The female gender is something that can be strange and difficult comprehend, and in the anime Mysterious Girlfriend X...I guess that's an understatement. The female main character may as well be labelled an alien...quite literally. Weird, different, maybe unique, disgusting, WTF and quirky, are words that spring to mind while I ventured into Mysterious Girlfriend X. If you think the internet or other anime have prepared you for this, I promise you it will help very little. This one definitely falls into the WTF category.
Initially it appears to be a romantic anime about two young Japanese students, nothing crazy right? Well this romance has its only little twist. The twist, naturally, involves drool or saliva for lack of a better term and a young man's obsession with it. Particularly a scene where the young student, Tsubaki, sees a little puddle of drool left behind on a desk from a new transfer student girl, Urabe. But unlike a normal romance that involves flirting this one involves saliva and Urabe's obsession with it...addiction with it. Not like a modest-bit-of-chocolate-to-settle-the-craving type of addiction, but rather fully fledged drug addiction that I would associate with heroin or something. If he doesn't have it, he gets withdrawal symptoms.... I mean come on, what the hell.
If poor little Urabe doesn't get his fix and gets a little bit 'grabby' so to speak, Tsubaki's defence is some insanely deadly scissors. I'm talking like full on samurai style attacks, but with scissors. But now that all the strange things are aside, you might be thinking what is the show about? Well it's just a romantic love story. However this anime had its moments that are extremely frustrating to watch and at times will have you angry. During the timeline of their 'love' story, over what I approximate is around 6-8 months, they barely make it to the kissing stage. Oh yeah they made it to the drool addiction stage, but kissing is a whole different league (note sarcasm). In fact, anytime Tsubaki attempts to make a move, Urabe go's all psychotic ninja and kicks him to the dirt. Even though they are dating, nothing really happens, that is what's frustrating.
Even after all the moments of spit and drool and its ability to transfer thoughts and feelings to one another, the show has at least one fine quality. It's original. There are none other like it. It is refreshing in that sense. And the animation and art is also notably quite beautiful. However, my personal enjoyment factor restricts me from recommending it to my friends and instead I just joke about it.
Pro's
- Original romantic comedy (not cliché at all!)
- Interesting female main character Urabe
Con's
- Saliva, drool, spit are a major turnoff
Final Rating: 5.5/10
Mysterious Girlfriend X
12th of October 2015
Name: Mysterious Girlfriend X
Episodes: 14
Air Date: August 23, 2012
Episode Length: 24 minutes
Produced By: Hoods Entertainment
Rating: 17+ (mild nudity)