Wednesday, June 19, 2019

My Girlfriend is Shobitch (2017)


My Girlfriend is Shobitch is 10 episodes long plus an OVA and is based on a manga series.  The anime follows Shinozaki Haruka who is a shy high school student.  As far as protagonists go, he's pretty generic and has no real defining traits.  In the same class is Shinozaki's crush, Kosaka Akiho.  The only thing we learn about her is that she's pretty and seemingly out of Shinozaki's league.  Within minutes of the introduction of her character (and the episode), Shinozaki decides to confess to Kosaka and ask her out to be his girlfriend.  To our surprise, Kosaka agrees.


We then learn about Kosaka's unique personality.  She is expressionless, using the same tone but has a dry sense of humor.  The most striking aspect is her thought process, which tinges on the more sexual side.  She has no experience with relationships and thus overanalyzes everything.  She usually jumps straight to the conclusion that the current situation involves something sexual; this is pretty funny especially when you find out where she got it from.


The anime's humor leans heavily towards sexual innuendos, both in terms of dialogue and visually.  Sometimes it's funny, others it goes a bit far.  Pretty much every scene sets up a metaphor for sexual acts, leaving Shinozaki to be the only sane one in the whole series.  Thanks to the volume of sexual jokes per episode, you'd expect that some works and others don't.  Some of the scenarios in which Shinozaki finds himself in are very easy to misunderstand and this is what makes them funny.  The suggestive actions of several characters can be over the top but is part of the charm of the series.


As typical of this genre, Shinozaki has other girls near him whose feelings he is oblivious to.  This includes his overly active sister who has cat mannerisms, and a third year childhood friend.  Both of them tease Shinozaki with sexual innuendos.  The new characters which are introduced are all equally weird, from a rich girl who refers to her dogs as her "males" to a handsome guy where Kosaka mistakes for being too affectionate with her boyfriend.  Any time a character speaks, you'd expect some sort of new sexual joke.


Rounding out the cast are the student council members, one which is super perverted while the other is the token normal person in the whole series.  She is uptight and wants to keep the moral high ground but constantly finds herself in scenarios where she is put into the situations she hates most.  The anime doesn't have too much of a plot or an objective.  It follows the pair's journey in their relationships, getting used to each other and of course, meeting the parents.  The scene transitions within an episode can feel disjointed, especially when it suddenly changes.  Sometimes, the next part of the episode has nothing to do with what came before so it can be haphazard.


The series never builds up any momentum; rather, it just plods along at the same pace the whole way through.  This means that the ending can be a bit weak as it doesn't resolve anything, but then again, the anime doesn't have any conflict either.  The ending of each episode teases the pair going to a love hotel.  This actually comes back as the basis for the OVA, which is a lot more suggestive compared to the main episodes (probably because they can get away with more as it won't be aired on TV).  The first half is more meaningful as Shinozaki and Kosaka explores and accepts each other and their current situation, while the second half is just an excuse for more sexual references.


Overall, My Girlfriend is Shobitch is a bit average.  The overabundance of sexual references can be overkill at times, and since not all of it is funny, it can feel like it drags on.  However, the dynamic between Shinozaki and Kosaka is genuine and they are a likable pair.

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For other anime reviews, have a look at this page.
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