Be forewarned, this is the most disgusting show I have ever seen, and I saw “Elfin Lied”, but I’ll explain.

“Mysterious Girlfriend X” is about Akira Tsubaki, the guy to the left, who has transferred into this school. One of his classmates, Mikoto Urabe, the Veronica Lake-type, is an odd fish. She bursts out laughing one day, but no one pays her any heed. One day, she is sleeping in class and is awoken by Akira, but she leaves behind a puddle of drool. He decides to (are you ready for it?) take a little taste of it. What? A drool-licker? Ugh! Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh! Who the crud licks people’s drool off their desk. Obviously, this was not done in the health class.

He falls ill (and no wonder! Why don’t you just lick her gums while you’re at it?) and she stops by to tell him he has ‘love sickness’. This now means that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, although she is physically and emotionally distant to him. SHE calls the shots here. And should he decide to hug her without warning or permission, she whips out a pair of scissors she keeps in the band of her panties and will scissor away that which needs to be snipped. After school, they walk along the same street until they come to the junction where they go their separate ways. Before they say good-bye, she offers him a fingerful of drool each day. The drool can transmit feelings, among other things, between the two of them.

It’s just that the drool is rather viscous, somewhere between honey and motor oil and it presented with such prominence. The fact he gloms onto it like it’s honey (or motor oil; he’s a weird bird to begin with) just adds to the unsettling nature of their relationship.

Adding to this consternation is another classmate, Ayuko Oka, who also has a boyfriend, but their relationship is farther along. Ayuko steals some of Urabe’s drool to learn more about what is going on between those two. Is this the special bond girls have with one another? You don’t swap gossip but swap drool? Maybe my older brother WAS right: girls are icky.

The story is how both learn what a real relationship is all about and how Urabe has to learn to trust others (which she doesn’t truly do). If you can get around the drool-licking sequences (and they come about three or four a show), there is an intriguing tale back there. Even the rather stand-offish Urabe has to learn that she can’t be this distant all the time. The fan service is kept pretty close, although there is one episode where she gets naked. Sadly, I saw it with ‘modesty bars’, but I know she was naked for all that. And when she whips out her scissors, that skirt has to come upwards, so you see her frillies.

The ending credits are the strangest I have ever seen, as it is cheesecake-like shots of girls in flirty clothing…with their drool. The season ends with a coupler, as we know their relationship hasn’t really gone anywhere as of yet, so if they want to continue, they can, and if they want to call it quits, you have a complete package.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           8 (Rather standard artwork)
Plot                  8 (A different take on young love)
Pacing              7 (Can get bogged down in spots)
Effectiveness   7 (Gets frustrating as you want more parity)
Conclusion      7 (It reaches a ‘save point’, but doesn’t really end)
Fan Service     6 (A similar show would be “Mahoromatic”)

Overall            8 (The course of love never runs true)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Here is my drool.