If we’re honest, any romance anime airing right now is going to come up short when being compared to BokuYaba.  That’s not fair of course, and I managed to really enjoy Dosanko Gal wa Namara Menkoi without thinking much about that.  But it does occur to you with an episode like this one, which trades pretty heavily in the conventions of the genre.  Personally I think this series is a little sharper in the way it handles them than most seem to give it credit for, but it’s still somewhat beholden to them at times like this.

I’ll get to the elephant over there in just a bit, but first the Shibazakura Park denouement.  Missing the last bus from remote corners is actually a legit thing in Japan, and airhead teens can certainly do it.  Tsubasa and Minami winding up in a hotel room is one of those conventions to be sure, and it was charming in a fundamentally orthodox way.  The interesting question here is whether Shiki’s dad really assumed his son’s friend was a guy (I guess probably, but you never know).

My one issue with this sequence, really, is that there is absolutely no way on God’s green Earth that a 16 year-old kid is going to fall asleep in that situation.  Are you kidding me?  I mean, come on.  And you can’t help but compare that to the way Norio-sensei handled a similar situation in BokuYaba, which actually proceeded along the lines of how each of the principals would react in that moment (even more in the manga, which showed us more of Yamada’s perspective).  I think it’s possible two kids in love would restrain themselves even given this rare opportunity – especially given the lack of protection (though conbinis exist) one would want to have available – but it would have been hella awkward.

But be that as it may, she’s gone when he wakes up – and how did that work exactly?  Did she leave specifically because he fell asleep, and how did she get home?  And Tsubasa goes into a funk, not seeing either Sayuri or Rena for at least a week.  The latter drops off some Kashiwa mochi (a traditional Boy’s Day dish) but never gets past Dad.  Eventually Fuyuki-san runs into Akino-san and her younger friends at a local cafe, and their chat implies that Minami told her about her leaving a lot sooner than she told Tsubasa.

Minami is on her way to the airport in fact, and Sayuri – a good and true friend even in times like this – tells Tsubasa about it.  He’s convinced Minami has thrown him over but finally shames himself into going to the airport to see her off.  He begs his dad to drive him (Memanbetsu is about half an hour by car from central Kitami).  And judging by this first extended appearance, Shiki-papa is kind of a bro.  He gets his kid a hotel room, blows off a meeting to drive him to the airport for a girl, seems delighted that his son has made connections in Hokkaido.  Whatever bad stuff was going down in Tokyo, he sure doesn’t come off like a bad guy.

And then, it happens.  And I think one’s reaction says a fair bit about how they view Dosanko Gal in general.  If one is predisposed to mock and deride this series, this is surely a headdesk moment.  Me, I just barked out a laugh and shook my head.  I think it was kind of a clever troll, actually.  And I can totally see someone like Minami – a goofy 16 year-old kid – thinking two weeks was, like, forever.  It was a troll either way, but whether one appreciated it or just got pissed off (and the latter seems to be where most readers/viewers land) depends on the user.

In the end, I’m no less convinced than ever that this series isn’t remotely a harem.  It’s Minami, and that’s that.  And the finale could hardly do more to make that obvious.  Why that seems to bother so many people as much as it does is honestly a mystery to me.  It’s a romcom, they’re the couple.  There’s no bait-and-switch happening here – people just see what they want to see.  I generally find the derision so many heap on this series to be misplaced (and it makes me wonder why people never dropped the show or the manga if they dislike it that much).

So yeah, I like Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable.  It’s cute, it’s fun, the characters are nice people, the main pairing are good kids with some chemistry.  Is it tropey?  Obviously, but it’s smarter about tweaking those tropes than it gets credit for.  For me this show is actually more free of BS than the majority of high school romcoms, and in fact the romance side of it is refreshingly straightforward.  A series doesn’t have to be revolutionary or brilliant to be entertaining, and I found this one entertaining from start to finish, with no huge stumbles in-between.  I enjoyed spending time with these characters every week and for a series I went into with no real expectations to speak of, that was a pleasant surprise.