Day Three Hundred and Eighteen - Yamada's First Time (B Gata H Kei): Episode 7, "Insert Obligatory Swimsuit Episode Here."

Okay, yes, I have to admit... this series is super cheesy, but I stand by my previous assertion that it is Love, Japanese Style and, while it's not exactly the most ground breaking or informative sex comedy out there, it still has this odd sort of charm despite it's reliance on tropes and silly contrivances (like Yamada's rival for "School Queen/Idol,"  the extremely rich girl transfer student, Kanejo, who is desperately in love with her own brother).

This episode is, like all the rest, split into two short plotlines, the first of which revolves around swim class, which gives the girls time to compete and become jealous/morose over body image issues (a good stepping off point for discussion), and the second concerns summer vacation time as Yamada attempts to crash Kosuda's family camping trip (which includes her semi-secret rival, the clumsily cute Miyano).

Both parts are rather light on development, but feature the dichotomy of Yamada's life, as she tries so desperately to be a sex diva (and fails miserably) while unwittingly beginning to fall in love, her concerns for Kosuda's attentions slowly shifting from mercenary and single-minded to complex and a mystery even to her.

I have to say that Yamada's much put upon friend and confidant, Miharu Takeshita, is my favorite character... mostly due to her no-nonsense attitude about life and the sheer amount of fluff and craziness that she has to suffer through (and suffer, she does) by being Yamada's best friend. Seriously, the only other character that comes close is Miyano... and that's just because she's so damn moe, it almost hurts.

That's not to say I don't laugh at Yamada's antics and really do want to see her and Kosuda get together, it's just that her motivations are so puerile and her tsundere attitude towards, Kosuda, the supposed object of her attentions? Let's just say I didn't like that sort of archetype even when I was first introduced to it back in the Evangelion days (really, the only time I've enjoyed it was maybe when it came to The Melancholy of Suzamiya Haruhi).

While I could point to sex comedies that are better out there in the anime universe (Seitokai Yakuindomo comes to mind), Yamada's first time is still one of the strongest titles available on Netflix. I just wish that other production companies would license their titles for the Instant Stream instead of getting the wide range of quality (both good and bad) that we do now courtesy only of Funimation.

I also want to point out that it comes both dubbed and subbed, like most titles on the Instant Stream, which makes me very happy. I realize that many people don't want to read their dialogue, but I'm a purist and prefer the original Japanese language tracks, even though I don't speak the language, myself. Having both means no one is left out, and that's awesome.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Three Hundred and Ten - Yamada's First Time (B Gata H Kei): Episode 1, "Love, Japanese Style"

If you were to ask me to watch an animated version of American Pie, I would probably decline. While the premise is cute, the thought of idiot teenagers getting their jones on via awkward gags doesn't really appeal. Additionally, Japanese sex comedies aren't exactly known for their presence of mind when it comes to tact (or being anything other than a thinly veiled smut-fest), as they're generally just loose storylines of horndog guys trying to get with whomever they can. I guess that's why I was surprised when I first checked out Yamada's First Time.

Not only does the series invert the trope of the sex-crazed male horndog, turning that role over to the overly sexed, but criminally naive, Yamada... but the show actually manages to highlight all of the silly, awkward things that teens go through when it comes to discovering their sexuality, while telling an oddly sweet romance at the same time... something that American Pie only does in the last ten minutes of the film.

Of course the main character is Yamada. She's the pinnacle of your typical fashionista model type, at least physically, but suffers from being extremely interested in sex with no actual experience to draw from. This makes her so self-conscious that she actively sabotages the efforts of any guy trying to fulfill her desire for nookie.

That's where the timid Kosuda comes in. After bumping into him at a bookstore and miraculously discovering that they're in the same class, Yamada decides that, since he's a scaredy-cat virgin, he's the perfect person with which to lose her own virginity to as he'd just be happy to be with her and wouldn't notice her own lack of experience. It doesn't help, of course, that she has no idea how to attract/seduce him, so her clumsy attempts more often than not wind up intimidating or scaring him and, at the very end of the episode, frightening even her as she wasn't quite prepared for the, uh, shall we say physical reactions she might have on him.

I decided to watch Yamada's First Time today to wash the taste of last night's Okami-san out of my mouth. While, on the surface, the two use many of the same tools in terms of character archetypes (there's a tsundere female lead with a cowardly male love interest, and several different female characters like the buxom glasses girl and precocious loli), where Okami is just a mishmash of tropes, Yamada's First Time is a surprisingly decent "Step-Up Love Story" that could almost be used in health classes to show what kids discovering their hormones should NOT do in the pursuit of their first relationships... and does so in a way relateable to both adults and teens.

And it's funny.

There, I said it... watching Yamada try and reach her goal of having 100 Sex Friends by the time she graduates high school (spoiler: she never gets past #1, by the way), but always be struck down by her own nerves or hubris, is pretty darn entertaining.

It's also a commendable series because, while it is a bit ecchi (I mean, c'mon, it deals with high schoolers trying to hook up), it's never about titillation. Unlike most ecchi titles, which are usually just generic stories with tits and ass meant to boost ratings (see my reviews of High School of the Dead), Yamada's First Time is an exercise in discussing, but never really showing. Any nudity is avoided by camera angles or sight gags and everything else sex related is pantomimed or symbolic.

It's not porn... it's... well... a health class filmreel for the modern era... that just happens to have a cute and funny storyline. To be honest, it's really rather amazing how the author of the manga that this series is based on has managed to present such a compelling argument for monogamy in the guise of a woman trying to become a sex-fiend.

I wouldn't recommend this anime for anyone who hasn't reached puberty, but it's pretty safe (and informative) for teens and funny for adults.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~