Nazo no Kanojo X - 02 - Lost in Anime

Before I became an anime fan, I used to go to a lot of concerts by what are commonly called “jam bands”. There are certain leisure activities that are commonly (and correctly) associated with the act of attending such a concert. Somehow, magically, Nazo no Kanojo X has made me feel as if I were back in that time, only this go-around, I was watching anime.

OP: “Koi no Orchestra” (恋のオーケストラ) by Ayako Yoshitani

Damn, this show is weird. I alternate being transfixed by how utterly and perfectly the show has mirrored the look of late 80’s and 90’s anime, and being totally swept up in the bizarre yet somehow sweet storyline. This week we’re treated to the OP (like the ED sung by Ayako-san) which, exactly as it should, captures the sound and feel of what anime OPs sounded like 20 years ago with unnerving accuracy. Also unnerving is to see these visuals and have my mind expect a romantic comedy of that vintage, and then to have the sheer audacity of the premise thrown in my face. I’m having a very hard time coming up with words to describe what the experience of watching this show is like, because I’ve never seen anything quite like it. And neither or those two are things I say very often.

I won’t bore you again with how great Miyu Irino is, but the casting of this show is pure genius. MGX is all about contrasts – the retro visuals with the ultra-edgy premise. The disgusting nature of the central conceit with the innocence of Tsubaki’s feelings for Urabe. And the casting fits that theme like a glove, because Miyu is a magician here, hilarious (his “Hi-mi-tsu!” parody alone with the price of admission) and perfectly capturing the confusion and exuberance of Tsubaki in love and modulating his performance constantly. Meanwhile Yoshitani Ayako is completely natural. Her performance is mostly low-key and completely unconventional, utilizing none of the affectations and mannerisms female seiyuu rely on these days. Her voice has a sultry quality to it somehow merges with that hair-over-the-eyes look and amplifies Urabe’s presence tenfold. It’s one of the weirdest seiyuu combinations I can remember, but it totally works.

I see some kinship with Tsuritama here, as both seem to be taking a magical realism view of the adolescent male psyche. In the former case it’s all about social anxiety – being stared at, the voice cracking at the worst possible time, unease with social convention, fitting in. Here, it’s sex and love – in a broad sense I think MGX is really a wry look at the way teenaged girls seem like they’re from another planet to inexperienced teenaged boys. Or as one of our commenters pointed out last week, giant robots – mangaka Riichi Ueshiba has publicly stated that he views the series as a giant robot story, with the girl as the giant robot. In makes sense that way if you think about it, especially when you consider what the act of piloting a giant robot symbolizes in anime in the first place. He’s simply added a layer of symbolism – or eliminated one, depending on how you look at it.

Looked at that way, I can almost view MGX as a companion piece to the timeless (and ahead of its time) classic FLCL, which was full of similar themes, but this time centered on the subject of puberty. In the same way Urabe as a giant robot clarifies MGX, thinking of Haruka as puberty itself gives order to the avalanche of symbolism in FLCL. In fact this is probably the best anime that’s purely about the exploration of the adolescent male libido since FLCL – but it’s FLCL grown up, with a high-schooler at its center instead of a kid just entering middle school, and the terrifying alien is the relationship itself and not the physical onset of the awareness of the opposite sex.

Well, that’s a lot of words after all – I guess I wasn’t having as much trouble as I thought – but I still feel like the best way to experience MGX is to experience it, and not read about it. The episodes themselves are visual feasts, full of clever little touches like the recycled drink-machine sequences, the cutaways to cats and birds having a much better time than Tsubaki, and yet more dream sequences. The music is again splendid, authentic to the throwback visuals but clever and subtly reflecting the odd events on screen, and the percussion effect when Urabe uses her scissors is spot-on – in fact those sequences are exactly how I imagined them when I saw them on paper. Yes, those scissors – if you thought the drool thing was Urabe’s main weird card, she’s got plenty more up her sleeve, including this ace. Don’t think there’s no symbolism in this either – the scissors, and where she keeps them? Ah, the anxieties of an overstimulated teenaged psyche.

I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite scene here, but the one where Urabe disrobes in the abandoned building to make her drool extra charged-up was stupendous. It was beautifully drawn, unsettling (those ants!) and sensual, again juxtaposing desire and fear – those inseparable companions in the life of a teenaged male. Urabe is clearly weird (yet endearing) but the hinting is strong that it’s more than that – not only can she control the chemical impact of her drool, but she can tell what’s in Tsubaki’s mind from his – and I would be hard-pressed to think of a funnier line this season than when she told him he could “have me do whatever you want in your dreams – but if we were doing that, there’s no way I’d have a doll tied to my head!”

That sense of surrealistic, dreams bleeding into reality strangeness is at the heart of what MGX is. I think Tsubaki’s frustrations – both sexual and romantic – were extremely realistic and communicated to the audience well, thanks in part to Miyu’s performance. As did Taketo in R-15, Tsubaki can’t ignore the physical demands that are raging in his body – but he wants the relationship too, the hand-holding and the talking and the sense of closeness. But how do you have that with an alien – or a giant robot? What this series understands is that the two are not mutually exclusive, and in fact go hand-in-hand – but also that trying to make sense of the whole mess is an impossibility when you’re 16 and never had a girlfriend before. On top of everything else and all the other contrasts, MGX is both elemental and deep – by looking at Tsubaki’s life in a funhouse mirror, it shows us what adolescence really looks like.

15 comments

Anonymous

April 15, 2012 at 5:29 am

By far the best manga->anime adaptation I've ever watched.

Kentaiyoshimi

April 15, 2012 at 6:00 am

"If we were doing that, there’s no way I’d have a doll tied to my head!”
I cracked up so hard at that very last scene. That line, along with Urabe blushing and showing both eyes, was both funny and endearing at the same time.
I never thought I would be enjoying myself as much as I am with MGX. The throwback to the 90's is really quite nostalgic.

Awet M

April 15, 2012 at 7:17 am

I'm still flummoxed at how can this show evoke nostalgic feelings in me, when I never watched any anime other than Akira or Gunbuster from the late 80s & Ninja Scroll/Ghost in the Shell from the early 90s?

I suspect the retro-aesthetic isn't sufficient, although it does frame the nostalgia rather well against the current anime style.

Gotta admit that this show is fast climbing the ranks of the best of Spring 2012.

I did peek at the manga the other day, and I hope they do the dream scenes in its full glory.

piratedan

April 15, 2012 at 7:27 am

This series is simply awesome, it uses both the broad brush and the small detail brush with the same skill. Love how they take their scenes together and put that mesmerizing twilight effect to them with adding the music box dreaminess quality. Love the small touches with the soda cans (Tuesday Cola) and all of the Bad Cat products. Yes, Urabe is totally unlike most girls yet Tsubaki longs for a traditional relationship but he's not brave enough to proclaim their "coupleness" to their friends and classmates. I love how this series dances on the edge of the knife, high school boys ranking and rating girls but keeping a relationship secret from your best friend…. really like how they make all of this flow as everything is typical and yet how Tsubaki's and Urabe's relationship transcends that.

SQA

April 15, 2012 at 10:18 am

I really should have gotten the FLCL vibe. FLCL is a masterwork that's really hard for most people to get into, but it's got depth, in spades, to its insanity. This is pretty much the same type of setup. Which is probably why I'm loving this series so much.

In a season of potentially great series, this one might be rising to the top if it keeps up this pace.

Anonymous

April 15, 2012 at 1:26 pm

Loved it! Panty scissors x3!

And just a heads up, your link to the OP is the wrong one, Enzo.

admin

April 15, 2012 at 3:41 pm

Whoopsie, TY. Fixed.

Metalsnakezero

April 15, 2012 at 3:18 pm

Panty scissors, lemons, and censorship that works with the scene instead of opposing it, what a show.

belatkuro

April 15, 2012 at 4:17 pm

Just…wow.
I'm really impressed by how they played this episode.
My heart was also racing at some parts and I truly enjoyed it a lot.
I take it back now, Urabe's seiyuu is perfect for this. Her voice is so natural and has that charm that really draws you in the moments.
And the animation for the panty scissors sequence was amazing. Kudos to Hoods.
And I know it's been said over and over again(I'll never get tired of saying it though) but this season is truly a great and memorable one.

jebnemo

April 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm

On a mangaka note, a group has picked up Ueshiba Riichi's Yume Tsukai with volume 4. You can find it at the usual places. There's also a link for the first three volumes at their site. Well worth taking a look at for MGX comparison.

Nadavu

April 15, 2012 at 8:32 pm

I'd be very disappointed if it turns out that Urabe's drool has some supernatural qualities to it. I liked the explanation she gave in the first episode, that there's nothing special about it apart from the fact that it belongs to the girl Tsubaki loves. And that she seems to be able to glimpse into Tsubaki's psyche by tasting his drool only shows the depth of her feelings for him. taking the supernatural route here would take away from the uniqueness of the romance. The Urabe I want to see is a weirdo so weird that reality bends around her to make real her ridiculous view of how things are. The Uraba I don't want to see is a girl that turns out to be an extraterritorial :

admin

April 15, 2012 at 9:05 pm

What was it in Tsubaki's psyche that told her he imagined having sex while she had a doll tied to her head? 😉

Given that the whole drool thing is clearly allegorical and quite preposterous to begin with, I won't be too upset if there's a magically psychotropic quality to it, as long as it doesn't become the focus of the series.

Nadavu

April 17, 2012 at 12:08 am

was that a wrong use of the word 'psyche'? English isn't my first language, obviously :

jebnemo

April 18, 2012 at 2:18 am

Nothing, as the characters that share a "drool bond" do, to some extent, see into the psyche of the other.

BrikHaus

April 19, 2012 at 6:54 pm

Nice write up. I never follow active anime series, I always just wait for them to air in their entirety. But this series I am watching weekly. There's just something intangible about it that I like. Plus, the retro feel of it is appealing to me, as I can't stand the glut of moe crap that has invaded most of today's stuff.

Nazo no Kanojo X – 02

Guardian Enzo

15 comments

Anonymous

Kentaiyoshimi

Awet M

piratedan

SQA

Anonymous

admin

Metalsnakezero

belatkuro

jebnemo

Nadavu

admin

Nadavu

jebnemo

BrikHaus

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Lost in Anime

Guardian Enzo

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15 comments

Anonymous

Kentaiyoshimi

Awet M

piratedan

SQA

Anonymous

admin

Metalsnakezero

belatkuro

jebnemo

Nadavu

admin

Nadavu

jebnemo

BrikHaus

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