B Gata H Kei (B型H系) is a Japanese four-panel manga series by Yōko Sanri. It was published by Shueisha and ran in Weekly Young Jump from 2004 to 2011. The story focuses on the salacious wishes of a high school girl, whose perceived drawback of being a virgin leads to her lusting after and pursuing a rather average and unremarkable boy in her class. A 12-episode anime television series was broadcast on KBS, Tokyo MX, and other networks from April to June 2010. Funimation (later Crunchyroll LLC), has licensed the anime series with the title Yamada's First Time: B Gata H Kei, and released the series on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2012. A drama CD has also been released.

Plot

B Gata H Kei follows lascivious 15-year-old high school student Yamada, who makes it a goal to have sexual relations with 100 different guys, although her insecurities as a virgin herself lead her to reject every chance to do so. To overcome this mental barrier, she searches for a "cherry boy," an inexperienced guy who will be her first. She makes a rather plain classmate of hers, Takashi Kosuda, the target of her seductions for the sole purpose of achieving this goal; however, she ultimately falls for him.

Characters

Supporting characters

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Yōko Sanri, B Gata H Kei debuted with one-shot chapters published in Shueisha's Young Jump Zōkan Mankaku and Weekly Young Jump in 2003 and 2004. It started a regular serialization in the latter magazine on April 15, 2004, and finished on February 3, 2011. Shueisha collected its chapters in nine tankōbon volumes, released from February 18, 2005, to March 18, 2011. A drama CD was released on September 14, 2007. Outside Japan, the series is licensed in Traditional Chinese by Sharp Point Press.

Volumes

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced in December 2009. It was broadcast for 12 episodes on KBS, Tokyo MX, and other networks from April 2 to June 18, 2010. The opening song is "Oshiete A to Z" (おしえて A to Z) and its ending theme is "Hadashi no Princess" (裸足のプリンセス). Both theme songs are performed by Yukari Tamura, and a maxi single containing the two themes was released on April 28, 2010. An internet radio show was produced by Hibiki Radio to go with the anime. Funimation licensed the series with the title Yamada's First Time: B Gata H Kei, and released it on DVD and Blu-ray on January 31, 2012. Funimation also released a Blu-ray limited edition that has a mousepad of Yamada.

Reception

Anime News Network reviewed the first episode of the series as a preview for the spring 2010 anime season. Carl Kimlinger initially assessed the series as having "real promise", and Theron Martin felt the comedy was on how Yamada focused on the sex side of a relationship rather than the emotional side, finding the first episode "fanboy-pandering", but somehow reticent about showing fanservice. Tim Maughan noted that although the premise could be interpreted as a "ballsy teen-sex comedy" about the pressures teens feel about becoming sexually active, but noted that due to the 1 am screening time, the audience was "otaku men-children" rather than teens. Zac Bertschy regarded it as "yet another in a long line of crappy anime sex comedies". It fared well in an ANN review of the Complete Series Collection, Rebecca Silverman commented that although it was a "bit tasteless" it is "also a surprisingly clean, very funny show about one girl's realization that sex and emotion aren't totally divorced from each other." In July 2010, the anime team for the series posted a notice that they had received multiple threatening letters concerning the content and presentation of the anime. The team responded that the studio and its writers are not solely responsible for the content, the anime was handled by the production committee, and that they have reported the threats to the police.