday’s Christmas songs until Boxing Day.

    Having finished the anime adaptation last year, along with its stellar opening soundtrack, I wanted to continue into the manga. The last episode of the manga covers chapters 31 to 32.5 and right after that the rest is saved for the next season set to air sometime in the distant future when apes walk upright again after millions of years subservient to the superior human and AI starts thinking about installing an emotions software (and those electric f[dial-up]kos can keep dreaming because I want my clankers to be as unaware of the outside world as possible), so after October 2026 or April 2027.

    Now, animanga taking us away from Tokyo because everyone goes there and letting us see the rest of Japan like Hokkaido in this one and Fukuoka historically in Excel Saga (that series doesn’t tell you explicitly that it’s Fukuoka but the mangaka is from there so who else but him, right?) is a neat little tradition when the lights of the world’s largest metro start to get blinding. We’ve still yet to see a mainstream series go to Shikoku (Matsuyama is right there) and until the prefectures on that island band together and spit out a series for us, we’ve got to make-do with RNGesus Japan edition.

    So what has happened ever since Tsubasa charmed these Minnesota-accented Hokkaidoans with his rich boy Tokyo Prefecture charm? Well, I’m still in the middle of that arc but we finally see Tsubasa’s mother, Renka. Hospitalized from running herself ragged trying to raise the perfect Japanese son, it’s a good thing she’s already bound to a hospital bed because knowing a son of hers is besties with a trio of gyaru-tachi would give her a heart attack. Also, it’s interesting that the grandmother, Kaede, is healthier than her own daughter, but that’s the thing about that RNGesus character, he’s a funny guy. Less of a downer than Buddha, all things considered.

    As it happens, Tsubasa was brought to Hokkaido largely to prove that he can excel even outside his comfort zone and on the friends and family front, he has passed, but Renka being the type of mother who’d disown her child on her deathbed for getting an A and not an A+ while also being captain of the chess club and the like concludes that frolicking with the popular girls has led him astray and will return him to Tokyo no questions asked to return to his former glory as a golden boy.

    Not that one.

    Until Kaede, Hirotaka, and Minami herself show Renka that this level of control over the boy’s future and lifestyle is utterly unnecessary, releasing a weight from his shoulders (sort of) under the condition that she be allowed to witness his growth in real time. I’m still reading the manga online and expect to report back either when the second season is announced or around the same time next year, whichever comes first.

    • What the f[punch]k are you lookin’ at, jackass?!

    Japanese subcultures come and go over the years and the subculture that had its halcyon days in the 1970s through 90s was that of the bancho/yankii, the delinquent of sorts. Numerous characters fit the mold from Jotaro Kujo, who was in his element in 1989; to Taison Maeda, who was conceptualized right in the middle of this era at the same time Stardust Crusaders started serializing; from Eikichi Onizuka, who represented the progenitors as they were growing up even at the time, to Josuke Higashikata, who Hirohiko Araki knew would be seen as dated even by 1999 as gyaru were starting to emerge and become more popular.

    Even now as Japan has crossed over into the cholo era (yes, really), some mangaka and anime dedicate characters to a bygone era because nostalgia for an earlier era is not just a time-honored tradition, but a worldwide phenomenon, if fans of pre-revival Doctor Who are anything to go by.

    !EXTERMINATE!

    And I’m not immune to that myself with how often I look for content from the early 2000s, when immediately following a geopolitical tragedy the decade chose to be edgy and serious and smiling was against the law, but I digress.

    Mangaka Nujima got a kick out of introducing East Asian folklore and horror stories in Mysteries, Maidens, and Mysterious Disappearances, but next to that we were given another series, this time about a shy tomboy who gets moved to a rough and tumble high school where the most ferocious girls challenge her… and get humbled at every step. Even the boss Sukeban girl was utterly embarrassed in the first chapter after having her breasts exposed by accident and she hasn’t been able to forget it.

    The translated name is Torako, Don’t Break Anything, and when you’re built like you were supposed to accompany Arthur, King of the Britons on the quest for the Holy Grail, trying not to break s[porcelain]t gets harder and harder, especially when the school you’re in has it as official policy to be a delinquent. Most of the student body looks like it could take on Jotaro Kujo, not necessarily successfully.

    Protagonist Aiko “Torako” Torasawa transfers to a delinquent school and without consent must dodge attacks from the main delinquent girl group that gradually accepts her as one of their own. This manga being an older work of Nujima’s some of what he put in the East Asia version of Urban Legends can be seen in this one. So are there giant boobs in this one as was the case for Whereabouts Unknown? Yes, and multiple… but this is a short series that ran for 20 chapters in 2016. I couldn’t find any associated wiki pages for this series and MangaDex is not the most reliable regarding this information, so I’m adding a pinch of salt to this timeline.

    This series doesn’t take itself as seriously as the other one so funny fanservice is more prevalent than in the other one. Be mindful though that before we got Sumireko’s Oppai of Truth, we have Torako-chan’s Premium Mediums. Would help if we had a medium with premium mediums, but I so far haven’t seen a manga about a fortune teller lady with an average chest size.

    • Before you think about killing yourself, you wanna be my puppet and fall in love with a random chick?

    The official title translates to Ruling Girl Kubaru-chan and the plot of the manga lives up to that ideal with the main male protagonist submitting himself to his female classmate’s whims not by force but by coercion. Given the state he’s in after the first chapter, the poor boy doesn’t have much of an opportunity to resist; he was already driven to ending it all anyway, so the man feels like has nothing worth living for until Kubaru tries to play him like a chess piece. Which fate do you consider the worst? Well, looking at it, no one is playing with a full deck and everyone has problems. The characters all feel real but just about every chapter has a giant layer of what the f[siren]k attached. Someone should go ask Nujima if he can lend some of those Mysterious Disappearances warning signs to this manga instead; the tone of the manga makes it very unpredictable.

    What makes it interesting is that the mangaka’s forewords are always humorous little comments. For example, the main character could be bracing to be a disgusting rape victim and then the chapter ends and the mangaka’s like, “check out this butterfly I found in my backyard.” Dude, your own MC is about to get molested, the f[alarms]k is this??

    The manga starts with Yuto Kiba about to toss himself off the roof, due in large part to a series of misunderstandings that have made him a bad bedfellow to his classmates. Then spunky, eccentric Kubaru proclaims that she can change his life for the better… after he breaks his arm trying to kill himself.

    Alive if not exactly well he may be, that was just the beginning. I’d spoil some of the chapters here, but I don’t believe even some of what’s been going on in this damn manga. Still ongoing, still on MangaDex, and I might dedicate an individual post to the series in the future (gotta move some stuff around for that). Just got to wait and see.

    • (ಠ_ಠ)

    I… was curious… to see what else the source material had in store and, uh… this is a job for the big book of reaction memes.

    (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

    There’s two versions of the anime and both of their showings are polite. Why do I say that knowing this screenshot exists in the uncensored version?

    Because the manga holds nothing back. I’m serious, the anime was, for lack of a more appropriate term charitable to its cast with all the raping and blasting going on. Visually, it could’ve been even more shocking and the interview between the Rui Tsukiyo and The Anime Man reveals as much:

    Channel: The Anime Man

    (ノ _ <,, )

    I think, if it’s all the same to you, I’m not so sure if I’d like to explore what women consider edgy and dangerous. For a guy, it’d probably be a reading off of every slur and every offensive gesture in every language and culture; groups like the National Socialist Movement and the Klan would have to reconsider their lives having been outdone by the least racist 4channer. A woman’s fantasies–if the internet isn’t completely full of s[honk]t–are being waited on hand and foot by a smartly dressed bison or wolf or lion by day and being bred like the females of these respective anthropomorphic animals…

    Maybe I’ve been watching too many reactions to Shoe0nhead’s video about a certain dark fantasy romance novel that I refuse to name or allude to. Barely counts as romance (and the author needs to reassess what age millennials are, just saying), and that’s the most I’ll ever touch on the subject for the foreseeable future.

    For the finer details of what the manga entails passed the adapted chapters, well, there’s some changes between what got greenlit and what needed to be changed. So dark themes and imagery alone isn’t a deal-breaker, but explicit use of degrading language and BDSM clothing with emphasis on the SM is, especially when a spare-ess princess orders the servant (read: sex slave) to wear it under penalty of death… or worse: unanesthetized castration, and I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that the Jioral Kingdom is familiar with such a tactic, but I’ve yet to prove it.

    (>_<) (~_~)

    Once again, I’m in strong recommendation towards the gender-reverse isekai and the sexual deviant isekai for the simple fact that these two have a lot of fun with the concept. We here in the west have done sex comedy before and animanga shows that it’s not to be outdone. Ecchi is the proof.

    • For such a tough-looking face, she’s actually just really shy.

    Finally, and for a tonal cleanser, back to high school romcom between a short king and his tall, shy, athletic wife. I haven’t been able to keep up with this series as closely as I used to, but I occasionally check in. With the news that it wrapped up serialization in Spring of this year, my excuse trough has gotten lighter with only work and several more animanga series I have saved in, like, 250 other tabs across all my devices and browsers.

    My muscle memory hasn’t evolved past 2005 Internet Explorer

    From the series’ inception until its conclusion, it’s managed to keep a relatively small fanbase over the years, so it doesn’t attract a lot of newsworthy controversy if at all. On the one hand: great, that means less weirdos barge in and try to change things or “literally me” the characters to death; but on the other hand: dang, how do I know what kind of news is going on with the production of this series? Chorisuke Natsumi doesn’t seem to need the media buzz to get his manga off the ground with social media posts from both fans and himself doing that much of the heavy lifting, but as I said ages ago with the creator of Mysterious Girlfriend X, readily available footage of Natsumi are hard to come by, but at least we know this guy is still alive. He just finished a manga this year.

    Still, Scrutinous Saliva Sucker got a little 12 episode anime and there aren’t any hints that that’s next for Sharkboy‘s Shy Sister. If it happens, neat. If not, alright then; numerous manga don’t get an adaptation for ages if at all with some getting greenlit from the cutting room floor. I don’t have any hard and concrete predictions to make for this, short of what I wrote about in a different post covering it at length. All that’s left to say is that it maintains its cutesy, slice of life, wholesome goodness from start to finish with hints that Hitomi and Yuu become more at the end.

    (^v^)/

    Muscle waifu in wedding attire with friends in attendance, the thing that riles me up the most about the genre is that it ends after the couple ties the knot. Can’t we see Yuu as a dad or Hitomi as a mom? Come on now!!

    But at least there’s something to chew on compared to this:

    And again, ecchi is always stellar, but it can shine even brighter with a strong plot. But that’s true of everything in fiction.

      The Gyaru Trifecta: Years Ago, Recently Finished and Going to See?

      Tiberius1 Comment

      I’ve had quite a lot of time to think about this genre.

      Since this blog began, my specialty has been animanga coupled with video games, film, and television. Within animanga, there are several genres within this medium I always make a beeline for and in recent memory it’s focused on a single archetype: gyaru-centric romcoms. I know I don’t write the most about these, but they are noticeable enough that I can’t help but circle back to them. From a series I took a peak at thanks in no small part to a WatchMojo video about s[flies buzzing]ty girlfriends to one that I’m pretty sure was in the line up of Google searches whilst looking up the first one. Completing the trilogy of gyaru romance anime is one that was fawned over in online forums and by anime-themed media outlets for breaking some old tropes… apparently.

      Even though I’m a writer, some things still fly over my head at times. Not gonna say outlets like Kotaku or Comic Book Reader are straight-up drowning in manure but to borrow a quote from Tactical Bacon Productions, if games journalism is the corpse that keeps in twitching, animanga journalism in the hands of guys like these are the gasses that keep causing that same corpse to burp every now and then. Be that as it may, these outlets have their moments of journalistic brilliance; and to compare the likes of My First Girlfriend is a Gal to Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable to My Dress-up Darling would seem impractical considering what they all cover, not to mention Dress-up Darling forms the “Going to See?” part of this post’s title. Still, it got enough love and exposure (and memes) for me to get the gist of it from just the introductory blurb, so rather than treat my imminent analysis of This Gyaru Wants me to Make Her the Cosplay Queen as a holy text, take it more as a shaky summary from a dubious narrator.

      Years Ago:

      I’ve went over this before, but this was the first series I ever viewed with a gyaru deuteragonist and based on the writing and characterization it’s 100 percent a relic of its time. Basically, Junichi Hashiba asks a popular gyaru, Yukana Yame, out on a dare who teases him at every turn only for this mutual joke of theirs to form into something genuine. It’s a 10 episode series whose purpose was to promote the original written source material, and at the outside. Junichi’s prime motivation was to punch his V-card with an anatomically-blessed girl, personality notwithstanding, and you initially get the impression that Yame is the queen of keep away, dangling a carrot in front of a stick like Makima from Chainsaw Man but way less malicious or vile.

      The initial motivation by Junichi puts him in the same shoes as Highschool DxD’s Issei Hyodo but they diverge not just in the types of characters they are or are going to be or even the types of series they represent. Issei may be a pervy degenerate, but I don’t recall him having friends that low. The most they’ve ever done as a trio was spy on the girls changing a la Porky’s, but without Issei, they’ve just been getting jealous that the school bombshell and occult club leader Rias Gremory reciprocates wife vibes. For Junichi, what he’s gone through was a series of shot-in-the-dark dares with little expectation and even build-up so his Surprise Pikachu face is apt considering his reaction in episode 1.

      Channel: Ben Senpai

      All things considered, for all the praise Dress-up Darling got for breaking the mold, it’s not like any of that was absent in Hajimete no Gal, though this series didn’t break the mold 100 percent. There were still a few tropes, some of which may or may not disgust you, the viewer, but the one that separates this from the other two series is the characterization of the gyaru. Yukana’s not a walking Hokkaido Tourist associate like Minami Fuyuki, nor is she a doujin otaku like Marin Kitagawa. She’s the embodiment of the stereotypical gyaru and by all accounts, your countries archetype of the standoffish, at times bitchy popular girl. When I was growing up the centerpieces for this archetype on TV wound up being the cheerleader types, the overconfident pretty girls even though this flies in the face of the reality on the ground. Not that there aren’t those types of girls, but that the description is grossly overrepresented when they really might only make up some 5 percent of the actual high school or even college cheerleaders. F[broken glass]g Hollywood and their f[meows]g tropes.

      But I digress. Both Junichi and Yukana start the series as sleazy opposites, but they later grow to become two sides of the same coin, especially when they realize how much they have in common. Now I have to dig into the reserves of my memory banks to specify those commonalities, but on the surface, they both have a series of friends who root for them every step of the way. Last time, I focused on Junichi’s loli-loving, pedophilic friend, Minoru Kobayakawa, but on the other side is Ranko Honjo who holds sole self-proclaimed rights to Yukana’s virginity, downright threatening to take both hers and Junichi’s before he gets a turn. And that description alone is probably vague enough to make the more cultured among you think back to a similar sounding doujin… one that I don’t mind checking out. No, not for research purposes, I wanna add to this fortress I’ve begun building for myself. I wanna build an NSFW dungeon.

      Have my opinions deviated any from my initial description of this series? Hardly. Even now that I’ve got a summary open in another tab on my browser, I’m glad to know my memory isn’t that f[plastic wrap]ked. Recommendations? Well, the anime’s only 10 episodes so finish those 10 then go to the source material if you want some more.

      Recently Finished

      At the risk of sounding like I’m pissed or making this post a correction of the record from s[burps]t said before by the typical media outlets, Hokkaido Gals is another one that breaks the mold especially in the Gyaru space. Actually, that aspect isn’t even worth mentioning anymore with more and more romcoms debuting with gyaru protagonists/deuteragonists who are less and less of the standoffish type and more and more of the lovey-dovey, “How to Be a Loving Wife” type, which calls back to another meme that floats around especially some of the wholesome forum posts online.

      More power to you, ghost of Shinzo Abe, but your subliminal messaging seems to be working more on the mangaka’s mindscapes than it does on their audience. Not to mention the international audience being more likely to have started families than the Japanese and Korean audiences if the demographic statistics aren’t completely fudged over.

      For tropes broken and in serious disrepair, Kitami Gals Are Like C-U-T-E, puts us in a notoriously freezing part of Japan. Gone are the days of waiting for a regular winter in Tokyo of all places; come up to Hokkaido where it feels like the northernmost part of Minnesota regularly. Speaking of which, that’s precisely the accent used in the English dub of this series. Fuyuki, Sayurin, and Natsukawa all were cute in the manga, thanks to Kai Ikada’s magic, but the gongs of kawaii sounded the loudest when they were given upper Midwest accents! Holy North Dakota, I didn’t think it would open up a blindspot in my US geography; exploring the Deep South at the expense of the Midwest and Mountain states.

      It doesn’t deviate that much from the established gyaru norms though, seeing as the girls all still dress like gyaru albeit adjusted for a colder climate… somewhat. Fuyuki is definitely the equivalent of that one kid you know who’s worn shorts and sneakers in at least 20 inches of snow. I’m not sure if there’s a European or Asian variant of this, but I wouldn’t put it past a Korean or Finnish kid to try it at least once before. Maybe in the age of pen pals they might’ve heard of the phenomenon through the grapevine, who knows?

      Refreshingly, Fuyuki, Sayurin, Natsukawa, and Tsubasa, the main male protagonist, aren’t fickle like the protagonists of My First Gyaru GF. Naive and wishy-washy, definitely, but not fickle. Comparatively, they may be less confident seeing as Tsubasa grew up in probably the most average, traditional Japanese household prior to moving to northern Hokkaido while Fuyuki was born to be a gyaru, fashion accessories and cell phone in hand, Sayurin adopting the look sometime in between intense sessions of Animal Crossing and Natsukawa unconsciously marrying the library. They each get along swimmingly as friends, but unlike Yukana and Junichi who have plans to f[door closes]k in the imminent future (or at least entertain the idea), none of the characters in either the anime or the manga (up to the chapters I’ve read, which isn’t that far from where the anime ended) have expressed anything beyond a close bond crossing into romantic development. Spoilers to follow: the latest of these developments involves a friend of Sayurin’s practicing for a swimming competition where after practice has concluded, Sayurin tearfully confesses to the friend (a tan gyaru, holy s[surprise music]t, there’s a lot of them) that she’s fallen in love with Tsubasa. As far as I’ve read, she’s the only girl to announce these feelings publicly to anyone and there’s tens of chapters for me to thumb through so I’m in for further developments as soon as I can find a manga hosting site that doesn’t redirect me to another series or refresh with every click. The things I face as a content pirate.

      Going to See?

      The darling of 2022, My Dress-up Darling did get its praise for breaking the mold in several areas, notably for giving us another shy, uncharismatic protagonist. Wakana Gojo isn’t Monkey D. Luffy; he’s more like Tanjiro Kamado in the sense that he has a big heart. From what I’ve seen at the outset, he wouldn’t take up arms or get into a street fight, not at least without a kick in the pants to get him up to speed. Gojo seemed to be more the type to let things wash over him without resistance stemming from an incident where his love of hina-doll making was grossly insulted to his face by a girl who we later learn had a crush on him.

      Add the Guts theme from Berserk and you’re accurate to what little Gojo-tan felt that day. Fast-forward a decade and hiding his passion was what got him through the years until Marin Kitagawa, our lovely gyaru deuteragonist and thinly-veiled stand-in for Sydsnap, plays the part of the extrovert adopting the introvert. It was a joke at the time that this blonde girl looks and behaves like the actual aforementioned YouTuber down to a T, but the joke was scarily accurate to Kitagawa’s character wholesale. Like Sydsnap, Kitagawa does have a passion for a lot of the typical otaku interests and hobbies, especially the ones specific to female otaku (IYKYK), among them hentai and eroge and the less savory tags for each of them.

      But the one that makes up the title of the series is cosplay, which she’d like to do with more polish but is unable to due to a lack of dress-making experience. Enter Wakana Gojo whose specialty is dress-making for hina-dolls. These combined forces make her an unstoppable force in the cosplay scene and the more they hang out the more Kitagawa realizes that this off-the-cuff ad hoc union has developed into a blossoming romance, though only she realizes this as it takes Gojo more time to understand what he feels when she’s around–which circles around to an age-old trope that has its roots in many series across the globe called “Everyone Knew but Them” where the couple is unaware that they’re a couple, but the hints were picked up more easily by their friends and other outside observers. Let this meme explain:

      Are they dating? Worse, they’re stupid.

      But whoever said love was straightforward? We weebs and otaku would fall for inanimate objects if they came to us with a bouquet of roses and dinner plans to an expensive French restaurant. I’m not making that up, by the way. One of the teachers from the Soul Eater series was about to drop everything to be happily wed… to a toilet.

      I’ve talked before about thumbing through the latest chapters of the Dress-up Darling manga out of curiosity and hearing that the girl who first prompted Gojo to isolate himself and his hobbies from the rest of the world was coming back to apologize for her childish behavior back then, claiming jealousy over his hina-dolls. Unreciprocated crush plus dense boy equals “what’s that? you like something more than me?! You’re stupid!! I hope [my lawyer has advised me not to continue this example]!!!!”

      While writing this post, I was curious if I was able to watch the full series without having to upgrade to premium and sure enough as of writing, Crunchyroll is feeling generous with this series in particular and it isn’t even a legacy series like One Piece or Dragon Ball. I may see it for myself and continue on in the manga where the anime finishes like normal. It’s just a matter now of putting it in the timeline somewhere.

      This is gonna be the biggest animanga fortress I’ve ever built.

      My Best Girls 3×3

      TiberiusLeave a comment

      Inter-holiday shenanigans

      Once again, I open the door to personal opinions, not about a particular series, but on a series of characters who’ve won me over. Observe!

      From left to right going down, we have Kagura, Konata, Izumi, Miyuki Kobayakawa, Asa Mitaka, Lady Rias Gremory, Minami Fuyuki, Tohka Yatogami, Anna Nishikinomiya, and Asuka Langley Soryu. There’s a runner-up who doesn’t fit into a 3×3 and would thus make this into a Top 10 List. I’ll introduce her at the end, so while you’re reading this, have fun guessing who the tenth inductee is. Here’s a hint: she’s covered head-to-toe in scars.

      Now the breakdown:

      Kagura (Azumanga Daioh) 2002

      Physically, Kagura has what I like most: tan, tomboy, athletic. Personality-wise, she proves that she deserves to be a knucklehead alongside Tomo and Osaka, as their combined IQs makes up a toddler’s smallest shoe size. But with the three of them getting one-shotted by Stephen Hawking before he has time to think, what does Kagura bring out that I like so much? She’s not a bad sport and a good friend. Not the most effective at times, but she’s got the spirit to help out. Definitely the energy to; on a scale of Osaka to Tomo with Osaka being low-speed and Tomo being Speed Racer, Kagura is a NASCAR driver: she can get her engines primed and ready, but knows better than to overload them.

      She’s also more introspective and self-aware than that other scoundrel she spends time with.

      Credit: u/crawllinback2you1, r/azudaioh

      Kagura’s moments of brilliance and reliability come from helping her friends for the most part. My favorite has to come from when Sakaki was in danger once again from the alley fiend Kamineko until Kagura applied a tender touch. Yay! Only to go overboard and antagonize the rest of the harmless kittens. Damn… Well, her heart was in the right place. Also, r/azudaioh, and r/AzumangaPosting are the two golden sources of Azumanga memes. Only the fanbase could carry a 20-year-old 4-panel series to newer heights, further bolstered by Kiyohiko Azuma’s impeccable comedic style.

      Kagura > Tomo. Signed, a Kagura enjoyer.

      Now, onto Dollar Store Haruhi Suzumiya:

      Konata Izumi (Lucky Star) 2007

      The Suzumiya thing ain’t a joke, it’s the focal point of one of the OVAs. She’s the otaku that would take over any other series where being an otaku is what it’s all about, like, say, Genshiken. Lucky Star is a show that is about three things: jack f[door slams]king shit. The characters talk about nothing important, they’re not fantastical; they’re you and me. They do regular things that we all do, and ask all the important questions our society dares not answer: How do you eat a chocolate cornet?

      Channel: Crunchyroll Dubs

      It’s a good time all around.

      I would never say that Konata is the main element in Lucky Star because that’s not true. The entire cast shines mainly by bouncing off of each other quite well, but what makes Konata my favorite is that she’s so chill. She has few worries, doesn’t do well academically, but could give you all the anime recs you could ever ask for, some of which may come from her own dad’s collection, and that last part I personally find relatable. My mom was a young adult when Dragon Ball came to the west and my late uncle grew up with Speed Racer. Like Konata, I’m a born weeb. It was the only path I could walk on. And the one thing the series shares with Azumanga Daioh is that the fanbase is also carrying it to new heights.

      Credit: baalbuddy

      Merciful heavens! What a crossover!

      Number 3:

      Miyuki Kobayakawa (You’re Under Arrest) 1994-97; 2007-08

      Before we dissect Officer Kobayakawa as a character, I want to spend a few moments analyzing the character design. She doesn’t stand out as much visually compared to Tsujimoto or Nikaido or even Nakajima when they’re all in uniform, but the few scenes where she’s off-duty, she’s a very stylish woman. Her outfits are simple, practical, and efficient. They match her kind and book-smart personality. Kobayakawa doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve like her wingwoman Tsujimoto; if Tsujimoto is the brawn, Kobayakawa is absolutely the brains.

      An intellectual with impeccable observational skills, she’s a great policewoman and a great friend to all her co-workers. Now if she could just tell Nakajima how she feels already.

      The entire precinct wants to greenlight their wedding ceremony already, they’re just maddeningly patient for their own good.

      Numbuh 4:

      Asa Mitaka (Chainsaw Man) 2018*

      *The manga debuted in 2018, and MAPPA is supposed to be animating the second season… Gotta wait and see what the cooks are cooking.

      I’ll be honest, I originally wasn’t that sold on Chainsaw Man as seen by this post I made last year. I still stand by my opinions that it’s what Black Torch could’ve been if it hugged the dark atmosphere tighter than a fussy mom, but learning at the time what was the craziest moment in the manga (later surpassed because Fujimoto’s life is Anti-chill), I decided to continue the manga from where the anime left off and my original assessment might not have been as fair. It still reeks of Black Torch’s ashes, but its still in serialization.

      Maybe next time, Takaki-san…

      Asa stars in the second part of the manga after spoilers. Wants to be seen as regular, but her own mindset gets in the way. Things happen after an encounter with the Justice Devil. Asa is possessed by the War Devil, who talks to her through hallucinations, and grants her the ability to make a weapon out of anything she touches. So far, I interpret that as “anything” not “anyone” due in part to this moment in the manga:

      Yoru is probably dumber than we think.

      I’m still playing catch-ups with the manga, so I’m not sure how much more Asa has learned of her abilities. For her personality, ignoring all the autistic femcel memes (hilarious as they are), Asa’s complicated but like any naïve youngster, she can’t help but be a slave to her own assumptions, about herself, about her peers, about Denji and the rest of the cast. You could brush the rest of humanity over with this paintbrush of sorts, but personally the phrase “stranger things have happened” would be a good one for her to learn.

      And she does show a willingness to learn, even if her teachers and mentors are all s[seagull calls]t. Not just that their teachings are bad, but more so that some of the best lessons she takes come from general assholes. Something something, do as I say, not as I do moments. Blah blah blah…

      If it sounds like I’m being light on her compared to another character, well she really can’t help but be a dumb, inexperienced kid. The Chainsaw Man world may be Satan’s best joke, but it’s still worth exploring more than just her corner of Japan. Hell, some wacky omake or OVA could put her and Denji in Hawaii or something. For what I like most about her, her arc is an interesting one to watch. From easy-pickings to “I wasn’t asking,” coupled with Yoru the built-in double act since Denji, Nayuta, and Fami aren’t always available to annoy her.

      The middle one goes last. The real 5th one:

      Minami Fuyuki (Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable) 2024

      The gyaru front is bringing us several surprises, and it seems to have been doing so for quite some time. I’ve talked about gyaru animanga before, and I’m destined to continue to do so for as long as we get more and more series. I don’t remember what attracted me to Hokkaido Gals, but I’m certain it was either 2022 or ’23 as I was halfway through the manga by the time the anime was announced.

      Fuyuki may be the face of the series, and I definitely see the appeal of Sayuri and Natsukawa-senpai. But what I really like about Fuyuki is that she has such an attractive personality. She’s fun to be around, a kind, party girl who likes fashion and her native Hokkaido climate. She’s no genius, but like Kagura she has her heart in the right place. Also the dub gave her a Minnesotan accent that blew me backwards at first, but grew on me. I’m pretty sure most anime do this to emphasize different Japanese accents and dialects to unfamiliar ears (see Ayumu “Osaka” Kasuga for more details), but if you ask me, the “rural/hick” label is thrown around too broadly. I don’t know if Japan does it themselves or if the localizers do, but anyone who’s not from Tokyo or Kyoto automatically gets the equivalent of a funny cowboy accent for some reason. Guess it’ll make sense when I’m reincarnated as a Kansan, but what can you do?

      The sixth:

      Tohka Yatogami (Date a Live) 2013-24

      Official art could’ve been used, but this Nendoroid caught my eye and was too adorable to ignore.

      One of the many faces of the series itself, Tohka was the first spirit introduced from the spatial quakes and the one that holds onto Shido probably tighter and for longer than the other girls. She’s got the strength of 15 buffalo and the personality of a puppy. Happy Tohka lights the room, sad Tohka plunges it into vantablack, angry Tohka gives us the world from the mid-2000s animation Skyland; she’s also on the ditzy side admittedly, but she doesn’t carry a lot ill will in her heart. Looking back now, she makes me think of Shikimori from her series. 10/10, ready to throw down for her man, perhaps even save him from getting Isekai’d. Beware her strength though, the girl could bench press Fukuoka Tower without limits.

      七番目：

      Anna Nishikinomiya (Shimoneta) 2015

      I held back on the crazy waifus by flooding this one with girls that you could hang out and be best buds with before getting a chance to romance them (thus it is the correct way to do things). But here, I’ll give out a yandere.

      Anna Nishikinomiya is the Student Council President, so pure of heart, she can’t see anything wrong with a lewd painting of a woman with a toadstool in between her perky boobs. One day, she is accidentally kissed, and develops a MIGHTY NEED to milk Tanukichi dry and empty.

      If it wasn’t for Tanukichi’s support system of daring and curious classmates, he would’ve been toast.

      Anna would be on a sex offender registry in another world with a bevy of sex-related crimes under her belt. Maybe in jail she continually obsesses over Tanukichi, busts herself out, and goes on a manhunt for Tanukichi’s treasured meat. And if it sounds like I’m joking, consider that she’s got the added bonus of athleticism and youth. Being a high school student means her body has yet to betray her due to the passage of time.

      After not thinking about the series for years, I initially would’ve tried to drive her back as though I was shielding myself with a crucifix in the face of a vampire. But looking back, for therapy’s sake, poor Anna needs to f[aanh!]k for public health and safety. Forget protecting her from danger; Tanukichi and admittedly a majority of the whole student body needs protection from her, especially the girls. She nearly surgically removed Ayame’s jugular with her eyes clothes, heaven protect the girl who accidentally bumps into him. That’s a funeral no parent wants to fund.

      As for her pursuits, well, she’s so thirsty, Tanukichi’s bodily fluids are her new favorite drink. She’s so horny, Aphrodite wants her to calm down. She has a built-in Tanukichi seeker that zeroes in on him from anywhere in the world. Cursed to conflate love with lust, she could use a talk about consent, perhaps hidden behind a video about tea. She’s a highlight in the series and a great example of why policing morality is bad. I’m not sure if Ayame’s method of speaking in lewd is a better alternative, but if we’re using measuring sticks, Ayame’s much tamer and she won’t stop ’til everyone’s vocabulary is unfiltered… or at least adjusted to reflect how people would actually talk if not societally enforced to walk on eggshells. I don’t like to use this, but we’ll have to consult Saki Kasukabe.

      Maybe it’s the way I was raised or what I’ve been led to believe, but even talking about intimate things in mixed company is too much for me. Maybe it’ll change?

      Acht:

      Asuka Langley Soryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion) 1995-96

      The tsundere to the stars, the one who kicks Shinji because she believes every man should be manly (when he’s in a “born to malewife, forced to Shonen MC” situation), this hafu representation of two of the Axis powers is broken psychologically.

      Credit: Khyleri

      r/EvangelionMemes is too strong sometimes.

      Asuka Langley Soryu started out as the newest member of the team, and she’s sassy, brash, determined to be the best like no one ever was, and probably (read: definitely) wants to be dominated. I wouldn’t harp like an angel, but the more she bullies Shinji, the more I get the feeling that she wants him to slap her. Toxic? Kinky? Attention-seeking? Well, I say it’s a mix of all three. The Evangelion-themed forums have been debating that for about 30 years (yes, the 1990s are now 30 years ago people) and I’ll leave it to you to decide what’s right because either Hideaki Anno is really tight-lipped or no one is taking him seriously despite creating the f[explosion]king franchise in the first place, goddammit.

      Whatever the case, Asuka’s cuter when she’s trying to impress Shinji. There aren’t a lot of moments of that and I really wish there were. If they were better at communication, then maybe the AsuShin crowd would get their vindication. Stick it to all the other shippers in the process. Then again, the series’ setting doesn’t allow for such a thing. The situation is so dire, we need kids to pilot mechas and destroy angels like this.

      Biblically accurate angels.

      The saddest part about Eva is that the average person didn’t understand that it was an anti-war series. I’m not into mecha and I can see that.

      Now the best for last. The darling heiress to the House of Gremory, represented by the Chess king piece, she begins with a harem and then joins one herself, sweet as candy, kindest devil in all of hell, ladies and gentlemen give it up for Rias Gremory!!!

      She walked past him, enswathed by her vermilion hair. She glanced at him on the ground and returned a smile and a wink, then continued on towards the school building. The crimson-haired beauty with the teal eyes was known as Rias Gremory. The most beautiful girl in the school, with the most attractive personality. She’s kind and heartwarming, welcoming any newcomers to the Occult Research Club with open arms, even the pervert who was caught ogling her earlier: Issei Hyodo.

      Not my best writing, but I think it gets my point across: Rias Gremory is a good woman and an ideal partner. Being the face of a series that uses tits the same way Mario uses mushrooms, her moments of “Issei’s so cute/undress me, you son of a-” are normally saved for downtime. But it still makes an important part of the plot at ridiculous times. I’ll never forget when in the anime, Issei was made the star of a children’s program because the entire gimmick was touching boobs gave him a power-up. Let him cop a feel and all of a sudden he’s Popeye.

      Rias isn’t just a pretty face and nice body. She’s kind, she’s caring, she’s considerate, and she’s cute when she gets jealous that the other girls have an interest in Issei. She’s also mature enough to negotiate with the other girls in this matter. And the most logical conclusion is to share him with Asia. Even the queen has her moments, and that’s why Rias is my Number 1.

      As for the tenth who couldn’t fit into this 3×3, if you’ve exhausted your time trying to narrow it down, you may now rest. It’s Balalaika from Black Lagoon.

      I’m gonna say it. Balalaika is much better than Revy.

      So that’s my 3×3 as of the end of 2024, maybe I’ll update it for 2025, there’s more anime coming out next year, so the well’s never dry.

      Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable Coming Soon

      Tiberius5 Comments

      Reorganizing my list is sometimes a blessing in disguise.

      Over the course of this blog, I’ve put sneak peeks at the end for the next week’s topic, and I did that last week in light of some recent news. The manga Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable (alternate name: Dosanko Gyaru is Mega Cute) has been greenlit for an anime adaptation in January of 2024.

      I believe I’ve also made it aware that more often than not manga series I champion just sit in the back of the class unnoticed and unsung by handful of devotees while popular manga that I don’t pay a lot of attention to are the ones that get a greenlight relatively quickly. This is a rare instance of another manga I happen to enjoy getting the anime treatment, and soon. I recall reporting about adaptational rumors in late June concerning the My Hero Academia spinoff, but so far, no further reports on that have surfaced as of this writing, sadly. But at least you have a complete arc to round out the picture of the MHA franchise.

      For Hokkaido Gals, let’s catch up to speed. In Japanese pop culture, the gal (or gyaru) is a subculture of usually teenage girls engaging in fashion trends. The typical gyaru is seen normally with a sweater (wrapped around their waist or actually wearing it), a bright-colored mini skirt, thigh socks or leg warmers, a blouse with the top few buttons undone, often light or even blonde-dyed hair, makeup, jewelry, and an attachment to her cell phone. Derisively, gyarus are said to also have a stigma of being loose and promiscuous. Call it fanservice or a mean-spirited inside joke, but of the gal-focused series I’ve seen or observed, in all but demeanor they give me the impression of Hollywood’s idea of the popular girl/cheerleader archetype.

      All things considered, I think these tropes were the writers’ best attempt at therapy for an unresolved wrong. But between Galko-chan, Hajimete no Gal, and even Dosanko Gyaru among others, I’m finding that this negative stereotype is getting debunked as we go on, though its replacement isn’t all that much better.

      Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable does a few things differently than previous gyaru-centric series. The typical trope is that it’s centered in Tokyo, the male MC is from elsewhere in Japan, and the gyaru MC is a native who knows her way around the Tokyo Metro. In reality, it’s a statement that means she can navigate the tens of millions of citizens, residents, and tourists who coalesce around the main hot spots of Akihabara and the famous Shibuya crossing. It’s really no different from highlighting any given tourist-y spot in any major city like NYC or L.A.

      So to turn this trope on its head, the main MC is himself a Tokyoite who comes up to Hokkaido. This teaches me the power of a popular thing physical or conceived, so there might be an equivalent in other parts of Japan. The male protagonist of this manga is Tsubasa Shiki, the rather upper-class sheltered Tokyoite who has moved north to Hokkaido with his grandmother. On the way to school, he runs into gyaru and female protagonist of this manga, Minami Fuyuki, and while he attends the high school up in Hokkaido, Tsubasa meets other gyaru characters in the form of Sayuri Akino, Rena Natsukawa, and interestingly, Fuyuki’s mother.

      When I say Tsubasa’s a sheltered upper-class guy, I mean it in the sense that he grew up comfortably and averagely enough to openly declare his main attraction to a very average type of Japanese woman; dark hair, composed, reserved, prim and proper — none of which are inherent in Fuyuki. As a matter of fact, she’s the type of gyaru I described earlier in this post. As for that stereotype that seems to have replaced the derisive promiscuity one, Fuyuki is also somewhat ditzy and short-sighted. In the early chapters of the manga, she’s shown to struggle with studying and even test-taking as Tsubasa and Sayuri make strides when all of them study together while Fuyuki struggles to catch up. It would be more accurate and charitable to say that she doesn’t have the kind of academic intelligence. Honestly, for all the sightseeing done in the manga, she’s a shoe-in for Hokkaido tourism, especially in a place like Sapporo or Hakodate.

      Sayuri combines two tropes into one, but also comes with several surprises of her own. In appearance, she’s exactly Tsubasa’s type of girl and in fashion she dresses like a gyaru, even if only slightly. For the surprises, early in the manga, there’s two and they have an uneven connection. Sayuri has a condition known as hyperhidrosis, or excessive sweating, and thus she refrained from intense physical activity. Instead, she’s become a hardcore gamer goth girl, probably the type to skip over cutscenes and 100% a game. Sounds like someone else I know of.

      Rena Natsukawa is a third gyaru character, but is also a hafu, meaning that she has one parent who isn’t ethnically Japanese. She’s also a high-achieving student who just so happens to have near-unrestricted access to the library and is a tutor to her peers. Moreover, she’s admired by Fuyuki herself, so if Fuyuki ever needs help with her studies, Natsukawa-san is not too hard to find.

      What’s interesting about this manga is the common tropes that are broken down. It borrows from series like Hajimete no Gal and Sono Bisque Doll, while also carving something new for itself. Call it for what it is, but with so many series alluding to or stating that they’re set in Tokyo, it’s nice to see other parts of Japan get the spotlight they need. It’s something I welcome personally when someone outside the U.S. goes to a place that probably doesn’t have a strong tourism industry, though on the other hand, the isolation tends to suit places like this better. No outside disturbances to ruin what makes a certain place unique.

      The gyaru characters come into stride in their own unique ways. Since I’m only about twenty chapters in with the manga clocking in about almost 100 so far, I can’t say with certainty if there are more gyaru characters who show up down the line, but keeping the cast so small thus far does a lot to flesh them out evenly and gradually as the series progresses. Most of what I described of the characters thus far is in the chapters they each debut in with more to be revealed, but again, I’m not that far as of writing this so even if I wanted to spoil, I couldn’t. I really want those who’re interested to catch up to the manga in time for Silver Link to start distributing the anime next January.

      Once it airs, if there’s nothing else taking my time away, I’ll report my findings as it airs.

      While my hopes are up, some poking around in associated forums on Reddit leave me with a few concerns. I refrained from spoiling myself, but I’ve heard through the grapevine, that the most recent chapters haven’t been as good in regard to characterization, seemingly undoing the character development since the beginning and, to my interpretation, trapping Tsubasa in a needless love triangle. But I’m regarding these observations as rumors until I see it for myself, and I advise anyone to do the same. As for where to read the manga, it is getting released in volumes here in the west, but to catch the chapters as they release, my source has been the Manga Plus website and app run by Shueisha themselves.

      https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100116

      Alternatively, there’s pirate sites, though it’s best to use caution. I recommend Manga Plus for this series specifically, because every chapter is available without subscription if you’re short of cash yourself. It’s a fun series overall and I hope it makes a seamless transition to anime. Still, holding out hope for Vigilantes though…