Anime Review - Hajimete no Gal - What an Ecchi Anime should avoid to be

Ecchi is not really my cup of tea, but that's not saying I wouldn't watch it. It's just that I wouldn't specifically search for anime that has a large emphasize on ecchi. Everyone likes a bit of ecchi once in a while. I stumbled upon this anime when I was searching through popular animes to watch for the season, and Hajimete no Gal was one of the most popular when the season started. However, Hajimete no Gal is not what it seems. It completely does the complete opposite of what a good ecchi anime should do, and I was pretty disappointed by the time I finished the 10 episode series.


Story (2/10):
It's just a typical ecchi anime setting. High school setting. Plain and dense MC gets with an attractive female, and eventually there's a harem. And the list goes on...

Nevertheless, they did show what every ecchi anime should have - beach scene, karaoke scene, etc.
Other than that, there's not a lot of plot development, but then again, it's an ecchi anime. You can't expect plot progression or even a plot in an ecchi anime.

Characters (2/10):
I was hesitant to give a score of 2. It should really be 1 if I was extremely cynical. I felt all the characters were all "hateable". The MC is so plain and dense so I don't get how he gets along with a beautiful girl. His friends are much worse though. There's a lolicon/pedo in the group and I found that extremely creepy and sometimes it made me cringe a bit. It really made me uncomfortable to sit through. The other two friends weren't that bad to be honest (THANK GOD FOR THAT).

As usual, all the other girls except one have extremely large breasts. And that's all they really have (not that I dislike that ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)). Ranko-san was the only "redeeming" girl because she goes against the "stereotypical Gal", but unfortunately that doesn't redeem the creepy lolicon/pedo character. Urgh.

Sound (1/10):
The voice acting of the characters was really hard to sit through. My voice sounds really bad so I know when the voice acting is atrocious. Most of the characters' voice acting are extremely "cringy", but perhaps that was due to how the characters should act and sound like.

Art (5/10):
The art is ok. It's not super amazing but it's not bad too look at. However, in terms of today's standards, it's probably below par. The art is probably the only "redeeming" quality that keeps it from dying.

Enjoyment (3/10):
I didn't really enjoy this anime that much and I felt that this is most likely due to two reasons. The first reason is the presence of the lolicon/pedo character because it made the anime uncomfortable to watch. The second reason is the voice acting because sometimes it was just so bad to listen to.

Overall (3/10):
I'm probably being nice on giving a rating of 3. Most people would decimate this anime and just give it a 1 or 2. This anime goes against what a good ecchi anime should be. This is definitely a WOULD NOT RECOMMEND. Stay away from this atrocious mess. Perhaps the manga is better...