Ganbare Douki-chan

Ganbare Douki-chan

Ganbare Douki-chan anime series cover art
Ganbare Douki-chan

Series Overview

Ganbare Douki-chan (がんばれ同期ちゃん), also known as Do Your Best, Douki-chan if you feel like using the “English” title, is an anime short series with 5-minute episodes. It’s the second anime to be based on Yom’s work, with the other being Miru Tights.

Now, typically, I use the English titles to refer to anime on this blog. However, this time around, Ganbare Douki-chan is still the official English title. And I don’t like the title Do Your Best, Douki-chan because it’s only half translated. Douki-chan isn’t the main character’s name; it’s her role.

I’ll get more into why she’s referred to as Douki-chan in my section on the characters. For now, let’s take a look at what the series is all about.

The series follows Douki-chan as she tries to win the love of her male coworker. But, she also has some competition. I think in the web series there are three other girls, but in the anime, there are only two: Her male coworker’s kouhai (後輩) and senpai (先輩).

From pretty early on, if not the first episode, it’s made clear that the male coworker is interested in Douki-chan. So in that regard, she’s already won him over. However, even with this being the case, Douki-chan is worried that he’ll be seduced by one of the other two girls due to their looks and personalities.

And, that’s basically the whole series since not much of a plot can be fit into 5-minute episodes. Each episode just has Douki-chan attempting to get closer to her coworker while also freaking out whenever one of the other girls tries to get close to him.

Unlike Miru Tights, Douki-chan is vanilla and wholesome enough that I think most people can find some enjoyment from it. Miru Tights is better, though.

Main Characters

The titular character of the series is, obviously, Douki-chan. However, as I mentioned earlier, this isn’t really her name — it’s her role. So what do I mean by that? Well, douki (同期) is effectively just Japanese for “coworker.”

Referring to her as Douki-chan is the same as referring to her as Coworker-chan. And, this series follows that same logic for all of the characters. In that regard, it’s a lot like Goblin Slayer, in which every character is referred to by their class.

Douki-chan putting on her tights from the anime series Ganbare Douk-chan
Douki-chan putting on her tights

You’ve heard of Douki-chan, now get ready for Douki-kun! That’s right, the male coworker whom Douki-chan has a crush on is simply known as Douki-kun, the “male” version of Douki-chan. He doesn’t have much of a personality other than that he’s easily pushed around by the other two girls.

The first of these other girls to be introduced into the series is the kouhai. And if you guessed that her name is Kouhai-chan, you guessed correctly. Kouhai-chan also has a crush on Douki-kun and attempts to use her body and flirty personality to win him over. Realistically, she’s Douki-chan’s main rival.

Senpai-san is the final character of the anime. Specifically, she’s only Douki-kun’s senpai as I believe she was his upperclassman at university or something. While she does flirt with Douki-kun a bit, she primarily does this to tease Douki-chan.

Both Kouhai-chan and Senpai-san recognize that Douki-kun is interested in Douki-chan. That doesn’t stop Kouhai-chan from shooting her shot. But Senpai-san is different in that she just enjoys putting Douki-chan in situations that will cause her to say or do something embarrassing to get Douki-kun’s attention.

I’m actually not sure which girl I like more. Douki-chan might be my least favorite.

Douki-chan’s Best Wasn’t Enough

Unfortunately, the Douki-chan anime isn’t as good as I hoped it would be considering how good Miru Tights was. And, there are a couple of reasons for this, including the format, content, and other ways to consume the series.

Starting with the format, not much can really happen within 5 minutes. That’s not as much of an issue for Miru Tights, which is fetish-focused. But for Douki-chan, in which we’re supposed to like the characters, the short episodes don’t help.

On top of that, despite being 5-minute episodes, each one still has a minute and a half long ED. So in reality, each episode is only 3 and a half minutes of content. As I’ve said about most series with episodes this short, there’s simply not enough time for them to become good. Douki-chan is no exception.

Kouhai-chan in a maid outfit from the anime series Ganbare Douki-chan
Kouhai-chan in a maid outfit

While the format is probably the main thing holding this anime back, I think the content works against it as well. Remember how I said Douki-chan is pretty vanilla and wholesome? Well, that doesn’t make it stand out in any way.

Miru Tights was good despite being short because it brought something new to the table: Great girls in tights content. Douki-chan doesn’t have anything like that to make people interested. If someone wants what Douki-chan offers, they can get it from a whole bunch of other anime that have more than 3 and a half minutes-worth of content per episode.

Douki-chan is lacking a niche to make it a truly worthwhile watch.

Lastly, there’s an arguably better way to consume Douki-chan than the anime. And no, it’s not by reading the web series (though, that’s probably good). Just follow @y_o_m_y_o_m on Twitter. Yom tweets out Douki-chan art pretty regularly and retweets a lot of other good art.

Conclusion

Overall, I’d say Ganbare Douki-chan is a 5/10. It’s not bad in any way. But it doesn’t really provide anything that you don’t get just by following Yom’s Twitter account. But, with that said, I’ll definitely watch a second season if it gets one.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika and Senpai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

Leave a Comment