Nazo no Kanojo X

For a while now I've been a pretty big fan of Mysterious Girlfriend X. The premise itself is pretty simple: guy (Tsubaki Akira) meets girl (Urabe Mikoto), falls ill from love sickness, and then requires her drool to continue living a normal life. Also, they start dating. Simple eh? Basically, it's a fun romance comedy where we follow Tsubaki's attempts at furthering his awkward relationship with the highly awkward Urabe. The story is actually very cute and has this quirky charm to it.

Oh, the drool part? Yeah, that's a surprisingly major thing in this manga. Basically, Urabe has to... transfer her drool to Tsubaki or he gets all wiggy. From that alone you might think that these two are constantly making out, but that is certainly not the case. Urabe actually sticks her finger in her mouth to get the drool to Tsubaki, who has to then suck it down. Honestly, it's kind of weird and creepy at first, but eventually you get use to it. And really, the 'gross out' factor dies down pretty quickly.

This is an interesting and strange romantic comedy. Urabe is very much a no-touch kind of girl and Tsubaki tries desperately to get her to open up little by little each chapter. It's very cute from that standpoint alone, but also scary as it turns out that Urabe is highly skilled with scissors, which she carries around by using her panties as a holster. So, once in a while Tsubaki will mess up and Urabe will pull out her weapon and slash away (typically just to threaten him). It's a weird dynamic as I wouldn't exactly call Urabe tsundere, she's more just weird and very private. Even so, it's amusing to read as Tsubaki tries to have a 'normal' couple's relationship with her.

With all that going on, the manga somehow includes tons of fanservice and raunchy scenarios. For instance, Urabe's drawing of her scissors always seems to lead to an awesome panty shot. Even without that, there are plenty of cute/ecchi moments to happen about. Really, you could just call it a simple case of adoraboner.

So, my thoughts? Well, like I said I'm a huge fan of this series. It's got a great engaging story with fun quirky characters and a strange exotic vibe (mostly due to Urabe herself and less with the drool). There's a good balance of serious, funny, and ecchi moments, so it never feels too overwhelming in any of those regards. And finally, each chapter's pacing is made very well. There's no wasted frames and it feels like each arc is decent and well-thought out. Also, there's no true harem building here really, though many arcs center around a girl trying to replace Urabe. So, the final verdict? Go out and read this manga! It requires more attention, though each new chapter only comes out once a month.

Also, there's a rumor going around that this is being made into an anime by my absolute favorite studio Shaft. If anyone can capture the cute awkwardness of Mysterious Girlfriend X it is definitely them.