Ganbare Douki-chan

"Ganbare Douki-chan" is a series of short 5 minute episodes making it an easy watch from start to finish in one sitting taking more or less 1 hour in total to complete the anime. Having this in mind this anime will obviously not have a top notch world building or development due to not having the time for such things. This show is above anything a casual wholesome watch to just enjoy at surface level.

Plot: "Ganbare Douki-chan" is in it's essence a slice-of-life romcom anime and the plot basically consists of our main character Douki-chan a typical office worker and her constant attempts to seduce ... her co-worker, often times to no avail either due to their naiveness or due to external characters or situations. I particularly love the dynamic of the plot for this anime since the girl is constantly trying to seduce the man and in every situation he is very gentlemanly towards her, but at the same time, every episode we get almost like an "ecchi version" of what would happen in each situation if the man were to actually fall for her attempts that we later learn is just Douki--chan dreaming such events. At least for me this is very entertaining since the show itself is very wholesome but our main character which is a very respectable office worker on the surface ends up just being a pervert constantly day dreaming about lewd situations, this could get annoying quick but since it's such a short anime it doesn't get to that point.

Art: For a slice-of-life short series I actually didn't expect such good animation, it definitely has above average animation even by 2023 standards with better animation than some action heavy anime. The art style in general is also really good and pleasant to look at in my opinion, the only negative point I have to make in relation to the art style is a complaint I believe the majority of viewers have and it is the fact that the co-worker doesn't have his eyes animated like a hentai protagonist, I assume the reason they made this decision is the same as in the majority of hentai it's simply a budget thing where eyes just take a ton of effort to animate.

Sound: With this being such a short anime there isn't much to talk about in relation to the sound besides the ending which is pretty decent and not a hard skip but also not good enough to be heard outside of the anime in my opinion.

Characters: The characters and their dynamic are obviously the main focus of the show. The characters consist of our main character Douki-chan, her co-worker and two other girls that are also in her work environment that are basically rivals to her in her journey to seduce her co-worker with one of these girls being a "kouhai" and the other being a "senpai"(terms used by japanese to describe someone in the same position as you but with different levels of experience for example someone in your school but in a different grade , kouhai being for underclassmen and senpai for upperclassmen, these are also applicable in a working environment in Japan which is the case for this anime and they are used relative to the amount of time you've been at said job for in relation to the other person). Both the kouhai and the senpai are super assertive and are basically used by the show as plot drivers not having much development themselves. The co-worker as I already mentioned is a true gentleman towards Douki-chan not making any perverted move towards her, which is unfortunately what she wants, however we do get a bit of development by his part on a couple episodes towards the end of the season. Douki-chan herself is obviously the one the story focuses on the most and the one with the most development trying to be gradually more assertive so the co-worker finally gets her hints whilst also learning to deal with her feelings of jealousy.

Overall: This show has an above average animation and a refreshing plot line despite being a slice-of-life romcom which tend to repeat the basis of the plot as a high school teen love. The whole dynamic of the plot is in theory very repetitive but in practice it actually works really well due to the short time per episode. The side cast isn't anything special in my opinion but the main character makes up for it and is very enjoyable to watch her throughout the episodes. All in all I gave it a 6/10 because even though it's an enjoyable anime with no major flaw it's nothing to mind blowing and in the long run it's a pretty forgettable show.

*Contains some spoilers*

I like my short anime. Many of them manage to get things done in a slither of time compared to some lengthier shows and can successfully create a good atmosphere with only 5-10 minutes per episode. Ganbare Douki-chan, whilst still pretty wholesome and sweet, personally did not quite live up to expectations. Twelve weeks of absolutely nothing. You know something feels off when an anime short such as this, feels almost like a waste of your time.

The shows duration says it runs for five minutes, but we would be lucky to get HALF that amount of time spent on something that's not ... the fricking ending sequence. It's no wonder nothing meaningful happens, I'm sure Douki-chan is indeed, doing her best, but she's got such a short window to work in lol. Come on, you're making a mockery out of short anime here...

For the first eight weeks, we have the timid Douki-chan struggling to get her feelings across to no face senpai (you feel nothing for this dude, his whole thing is just being abashed all the time), either backing down or getting cucked by her two significantly bustier work colleagues. A frustrating and tiresome formula, you'd think some sort of development would have happened by now. Then episode nine rolls around and pretty much everything is forgiven, as we are treated to some lovely Douki-chan x Kouhai-chan yuri scenes and the main ship is swiftly forgotten, lost out at sea somewhere. Unfortunately, that ship is found again relatively quickly and it continues to play out the same regurgitated scenarios until the end of the series.

To call this ecchi would be an insult to ecchi anime, there is next to nothing remotely ecchi in this series, so if that tag is what caught your attention initially (raises hand), then prepare to be disappointed. They show some skin a couple of times, that's about it folks. That's as risque as it gets.

I can't help but compare this to Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi, a show that also aired side by side, a vastly superior full length anime also revolving around the relationship between a Senpai and Kouhai. Everything seems to fall flat in comparison especially the characters and their relationship dynamics they have going on. Just go watch that instead.

This was disappointing and frustrating to watch. It is a short series with even shorter episodes. You would think there would be some real development, but it fails to meet the smallest of expectations. No development. No story. No character building. Every situation had predictable endings.

All it has going is the artwork for the female characters. Why in hell, does the ML not have a face and no one has names?!. It’s like the writer couldn’t be bothered with it.

My Tiny Senpai was waaaaaay better. I say don’t waste your time on this and watch My Tiny Senpai instead.