The Winter 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

High school boy Tsubasa moves to Kitami City up in Hokkaido, where he meets a "gal" at a bus stop. The sight of her standing alone against the white snowscape, bare-legged despite the freezing cold, captures his heart.

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! is based on a manga of the same name by Kai Ikada. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

99% of the time, I write these first episode reviews blind—to the point that I don't even peek at the other reviewers' entries until mine's been fully written. However, this time, I couldn't help myself. Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! is one of my favorite ongoing romance manga so I was excited to see if everyone loved this first episode as much as I did.

...They did not.

However, their reviews laid bare something I hadn't considered: cultural context. To your average Japanese person, Tokyo is the center of the world. Those living there assume that everywhere is like Tokyo. Those not living there see it as a magical hub of culture and coolness. This anime is about reality clashing with those ideas. Therefore, the more you know about the differences between the stereotypical image and real life in both Tokyo and Hokkaido, the more you'll get out of this anime.

To me, this episode is a lot of nostalgia. I've lived all across Japan—including Tokyo and more rural areas. Many of the things Tsubasa is going through are similar experiences to ones I've had—and many Japanese people have had as well.

But more than just that, I love the realness of the burgeoning relationship between Tsubasa and Minami—especially the snot scene (because even when the person you're crushing on is in a gross or embarrassing situation, they still seem beautiful in your eyes). Minami sees Tsubasa as her direct connection to the “real world” and he sees her as his guide to this new one. Their cultures are constantly clashing—to the point that he doesn't understand the words coming out of her mouth (not because she's a gal but because Hokkaido has an accent and slang all its own.)

But what's truly important is that both are operating purely in good faith. They're genuinely interested in each other and look to be working through their misunderstandings healthily. While there may be a fair bit of fanservice in this one, behind that is a pure love story between two good people from entirely different worlds. It's just the kind of romance anime I love to see.

Okay, I admit it: this show lost me when Tsubasa, the male lead, started getting all worked up over Fuyuki sneezing into her hand and having glistening strings of snot on them. Since that was a little over five minutes in, it gave me that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Fortunately, that's the only egregious moment in this otherwise by-the-numbers rom-com, which features a sixteen-year-old boy moving to Hokkaido from Tokyo in the middle of the winter and being flummoxed by how different it is, and also there are cute girls.

If there is one element I appreciate, it is the contrast between Fuyuki and Tsubasa. I'm not just talking about how he was shocked that she's a gyaru, but more about their attitudes. As a recent transplant to a rural area, Tsubasa is utterly unprepared for how different it will be from his urban upbringing, and that's something I've seen played out a lot as someone from a northern, rural area. Even just the difference in how they dress for going outside – Tsubasa looks ready for arctic exploration, while Fuyuki – and the other kids we see – all just have snow boots and a scarf, or maybe a hat or what looks like a regular coat. Cold is as cold does, and what is frigid to Tsubasa may just be a little chillier than normal for locals. While Fuyuki may very well know that Tsubasa is attracted to her, she largely gives the impression of just dressing the way she's comfortable and inviting him over because that's what you do when a new person moves to town.

The downside is that this made, for me, the intensity of Tsubasa's reactions to Fuyuki just living her life a little much. I don't think he believes that she's dressing to provoke him, but he's so out of his element that he comes across as too much in nearly every situation he finds himself in. Some, like thinking he could walk to the neighboring town, work well. Others, like when he sees her wearing a sweatsuit and thinks it's somehow sexy, not so much. How all of this will change when the promised other two girls come into the story remains to be seen, and honestly, I could see this being a lot of fun for harem fans, especially if the girls are different enough from each other. But they lost me on the snot, and while I could be persuaded to watch a second episode based on Fuyuki's self-confidence, I can't say I'm excited about it.

Hey everybody, do you like cold weather? How about anime tiddies? If you answered yes to both, then have I got a show for you! Unfortunately, if your standards for entertainment require anything besides the sight of shiny cartoon boobs wrapped in a light cardigan, this show is likely to leave you colder than a Hokkaido winter.

There's just not much to this one, and I say that as somebody who's read a good chunk of the manga. The sole and entire appeal is seeing various images of the main girl, Fuyuki, in various suggestive poses or sultry pinup illustrations. Everything outside of that is white noise destined to be lost in the freezing tundra of the countryside in winter. If you are specifically somebody who likes this (by now, largely antiquated) gyaru aesthetic, then this might work as brain-off fanservice delivery, but if you want things like entertaining dialogue or funny jokes, you're best off looking elsewhere.

The character chemistry is the killer for me, and it's a problem that only becomes more apparent in the anime. Across this whole episode, every conversation between our lead couple follows the same stilted formula. Fuyuki says something casually flirty. Tsubasa misinterprets her, pops a boner, and then stammers out a half-baked response while he screams inside his head. The conversation moves on like nothing happened, and Fuyuki inexplicably acts charmed by this guy who cannot hold a conversation with a bucket. It hammers home just how inert their whole dynamic is, and makes Tsubasa seem like a creep who can't stop constantly sexualizing this girl he just met, constantly expecting her to jump his dick like a timid rabbit doped up on Viagra.

If the dialogue was better or the characters were more charming, then this might be an alright time-waster. As-is, it's just a non-starter, turning every sequence that doesn't involve a lovingly rendered pinup shot of Fuyuki into a chore you have to get through for the meager reward of anime boobs.