Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 05 – Buddy Choco Party Time

We open with Minami singing a song that ends with the line “I love you,” making Tsubasa blush. She always sings this particular song at karaoke, because it never fails to cheer her up. It’s the first time he and Sayuri have been to karaoke. Thanks to Minami, their social horizons are expanding for the big city newbie and the loner gamer.

I like how they’re both portrayed as nervous but also open to the experience. But when talk turns to the approaching Valentine’s Day, Tsubasa’s first thought is whether he’ll get any from Minami. He soon learns that she gives chocolates to everyone. He feels relieved, but isn’t sure why. But there are moments when everyone else is messing around that both Minami and Sayuri look more serious.

When the others head off, Minami and Sayuri end up trying to strike up a conversation with Tsubasa at the same time. Minami wants to know how he liked his first karaoke sesh with friends (and how Sayuri liked it too). But from the look of the Valentine’s chocolate guide on her phone, it’s clear she wanted to ask Tsubasa something totally different.

Sayuri procrastinates as much as she can, but really wants to make chocolates, for Tsubasa in particular but also for Minami. To that end, she finally goes to the mall and stakes the place out, only for Minami to surprise her from behind. At first Sayuri says she’s there for nail polish (which she doesn’t really need), then cosmetics (which she also doesn’t need but buys some with Minami).

Minami was originally there to shop for chocolate ingredients, so she prepares to part ways with Sayuri, but Sayuri asks if she can shop with her, as this whole making chocolate thing is completely new to her. Minami isn’t just happy to help, but delighted to be able to hang out with Sayuri more.

When they leave the mall, Sayuri, no stranger to honesty and directness, asks Minami straight-up if she intends to make “special” chocolates for Tsubasa. Minami plays it cool, saying she’ll be making buddy chocolate for him because they’re “friends.” But as they walk away in opposite directions, it’s clear Minami wasn’t being 100% honest.

Sayuri waits until nearly 11:30 PM to start making chocolates, by which point Minami texts her to check on her progress. Minami, for her part, has just finished a new record of seventy pieces of beautiful, perfect chocolates and cookies to give everyone tomorrow, plus one particularly fancy cookie heart filled with ganache. Is that for Sayuri, who said she likes ganache? Is it for Tsubasa? Or is it for all three of them to share?

Minami then asks Sayuri if she’s giving chocolate to anyone besides her, and during the pregnant pause that follows, she accidentally knocks over a quart of milk, which causes a chain reaction that results in spilling soy sauce all over creation, ruining all her chocolates. Minami can’t quite hide the despair in her voice at first, but quickly laughs it off and hangs up, leaving Sayuri wondering how she can be so nice in such a moment.

The next morning, Tsubasa is dejected but not surprised to find no chocolates in his shoe locker. But when Minami gives him a fun-size piece of store-bought local chocolate, his smile is enough to bring a smile to Minami’s face, which is still raw from last night’s debacle.

Minami starts handing them out to Sayuri and everyone else, and the red haired boy who went to karaoke with them simply cannot believe she didn’t make the homemade chocolates he had been expecting, and considers it a huge letdown.

When he’s in the hall getting chocolates form other girls, she sidles up to him with fire in her belly and promises him the next time he speaks to Minami like that, she’s going to pound him. Hanamori Yumiri’s voice waivers while she makes this threat, but she did good!

After school there’s no club due to upcoming exams, and Tsubasa and Minami share cleaning duty in the music room. When he thanks her for the chocolate he gave her while putting away the brooms, when he turns around Minami is crying her eyes out.

Just as Sayuri arrives at the doorway but doesn’t enter, Tsubasa asks Minami if she’s okay telling him what happened, and she does. She wanted to give everyone chocolate so bad, and feels like the accident with the soy sauce was punishment because she said something weird to a friend on the phone, referring to her question to Sayuri.

Tsubasa isn’t one to suddenly draw Minami into a consoling hug, so instead he does the only thing he thinks he can do in that moment: play the piano. And he doesn’t just play anything, either: he plays a piano arrangement of the song she sang at karaoke; the one that always cheers her up.

When he finishes, Minami’s tears have stopped and she’s in awe of how good he was. When she asks why, he says she always cheers him up, so he wanted to cheer her up this time. And he succeeds: tears start pouring down Minami’s cheeks once more, but they’re the tears of maximum happiness.

That happiness is momentarily threatened when Sayuri comes in with chocolates, and Minami assumes she’s there to give “special” ones to Tsubasa. But as Minami walks past her, Sayuri offers her a red gift-wrapped box of her very first homemade chocolates. Minami declares her love for Sayuri and pulls her into a big hug.

Sayuri then presents Tsubasa with a bag of chocolates, declaring them a gift for her gaming desciple because she had extra. She also mentions how he was very cool on the piano. The three dig in to the chocolates together right there in the golden light of the setting sun, and all’s right with the world again.

It’s only appropriate that the cutest, most heartwarming, and most emotionally resonant episode of Hokkaido Gals is a Valentine’s Day episode, where sundry hearts are bared, broken, and, in chocolate form, eaten. I didn’t know if Minami would ever deviate from her glowing ball of sunshine, so I’m glad we (along with Tsubasa and Minami) got to see a new, vulnerable side of her.

Even more gratifying is that when she was feeling low Sayuri had her back, love triangle or no, and Tsubasa was his usual kind and thoughtful self—someone you can totally believe both Minami and Sayuri could fall for.

This was already the perfect Monday evening show with its cozy vibes, relatively low stakes, and a cast that dances together in the OP. This week enhanced that winning formula as they also sang, cooked, cried, played the piano, and, in Sayuri’s case, threatened swift violence against anyone who’d hurt Minami’s feelings!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 04 – Springtime in a Blizzard

Both Tsubasa and his gran are under the mistaken impression that Hokkaido locals walk to school even in the middle of a blizzard. Thankfully this mistake doesn’t cost him his life, as Minami’s car happens to pull up. There’s nothing like hopping into a warm car after being out in the piercing cold! This is how Tsubasa meets Minami’s mom, who looks like her sister and isn’t coy about suggesting he officially ask out her adorable daughter.

It’s clear Minami loves having Tsubasa all to himself, but that’s no longer the case at school, where he and Sayuri are all warm and chummy about being so sore from the skiing. Minami wants into this dynamic, even if it means being sore (which she isn’t due to her extensive skiing experience). When Tsubasa notices Sayuri has her handheld game, Tsubasa exercises poor phrasing by exclaiming “I want to do it with you, Akino-san!”

Minami wants to play the game too, so Sayuri suggests the three of them go to the mall after class. Minami is thrown into the video game deep end, but when she clears a level, Sayuri joins her in a joyful celebration as Tsubasa looks on with pride his gyaru friends are getting along. When he makes a pit stop, Sayuri even admits Minami is much nicer than she expected. The two buy cosmetics with Tsubasa’s input, then take a booth photo together.

That photo of Tsubasa with two beautiful lasses adorns the back of his phone in sticker form, but when he texts Minami about a homework assignment, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. Minami is taking her usual “half-bath”, and is hungry for some hilarious reactions from Tsubasa.

She sends him a couple pix, but when his text responses are sober, she video calls him and gets the reaction she wanted. Just when she’s asking if he’d like to join her at a hot spring, her phone slips out of her hand, and she inadvertently gives Tsubasa an eyeful.

However, Tsubasa fumbled his phone at the same time, so he didn’t see Minami in all her glory. Even so, when Minami’s mom observes how flustered she looks, she asks if she’s lightheaded. Minami admits she is, a little bit, but it’s not because of the hot water. It’s because like Nagatoro Hayase, sometimes her teasing the boy she likes goes further than she planned and comes back to bite her!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 03 – We’ll Make It If We Try

When the classes reach the ski resort, they split off into groups based on their skill level. Minami has been skiing since grade school and rules at it. She also wants to become friends with Akino Sayuri, but is stonewalled when she tries talking with her on the bus.

Sayuri is a “prim and proper gyaru”, a seeming contradiction in terms, but that makes her all the more intriguing. And because neither she nor Tsubasa have ever skiied before, they’re in a skill group of two. Even so, Sayuri puts her earbuds in, and only pipes up to ask if Minami is his girlfriend, something he vehemently denies.

Ironically, it’s Tsubasa accidentally walking in on Sayuri with her shirt lifted up that the cold distance thaws and closes. Over lunch alone on the bus, Sayuri confesses that she’s extremely sweaty, to the point she avoided all kinds of sports or strenuous activity. This eventually led to her inadvertently becoming socially isolated.

Now that she’s said all this, it feels easier to talk to Tsubasa, and she can tell he’s such a goody-two-shoes he’d never spread around what he saw or make fun of her. Then her “Shueido Witch” makes an alert sound from her backpack, notifying her it received an update for Superb Crash Sisters Plus.

Sayuri can scarcely believe Tsubasa when he says he’s never heard of that game because he’s never played one, but when she hands the game over, his glorious reaction proves he has indeed never played. When Sayuri shows him how to use the controls, she gets real close and starts getting very detailed.

When she senses Tsubasa is a little overwhelmed, she draws back, telling him while she puts a lot of thought into her looks, “this” is what she’s really like, and she’s experienced people getting scared or creeped out before she “figures out how close is too close.”

But Tsubasa, bring ray of sunshine that he is, rightfully tells her she has no need to be ashamed of who she is; he finds both her looks and personality unique and charming. Moreover, he wants her to teach him more about video games so he can play with her. She agrees, if he calls her “Teacher.”

They have so much fun they forget about time, but there’s still time to ski if they want to, so Tsubasa asks if Sayuri will ski down with him. He’s inspired both by playing the video game, which figuring it out once he tried. They’re both amazed and alarmed by the ski lift, and Sayuri asks him why he’s so gung-ho about skiing.

Tsubasa admits he’s been challenging himself to try as many new things in Hokkaido as he can. In that regard, his first Hokkaido friend Minami has been a huge help. Sayuri says she can tell Tsubasa is totally into Minami, deny it as he might.

Sayuri knows how popular she is, but whenever Minami tries talking to her, she gets suspicious and wonders why she’s doing so. Once they reach the top of the hill, there’s a gorgeous sunset in progress turning the entire landscape golden. Tsubasa asks Sayuri to give talking to Minami a try if he makes it down the hill without falling.

The reason he wants this is because he knows Minami is a.) a good person and b.) genuinely wants to be Sayuri’s friend. Tsubasa wants to be her friend to, so down they go together. Tsubasa actually makes it, but forgot to tell Sayuri how to slow down or stop.

No worries, for the mountain rescue gyaru is on the case, coming up alongside Sayuri, telling her how to stop easily without hurting herself, and then demonstrating it so she can copy her. The two end up coming to a controlled stop together, and at that point, the ice has already broken on their interactions.

When the teacher yells at Tsubasa and Sayuri, he runs over to take responsibility and apologize, leaving Sayuri with Minami. She thanks her for helping her and apologizes for being so cold up until then. Her calling her “Fuyuki” makes Minami blush. I’m happy for them both!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 02 – Trusting in a Smile

In a welcome acknowledgement that she’s neither a MPDG (Manic Pixie Dream Gyaru) nor a figment of Tsubasa’s imagination, we get a slice of Minami’s family life as she shares a meal with her gorgeous mom and adorable little sister Momo. They’re going skating tomorrow, but Minami has to pass, as she’s going to the winter festival with Tsubasa.

Because she hasn’t been to the festival since elementary school, at first Minami is worried about whether she’ll have as much fun as she did back then, and is also worried that a Tokyo kid like Tsubasa would ask “Is this it?” But while the snow sculptures seem smaller (since she’s grown), she had nothing to worry about. Tsubasa’s reaction to the whole festival isn’t  “Is this it?”, but “This is IT!”

After sharing an indirect kiss-via sugared corn dog, snowball fights and snowmen making, and sledding down a hill together, Tsubasa gets them some hot amazake. But Minami doesn’t even need that to be warmed up by Tsubasa’s radiant smile, as he vocalizes how much fun he had and glad he is she came with him.

These vulnerable, blushing moments Tsubasa doesn’t seem to notice may be Minami’s cutest. Tsubasa’s easy to read, but so is she, if he’d just pay closer attention! That said, Minami does admit that being with him makes her appreciate and love her quiet Hokkaido town even more, so she’s glad she came too. Then she slips in the snow and he catches her. Daaaaaaaw.

With the promise of a visit to the bigger Sapporo festival sometime, Tsubasa and Minami are hitting it off splendidly. At school, she suggest they eat lunch together, and inadvertently gives him his very first taste of instant yakisoba. Turns out she remembers the corn dog indirect kiss too.

When he shows her his pristine homemade bento in a lacquered box, and he admits she’s exposing him to so many first times, does Minami dismiss him as a loser or a virgin? My friends, she does not. Instead, it confirms to her that he’s a spoiled rich kid!

Tsubasa doesn’t think his family is particularly rich, but Minami asks to visit his house to confirm, and he can’t say no. On the way, while Tsubasa is worried about his his granny will react to him bringing a girl home, Minami spots a snow cave made by some kids.

She climbs in with no regard to the length of her skirt and pulls Tsubasa in with her so they can escape the chill and get nice and cozy. Many double entendres ensue, culminating in a flustered Tsubasa asking her not to moan like that and climbing out.

As he does, he notices his granny standing there in the road, having overheard all of that misleadingly raunchy dialogue. Minami clings to Tsubasa and jokingly tells him he was “way too quick” and should have “enjoyed his first time [in a snow cave]”, and when she learns the woman is his granny, she enthusiastically introduces herself.

When Granny asks Minami what her relationship is, she starts to say “friends”, but Tsubasa interjects with “we’re just classmates.” Needless to say, this hurts Minami’s feelings, and he hurts them more when he hastily says goodbye and goes off with his Granny, certain that she’ll never accept Minami as a friend of his.

Rather than accept this, Minami sticks around, warning Granny about carrying an umbrella in the snow; turns out it’s dangerous to do so as one must keep their hands free in case one slips and falls. She also shows Tsubasa and his granny an alternate route that avoids black ice.

On the way, Minami makes Tsubasa understand that it wasn’t cool calling her “just a classmate,” and he admits it was hard to tell Granny what he truly considers her to be: a very important friend. When he whispers this in her ear, she blushes once more, and their first little conflict is resolved.

She ends up getting them to their giant palatial home with time to spare before an undisclosed appointment, so Granny invites her in for a cup of tea. While she may feel like she’s “getting soft” with age, Granny considers that Minami, bodacious appearance and untraditional manners aside, may actually be a lovely girl.

When she walks into the parlor to find Minami snapping photos of everything, her opinion of her is again tinged with doubt, but only until she notices how much Tsubasa is laughing and smiling as he interacts with her. She hasn’t seen him smile so brightly since he was a little kid, and she’s willing to trust in that smile, and in his choice to befriend Minami.

With the announcement of an upcoming class skiing trip, Tsubasa is happy to find that Minami is close by on the bus, but also learns he’ll be sitting next to someone named Akino. So after two episodes exclusively with Minami, he’s poised to meet the next adorable Hokkaido girl.

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 01 (First Impressions) – A Warm Soul in a Cold Place

Shiki Tsubasa has just moved to Hokkaido from Tokyo, and is not used to the cold or wide open spaces. Then he encounters a gyaru standing at a bus stop in a short skirt, no gloves, or hat, looking a lot more comfortable than him in his full-length coat. Tsubasa is struck by the scene before him.

When he asks for directions and learns it’s best to stay put with her, he learns that this girl isn’t just cute, but kind and friendly as well. He may be from Tokyo, but considers himself “lame” as he’s had minimal to no contact with girls, but within minutes of meeting him, she has her arm around his. And she has a good point: it is cold, so why not? She has such an impact on Tsubasa that even when she sneezes, there’s beauty in the snot running from her nose.

At the same time, the more she learns about him, the more excited she gets. They’re the same age and he’ll be attending her school. She may well already know everyone her own age in this sleepy town. Most importantly, he’s from Tokyo, where she’s never been and no doubt must feel like a magical, almost mystical place. She thinks he must think this place is lame, but he doesn’t.

Before she boards the bus he should also be getting on, he gets her name: Fuyuki Minami. The next day is Tsubasa first day at his new school, where the gyaru is not only in his class, but sits right beside him. Upon learning it, she calls him by his first name right away.

I loved the details in this episode, like the classroom being cold and students bringing lap blankets; Minami uses two, but offers one to him, bringing them closer together by literally lending her warmth. After school Minami has him walk her to the “locomotive” station, where she gives him her contact info and an invite to her house tomorrow (which is a Saturday).

Another key detail of Hokkaido life in winter: no hangout spots like Tokyo’s Harajuku. Since it’s so cold, people tend to simply stay home and visit each others’ houses, and Tsubasa arrives to find it’s just him and Minami. She offers him a Calpis-like beverage, which she proceeds to accidentally spill on herself, necessitating a change.

But not sure what to change into, she simply emerges from her room in thin cami and shorts. They start watching a movie that has a lovemaking scene, but by that time Minami has fallen fast asleep, and Tsubasa doesn’t want to wake her. Tsubasa’s mind sometimes strays into the gutter but never lingers there.

By the time she wakes up under his coat (he was worried she’d catch a chill), the sun is going down, and Tsubasa is bundling up to depart. She pulls on her Uggs, a thin jacket and scarf to follow him outside and apologize for falling asleep, genuinely regretting her rudeness.

To her surprise, Tsubasa’s first concern is that she’s outside in her skivvies, and wraps his scarf around her, lending her his warmth, which she greatly appreciates. Then she takes him by the hand and leads him to the local konbini, which has fresh-made karaage and onigiri.

This was a pleasantly stripped-down episode of a good if slightly horny Tokyo boy befriending a hospitable Hokkaido gyaru. Tsubasa and Minami are voiced by Shimazaki Nobunaga and Sakura Ayane, two of the best in the business. The stark contrast between the bitterly cold sting of the outside with the cozy warmth emanating from Minami is a key asset, as are the little cultural details.

Mostly, this is the commencement of an earnest and sweet friendship (and maybe more) between two good kids from very different worlds in the making. While I’m looking forward to meeting more cute Hokkaido gyarus, it will be hard to beat that first impression of Minami braving the biting cold.

More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 01 (First Impressions) – Mismatch

Fuukoi, as it is also known, begins with the two female leads meeting at a shrine. The “plain” but cute Sakurazaka Shiori stumbles on the stairs and into the stylush gyaru Watanabe Akari, asking if she’s also there to pray for good luck with their forthcoming “marriage practical”.

What is a marriage practical, you say? An extremely weird and far-fetched means of the country trying to up its birth rate (?), I guess, and by far the weakest part of this debut episode. Male and female students are paired up and must live like a married couple in a Big Brother-style apartment, but are pointedly not allowed to sleep in the same bedroom. This system also apparently makes no accommodations for same-sex couples.

Our drab protagonist Yakuin Jirou, another weak point (never a good thing) wants to be paired with his childhood friend Shiori, while Akari wants to be paired with the equally stylish, blonde (and genuine Nice Guy) Tenjin Minami. So naturally, Jirou and Akari end up paired together, while his and Akari’s preferred matches end up paired up.

Neither Jirou nor Akari are happy about this, but it is what it is, but the good news is there’s a way to exchange partners: score enough points as a couple to make the A-Rank by the end of the month. Akari suggests they take the relationship lemons they’ve been given and make lemonade, but this is all A Lot for Jirou, considering the “love experience gap” between them.

Of course, Jirou’s wrong about this: Akari is just as chaste as he is, and all this as new to her as it is him. It’s too bad then, that she never tells him this to reduce the tension; call it pride and an unwillingness to admit they’re on the same level in that arena.

When Jirou goes to get them drinks and spots Shiroi with Minami, he gets even more depressed, but Akari tells him, and is right, that being mopey and indecisive won’t get him anywhere. They’ve got work to do scoring enough points to get the partners they want. So when Jirou’s annoying nerdy friend Sadaharu comes by to hang out, she asks for a goodbye kiss.

Caught between Akari and his insistent friend, Jirou kisses her without thinking … on the lips. It’s his kiss, but little does he know it’s also hers. The next day, Jirou wakes up on the couch, having apparently spent the night there (a little odd, considering I doubt he and Sadaharu got blackout drunk), and Akari urging him to get up and pull his weight.

A week passes, and Jirou and Akari make no progress. Shiroi and Minami, on the other hand, look like two peas in a pod, further frustrating and depressing Jirou. Their teacher asks him and Akari to come to the faculty office after school for a check-up. When Jirou tells Akari, she’s already off to karaoke with Minami, and tells him to do it solo.

He calls this his “worst day ever”, but Sadaharu says he’s got “a flower in each hand”—Shiroi the lily, Akari the rose. With no umbrella, he waits for the rain to subside, and then chance smile upon him when Shiori appears, having also forgotten hers.

As they talk, Shiori suddenly clutches him, because she thought she saw a bug (it was just a comical doodle of one). Turns out that’s why she clung to Minami earlier in the day—completely innocent, as expected. Shiori also objects to Jirou, her childhood friend, calling her “Sakurazaka” instead of her first name, which makes her feel lonely.

Jirou is taken aback by this, wondering if Shiori has the same feelings for him after all, but before he can say “Shiori” properly, Minami appears with her umbrella, and the two take off.

On the other side of the wall, Akari stands and waits a few beats, then approaches Jirou with an umbrella that they share on the walk home. She tells him how he struck out on trying to make something happen vis-a-vis Shiori. Indeed, by saying goodbye by calling her Sakurazaka, he actually left things worse off than they were before.

Yet again, it’s up to Akari to grab the mopey Jirou by the cheek and tell him to cheer up and focus his energy on the goal they agreed upon. It’s unfortunate Akari has to carry the mental load of her own issues while also trying to prop Jirou up. Dude needs to get his shit together because he’s quite unlikeable at the moment, whereas I like Akari a lot.

There’s another reason to like her when they come home, as she prepares perfect omurice for dinner, and even writes “love” on top in ketchup (while spouting quite a few double entendres). Jirou can’t deny it tastes amazing, and for once takes the initiative and offers to feed Akari with his spoon. After briefly hesitating, she takes the bite, leaving their faces oh-so-close together.

The moment is interrupted by a call form Sadaharu (silence your phone at dinner, dude!), for which Jirou is extremely relieved. But both their hearts are left pounding, which of course sets up the most likely endgame of shows like this with mismatched opposites gradually becoming closer and possibly eventually choosing one other over their original crushes.

The forced big brother scenario is dumb and troublesome to be sure, and Jirou needs a lot of work (obviously he’s supposed to be pathetic at this point) while, Akari has some great Kitagawa Marin vibes (albeit not nearly as honest with herself) and her and Shiori’s character designs are solid.

Aside from Akari, the main draw is the general look of the show: the scenery and colors are gorgeous and bold, making the darker rainy scenes feel that much more morose. It’s just so nice to look at, lacking the modeling or animation flaws of lesser productions.

ANN’s writers all hate this show, and I won’t argue with their reasons why. But for me, for now, the show’s pros are outweighing the cons. Sometimes you just need a bright, shiny, slightly horny show with a super-dumb premise. I had fun watching it.

Love After World Domination – 08 – The Heat Is On

Fudou and Desumi have a problem: someone not named Haru knows about them and, unlike Haru, is not rooting for them. I thought that someone might be Misaki, judging from that tiny glimpse last week. But when we’re introduced to Desumi’s gyaru classmate Houjou, it’s clear who the true culprit is.

Fudou meets her at the park, where Houjou proceeds to try and utterly fail to blackmail him in various ways. She threatens to make the photo public; he’s fine with that as long as she blacks out Desumi’s face. She tells him to break up with her; he refuses. She tells him to say he loves her; he won’t. She tries to get him to kiss his hand, only to pull it back, unable to go through with it herself.

At their next clandestine meet-up, Fudou tells Desumi the situation, and while her first impulse is to “silence” the girl “permanently”, she thinks she knows what’s going on: this girl must be in love. Fudou promises Desumi that she doesn’t have to worry, and that he’ll handle it.

At their next meeting, Fudou politely but firmly acknowledges the girl’s feelings for him and expresses his gratitude for them, but before he can turn her down, she clears up a misunderstanding: she’s in love with Desumi, not him.

Ostracized at school for her personal style and a false rep for looseness, Desumi was the only one to approach and befriend her. Houjou inspired Desumi to do her nails. Oh yeah, and she’s been under Desumi’s nose all along as Gekko’s own Princess Heat!

Houjou Anna is a solid addition to the quirky cast and Sakura Ayane brings plenty of sassy vim and vigor to the role. It’s a shame she’s not in the remainder of the episode, but in her place is Haru, whom we learn isn’t the best at school and needs help studying for the finals. Desumi also confesses to being bad at studies, so the two of them and Fudou decide to have a study session.

The smart and obvious choice of venue for said session would be a neutral location, such as a library, but instead Desumi has Fudou and Haru dress up like Gekko minions (who all have an identical build) and sneak into her room. But once there, Fudou and Haru soon discover Desumi’s perfect test scores. Turns out Desumi isn’t bad at school and just didn’t want to be left out.

One would think that having two school-smart people tutor her would be a boon for Haru, but it turns out both Fudou and Desumi suck at teaching in different ways. Haru tries to put everything in the context of musculature, while Desumi is all about meaningless motivational slogans. Haru takes her leave, confident that studying alone would serve her better than remaining with these two kooky lovebirds.

Haru leaving means Fudou is alone in his girlfriend’s bedroom for the first time, and I love how he just lets it wash over him. Desumi, on the other hand, is distracted by Haru mentioning universities. Fudou tells Desumi his goal is to go on to university and study education so he can teach elementary school.

Desumi has no such long term goals other than wanting to remain by Fudou’s side…even if her dad expects her to work at Gekko full time after high school. Speaking of Desumi’s dad, both he and Desumi’s little sister arrive at her door quite unexpectedly, leaving Fudou trapped and with very few viable hiding spots, considering his build. Will next week be a “meet her family” scenario?

Citrus – 02

While all of Yuzu’s thoughts are focused on what Mei’s kiss was all about, she falls into a fountain and takes Mei with her, and ends up in an even more inimate situation when they bathe together. Yuzu thinks about how Mei’s skin feels, Mei is pressing her against the wall, as if she could read Yuzu’s mind. However, it’s too much contact too quickly; Yuzu is again flustered by her little sister.

At school, Yuzu continues to make no effort to follow the dress code, and notices many of the girls are paired up, holding hands and flirting. Harumi says since most of them are already engaged, it’s more a matter of “being in heat” and fooling around while they still can; lust, not love. Their chat is interrupted when Harumi notices the chairman, Mei’s grandfather, is at the gates.

Yuzu brashly approaches him and calls him “gramps”, but he’s having none of it, turning to Mei and reaming her out for allowing “such a fool” to be near school grounds. Yuzu sticks up for her sister, but is banished from the grounds. Either Gramps didn’t get the memo about the marriage, or worse, he doesn’t care; doesn’t see Yuzu as real family.

While sneaking back in, Yuzu and Harumi spot Mei’s betrothed in the parking lot, and overhear him talking to his girlfriend about how he doesn’t really care about Mei, and will only string her along because her family is rich. It’s an awfully specific phone convo for a guy to have out in the open just when Yuzu happens to hear it, but it also shows what a jerk this guy is.

Yuzu tells Mei about her fiancee’s infidelity, but Mei, not surprisingly, already knows, and, well, she’s not fine with it, but she clearly seems resigned to proceeding regardless. She also dismisses Yuzu’s “big sister” status in this issue, since she’s never kissed anyone and thus can’t possibly understand. Yuzu only seems to make things worse the next day when she hijacks a school assembly to tell everyone how she saw the teacher forcing himself on Mei.

That little stunt leads to the chairman sending men to pick Mei up from Yuzu and her Mom’s and having her live with him from now on; Yuzu’s mom says Mei didn’t resist. When Yuzu confronts Mei, Mei pretends nothing is amiss. When Yuzu presses, Mei tells her she’s been ordered to stay away, and that’s how it is.

Yuzu doesn’t stay away. She can’t sleep in the empty room without Mei, knowing there’s clearly something bothering her (what with the crying in her sleep) and she can’t stand feeling partially responsible for her mom’s pain. So she goes to Mei’s grandfather’s mansion and confronts her again, bringing up the pained looks and cries for her father in her sleep.

Mei gets violent, tossing Yuzu on the bed and tearing her blouse. As tears fall from Mei’s eyes to Yuzu’s face, Yuzu gets up and takes hold of Mei, saying “I’m with you now!”, which seems to have an effect. Alas, their grandfather enters the room and expels Yuzu right then and there.

While shopping with Harumi (who is in Full Glamorous Gal Mode outside of school), a very forlorn Yuzu finally tells her friend about her and Mei being related and her expulsion (though doesn’t mention how Mei has kissed her and pushed her into walls and onto beds).

Harumi tells her that despite Mei’s demeanor Yuzu’s feelings on wanting to protect her are probably getting through to her, but that gets Yuzu thinking about what her feelings for Mei truly are, and whether they’re love, something she’s never experienced before. It certainly seems that way.

Citrus – 01 (First Impressions)

The flashy, glamorous Aihara Yuzu tries to make it clear to the outside world that she’s a gal who gets around, but has never actually been in love or even kissed anyone.

This is hardly a new story, but what makes things a little more interesting is that when she transfers to a new, all-girls school where she sticks out like a sore thumb, the hard-nosed student council president Aihara Mei turns out to be her new, slightly younger stepsister.

The knowledge that Mei is betrothed to an “elite teacher” is seemingly confirmed when Yuzu accidentally catches Mei and the teacher making out in a secluded spot; Yuzu is so flustered she flees in a not-so-inconspicuous manner.

In any case, her insistence on dolling herself up and flaunting the school dress code in every way possible brand her as a delinquent in the eyes of the mostly drab, sheltered student body (one exception being Taniguchi Harumi, a “gal in disguise”).

While Yuzu may talk the talk, Mei seems to walk the walk, and Mei essentially sends Yuzu’s perfect maze of deception crashing down around her when Yuzu tries to force Mei into talking to her by bringing up her sucking face with the hot teacher.

Mei reacts by pinning Yuzu down and giving her a long, deep kiss with tongue before leaving the room, telling her “that’s what a kiss is like.” Yuzu’s first kiss is thus not only with a girl, but with someone she just learned is her “little” sister…and someone she butted heads with the moment they met.

Mei has also demonstrated beyond doubt that while Yuzu possesses all the outward trappings of boy-crazy gal, like Jon Snow, she really knows nothing, while Mei has actually experienced a measure of love and desire.

Decent yuri anime are few and far between, but this one at least shows glimmers of promise with its full-length episode format, attractive visuals, and a complex (if somewhat contrived) scenario that should be fraught with similarly complicated emotions on the part of both leads as their relationship evolves beyond the sizing-up stage.

Re-Kan! – 06

Amami Hibiki is a lovely young woman, but let’s be honest: she’s a bit of a goody-two-shoes, at an age when she’ll be forgiven for letting her hair down and misbehaving now and again. After Narumi (no slouch in the goody two-shoes dept. herself) wonders out loud (and loudly) why Hibiki can’t ever act like a “normal high school girl”, we’re introduced to a whole new Hibiki—a Kogal Hibiki!

The sight of Hibiki all Kogal’d out—and Kido Ibuki ditching the good girl voice for one of constant irritation—is already worth the price of admission. But what makes this another quintessentially Re-Kan! episode is that Hibiki’s new look and act is the result of the ghost of a high school girl from ten years ago possessing her.

The deal is, the Gal-ghost will make Hibiki more like a “normal high schooler”, which isn’t really possible since the high school world has moved on in the last decade, but never mind; and in exchange Hibiki will lend the ghost her body so she can “pass on.”

Until then, Gal-Hibiki’s attempts to act aloof and cool and use outdated lingo provide entertainment to her friends, including the group’s journalist, Uehara Kana, who is always snapping pics and documenting her encounters with ghosts on her blog, following the journalistic tradition of her parents, for which she’s secretly proud.

Worried about what the Gal-ghost will do in Hibiki’s body, her friends follow her, discovering she’s summoning someone to meet her. When she discovers she’s being followed, she’s annoyed and a little embarrassed, as they observe her actions and explanations increasingly out of step with her ko-gal persona.

All is revealed when the day of the meeting arrives. The person who meets her is her mom, who coincidentally is one of Hibiki’s shopping buddies, whom she shopped with the day before in Hibiki’s body. The Gal-ghost is angry that her mother hasn’t moved on from her untimely death, or had a new daughter, and is even still making enough dinner for three ten years later.

But the Gal’s host, Hibiki, explains to her that a mother will never forget their child no matter how many years pass, nor will she ever see her departed daughter as worthless. The mom catches up to her and beautiful catharsis ensues. No longer guilty for dying so soon without accomplishing anything in life or giving anything back her her mom (a false charge on her part), she’s able to pass on.

Before she does, sticks around within Hibiki just long enough to make sure Kana doesn’t make the same mistakes she did. Kana organized a Christmas party for everyone, despite the fact what she wanted most was to hang out with her parents, who are always busy. The Gal-ghost orders her home, and to Kana’s surprise, her folks are there waiting for her.

By serving as the Gal-ghost’s vessel, Hibiki not only got some rad fashion tips and education in early 2000’s jargon, but was able to help Gal forgive herself and pass on, but through Gal, helps her still-living friend re-connect with her parents.

So it’s a good thing for both of them Hibiki isn’t just another normal high school girl!