Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?! – Episode 1

What’s it about? Takuya Seo exists on the fringes of his classroom as a quiet otaku: that is, until two kogals approach him with a desire to nerd out. Now, Takuya is left with one genuine question: can kogals really be otaku, too, or are they just pulling his leg?

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It seems that the 2020s is destined to be obsessed with the 90s—a.k.a. Obsessed with adding kogals and gyaru into anime. Such is the case with Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?! which features a nerd and two gals who suddenly take interest in their male classmate because of shared fandom. 

And that’s where we start with this premiere: with student Takuya Seo quietly maintaining a low profile in his classroom while ogling his brand new Glittery Monpets anime eraser, which notably is an anime aimed at a feminine audience. It’s actually quite refreshing because it establishes Takuya’s softness—which immediately gets challenged by Kotoko Ijichi, the gal that sits in front of him, and Amane Kei, her friend, when they need an eraser.

It also reveals that Takuya has some pretty severe prejudice against kogals, forming the foundation of this series main problem: how will Takuya work through his private prejudice about two of his classmates that he perceives as being disingenuous when actually, they’re both low-key otaku, especially Amane. 

So the question remains: will Takuya be able to become friends with Kotoko and Amane while avoiding being thought of as a weirdo? 

I’m actually kind of the target market for a show like this, especially since it’s not dripping with fan service. I like the fact that we get to see the hidden side of Takuya, Kotoko, and Amane. I like that we get to see the foundation of a friendship being forged. I like that a lot of this premiere is about the assumptions we internalize about simply liking things.

Gals Can’t Be King to Otaku?! isn’t revolutionary by any length, but it is nice to see a high school show that focuses on the lives of everyday kids who are also deeply passionate about a series they love. It’s also nice to see Takuya, Kotoko, and Amane be so quickly revealed to be dynamic people. Like I said, it’s not revolutionary but what it is is realistic and genuinely mindful of the fact that we all have layers and that it’s okay to be multiple things at once. It’s a lesson that feels obvious on the surface, but actually, is something that we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

Here, it most prominent manifests as Takuya’s anxiety about Kotoko and Amane teasing him because of his experiences in middle school. He frequently worries that the very extraverted Kotoko and Amane are going to look down on him while starting to embrace the fact that they’re complex people just like him. While the “joke” is the dissonance Takuya experiences, it’s enough that it can be maintained throughout the entire series while also still being developed, and honestly, that’s enough for me to stick with this series.

This is an easy addition to my Spring roster because it’s the kind of enjoyable piece of media that I can sit down and just chill with. It’s also a bit nostalgic, capturing that specific feeling of being a teenager into a very specific series that you immediately go sleeper agent about when you get the chance to talk about it. I spent a lot of my teen years like that about Tokyo Mew Mew, and as someone who still really appreciates what children’s media can do, I heavily find myself really liking Takuya. 

Ultimately, Gals Can’t Be King to Otaku?! is the kind of anime that can only go up, exploring why Takuya has the prejudices he does and showing that there’s other people in the world he can absolutely connect with while growing into his own.