Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! (Japanese: 道産子ギャルはなまらめんこい, Hepburn: Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kai Ikada. The story follows a Tokyo teenager who moves to Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and meets a girl unlike any he has ever met before.

It has been serialized for free on the Shōnen Jump+ application and website since September 2019, with the chapters collected and published into thirteen tankōbon volumes by Shueisha as of May 2024. Shueisha also publishes the series in English for free on the Manga Plus app and website. An anime television series adaptation produced by Silver Link and Blade aired from January to March 2024, and is distributed and licensed by Crunchyroll in North America, Europe, Australia and British Isles.

Premise

Teenager Tsubasa Shiki moves from Tokyo to the city of Kitami in Hokkaido. Upon arrival, he meets his classmate and native gal Minami Fuyuki, who takes a liking to the city boy and takes him under her wing. Finding her unlike any other girl he has met before, Tsubasa finds himself drawn to this Hokkaido gal.

Characters

Tsubasa Shiki (四季 翼, Shiki Tsubasa)

Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese); Matt Shipman (English)

A 16-year-old transfer student from Tokyo, who has no experience with girls and was considered boring in his hometown by his peers. Despite initially telling himself that she is not his type and that her actions are immoral, he realizes he has a crush on Minami, finding her forwardness enticing. The two grow closer as she helps Tsubasa adjust to his new life in Hokkaido. Although not explicitly confirmed, flashbacks of his earlier life suggest he comes from a wealthy family.

Minami Fuyuki (冬木 美波, Fuyuki Minami)

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese); Mikaela Krantz (English)

Tsubasa's 16-year-old classmate at Kitami Hokuryo High School, who is popular and talkative, speaking in heavy Hokkaido dialect. She follows the gal subculture; dyeing her hair blonde, wearing short skirts in winter, and refusing to wear gloves in the winter so that she can still use her phone. She seems to have a crush on Tsubasa and enjoys flirting with him to make him embarrassed and flustered. In the dub, she speaks with a heavy Minnesotan accent.

Sayuri Akino (秋野 沙友理, Akino Sayuri)

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese); Brittany Lauda (English)

Tsubasa and Minami's classmate who, with her raven-hair, reserved personality and choice not to use the Hokkaido dialect, is the exact opposite of Minami. She is more reticent, but pays just enough attention to social trends in order to fit in with her peers. Because she sweats a lot, Sayuri avoided all forms of exercise, which eventually found her avoiding people in general. As they both find it difficult to socialize, Sayuri feels a kinship with Tsubasa, and decides to befriend him and Minami. She was born in Asahikawa and moved to Kitami when she was in elementary.

Rena Natsukawa (夏川 怜奈, Natsukawa Rena)

Voiced by: Reina Ueda (Japanese); Jill Harris (English)

Tsubasa's neighbor and senpai or upperclassman one grade above him, whom Minami idolizes. She has short white-gray hair and is believed to be mixed-race. Rena is a history buff and at the top of her class academically but is really timid, even though she has also won the school beauty contest two years in a row. She offers to tutor Tsubasa and asks him to take her on a date in exchange.

Asuka (飛鳥)

Voiced by: Mariko Nagai (Japanese); Erin Kelly Noble (English)

Sayuri's childhood friend and underclassman one grade below her. A member of the swim team, she is athletic and has short hair and a dark complexion. Asuka tries to support Sayuri and her romantic feelings for Tsubasa as much as she can.

Hina (日菜)

Voiced by: Yurika Kubo (Japanese); Rachel Thompson (English)

Asuka's friend and classmate who calls herself Minami's biggest fan. She has long hair and wears big glasses. Having gone to the same middle school as Minami, she is obsessed with her as she resembles her favorite fictional character. Hina follows Minami on the internet and thoroughly researches everything around her, including Tsubasa.

Takayumi Matsuo (松尾 隆弓, Matsuo Takayumi)

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese); Travis Mullenix (English)

A male classmate of Tsubasa and Minami.

Mai Fuyuki (冬木 眞衣, Fuyuki Mai)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese); Elise Baughman (English)

Minami's mother, who is also a gal.

Momoko Fuyuki (冬木 桃子, Fuyuki Momoko)

Voiced by: Rika Nagae (Japanese); Ariel Graham (English)

Minami's younger sister.

Kaede Hanamiya (花宮 楓, Hanamiya Kaede)

Voiced by: Yōko Imaizumi (Japanese); Linda Leonard (English)

Tsubasa's prim and proper grandmother, whom he lives with in Hokkaido.

Production

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! is written and illustrated by Kai Ikada (伊科田海), who is from Kitami where the story takes place. In the original Japanese title, dosanko is a word for a breed of pony native to Hokkaido, which was later extended to mean also "Hokkaido-raised" when referring to people, gyaru refers to a member of the gal subculture, namara is a Hokkaido dialect word meaning "very" or "super", and menkoi is Hokkaido dialect for "cute" or "adorable." It began as a 19-page one-shot titled Instant Gal Menko-chan (インスタントギャルメンコちゃん, Insutanto Gyaru Menko-chan) that Ikada wrote in five days to represent Hokkaido in the 2018 Jump Scout Caravan Cup. A different one-shot was published in January 2019 as part of a Shōnen Jump+ New Year event, and was selected to become a serialization due to its popularity.

Speaking of the advantages he now has on the digital Shōnen Jump+ as opposed to when he worked in printed manga magazines, Ikada said he now has a high degree of freedom and gets a lot of feedback from readers. On the former he explained he has much more freedom as far as serialization frequency, number of pages, genre and methods of expression. As an example of the feedback he receives, he cited how he gained over 36,000 followers on Twitter by October 2020 thanks to Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!. The series was on hiatus from April to May 2020 due to Ikada's poor health. Originally published weekly, it switched to a biweekly schedule following chapter 49 on February 17, 2021. In order to prepare for the series' ending, the manga went on hiatus from August 16, 2023, until September 13, 2023.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Kai Ikada, Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! has been serialized for free on the Shōnen Jump+ application and website since September 4, 2019. Its chapters have been collected and published into thirteen tankōbon volumes by Shueisha as of May 2, 2024. A special one-shot of Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump's first issue of 2021, which was released on December 7, 2020. Shueisha began publishing the series in English for free on the Manga Plus app and website on September 1, 2020.

Volumes

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

These chapters have yet to be published in a tankōbon volume. They were serialized on Shōnen Jump+.

• Chapters 112-113

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced on October 26, 2022. The series was produced by Silver Link and Blade and directed by Misuzu Hoshino, with scripts supervised by Mirai Minato, who also serves as chief director, and character designs handled by Katsuyuki Sato. It was initially scheduled for 2023, but was later delayed, and eventually aired from January 9 to March 26, 2024, on TV Tokyo and other networks. The opening theme song is "Namaramenkoi Gyaru" (なまらめんこいギャル, "Super Adorable Gal"), performed by Masayoshi Ōishi, while the ending theme song is "Wayawayawa-!" (わやわやわー！, "Pretty Crazy-!"), performed by Asaka.

Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Japan. An English dub starring Matt Shipman and Mikaela Krantz with Jeremy Inman as voice director premiered on January 22, 2024. The It's Anime YouTube channel began uploading the series on February 6, 2024, in South Korea.

Episodes

Other media

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! received a vomic adaptation, where voice actors, music and sound effects are heard as the manga images appear on screen. Beginning on January 25, 2021, episodes were uploaded to Jump Comics' official YouTube channel.

Reception

By June 2021, Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! had sold over 300,000 copies. When the first collected volume was released in December 2019, it immediately received a reprint due to demand. Comic Natalie reported that the first and second volumes were each the best-selling manga at the chain store Comic Zin during their respective first weeks of release.

Anime News Network's Richard Eisenbeis, in a review for the anime adaptation, describes the series as an enjoyable, if tame, romance show. While Eisenbeis felt that it was sometimes like a tourism commercial for Hokkaido that may seem like an unwanted distraction, he praised the characters for being deeper than they appear on the surface.

Notes

References

External links

• Official page at Shōnen Jump+ (in Japanese)
• Manga Plus page
• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! at Anime News Network's encyclopedia