アリか無しか？

I recently started watching ごめんね青春! (Gomen ne Seishun!) as it was highly recommended by some of my friends. The drama is about an all-boy school and all-girl school that decides to try to combine. The school holds the first class where boys and girls interact. I came across the clip below.

Some basic 漢字 (kanji)

In the above example, you can combine the characters 女(onna) and 子(ko) to make 好(suki). 女(onna) and 子(ko) can also be written separately to make 女子(joshi) - girl.

Now 男(otoko) and 子(ko) can be put side by side to make 男子(danshi) - boy. However, you cannot combine 男(otoko) and 子(ko) to make a word similar to 好(suki) because this word doesn't exist.

Acceptance

So the question posed in the clip is, what would this word mean? It is a metaphor for what the girls think of the boys in the class. At first, the girls say the boys are stupid and gross. But later in the episode (as shown in the clip), the girls come to the conclusion that the boys can be defined as アリ (ari).

So if you watched the clip above, you might be wondering what does アリ (ari) and 無し (nashi) mean? These two words coupled together poses the question of whether or not you can live with something - or if you can accept something. アリ doesn't necessarily mean you like it or that you hate it, just that you don't care. 無し would mean you are against it, that you cannot accept or live with this condition. So by stating that the boys are アリ, she is giving a lukewarm acceptance that they can have class with the boys.

ごめんね青春! Episode 3 Clip