Ganbare Doukichan, Episode 8: Dark Alley and Bright Hope

Episode 8 – “They Clash!! The Junior Coworker VS The Business Client Senpai”

Hmm.

Ganbare Doukichan doesn’t make Doukichan’s attempts at love easy. In the last episode, she screwed up her courage to invite Doukikun to dinner. Then Senpai-san derailed those plans. This week, Doukikun took the initiative to put Doukichan’s plans back on track. Doukichan’s shyness almost made her lose her second chance, but then she grabbed it! Immediately after, Kouhaichan ruined everything.

Kouhaichan has acted like a deus ex machina before to lay roadblocks in front of Doukichan. The elevator episode introduced her as a busty maneater gobbling Doukikun up in front of Doukichan. Ganbare Doukichan improved its foreshadowing of interruptions to Doukichan’s love confession here and in last week’s episode. Senpai-san’s tights-filled debut set the stage for Doukikun’s inability to refuse a beautiful woman’s invitation. He tried, though! But Senpai-san’s confidence and force of personality railroaded him and Doukichan.

Similarly, Kouhaichan displays a sneaky cunning that made it predictable that she would find a way to keep her rivals in check. She has good instincts too. She felt a disturbance on her train ride back to the office, which had two levels. On the surface, she psychically sensed Senpai-san as a threat to her designs on Doukikun. However, Ganbare Doukichan shows that Kouhaichan also worried about Doukichan getting ahead of her. Did Kouhaichan notice extra sexiness coming from Doukichan’s red lingerie? That was enough of an alert for her to “accidentally” leave her work phone in Doukichan’s gift bag.

Kouhaichan and Senpai-san quickly set up their “frenemy” relationship as it connects to Doukikun. Ganbare, Doukikun! Ganbare, Doukichan! These two will keep facing obstacles as the cruelty of the anime toward vanilla love continues to the season finale.

Heh.

Just as the last Ganbare Doukichan episode teased, Kouhaichan did join Senpai-san for drinks. Doukichan is not happy. Kouhaichan has high-level stalking skills! Hoho. Senpai-san and Kouhaichan sense each other as dangerous women. Heaving Bosom Dragon versus Straining Cleavage Tiger!

Hahaha! The two busty maneaters became bosom buddies. Liquor is a versatile social lubricant. Oh. Oh! Doukikun is on the job! He wants to make sure Doukichan has her moment to shine. In a dark alley… Doukichan doesn’t want to tell Doukikun how she feels about him in such a setting. But now’s the time to strike! I like this. Doukichan tugs on Doukikun’s sleeve when she’s awake. Ganbare Doukichan has only shown her do this when she’s asleep having a sexy dream. Will those fantasies happen in gritty, urban reality?

Noooo! Doukichan’s gift bag made a horrendous ringing noise! I suspect the work of Kouhaichan here. Yup. The “clumsy” Kouhaichan left her phone in Doukichan’s souvenir gift. “Accidentally.” Sure, she did! Senpai-san won’t let her reunion with Doukikun end so abruptly. Kouhaichan won’t let Doukichan get away from her, either. The next round of heavy drinking in Ganbare Doukichan starts now!

Illustrator Ohishashiburi shows a sad Doukichan drinking sad mixed drinks in the end card. Take a closer look at one of his art pieces turned into a bishoujo figure in the J-List store.

Ganbare Doukichan streams weekly in multiple subtitles on Crunchyroll and VRV.