Winter 2024 doesn’t strike me as a season that’s crowded in the bubble area – it’s more top-heavy than anything. But Dosanko Gal wa Namara Menkoi is certainly going to be in the conversation. Three weeks in and I’m not tiring of it yet. What stands out more than anything is that it seems to have a genuinely sweet temperament – it’s not in this for victimization-based humor, even if the hero is a bit of a dweeb. The girls aren’t cruel by nature, and refreshingly they’re not perfect either.
You get conflicting reports on whether Dosanko Gal is a harem series, and while I can only make up my own mind on that based on future evidence, it strikes me that the definition of “harem” may be at the heart of the disagreement. Is any romcom with one male lead and multiple females in significant roles a harem? I don’t really think so – it’s the feelings of the characters who determine that as far as I’m concerned. And as far as I can tell Tsubasa only has eyes for Minami in the romantic sense, but that’s admittedly based on incomplete evidence.
What’s indisputable is that at least one and possibly two more girls are going to be major characters, and we meet the first of them here in Akino Sayuri. She’s a frosty girl who Minami insists she wants to be friends with, and describes as something of a “nadeshiko gyaru” (my wording). That seeming contradiction in terms has Tsubasa fascinated and he stares Sayuri down on the bus to the ski resort (I imagine Hokkaido schools do routinely have ski days). For her part Sayuri pretty much ignores all entreaties, even putting earbuds in to get the message across. I even thought for a second they were going in the hearing-impaired direction, though that was a misread.
Being a Tokyo boy Tsubasa is unsurprisingly useless on skis, and since Sayuri is too for reasons we’ll soon discover, the two of them get paired off as the beginner class – though it’s that in name only, as the two of them are promptly forgotten by the teacher (until halfway through lunch). It’s not until he walks in on her in an awkward moment on the bus that the deep freeze begins to thaw a bit. Again, this was certainly a cliche development but it winds up going in a different direction than it would in a different sort of show. There’s no slapping, no screaming – just the first real conversation between the two of them.
Akino-san’s story is kind of interesting. She sweats a lot (some people do) and as a result, is embarrassed to be involved in any physical activity. She retreats into games, in fact, which is another area where Tsubasa is suspiciously inexperienced for a modern teen. I totally get where she’s coming from in Tsubasa being a safe person to reveal all this to. He is indeed freakishly earnest, he’s someone she barely knows, and he’s as socially isolated as she is. I don’t know whether Yumiri has suffered actual bullying over this and obviously the series is sugarcoating her situation a bit, but this exchange still comes off as very heartwarming.
I’ve been there – on top of the bunny hill (even the lift was scary) thinking “how in the hell can that be the beginner slope?”. This is all pretty understated and realistic, and things end up with everyone friends and only a little bit of trouble with the teacher (who has some nerve getting mad at Tsubasa after abandoning the newbies all day for more fun slopes). There is some sign that Sayuri likes Tsubasa, and that Minami is a little jealous of the two of them becoming friends, but I don’t expect things to get too cringey in that direction based on the tone of the series so far. Let’s hope so, anyway.
Lem
January 24, 2024 at 1:02 amAlways felt that if more than 2 girls are romantically interested in MC than show is a harem, especially considering how most of the time MC’s of such shows are donkans as dense as neutron star.
sonicsenryaku
January 24, 2024 at 11:14 amYea, this series has genuinely surprised me in how understated it has been with the character dynamics between its cast. As I said last week, this subgenre doesn’t typically handle characterization like this, so its refreshing to see one do so with such an approach. Hokkaido Gals could have just settle for the low hanging fruit that typify these kinds of works, and yet it doesn’t. In one episode, Sayuri (I think you typo-ed her name as Yumuri) has been portrayed as a girl with realistic insecurities and a down-to-earth anxiety response to these issues, making her feel like an authentic character rather than a basic archetype. Maybe it might have just been me having extremely low expectations for this series going into it, but I think I might just genuinely like it so far. It’s pleasant, well-meaning, and the writing actually demonstrates competence in understanding how to stage organic interpersonal dynamics.
Now on the point of what makes a show a harem, I think you hit the nail on the head in that the contention seems to be coming from a disagreement on what factors qualify a series as a harem. My answer to this is sort of an extension of the answer you gave, as I define a harem series as a subgenre of romance manga/anime in which the story intentionally leaves it ambiguous as to whether the lead (typically a male) has romantic interest in any of their partners in order to make all them all viable for said lead’s affection or the lead is just flat out in love with and in a relationship with all of them. The factor of ambiguity or explicit demonstration of loving multiple partners is essential to qualifying a series as a harem, as the ambiguity/lack of making a concrete choice in a love interest sells the illusion that the lead has multiple dating partners, meanwhile the explicit demonstration of loving/dating multiple partners is emphatically what a harem is by definition. Basically, the takeaway here is that both factors satisfy the primary condition series’ of this nature want to get across: a lead who is partnered with multiple people.
On the flipside, a series doesn’t fall under the hard definition of a harem title if the lead, despite being pined for by multiple partners, chooses to build a romance with one of the interests and friendzones the rest. For example, Macross is a series known for its lead character being pined for by at least 2 romantic interests, yet we don’t necessarily call that a harem; it’s simply a romantic drama with a love triangle, one that ultimately ends with the protag usually making a definitive choice and sidelining the other competitor(s).
Now some harem series try to create the illusion of choice by establishing a “main love interest;” one that the lead may lend an extra bit of affection to when compared to the rest; and yet despite it all, still ends up never making a concrete choice to date said main love interest, let alone any of the other competitors, because it would shatter the even grander fantastical illusion the genre tries to pander to of having the freedom to pursue multiple dating partners who would never lose interest in you. When it comes down to it, harems are all about…….having a harem; love triangles or tetrahedrons are about dealing driving dramatic romantic stakes between its competitors until a choice is made. Even if the characters all seem to have their sights on one person in love triangles or tetrahedrons, they are not harems by the more nuanced qualifications of the genre’s staples; they are called harems superficially, but aren’t really when looked at comprehensively
Guardian Enzo
January 24, 2024 at 1:23 pmThat’s a lot to unpack, but in sum, I think we agree – it’s not really a harem if the male lead (or the female lead in what’s somewhat chauvinistically called a reverse harem) is only interested in one potential partner romantically.
A person
January 25, 2024 at 1:38 pmNot true, love Hina is a harem. Yet he from start to finish was only interested in Naru, ending in marriage. Same with the monogatari series, ah my goddess, yona of the dawn, know white with the red hair. Their are many harems with a central love interest that solidifies by the end.
Raikou
January 24, 2024 at 12:25 pmKind of unexpected you would like this series, Enzo.
Because I assumed you’re not into harem series (and yes the general consensus is any series with one male and minimum 3 girls who’s into the MC is considered harem, even though the main girl is decided.)
I like the relationship in this series too, it felt relaxing. But Hokkaido Trivia is the actual ‘plus’ for me. Dammit I want to go there!
Guardian Enzo
January 24, 2024 at 1:24 pmHokkaido is great. Best food in Japan, snow, less brutal summers. Kitami is way up there, though.
Larimar
January 24, 2024 at 7:40 pmCan confirm that Hokkaido schools do indeed schedule a few ski lesson days for the students every winter! At the elementary schools I work at at least, the staff would pile up the snow that falls on school grounds into a hill so that the 1st and 2nd graders could use it for ski class (and just general yuki asobi during recess), while older students would be bussed to the nearby ski resort in town for their lessons. This may not apply to the parts of dekkaido that don’t get as much snowfall though.
I haven’t actually started watching Dosanko Gal, but your reviews make me curious! I enjoyed other Hokkaido-based anime like Gin no Saji, Erased, and ofc Golden Kamuy(of which I’d like to ask if you were planning to watch the live action movie??)
Guardian Enzo
January 24, 2024 at 7:55 pmI’ll probably watch the LA GK when it comes out on Blu-ray, not keen enough to spend on seeing it unsubbed in a theatre.
Hokkaido is the shizzle, man.
Woohoo463
January 31, 2024 at 12:50 pmThis is NOT a harem series. The manga is the single most realistic depiction of high school romance I’ve seen across manga and anime. There’s never any ambiguity where Shiki’s heart is at, he doesn’t lead any of the other female characters on, and there’s not any ecchi trip into breasts BS at least not in the manga.
Guardian Enzo
January 31, 2024 at 1:00 pmThe only thing certain is that there’s fierce disagreement over whether this is a harem or not…