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I started writing the script for this review within the first 2 hours I started watching this anime, it now being 1:30 in the morning. And all I can say about this anime is how gut wrenching it is. It’s not blood, gore or any sort of horror that’s made me feel this way. But rather it’s a heart issue. Issues of love; the characters coming to understand that emotion. And the feeling of that love being unrequited is making my heart ache, as I can’t help but empathise with the male protagonist. We continue to watch this anime yearning for a peaceful ending. Resolution ... and reconciliation between characters. And it’s my hope that comes in time as I continue to watch the anime. At this point this anime has had no issue manifesting an array of emotions inside me. I’ve felt sad to the point of tears, angry to the point of screaming, and a dull ache where my heart strings are being pulled that I can only attribute to feelings of jealousy.

Only 6 episodes into this anime, while not a masterpiece, has had the power to move me. And after thinking long about how this anime is able to invoke so many emotions in the viewer.. I came to a simple conclusion... This anime, unlike many other romance anime out there, portrays a realistic view of romance and the brokenness of human relationships. It’s romance in the real world where not everything is straight forward. An anime where romance isn’t like fairytales or the princess and prince. But rather a story filled with unrequited love and love triangles, and then, along with that, jealousy, lust, adultery, unfulfilled desire and awkwardness as the cast navigate their way through their own sexuality. It’ll only be another 24 hours until I finish the anime that I can reflect on these feelings I’ve put on paper and properly review the anime.

I’ve resumed the script for this review at 1am the next day, having now fully completed the anime. And now, after full absorbing this series I can say that I haven’t been moved by an anime in this way since I saw Re:Zero or Mysterious Girlfriend X. While not a masterpiece there are so many great features to this anime that I’ll look at following our standard review pattern with story, characters, art and sound.

The story revolves around a boy named Natsuo Fuji who falls in love with his teacher named Hina. His father ends up marrying Hina’s mother, and so they begin cohabitation. The story explores the relationship between Natsuo, Hina and Hina’s sister called Rui.

The focal point of the anime story is around romance, and as I’ve mentioned earlier this is done in a way that I didn’t expect. You see this anime depicted the reality of what some romance turn out to be. The challenge of being with someone, and the despair of rejection is something that many people can empathise with. So because the anime is this way, the story was mainly driven by the characters and developed as they continued to interact with one another.

A key aspect of the story and of the character relationships that honestly isn’t for everyone, is the taboo being openly explored. In this anime you’ll see relationships build between a child and adult, and between a brother and sister. And I feel there are people who, for them, this turns them away from the anime. But for me, it wasn’t something that fazed me. Perhaps because it’s a common occurrence in anime, that the boundaries are often pushed. Or maybe it’s because I’ve seen it in anime before that I was desensitised to the idea. But at the core of this anime is romance, sweet, sad and real. And upon reflection it could possibly be that the very fact the anime pushes these boundaries makes it so engaging. The viewer is kept on the edge of seat in fear for the protagonists, are they going to be found out? Or will she reciprocate his feelings? We are left in heart ache wanting the best outcome for the characters and that’s part of what makes the story so engaging. The story ends on a what seems like cliffhanger. With a little resolution.. Leaving the viewer in shock and yearning to see more. A perfect strategy to sell sequel volumes of the manga.

The characters in this anime were great in a sense that they were relatable. But if I could say there was a let down anywhere in the anime I would say the characters weren’t at their peak. I honestly just felt like they weren’t developed enough. And for a romance anime this is key. We didn’t know much about Natsuo, just the fact that he simply loved Hina and is an aspiring novelist. Rui was made out to be someone who also loved books, but that passion was rarely a bonding point between Natsuo and Rui. And Hina was just a teacher that looked cute. There was so much focus on the drama that we lost some character development when it was clearly needed. Regardless I still loved the characters, they were drawn well, had amazing voice actors behind them and were relatable.

So as for the art and sound. In terms of the art, I think it was done well. It was clean, and with the combination of the amazing voice acting and art, the characters emotions were brought forth so powerfully. It was so easy to see their anguish, their feelings of hopelessness, and even when they succumbed to their libido and desires. The sound and art apart from this were done to a high standard, and while it honestly wasn’t something I noticed. Upon reflection I can see the effect it had on the viewer.

So finally, while not a masterpiece this anime was powerful. It moved me, made me feel what the characters were feeling, and I got sucked into the world desperate to see resolution. Hence why I’m still awake at 1:45 typing this review. This anime is great for anyone who wants to see a romance anime that is real, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hates taboo topics or romance that pushes the boundaries.

Domestic Girlfriend is an anime that is truely unique in its own way and will leave you wanting more. A perfect strategy to sell sequel volumes of the manga.

Wait… Did that guy just lick her drool? Why man, why you do this.

Upon first look one might be turned away from this anime. The anime style is a bit older, having being published in 2012. And the synopsis of the anime doesn’t give it justice for the amazing anime it actually is. In my opinion, this anime was just shy of becoming a masterpiece. It is a simple romance anime with a strange theme to go around it. And while some parts of the anime are shocking and seems strange at first, they become a core part of the story and becomes key ... in how the main characters interact and the progression of the story. I really did get drawn into the anime and while the anime is a bit old, I thought I would do my best to do a review so I can share my thoughts on the anime 5 years later.

*BEFORE WE GO FURTHER INTO THE REVIEW - WARNING *Minor Spoilers* Let's continue :)

STORY

Let’s start this review by looking at the story.

Urabe Mikoto is a strange 16 old girl who transfers to the same school as Tsubaki Akira. In the classroom she sits right next to Tsubaki and she is labeled someone who is weird by the entire class. She sleeps during most of the day at her desk and sometimes randomly erupts in a fit of laughter. One day Tsubaki returns to the classroom after school to see Urabe asleep at her desk. Once she wakes up, he sees her face for the first time and says she is cute. Once she leaves to go home Tsubaki sees a puddle of her drool on the desk. Curious to know what it tastes like, he picks some up and licks it - to find that her drool is very sweet. This drool starts a "bond" between these characters and they begin to form a relationship.

My first thoughts of watching the anime I didn’t know how it would play out. As I continued watching the anime I saw the creators of the anime use the bond of drool in a very interesting way and it no longer became weird to see. Something I loved in this anime was seeing Tsubaki and Urabe exchange drool. In the anime there was also an added supernatural element where they could express feelings, thoughts and even sensation through drool. This allowed the two characters - Tsubaki and Urabe - who were in love, to explore each other and understand each other. It was interesting to see the bond between these two characters through drool and that helped them develop a relationship.

For example, in the anime Urabe falls over and hurts her knee, when Urabe gives Tsubaki her drool his knee also begins to hurt. So in some supernatural way, they have a bond and are connected by drool.

This bond of drool becomes the basis of the story progression as the characters progress in their relationship and grow more deeply in love. At the heart of the story this anime is a romance anime. The romance is very simple: we see jealously, lust, love and the characters being possessive. This very simple romance story is great and is spiced up by the experience drool adds in the anime - making a very interesting anime with a story that pulls in the viewer and provides a very different experience than conventional romance anime. This story, it’s ideas and how it’s displayed in the anime are well crafted, so rightfully I say that the story was a masterpiece.

CHARACTERS

Now the story had two main characters in it, there was Urabe Mikito and Tsubaki Akira. There are other supporting characters but today I’ll just focus on those two.

Tsubaki Akira seems like an average Japanese high-schooler, he finds that Urabe’s drool is very sweet. Other people who have tasted Urabe’s drool did not have a reaction on the same level as Tsubaki. We see his love grow for this girl, we see him succumb to his libido, lust after his girlfriend and become possessive of her when she is noticed by other guys. Most people (wether or not you have been in a relationship before) will be able to understand this. This guy is simply a boy who is in love with a girl. Again we see this idea of a simple romance anime done right. And they really have, in the character of Tsubaki we see by his actions and thoughts. This is a guy in love. And because we can relate to that on some level we enjoy him as a character.

Now let’s look at Tsubaki’s other half, and by that I mean let’s talk about Urabe Mikito. Urabe is a mysterious girl. If I were to compare her to character in other anime, she similar in some ways to Rikka Takanashi from Chuunibyou. Urabe is mysterious, withdrawn and seemingly doesn’t know how to reciprocate her feelings to Tsubaki. The bond of drool she has with Tsubaki allows her to convey her feelings, sensation, memories and dreams. This allows Urabe to connect with Tsubaki on a different level. By drool he can feel what she feels. And it’s interesting to see the many different ways she expresses herself to Tsubaki by drool. I feel that this bond between them is a level of connection that I haven’t seen in anime before. This is what spices the romance aspect of the anime, and the nature of Urabe as a character as someone who can express her love for Tsubaki through a bond of drool is something so unique, cute and unconventional - yet is easily understood and meaningful to both Tsubaki and Urabe.

So my final thoughts are - for a romance anime - these characters are done simply and right. Made interesting by their bond of drool.

ART

Now when it comes to art I wasn’t really turned away by the idea of two people exchanging drool. The anime does a great job in making drool appetising. Drool is made out to be something like honey. It’s a clear, thick and glistening liquid that apparently tastes sweet. Now because drool is one of the most important features in the anime - I think the studios did well to make drool appetising, otherwise the viewers would cringe every-time they exchanged drool. So the art in general was pretty consistent and good throughout the anime. It was good to see Urabe’s character design, where her hair would mask most of her face so she would appear a bit more mysterious. Whenever her hair moved and we saw her eyes, we were able to see that she is actually quite cute. The art style of the scenery was just as good as the character design and captured that high school lifestyle quite well.

SOUND

The sound in the anime was good, the opening and ending songs were catchy, the voice acting was great and they were able to express the characters feelings very well, when they were flustered, nervous or upset, we were able to understand. The voice actors performed to their characters well. Urabe was quite monotone and quiet, but spoke with confidence and with insecurity when the anime called for it. And tsubaki sounded like an average high school boy like in most other Japanese anime. Overall the sound was great, the voice acting, soundtrack, opening and ending. I honestly can’t find fault in the sound for this anime.

OVERALL/ENJOYMENT

While writing this review, I’m struggling to articulate how amazing this anime is. For a romance anime it did all the simple things right. For a school setting it portrayed the high school scene very well. And for a seinen anime, which is targeted at people my age I thought that the themes were interesting and relatable.

So what am I’m trying to say? I’m trying to say, if you love simple romance in anime then go watch this anime. The use of drool as a bond between the two main characters is not too strange, and I’ve come to admire and value how drool has bonded them, especially the supernatural elements. It sounds weird coming from me, and of course it is just an anime. But I found it so interesting how drool was used to express feelings and sensation. It’s a level of connection and deepness that is unique to this anime and distinguishes this anime from all other of it’s genre.

If you enjoyed other anime like chuunbyou there are some similarities.

Both anime have a mysterious girl, who has a bond to the male protagonist, with a school setting. I definitely recommend you give this anime a go and see where it takes you. You’ll be surprised after watching this anime how much you enjoy it.

- Oh yeah, i'd give this anime a 9/10 :)