Well I remember either on my podcast or on a blog I’ve said I have seen countless numbers of anime school rom-coms and really most of them don’t do anything particularly different……so to that end let me review this new 2012 anime rom-com that has a different / interesting? concept.

Synopsis

The series follows two central characters Akira Tsubaki and Mikoto Urabe. Urabe is a transfer student who recently moves into Tsubaki's class.

Urabe’s behaviour is particularly strange and soon gets a reputation for being the class weirdo. Later, Tsubaki finds Urabe asleep in the classroom. After Urabe leaves to go home Tsubaki notices Urabe’s drool left from sleeping and wonders if it’s like a bee tasting honey from a flower….so he gives it a taste…..and finds it tastes sweet…..(whoa lol)

Tsubaki later falls ill thinking he has a cold but is soon confronted by Urabe who claims he has actually contracted love sickness from her drool and after Tsubaki takes another dose of her sweet drool and recovers instantly  he then comes to accept Urabe’s claim as the truth

What follows is a growing relationship between the two characters that stems from their mutual connection to drool / saliva.

Wow that’s Shakespeare writing in the making right there lol

Animation

The animation style has an older look to it imo. The character designs feel a bit more rounded then other slimline character designs I usually see in other typical school rom-coms. Fanservice is not so in your face but it is present in moderation. I did actually like the shows colour scheme especially the sunset scenes which are present in many episodes when the main characters are walking home together

There are also some cool dream sequences with the characters which I thought where done quite well. So overall I liked the animation style….which btw is very similar to the manga’s….also a good thing.

Sound

Nothing really stood out to me as spectacular here….i didn’t like the opening theme song…closing theme was alright. The character voices seemed spot on and I did actually like Urabe’s Japanese voice actress as she does sound husky but had a little touch of emotion when needed which was good.

Characters

This was the saving grace for the show to be honest…particularly with our main characters Urabe and Tsubaki. Urabe to begin with does have a particularly detached personality but not so much where it bugs you out…there are plenty of times she holds a conversation and you can even see she is not a total shut in and does things like swim, go shopping etc….it seems her main problem is expressing her emotions..which she uses her drool to do….which to be honest gets very annoying at times as this does not only apply to Tsubaki but even with other girls….but at the same time I guess it’s consistent.

Tsubaki on the other hand seems like your typical puberty stricken…nice boy. He is very friendly and a bit too kind for my liking but to his defence he does often say exactly what’s on his mind and has a couple of believably uncontrollable moments with Urabe.

The other supporting characters are also pretty good with believable personalities and do sometimes add to the shows progression

Storyline

Okay so with the synopsis this show will pretty much sound like a Hentai to most but its not. The premise is quite ridiculous but at the same time it is actually an interesting concept that yes is somewhat titillation but is done in a surprisingly passive and matter-of-fact manner that comes off more emotional then sexual.

To me the drool exchanging and making the emotional connection is the central focus of this show and that is interesting however, I feel apart from that single element this show is ultimately nothing special. I mean in terms of comedy…it’s pretty tepid and most of what’s funny is Tsuabaki and Urabes sexual tension / misunderstandings and to be honest I found myself wondering if that was all that the show would be about and yeah that seems to be the case.

Every episode soon feels like a will they or won’t they and it seems they take two steps forward and one step back in every episode and with rom-coms I like to see either the romance blossom at a decent pace or the comedy to keep me hooked until the story develops more…..well in this case it feels like a ranma-ish show without the emphasis on comedy.

As a guy watching this I thought to myself if my girlfriend kept on telling me to taste her drool so I can fantasize about her when I got to bed I would loose my fuken mind…I mean it’s cool to be patient until your girl is ready n all but this concept was really hard for me to accept in terms of a real guy putting up with the: look but don’t touch, touch but don’t taste – taste but don’t swallow element….so in a nutshell the sexual tension starts to build and feels like a big dose of cock-teasing going on here lol……..but hey maybe it’s just me that feels that way………..lol I doubt it

Enjoyment

For 13 episodes it was moderately enjoyable but honestly I was getting impatient with the story progression after a while…..even though its pretty short

Value

Well it’s an okay show….not sure if it would be anything to talk about if there was no drool connection element but yeah I like the rikey-ness of the story and the characters are very likeable but even after looking at the manga which has been going on for a couple years this show seems to be one of those never-ending rom-coms that intends to re-use it’s formula until everybody gets fed up with it and that’s actually a shame as I think if this was written as a 26 episode show with possibly a more dramatic element it would hit harder but as far as rom-coms go this show really has only two things going for it except comedy…drool and somewhat interesting characters.

Ima have to give this one a double rating

Mysterious Girlfriend X: Watchable / Acquired Taste