Karen's Anime Blog

It’s time to check out HIDIVE’s sole new show this season, Bad Girl. High schooler Yuu has a massive crush on her upperclassmen Atori, but can’t seem to get the older girl’s attention. She eventually decides that the problem is Atori’s role as the school’s Public Decency Officer: Good girls who follow the rules must all blend in for Atori, so Yuu must become the other kind of student…a delinquent, a bad girl. Meanwhile she’s too hung up on Atori to realize that her close friend Suzu has a crush on her too.

The humor in Bad Girl mainly derives from the fact that Yuu is such a good person, her idea of what’s “bad” is ridiculous; she thinks having two-toned hair and earrings makes her look like a dangerous delinquent. She wouldn’t know how to be a “bad” kid if someone gave her a book on the subject. It’s a gag that I see possibly wearing thin as the season goes on, but it was effective in this episode.

The plot moves faster than I anticipated; I thought it would take at least a couple of episodes for the love triangle to ramp up, but everything is set up in this one episode. I don’t think the jokes are the funniest or most original I’ve ever heard, but that’s kind of typical for a romcom; usually, it’s not that laugh-out-loud funny, but you get attached to the characters, and knowing their personalities inside out makes everything funnier. So far Yuu, Atori and Suzu all have strong personalities that clash against each other well, so the building blocks of a good genre piece are there.

I don’t usually watch queer romcoms– not because I avoid them, but I don’t actively seek them out, and it’s not like there are that many. But I’m really glad this show is airing this summer, because with all the great romance this season, it’s nice that girls who love girls get their comfort show too. People who really want to watch boys loving boys this season will have to rewatch Free!, as God ordained.