Nazo no Kanojo X: Nazo no Natsu Matsuri

Mysterious Girlfriend X is a difficult series to fully explain. It has the mystery, the drama, the scissors, the beach tans, the dreams, the jealousy, and the drooooool. And of course, romance series now a days has most if not all of those elements in one way or another; the beach episode, the jealous boyfriend/girlfriend, the fanservice, and childhood crushes. Then of course, there's MGX: The Endless Summer of mystery, drool, and girlfriend.

Nazo no Kanojo X OVA (also known as Mysterious Girlfriend X) is an OVA released with the 9th volume of the manga in the hot summers of August. As the series already finished ... airing, some die hard fans sure has missed this mysterious series of freshness that lies within the characteristics of Urabe. She is one of the most strangest girls we've seen so far this year and I bet most of you watching the original series sure wants another glimpse of her.

Well, fear no more because summer is here and the festival of fun is waiting for you.

This OVA is actually very amusing to watch to say the least. As mentioned before, romance series nowadays typically consists of the package: the beach episode, the childhood memory/friend returns, and then here we are: the Summer Festival episode.

The content of this special OVA is once again amusing in the way that it's been months since the main characters, Akira Tsubaki and Mikoto Urabe have been dating but yet nothing special has happened to between the duo. Luckily of course, there's a summer festival and the red lines string of fate ties them together to once again try to take the next step in this mysterious relationship. Speaking of red lines string of fate, there's plenty of that where it came from.

Then of course, there's the mystery of this OVA episode. Where is it? Perhaps it's those fox like masks another mysterious couple presents during the festival. With eyes silver as the white moon and mischief those of a fox, another couple plays an amusing prank against Urabe and Mikoto. Although not by any means extraordinary, it certainly was fun to watch it and relieve some of the nostalgia from the original series.

Ayako Yoshitani once again plays her role as the newcomer in this series in the shoes of our mysterious girlfriend, Urabe. She seems to be embarrassed in this episode and no surprise since underneath those yukata is....*puts on a grin*. At any rate, it seems that the couple (Urabe x Mikoto) are still at second base and not progressed forward. YET.

Then of course, there's the other characters that wants to progress their own relationships to little avail. Yup, life is harsh folks and reality sucks.

The old school artwork remains intact in this episode as well and so does the music. Nothing special there but it does bring back again what I mentioned earlier, nostologia.

Overall, this special episode was amusing to watch to say the least. Yes, it definitely has its flaws in the storyline department as it lacks flavor and adds in nothing new, just the typical and cliched summer festival episode. The couples' relationships seems to be going nowhere despite supposedly being tied by the "red string of fate", or the love charm. Love is certainly in the air but nothing really comes out of it. Still though, I'd advice to give this special episode at least a try. Like Urabe says "next year, I hope it's just the two of us". Next year, I hoping this series will progress the relationship of the mysterious couple and bring forth another amusing series that is mysterious and droolicious courtesy of MGX.

The OVA for Mysterious Girlfriend X is here, and includes an original story not seen in the manga. However, it still includes the characters, concepts, and relationship development you'd expect from an episode of MGX.

It slightly misses the high bar set by the full series though - Urabe and Tsubaki must overcome a wholly supernatural phenomenon that goes beyond the strange nature of her drool which feels slightly out of place. It is only temporary though, and serves not only slightly further their relationship, but to also have cameos recognisable by fans of the authors' previous works.

The relationship pay off didn't seem as important as ... others in the show though, even if it was arguably one of the more important developments that has happened. This may be due to the original nature of the story, but at the very least it's still in the spirit of the show.

Here's hoping for a second series

‘Skeptical’ is the word which best sums up my feelings when I sat down in front of my laptop and prepared myself to watch the Nazo no Kanojo X OVA. I’ve had a less than savoury experience with OVAs in the past, finding they do little to add to the show, existing mainly to provide fans with the excessive fanservice forbidden by the show either due to the time it airs on TV or by the fact they had to stay suitable for their target audience- and considering Nazo no Kanojo’s pushed boundaries within its TV show (which are always, comparatively, more reserved)… well, can ... you understand my cause for concern? I was also worried it wouldn’t make up for the slightly boring finale of the show, but stupid me, I should’ve learnt from experience that it’s pointless making any kind of pre-conceived assumptions when about to watch Nazo no Kanojo- ‘cause it will always end up doing something completely out of the left field! Still, there was fanservice… But that’s almost a given in OVAs today, isn’t it?

But the fanservice actually wasn’t that bad! It wasn’t flagrant and all in your face like in, say, the Highschool of the Dead OVA, or any of the Code Geass picture specials. There were a few lingering shots of Urabe’s butt, an almost nude shot of Tsubaki’s sister, a scene where Urabe was tied up (it works for some) and the fact Urabe wasn’t wearing panties underneath her yukata, but that was about it. It was about the same level of ‘ecchi-ness’ as in the TV show, and there wasn’t any of that sleazy saxophone music playing in the background during any of these moments, as if to say “Yeah, fyi, this is supposed to be sexy!”, so you barely noticed it really, it certainly didn’t hamper upon my overall enjoyment of the OVA. As I always say, fanservice is OK, so long as it’s not excessive and distracts away from story.

As for the story… Well, it started off a little dull, but things really started to pick up about 10 minutes through when Urabe was held hostage by two, very strange, individuals who force Tsubaki to complete a test in order to save her. The test itself (which I originally perceived to be simply fanservice) was, in typical NNK style, a metaphor! Yay!! When he first attempts to save her Urabe wards Tsubaki off, telling him not to come to close to her, which, ironically, is exactly what Tsubaki must do if he’s to save her, come close to her, not physically, but emotionally. If he’s to pick the correct string to free her, he’s going to need to tap into that mystical ‘couple sense’ where you just know what to do to help the one you love. At this point I was almost frothing at the mouth in excitement- yes, that’s something they struggled with throughout the entire show: Urabe always kept Tsubaki at arm’s length, rarely sharing how she felt, something which I felt held them back, but this was something she needed to overcome to save herself! I was hoping Urabe’d say that it was OK for Tsubaki to come close to her, that she needed him, that he ought to climb up the structure and let her down, maybe then the structure would start to collapse and they’d fall together and he’d cushion the blow and it’d be all romantic, or something!! But then al that happened was more “Hey, remember our bond?” and mystical drool nonsense… I just couldn’t help but feel more dramatic, not to mention symbolic, possibilities could have been explored here- they resolved the situation the same way they resolved all situation in the show, by placing faith in their bond and in drool and it felt as though no progress in the relationship was made… Nevertheless, an interesting diversion from the usual summer fest antics.

The two individuals who forced the pair into completing the task where interesting also. I originally believed that Hell’s museum and its unusual curators was something the pair dreamt up- they’d shared dreams before, right? But Urabe felt pain from her short fall, not to mention we were shown a conversation that took place between the strange duo shortly afterwards, so they must not have been dreamt up. Perhaps they really were the mischievous spirits they claimed to be? Well, I wasn’t far off. Matsubuya and Togawa are actually the main characters in Riichi Ueshiba’s (the mangaka of NNK) other publication Discommunication- Spirit World, a story where several characters have the ability to control the content of dreams, which explain a lot. So whilst their inclusion, and specifically their inclusion, was merely fanservice for those familiar with the numerous works of Ueshiba, I still appreciated the message they left us with: that by unlocking the mysteries of the one you love, you can learn something about yourself in the process.

So whilst the OVA didn’t add to the show, as such, it was still vaguely interesting at points. Definitely worth a watch if you’re more than satisfied with more of the same or you’re a fan of Discommunication- Spirit World.