Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl - First Impressions

Written by Rei Caldombra 1/31/25

If this is your first time seeing a first impressions of mine, for these I give my thoughts on an anime airing during the current season based on the first 3 episodes. There will not be any spoilers for specific scenes, but I do get into the general themes and trends of the show as well as discuss the characters. Keep in mind that first impressions are just that, first impressions.

For the first show of Winter 2025 and the first of the comfy shows I am watching this season, we have Okinawa de Suki ni Natta Ko ga Hougen Sugite Tsurasugiru / Okitsura: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Know What She's Saying, which I will be referring to as Okitsura from now on. I am a fan of this show so far, finding it to be a pretty wholesome and interesting time. Its truly unique aspect is its dedicated focus on Okinawa, which is a double-edged sword that will be effective or ineffective based on your interests. I’m thoroughly enjoying its approach to educating on Okinawan culture, with the comedy and romance working pretty well within it while also being an interesting look into the culture as someone who knows little about it. But I recognize that the things that work for me can be unappealing to a lot of people. And while I am enjoying it, I do not think it’s anything spectacular.

Short summary is that the main character, Nakamura Teruaki, moves from Tokyo to Okinawa. He has a crush on Kyan Hina, but she often speaks in the Okinawan dialect of Japanese and traditional Okinawan language. As such, he can’t understand a lot of what she says. So Higa Kana, who has a crush on Teruaki and is Hina’s friend, often translates when she is around. 

Teruaki is watching Hina point at the best character in the show Kana.

With these 3 we have your standard youth anime love triangle, but with the language barrier and Okinawan culture being the thing their dynamics largely center around. A lot of this show’s comedy comes from miscommunication humor, with Teruaki missing out on things Hina says and having to piece things together using context clues or have no idea and making assumptions.

I don’t have a problem with this as it's what the show is going for, I get the reason behind it, and think it works for me. I am not a huge fan of miscommunication in general, but here it is done in a way that I like. It has in-universe context for happening rather than being forced like it very often is in anime, like a character listening in on a conversation then running away right before someone says something that would clarify what the real meaning is. Not understanding local dialects even in a language you know is a very real thing across the world. And so far at least, it has not done it in a dramatic way with consequences, it’s just for humor. But it does take this language miscommunication pretty far. There are times where the official subs will genuinely not tell you what Hana is saying. This is intentional, for comedic effect and to put you more in the perspective of Teruaki not understanding her dialect. I like it. But I can see this bothering people who are not invested in the main premise in the way I am. Some people really don’t like not knowing what someone is saying, even if it is purposeful. I am not one of those people, but I could understand this being grating to those types. And fundamentally it’s true that non-Japanese speakers will not be able to connect with this as well as Japanese speakers would, due to the Japanese language being the basis of some of the humor. I still think you can enjoy it despite this if it appeals to you, but I cannot expect many people to get over this hurdle. Not that they are lesser for it to be clear, I’m not saying you need to be a “true weab” or an intellectual or something to enjoy it. It’s just think that one’s cultural and linguistic interest probably needs to be higher than the average anime fans to enjoy this, if that makes sense. So while I enjoy this, I completely understand that it’s heavy focus can be too much for a lot of viewers.

Kana is the character I enjoy the most of the trio, she’s very cute and likeable. The other two are not necessarily boring or unpleasant characters, but for 3 episodes I wish I had a better idea of who they are as people outside of being kind (which with this sort of comfy series is generally the default). You could say that it feels like the comedic dynamic between them takes precedence over them as characters. Hina in particular does not have a lot going for her so far outside of being energetic and speaking Okinawan despite being the love interest of the main character. I hope as we get further in she can be more fleshed out as a character. This could be intentional though, as it could put us more in the perspective of Teruaki who struggles to fully understand her due to the language barrier. And that love can often happen before fully understanding someone, which is a more mature angle this show could get into. But maybe that is coping. This one does feel like it could be intended for a bit younger of an audience than average, but if that is the case I don’t think it’s hampering my enjoyment of the good vibes. 

The heart of this anime is lovingly embracing and simultaneously poking fun at unique aspects of Okinawan culture. Okinawan cultures plays into every facet of this series, from the setting, individual situations, gags and character dynamics. Educating the viewer on Okinawan culture is at the forefront of this series, at least based on the first 3 episodes. It even has a counter of educational memos they give where they explain the cultural aspects of Okinawa in focus. I don’t think it does it in an overly preachy or stuffy way, as it usually comes naturally from the situations that Teruaki is put in and what they talk about is often funny or interesting.

This focus on explaining the culture is one reason why I can understand it being unpopular and having lower ratings among those who watched it. This definitely appeals to more niche audiences than the average anime fan. Okinawan culture is the core of this show. It is not just a gimmick to give standard romcom shenanigans something to work around. If you have no interest in learning about Okinawa, I will say to not bother with this. The romcom side of it is present and serviceable, but the characters do not stand strong separately from the premise of Okinawan language and culture. The characters aren’t bad or anything, but outside of Kana I do not have strong feelings towards the other two of the main trio. I like this cultural focus, so this doesn’t bother me. If you have an interest in Okinawa for one reason or another, such as wanting to go/live there, having people you know who live there, or simply being curious about cultures you don’t know about (this is the camp I’m in), I recommend you give it a shot. This gives you a lot of interesting information in generally funny ways.

If iyashikei is your thing than I think this show can give you that positive feeling. Seeing these characters enthralled in their cultural and its quirks is really nice. Being a very remote area, it also goes for the appreciation of simple things like nature, food and community to solid effect.

From a visual standpoint, I think the show is pretty solid. The characters tend to have a lot of great expressions, and the lighting in particular is especially nice to me. Series that are going for the “beauty of nature” and that sort of vibe such as this show need to properly portray these things. You can fail to say “look how beautiful this area is!” if the visual quality is poor enough that it does not actually look beautiful. It’s the same reason why food focused anime usually makes the food look gorgeous, it’s meant to beautify it. Thankfully here I think it does a good job, making the environment around there pretty and making the food look very tasty. There’s also a lot of creativity with how subtitles are used in the show (Japanese subtitles integrated directly in the show, not subtitles added after). Sometimes it can be a bit much, but it can look pretty nice and accentuate gags and dialogue well too.

One very specific thing I want to bring up that this show hits on. I have noticed being an anime fan and weab for years now is that some people genuinely don’t know that Japanese people can have darker skin tones. Like when people thought Nagatoro from Don’t Mess with Me Nagatoro was black just because she has a tan. Whether because of their biology giving them a darker skin tone naturally, getting tanned from the climate or their activities making them spend more time outside (like Nagatoro). Almost all of the characters in this show have a darker skin tone. If this helps people understand this, then it’s doing a service. 

To conclude, I think this s not anything spectacular but enjoyable for my tastes. I think the language and culture-based humor works and I appreciate how it presents Okinawan culture in a way that is educational but also natural and generally pretty funny. As a romcom it is nothing to write home about, but it works well enough with the main premise enough to not think it’s truly boring or anything.

Thanks for reading! I’ll have some more first impressions coming out soon and will continue to cover anime from this season as I see fit. So please check back again for those!

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