Nazo no Kanojo X – 05

I can probably count on one (spit-covered) finger how many times I’ve seen this shot on a male character.

First of all, thank you to everyone who helped us to advance to the next round of the Aniblog Tourney. So how was everybody’s weekend? I didn’t get to go to the beach like Akira and Mikoto do in this episode, but I did spend a lot of time outside participating in an obstacle course called Tough Mudder up in Vermont, and let me tell you, my body’s still feeling it. And hey, I did get a watch tan line on my wrist, so I must’ve done something right.

Summer is in full swing, which means plenty of sweating for high school students. And for some reason Akira finds Mikoto’s sweat to smell sweet, leading her to mention that the saltiness of her sweat reminds her of the sea, and to offer some up to Akira for a lick. Not a stranger to licking her bodily fluids by now (that sounds so much dirtier than it is, doesn’t it?), he complies, which causes him to see a vivid image of Mikoto in a white bikini. This, learning that Mikoto enjoys swimming, and a missed opportunity to see her in her swimsuit during physical education at school prompts Akira to invite her for a trip to the beach during summer vacation.

Akira’s vision of Mikoto.

But during vacation, Akira is having difficulty setting a date, because his daily exchanges with Mikoto only involve her cycling by, letting him suck her drool, then quickly speeding by. Afraid that the entire vacation might pass by, he finally makes a move by grabbing onto her bike before she can leave and inviting her. Unfortunate for him, she’s going away to her father’s family the next day, but she’ll be back the next week, and so they agree to meet at the train station. Akira is ecstatic and dreams that night about running with her in that same city, in a black bikini this time, before she turns into a mermaid.

More of Akira’s image of Mikoto, in his dream this time.

When the date finally comes, Akira hurries to the train station to find a very tan Mikoto. Her father’s place was near a beach where she went swimming, she explains. So off they go, to the beach where Akira gets to see Mikoto in a swimsuit for the first time, a black bikini, though she wears a cloth around her waist instead of just the bottom. While they’re swimming, Akira can’t help but stare at the cloth and wonder about what’s hidden behind, which Mikoto notices. She shows him what’s underneath and her reason for wearing the cloth: a very distinct tan line of the scissors she was wearing holstered in her bikini bottom at the empty beach near her father’s. This sight turns on Akira to the point of nosebleed, something Mikoto finds out in the train ride home when she tastes his saliva (like at the end of episode 2) to get his feeling of the day. She asks him if he’d like to see that again, to which he confidently answers yes. She says that he can see her tan lines again next year.

Hm, that bikini looks identical to the one in Akira’s dream…

FTanservice!

Dem scissors.

Mikoto gives off the vibe of an emotionless girl, but she’s not that at all.

Seriously, this show has the best eye catches.

“Oh, you want to look? Here.”

A pretty standard beach date episode, or at least as standard as Mysterious Girlfriend X gets. It hasn’t been keeping up with the great visuals lately, so I liked the use of the X swipes during the montage of the summer vacation meetings between Akira and Mikoto. Oh, and I appreciated that both were dressed completely different in each scene. You know, like normal humans. When the beach scene came along, I thought it might have been a bit early to pull out the OP-within-the-episode card, but when it’s used in a scene as weighty as seeing one’s girlfriend in a swimsuit for the first time, I can’t complain.

This show is called Mysterious Girlfriend X, not Drooling Girlfriend X, so I suppose it’s natural that more new fetishes were covered this episode. Specifically tan lines and sweat. What the show did with its main saliva fetish was somehow to make it feel innocent, and much the same seemed to be going on with the sweat. Instead of Akira excitedly lapping up her juices, he took a cautious lick at her prompting, to check if it reminded him of the sea. There was a noticeable lack of sexuality to that scene just like with many (certainly not all) of the saliva exchanges.

The way this scene seems so wholesome. At least, considering what they’re doing.

The tan lines were more risque, with Akira quite clearly turned on by seeing the outline of the scissors on Mikoto’s hip. It occurred to me while watching this episode that this summer tan phenomenon is something that’s accentuated in East Asians, due to the tendency of our typically light skin to take on a very brown tone upon tanning. Contrast that with many whites whose skin take a reddish tone, or blacks and Hispanics where the contrast is less noticeable due to the base color already being relatively dark. So tan lines stand out on East Asians.

Being one, I wonder if that’s why I find tan lines both natural and somewhat attractive, though I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I have a fetish for them. Here in the United States, much effort is spent to avoid tan lines – cutting off sleeves to prevent the farmer’s tan, sunbathing topless or even bottomless, using tanning beds – and I don’t find the appeal to them. Personally, I like the way it reflects the comfort of the person who got the tan lines and his or her lack of expending unnecessary energy to avoid them. Clearly Akira found them attractive in some way as well.

What do YOU find to be the most alluring part of this image?

But we didn’t find out exactly why he was turned on so much. Was it a general fetish, or was it the idea of Mikoto with scissors holstered in her bikini bottoms? What I found significant was that Mikoto herself didn’t question his reaction at all. The thing about fetishes (and preferences in general, really) is that they usually don’t have any logical explanations, and they don’t need such explanations. Fetishes often work by taking things that are normally considered innocent (e.g. feet, sweat, drool) and making them sexually charged. And usually they’re accompanied by a some stigma, that they represent some sort of sexual deviancy. Mysterious Girlfriend X takes fetishes and tears away that stigma – sometimes taking away much of the sexuality as well – by showing the characters approaching them from a naive angle, taking them at face value. The same way it does to the idea of the magic of first love, it takes away the mystique surrounding fetishes and makes them all the more magical.

Mikoto told Akira in the 2nd episode when asked about her scissors related hobby, “That’s just who [she is].” Mikoto understands that love is about acceptance without judgment, as evidenced by her asking Akira if he wants to see it again and readily accepting his request… even if he’ll have to wait until next year. All of her quirks aside, that’s what makes Mikoto such a cutie pie.

Preview

Tears will be shed… and that picture of Akira’s old crush is coming back!?

About lvlln

A math/science geek and a self-dubbed cynical optimist. I don't care if it's deep, if it can make me feel something or laugh, it's fine in my book. @lvlln