As soon as sixteen-year-old Shiki Tsubasa from Tokyo steps out of his cab and into the bone-chilling temperatures of Kitami, Hokkaido, he's hit with a wave of culture shock…or maybe it's just hypothermia? But his frosty welcome takes a warmer turn when he meets Fuyuki Minami, a carefree gal who struts through the snow in bare legs without a second thought. Lucky for Shiki, she's his guide to all the quirky wonders of Hokkaido—like sugar on corn dogs, snow huts, the best slopes for skiing, and maybe... even more adorable Hokkaido babes? This city boy may think he's seen it all, but he's about to realize how much he has yet to discover!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! has story and art by Kai Ikada. English translation is done by Minna Lin and Kevin Yuan, and lettering by Mo Harrison. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (December 9, 2025). Rated OT.

Lucas DeRuyter
Rating:

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! is proof that even the best version of hardline genre fare is still limited by the stifling and frustrating conventions of that genre. Starting with a fish out of water set up that's typical for harem series, Hokkaido Gals opens with protagonist Tsubasa Shiki leaving Tokyo for the far more rural Kitami, Hokkaido. As soon as he arrives, he quickly befriends the brash and outspoken Minami Fuyuki, and shortly after forms similar budding relationships with the more reserved Sayuri Akino, and later the quirky and talented Rena Natsukawa. Flirty and occasionally scandalous situations ensue, with Hokkaido culture or region-specific idiosyncrasies usually inciting these events.

To start with the positives, Tsubasa is a refreshing protagonist for this kind of story. While his initial fussing over what kind of girl he should be attracted to earned a side eye from me, he's quickly established as a much more capable, caring, and frankly attractive lead than what I've come to expect from a kind of story that's fundamentally a male power fantasy. I'm used to dudes who suck being the leads in harem series a la Kazuya from Rent-A-Girlfriend, and it's nice to see an MC form the beginnings of meaningful relationships with young women by being genuinely nice to them and taking an interest in their hobbies and backgrounds.

As for the titular Hokkaido Gals, all of them are distinct and developed enough that they don't just feel like a fresh coat of paint on time-tested waifu foundations. Tsubasa and Minami especially have a pretty fun dynamic where the more extroverted Minami helps bring Tsubasa out of his shell, while Minami becomes genuinely taken with Tsubasa's earnestness, as it's implied that a lot of her past or existing relationships are fairly performative in nature. That being said, Hokkaido Gals downright leers at the bodies of the high school-aged girls in its cast and invents some improbable situations for them to breast boobily. In particular, Minami giving Tsubasa a video call while she's in the bath felt more like a fantasy situation for readers to indulge in rather than a believable interaction between these characters.

Additionally, some of my own lived experiences also prevent me from liking this omnibus as much as others might. Having grown up in my own frigid microculture of rural Wisconsin, I know that a space like this isn't nearly as cutesy, unproblematic, and chock full of cute girls as Hokkaido Gals makes it seem. I also can't help but feel like I'm reading an advertisement for this prefecture at a certain point, which is fine, but I'd much rather experience a story that more holistically encapsulates what it's like to live in this community.

While Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! is better than a lot of the more misogynistic manga in the harem genre, it's far from a reclamation of the story type like The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. That being said, a lot of work clearly went into bringing this omnibus to English language readers, with little details included like character-specific handwriting/typesets used for corresponding character sheets. It's cute and is usually fun-horny instead of gross-horny, but doesn't quite have enough hook to recommend wholeheartedly.

Kevin Cormack
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Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four main islands comprising the Japanese Archipelago, is well-renowned for its severe winters, with prodigiously heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. It's practically a world away from the relatively tropical Tokyo, from where the protagonist Tsubasa Shiki originates. Moving to the frozen north to live with his grandmother, he's unprepared for the marked cultural differences between prefectures – from common customs to impenetrable dialect. Just as well then that he makes the acquaintance of several attractive young women, only too happy to introduce him to the delights of Hokkaido life.

Author Kai Ikada is a Hokkaido native, and he extols the virtues of his homeland with gusto, especially those of its girls. The first person Tsubasa meets is the outgoing and flirtatious Minami Fuyuki, a generously proportioned “gal” (gyaru) who takes him under her wing immediately, inviting him to her home and to a winter festival. She's a hardy lass, braving the chilly climate with bare legs and a short skirt. Ikada enjoys drawing beautiful girls, though the overt male gaze-y angles in which Minami, in particular, is depicted often lovingly detail her underwear and prodigious bosoms. This is a series aimed straight at a young male demographic, for whom protagonist Tsubasa may be little but a self-insert. He's an unremarkable, average Japanese teenager who attracts the attention of several gorgeous girls, at least initially due to novelty value.

Thankfully, he does have a personality that makes it almost believable that such girls might gravitate towards him. He's kind and thoughtful, easy to tease, and willing to try new experiences. Entirely under the thrall of his strict grandmother, he's always worried about disappointing or offending her. I wonder if this may lead to some conflict further down the line? Minami is a fun character who threatens to be a manic pixie dream girl at the start, but her personality develops once she makes friends with secondary girl Sayuri Akino, who is her polar opposite in everything but a shared interest in Tsubasa. As a quiet gamer, she more closely fits Tsuabasa's idealized image of a “raven-haired, reserved Japanese girl”. Their trio dynamic is sweet, generally without contrived love triangle drama.

It's a very enjoyable slice-of-life story, and the English adaptation is released as a 2-in-1 volume, giving it a relatively hefty 400-page length. I've never seen the recent anime adaptation, but based on the strength of this, I may well check it out. It seems I have a weakness for super adorable girls.

Bolts
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I've always wanted to visit Hokkaido. It feels like one of those areas that is often brought up in anime, but this is one of the first series that made the setting feel like it had its own energy to it. Hokkaido Girls is a pretty run-of-the-mill romantic comedy that follows a plain-looking guy and an overly flashy girl. But there's something about the pacing and environment that gives the series a stronger vibe compared to a lot of other romantic comedies.

There's a lot of focus on how cold the area is and how much the characters need to bundle up. There's the blush that is often on their faces when they are dealing with the temperatures, and there's a surprisingly strong family connection that runs throughout the story. Everything feels very alive, and while the constant white on screen can hurt my eyes after a while, there is also a strong attention to detail when it comes to the finer things like clothing and building structure. You can tell the person who wrote this genuinely loves the area of Hokkaido and just wanted to tell a story that invoked the feelings that that setting gave them.

Some things about the story clash with the overall wholesome and cozy feeling that it is clearly going for. This is a story that still wants to put our female lead in very compromising positions and play around with innuendos for occasional bits of crass humor. They're not terrible, but they don't match the vibes all that much and…maybe that's the point? The story focuses on a couple who are so diametrically different, so the story is playing with the idea of contrast for the sake of appeal, but our main female lead, I think, needed to be way more flashy and over-the-top as a gal to make that contrast feel stronger.

As she stands, I like her chemistry with our male lead, but you could've told a similar story with a tomboy or any other non-innocent girl archetype. The story would've been a lot more memorable if they either went further with those elements to punctuate that contrast or if they just leaned even more into the cozy atmosphere. Regardless, if you are a fan of romantic comedies, there is enough here that makes the story stand out at least a little bit more than others. If you manage to find this omnibus before the weather gets too warm, then maybe read it near the windowsill on a nice winter afternoon, sipping some hot chocolate, because I think that is the perfect headspace to be in when reading this.