#156: Please Tell Me! Galko-chan (2016)

 

Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi

Screenplay: Keiichiro Kawaguchi

Based on a manga by Kenya Suzuki

Voice Cast: Azumi Waki as Galko; Minami Takahashi as Ojō; Miyu Tomita as Otako; Ayaka Suwa as Iinchō; Daisuke Ono as Supoo; Juri Kimura as Nikuko; Kaede Hondo as Yabana; Mamiko Noto as the Narrator; Shizuka Ishigami as Agemi; Takahiro Sakurai as Charao; Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Otao; Yuko Iida as Okako; Yuna Yoshino as Ōji; Ai Kakuma as Metako

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

You go, tampon professor!

Another micro series, twelve episodes long about seven minutes each, but Galko-chan is also a case of not judging a book by its cover. In this case, just one character, the titular Galko, in any other context would be a fan service figure for male viewers, a blonde high school girl drawn with an insanely pronounced bust. Jokes do deal with this - the first of the entire series involves her female okatu friend Otako demonstrating to her how the size of the areola is bigger in lieu to the breast by drawing a dot on a balloon and having her inflating it. Galko-chan the micro series, as has been documented by others, is actually a sweet comedy which goes completely against expectations.

Namely, that this is a positive show about the two characters and their other friend Ojō, dubbed an airhead by the female narrator but lovably earnest, with references to her being of a rich family and still very good in school. The three bond and converse about subjects rarely dealt with in high school anime, like having one's period, dealing with the purchase of sanitary towels, or perceptions of gender stereotypes, such as the fact Galko is called that because she is a "Gyaru". This is a subculture of woman in Japanese who were originally influenced by Western figures like Pamela Anderson, dying their hair blonde or at least embracing the sense of style and accessories of Western pop culture, an added baggage here that characters make presumptions Galko is very promiscuous or very sexually open too. In reality, she is sweet, at times nervous on said subject, with a bad habit of sleeping during class in the mornings, and having almost everything one could need in her bad for an emergency. She is a legitimately kind and charitable if she was to exist in real life. A lot of the humour in general is about subverting expectations in character archetypes beyond her too.

Also, without showing anything, even if it does censor certain words in the Japanese dub, this gets away with sex and toilet humour in very charming and funny ways, even one about the dangers of eating spicy food and that this will need a cushion to sit on the next day, even very explicit subject matter like the hymen and how horse riding would affect this intimate part of the body. The series is vignette based, all of the episodes having segments based on old wives' tales, or questions which almost evoke a sex education class or the gossip of teenagers in some of the queries. Some are spurn from Otako being a bit mean to Galko, exploiting her moments of naivety by evoking exaggerated ideas of the body to tease her, Ojō usually taking a while to grasp the ideas being talked of in her long gestating thoughts bubbles as well.

Mostly set at their school, with a few exceptions like the water park episode where Galko helps out a young boy, you slowly add more and more of the class students as the show progresses on. Most of the cast is female; these are side characters you do not get a lot of time with which is sad, such as a girl nicknamed "Sonic Meat" who, pleasantly, is a very large girl in weight who yet is exceptionally good at athletics. The characters I wished had more time onscreen are the outsiders, specifically as, with one of the most unexpected and funniest jokes for myself, the member of the trio who is drawn as the most stereotypical short and cute moe schoolgirl, wearing glasses, is briefly explaining to her friend, who is a significantly taller girl who slouches and acts like the stereotypical outsider who is in a band, the differences between death metal and black metal without us getting context for the conversation.

The male classmates are there, and it is specifically three we follow, three guys are neither cheap depictions, nor obnoxious figures we are meant to like, but depicted as they should be as figures in their teenager years that have raging hormones and do not know what to do with them. They speculate about Galko being with men romantically, such as when one notices she is wearing a men's shirt and imagines a boyfriend, but they for all their speculation and psychological tests secretly about one's sexual preferences are like the female classmates, likable and naive at times. Even with some of the more ludicrous jokes there is a charming absurdity, such as the nerdy member of the three acquiring a bread making kit because kneading bread is compared to a close approximation to Galko's breasts in a conversation between her and her friends, a sense of yes, lovesick teenagers could do something this ridiculous in real life and not just in anime.

As a micro-series, there is no real sense of progression beyond jokes and some emotional weight, such as the final episode is actually a prologue to the series of how everyone met. For its director-screenwriter-story boarder Keiichiro Kawaguchi, considering that the series was popular, this is great example of having a production which would have not been very elaborate to create, but managing to show his talents off with rewards reaped. It does not even get as experimental or strange as some of the other micro-series I have witnessed - though it does have a trademark of sound effects to signify anything from chattering to a person's scent which is done in text onscreen but also by a voice actress - but is solidly made and never once having a bad joke. A testament to the series is that I had knowledge of this series without realising it at the time of its release, as by pure coincidence I saw memes on Tumblr that copied whole gags, shown in captures images with subtitles, for their inspired or amused fans. Finally getting around to the series, it is amazing to have encountered such a frank comedy that also managed to be extremely sweet at the same time. This, as a micro-series, perfectly shows what you can do with this format.