One of the key points to animating the first episode was to ensure that the characters' movements were "gender neutral." When asked what she thought of
Sumito Ōwara's original manga when she first read it, Motohashi said that it didn't feel like it needed to be a story about high school girls in particular, and that it could easily have had male lead characters. However, she liked the "gender neutral" feel of it. She described Asakusa as like an elementary schooler, Mizusaki as having some girlish aspects still left in her, and Kanamori as like an intellectual yakuza. She said that Kanamori's pragmatism was refreshing, and felt true to life regarding how the anime industry works, which may be why creative people tend to enjoy the manga.
In addition, she mentions that the staff were told not to make the character animations, poses, and expressions "girlish." This was something that Motohashi tried to convey from the storyboarding stage. Series director Masaaki Yuasa would supervise the drawings along with the episode directors in order to ensure that the character animation would fit the overall vision.