Ever been cornered or trapped or treed, the hounds baying at your feet and you were compelled to do something you normally wouldn’t? Yeah, as of late, owing to real problems I have in trying to watch my anime, I have been seeing shows that I would have walked away from, but since I can’t get my hands on anything, well, as W. C. Fields once said “It is time to grab the bull by the tail and face the situation.” Thus brings me, and you, and the rest of us out there, to this, “Domestic Girlfriend” (“Domesutikku na Kanojo”).

We are at school, a seething cauldron of confusion and desire and rankings and a lot of other things that get in the way of learning. Natsuo Fujii (stuck in the middle with you) is hopelessly in love with a teacher, Hina Tachibana (her of the right). Well, that is NEVER going to work. I mean, she must be at least five to ten years older than he and schools tend to frown on this caliber of fraternization. This is nothing going nowhere.

Trying to move on, he agrees to go to a mixer. There he meets an odd girl, Rui (her to the left), who invites him to sneak out. She takes him to her house and asks him to have sex with her. Natsuo, frustrated that his love will not bear fruit anyway, says goodbye to his virginity in a scene with all the erotic implications of an empty tin of sardines. The deed is done and we shall never talk of this again. Move along; nothing to see here.

The next day, Natsuo’s dad tells him that he wants to remarry and his prospective partner is coming to their house that evening. When the door opens, it turns out that Rui is Hina’s younger sister and both are daughters of the woman his father wants to marry, Tsukiko Tachibana. Huh? Wha? Eh? The series contends itself with this eternal triangle that is more like a bent pyramid.

This show did not know what it wanted to be. If it wanted to be funny, it should have been funnier. If it wanted to be serious, it should have been more dramatic. If it wanted to be sexy, it should have been sexier. It was none of the above. At best, Natsuo came of as a ditherer. What to do? When to do? Where to do? So, he ends up making a series of blunders and unforced errors and missteps and bad choices and feeling sorry for himself. Not that his two female competitors are doing much better.

Now that Hina and Natsuo are ‘family’, but not really family, it seems to be OK to decide to pursue the romantic angle of things. We also learn that Hina is a heavy drinker and a bit of a flirt (she comes down from bath in her panties and a towel draped about her, forgetting there are now two males in the house. Ooooops!) We also see that Rui is a real Debbie Downer, as she derives little to no pleasures from her life, preferring to crab and complain. Even when a rival shows up, the ever-easy Momo Kashiwabara, a sexual encounter goes nowhere and Rui doesn’t even feel threatened by her presence.

Mom and Dad are oblivious to things, I guess they are too busy dancing in the sheets, but that’s a guess, as they are only there when it helps the story and invisible the rest of the time. Overall, this was a drag of a show. I never really got into it and it felt like they never got into it. It all felt half-hearted and you get whatever you deserve. I have seen shows like this handled a lot better, either going for the goofy or playing up the stress and tension. This just lies there. Don’t bother poking it with a stick, as you’ll get no reaction.

I do not feel that binging this show will help with anything, except solidify in your mind how empty and vague the whole thing is. I would have walked after two episodes, but I had to stay here until Norton decides my anime sites are not digital poison. You can do better.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (All standard stuff)
Plot                  7 (Rather typical but limp execution)
Pacing              7 (Telegraphed)
Effectiveness   6 (We all know what’s going down)
Conclusion      7 (It reaches a coupler point, but doesn’t end, but who cares)
Fan Service     2 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)
Bingeability    5 (Not worth it)

Overall            5  (A real snorefest)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. I don’t want to be an adult.