B Gata H Kei – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: Yamada (first name withheld - no, really, it's part of the show) is a hormonal high school freshman and virgin with one goal in life: she aims to have casual sex with 100 partners while in high school.  She's read all the books on the subject and thinks she knows what she's getting into, but there's just one thing holding her back - she thinks that her vagina looks weird and she's afraid that any experienced guy will think the same.  Her solution is to look for a guy who's also a virgin and use his inexperience to her advantage, since after her first time is out of the way she feels like she'll have more confidence.  While buying a new dictionary at the bookstore (since she highlighted all the sex-related words in her previous one) she literally falls into the lap of a likely candidate, a certain Takashi Kosuda.  Her straightforwardness frightens him away at first, but that's okay; as it turns out, he's a member of her homeroom class, giving her ample time to work on her game.

She approaches the challenge from various angles, including flashing her breasts at Kosuda in a supply closet, "discreetly" showing him her height, weight and chest measurements after her check-up, and attempting to get Kosuda to fondle her in the library, but for some reason he's frightened off every time.  One of her magazines mentions that a good place to experience a first kiss is in a guy's bedroom, so Yamada schemes to get invited into Kosuda's place by stealing his umbrella and walking him home.  Unfortunately, even though the two have the house to themselves, Yamada is frightened off when Kosuda's body betrays his arousal.

Thoughts: After watching Kiss x Sis last month, I thought it was unlikely that I would encounter another series in the same season that would make me feel even half as uncomfortable as that series made me feel.  Unfortunately, the cards seem stacked against me, because B Gata H Kei is easily as tacky and exploitative (and billed as an uproarious comedy, no less!) and I spent much of the time viewing this episode feeling alternately disgusted by the trivialization of a teenage girl's sexuality and embarrassed for the main character herself.

Before I let my emotions run away with this review, I should say that, much like Chu-Bra! last season, the premise of this series could have easily been used for the forces of good, rather than the forces of blegh.  Yamada's sexual inexperience and her insecurities regarding her body could have been formulated in a more positive, educational manner.  I'm not even saying that the humorous aspect should have been completely tossed out, either; sex and sex-ed have an inherent kind of awkwardness that's ripe for poking fun at.  But all the jokes in this episode seem to be at the expense of the main character's naiveté, or based around her incessant sexual harassment of her love-interest. I've said it once and I'm going to say it again - no matter who it's happening to, sexual harassment of this kind is just not an appropriate basis for humor.  Seeing Yamada corner Kosuda in the library made me feel ill; doubly-so because I know that there are plenty of people out there who will giggle wildly at the situation without giving a second thought to the implications. It's made even worse by the fact that she gets irate very easily when there's even a suspicion that any of the boys in her class might be seeing her as a sexual target.  Why the discrepancy? Or is that supposed to be funny too?

I also find it sort of difficult to believe that a girl who is so utterly sex-focused and who seems to have so much sex literature in her possession could have missed the part about penises and erections, to the point of being frightened-off and disgusted by Kosuda's aroused state.  It wouldn't be such as surprise to me if Yamada had demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge in every area, but she at least knows about condoms and seems perfectly capable of recognizing her own sexual arousal (if the scene in the library is any indication), so to be so clueless about the male side of the equation is pushing the boundaries of logic at the very least.

Most of her friends seem more than willing to point out Yamada's logical fallacies, but not directly to her and not in any sort of constructive way that would actually result in some dawning realizations on her part. Whenever Yamada does something silly or misguided, chibi versions of her friends pop up in the corner of the screen to tell her "no, that's not right!" in a frequent sight-gag that quickly becomes old. Yamada is also watched-over by a "sex god" who looks like a chibi version of herself with a moustache. Yes, it really is as goofy as it sounds.  No, he doesn't seem to be able to give her any help, either. Yes, it's another sight gag that fell flat for me.

Why this episode isn't funny, and this is in addition to the fact that much of the situational comedy is based on pure harassment, is that there seems to be a lack of sympathy towards the characters that makes everything that unfolds seem extremely mean-spirited towards them.  While I'm sure all of us have, at some point, dealt with some form of sexual awkwardness and cluelessness (while putting "peg A" into "slot B" isn't difficult to grasp, it's those gooey feelings that come along with it that tend to throw a wrench in things), the characters in this show aren't portrayed in such a way as to foster a connection with them on those shared terms.  In fact, they seem to exist expressly so that the audience can point their fingers and laugh, saying "well at least I'm not that stupid!" Yamada's reactions especially seem geared towards making her as unsympathetic as possible. She rarely seems genuinely contrite after her misguided attempts at putting the jump on Kosuda, and her misgivings about her own body, something that most if not all girls experience, is portrayed not as a genuine lack of self-esteem, but more as a "va-jay-jays are icky-poo and weird!" Really?

The animation production on this episode is fairly high, which is honestly kind of a disappointment to me.  It's petty to  bring up the old complaint that raunchy and otherwise tasteless productions seem to get all the funding while more artful pieces flounder in low-budget oblivion, but darn it, it's frustrating.  The outside shots of the school are quite nice as well - there seems to be a very limited use of true black in the color scheme, so the outlines recall the look of old ditto machine prints to some extent (although much sharper).  This gives the scenes a bit of an airy, dreamlike quality. Some of the scene transitions are really obnoxious, featuring a giant rubbery letter "B" bouncing into the frame.  I'm really not a fan of that gimmicky kind of editing and it's very unnecessary here.

This episode represents a missed opportunity.  It could have taken a higher route and combined some light humor with a bit of actual education.  It could have made its characters awkward but sympathetic, people to whom the audience could relate and with whom they could share their experiences.  But no, instead we get another trashy, raunchy sex comedy that points and laughs at the mistakes of others and features sexual harassment in major pieces of its humor. Next.

Pros:

• The production values are pretty nice and some of the background artwork has a distinct sense of style.

Cons:

• The majority of the humor is based around sexual harassment or is so mean spirited as to seem more hurtful than funny.
• The main character is almost too clueless to believe, especially based on other things we already know about her.
• The visual gags are repetitive.

Recommended? No. I'm not a fan of ecchi comedies in the first place, but when they're constructed to be so thoughtless and when the actions of the characters would almost unequivocally amount to a real-life sex crime, then count me out.