In an especially Japanese episode of Mysterious Girlfriend X, Tsubaki dares to try and call Urabe by her first name. What are the shocking results?
What They Say
After having a conversation with Oka about first names, Tsubaki wants to call Urabe by hers. While waiting for Urabe, the girl from the picture he once carried in his wallet stops him to talk, and surprises him with a question.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Now that all of the major characters have been introduced, their relationships can now truly start to develop. Seemingly key to this development is Oka, the girlfriend of Tsubaki’s best friend Ueno, and persistent best friend of Urabe. Oka’s seemingly the brains of the whole crew: Ueno is good natured but buffoonish, Tsubaki is too awkward, and Urabe pays no heed to social conventions, while Oka seems to know what’s going on with everyone. It’s clear she’s decided to speed along Tsubaki and Urabe’s relationship by any means necessary, and this episode if the beginning of her campaign.
First, she ambushes Tsubaki in a tight top and shorts and talks about her relationship with Ueno, sure to stir up some envy and curiosity on Tsubaki’s part. Over ice cream, she tells Tsubaki about how the two of them call each other by their first names, which causes him to daydream about Urabe calling him Akira. Tsubaki doesn’t know that Oka knows about his relationship with Urabe, but she’s able to plant the seed of the idea in his head successfully regardless. Oka then moves on to Urabe, and tells Urabe about the conversation she had with Tsubaki. Urabe refuses to say anything about what she thinks of the idea, so Oka forces a finger into her mouth to taste her drool. It’s amazing to see how quickly Oka has gotten used to the idea of drool swapping to share emotions. Oka teases Urabe about how her drool has caused her face to blush, but Urabe’s not quite as easy to manipulate as Tsubaki. Still, it’s clear Urabe is pleased by the idea of being called by her first name.
Tsubaki and Urabe stop in a park, and while Tsubaki goes to retrieve juice, Urabe falls asleep. Tsubaki struggles with waking her up, and when she proves to be unresponsive, he tries calling her Mikoto. She awakes and smiles, but in an ambiguous enough way that he’s not quite sure if she heard him or not. He tries to say her name again, but chickens out. It’s clear that Tsubaki is just the same kind of hopeless protagonist we’ve seen in these kinds of series countless times before, but something about his chemistry with Urabe makes it charming again. Perhaps it’s because, just like Tsubaki, we’re not quite sure how she’ll react, and she’s not just shoving her boobs in his face as is the case with many other harem anime. It’s one thing to be kind of a hapless loser when women are falling all over you, but it’s quite a bit different with the threat of a scissor attack looming over your attempts at romance.
Predictably, his attempts to advance the relationship don’t get anywhere, or else what would we be doing for the rest of the season? He has a dream that he takes Urabe’s photo to capture her smile in a permanent memento. So, he decides to do the same thing in real life. Urabe being Urabe, though, she refuses to smile just for a picture. Tsubaki is disappointed, and tries to come up with a scheme to get her to smile. While waiting for Urabe the next day, he runs across the girl he had a crush on in middle school, and surprisingly, she seems interested in him. She invites Tsubaki to a cafe. Luckily, and sidestepping quite a few romance anime cliches, he refuses to go with her, telling her he’s waiting on someone. She leaves, discouraged, and Tsubaki soon discovers that Urabe was sitting nearby, listening to the whole conversation.
Her reaction doesn’t seem immediately apparent, as Urabe always seems somewhat distant. Is she upset? Is she jealous? Tsubaki, perhaps unwisely, presses the issue, and wonders if she would have been mad if he had gone. She presents Tsubaki with some drool, and upon tasting it, he starts crying. Understanding how sad Urabe would have been, Tsubaki tells Urabe that he’s only in love with her. She smiles, and once again Tsubaki tries to capture a photo of her face. Urabe consents to a photo, but decides to stick out her tongue in the picture.
In Summary
This episode doesn’t quite flow as well as the previous, as the stories combined weren’t all part of the same character arc. Still, the show is just as pleasantly nostalgic as ever, especially since it features an actual Polaroid-style camera. The show’s small cast and limited animation really allows the creative staff at Hoods to really develop the feeling of time and place, and it seems that most of the major moments between the couple take place at different places throughout the city where they live. It’s not very deep or original, but the execution is still pitch perfect and conjures up the feeling of having an innocent romance at a certain time in your youth.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
