Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Mysterious Girlfriend X: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Huh. Mysterious Girlfriend X was... good. Weird, but good. Who knew?

After pushing through the initial shivers and shudders, the wincing and the shielding of eyes, and the ick-factor involved in watching two teens slowly, longingly, excruciatingly swap spit finger to mouth -- a relatively harmless act that will disgust some anime fans far more than others -- an unexpected revelation began to dawn on me: for all its eccentricities, Mysterious Girlfriend X is a surprisingly strong series. Simple but effective animation, sharp writing, bizarrely intriguing characters, the genuine enigma that is the show's eponymous girlfriend... once you get past the saliva-exchange gimmick (or grossout, depending on your stomach's resistance to churning and turning), there's actually a lot to love in X, and even more to pull budding addicts from one episode to the next. Of course, potential fans will need to endure those early trials. The startling sweetness and softheartedness of the series remains cloaked in ewww for the better part of three episodes, and even then you're never quite sure if X is going to jerk to the right, plunge off the ecchi ravine, and get real sick and real twisted real fast. And yet those who stick with it will be rewarded for their faith, and treated to something more satisfying than at first seems possible. Is it for everyone? Even in the end, absolutely not. I'm not even sure it's for me. But it will certainly catch you off guard, and not in a troubling way either. Quite the contrary.

Mysterious Girlfriend X: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In Mysterious Girlfriend X, diffuse lighting and soft colors are combined to create an evocative, at-times stylized atmosphere. School days are bright and sunny, romantic interludes are warm and soothing, and dreams are strangely colored and starkly contrasted, all of which results in Sentai's consistently soft but never unpleasant 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation. Detail is commendable, at least given the nature of the animation, and line art is clean and satisfying on the whole. The series' palette is also quite fetching, with restrained but confident primaries, crisp whites and decently resolved black levels (that rarely dip as low as they perhaps should). The encode itself is proficient too, barring some faint banding and minor artifacting. Truth be told, there isn't really much to criticize. The presentation represents the animators' intentions with faithfulness and respect, and Sentai doesn't slip up. Fans will be happy to see X earn such a solid treatment.

Mysterious Girlfriend X: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mysterious Girlfriend X is backed by two solid lossless audio tracks: a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English dub and an original-language Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix (with forced English subtitles). Both options serve up the goods (or rather the weirds) without incident, and the absence of LFE channel support and rear speaker activity doesn't amount to much disappointment since the series isn't an action-packed assault on the senses, or anything in the same orbit. Quiet and subdued, its sparse soundscape is almost too sparse, although that's hardly the fault of the lossless tracks. Voices are clear, well-grounded and nicely prioritized, effects follow suit, and nothing drags the English or Japanese sonic experiences down. That said, neither mix amounts to much of note either, resulting in a wholly adequate but fairly forgettable audio package.

Mysterious Girlfriend X: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of Mysterious Girlfriend X doesn't offer much in the way of special features other than clean opening and closing animations (HD, 3 minutes), two Japanese promos for X (HD, 1 minute), a slightly longer Japanese preview (HD, 2 minutes), and a collection of Sentai Filmworks trailers for Bodacious Space Pirates, Kids on the Slope, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia and Inu X Boku.

Mysterious Girlfriend X: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is there room on your shelf for one more anime series? Not afraid to take a risk? Willing to endure a little discomfort with the promise of a prize on the other side? Might I humbly (perhaps even reluctantly) suggest Mysterious Girlfriend X, a series I was sure I'd hate and yet came to enjoy quite a lot. Yes, I kept waiting for X to turn on me. Betray me. Let me down. Show its true colors and go from weird to sick without warning. But that moment never came. In fact, the opposite happened. The series and characters endeared themselves to me more and more, which was a huge surprise, and one I don't think I could have ever seen coming. And, as luck would have it, Sentai's Blu-ray release only bolstered the experience. While light on special features, the set's AV presentation offers excellent video and solid audio, which makes Mysterious Girlfriend X that much easier to watch. I won't promise you'll get past its premise, or even make it to the halfway mark. It's not for everyone, that's for sure. Those who reach the end, though, will be pleasantly surprised by what they find. I know I was.