Anime Hajime Review: Boku no Kanojo ga Majime Sugiru Shojo Bicchi na Ken

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Boku no Kanojo ga Majime Sugiru Shojo Bicchi na Ken. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

For Haruka Shinozaki (voiced by Mitsuhiro Ichiki) there has only been one girl on his mind. This has been the smart and beautiful Akiho Kosaka (voiced by Aoi Yuki).

In Haruka’s mind, being in a relationship with Akiho would be a dream come true. But how could such a girl ever have the time of day for a nobody like him? Be that as it may, Haruka goes for broke.

Mustering every ounce of his courage, Haruka confesses his feelings to Akiho. Bracing for that inevitable “no”, she surprises him by saying “yes”. And in Haruka’s image of Akiho, that should have been the only surprise.

For you see, Akiho views the world in a much more “exciting” way. Things like sex, pleasure, and eroticism are not just okay topics for her, she defaults to them. And always during the least appropriate of circumstances.

Though taken aback by Akiho’s true nature, Haruka’s feeling towards her don’t change all that much. And while unexpected, he never thought she would ever say yes in the first place.

Series Positives

Boku no Kanojo ga Majime Sugiru Shojo Bicchi na Ken (BKMSSBK) was better than I thought it was going to be. Actually, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. In fact, it’s astonishing how solid this series was.

During this viewing, I saw bits of My Wife is the Student Council President (MWSCP) and Seitokai Yakuindomo. And for the most part, BKMSSBK re-captured the stronger aspects of those shows.

Like it was in MWSCP, the erotic fueled humor and fanservice balanced out. They never became overbearing. Granted this series never reached the insanity that was MWSCP. Nevertheless, the principles employed were the same. There was more reliance on personalities and character interaction. Sure, there were a few big boobed members of this cast. But as it should be, we got to know about them first. Anything afterward was a bonus.

Besides, this show was more suggestive than it was explicit. Kind of like Seitokai.

Of course, “suggestive” is misleading when talking about either BKMSSBK or Seitokai. These shows were suggestive in that they never had any nudity or did the acts they were referring to. Yet only the most innocent of young children are going to fail to catch what’s going on. That’s not that big of a problem since children should not be watching BKMSSBK.

And though this series had elements of both MWSCP and Seitokai, it wasn’t a repeat of them. This was its own thing. BKMSSBK managed to come out from under those other show’s shadows and stand alongside them.

Given the unapologetic lewdness of this type of series, not everyone will be on board for this ride. There were a lot of crude, immature, penis-centric jokes in this show.

If you continue on with this review after having read that, I am going to assume you're open to this kind of material. If you’re not, then there is nothing I can say that will paint BKMSSBK in a positive light.

Too bad too because there were a number of things this series got right.

The Characters

I have something nice to say about every character in this show. As I mentioned, BKMSSBK prioritized giving us a personality-filled cast. Everyone in this series had a role to play and they played their roles well.

Were they all unique and one of a kind? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

I’m not going to pretend I haven’t seen these character types before. And by “seen before” I mean at least one of these people find their way in every single show of this nature. Let’s see how many we can list.

There’s the hardnose moral authority who loses it at the thought of any hint of affection. Think Rin Misumi from MWSCP.

Or how about the complete opposite of that. There’s the full-blown pervert who is incapable of keeping it in their pants. Anna Nishikinomiya from Shimoneta remains the queen of this trope.

Then there’s the third wheel who keeps falling victim to the bizarreness around them. Sayaka Sumino from Aho Girl comes to mind.

Quick side note. I would be the first to say Aho Girl doesn’t fit with the other series mention thus far in this review. Except I was having trouble thinking of a decent third example to make this segue work. Moving on.

BKMSSBK had one of each of these characters. In the order given, there was Saori Igarashi (voiced by Jun Nagatsuma), Sayo Shizumori (voiced by Miki Hase), and Misaki Aikawa (voiced by Marin Mizutani).

Please keep in mind, I said these types of characters keep getting re-used. Never once did I say they were bad. Like any good tool, you can always rely on them when they get used the correct way. And when BKMSSBK used these characters, they usually delivered a laugh.

But whether these three characters worked or not, they are not going to be the thing I remember about this show. That’s a shame since there was still potential in each of them by the end.

But that same untapped potential is true for two other characters who I know are going to stick with me for a while. If you can believe it, these were Akiho’s mother and father, Fuyumi and Natsu Kosaka (voiced by Ayasa Ito and Jun Miyamoto). If these two got a spin-off story, however unlikely, I’d be down for it.

Fuyumi and Natsu were a fantastic couple. They were an indication of what a marriage between Haruka and Akiho would look like.

It was hilarious how much Akiho took after Fuyumi. This wasn’t only with appearance, but total demeanor as well. This explained why Akiho thought the way she did. But where similarities shone brightest wasn’t between mother and daughter. If was with Haruka and Natsu.

Like Haruka's reactions to whatever remark Akiho would say, Natsu was the same with Fuyumi. Even after so many years together he had not heard everything. Yet that was why I liked this pair. Time had not dampened why they fell in love with each other. This was a heartwarming touch I'm glad BKMSSBK decided to include.

And that about covers it with these side characters. I have more to say concerning them, but that will come later. For now, let’s look at this show’s core cast.

Of this group, the first is Kanata Shinozaki (voiced by Yuki Yagi), Haruka’s younger sister. There were two versions of her.

One of these versions was the Kanata this show introduced us to. She was very attached to her brother. When she learned of his relationship with Akiho, she was beside herself. The whole scene was super funny, but that’s not the point. When we met her, everything suggested she was as crude as every other person in this series. Then somewhere, I'm not sure when, that was no longer the case.

Kanata became this unsullied, naïve child that took everything at face value. She would set up these suggestive scenarios without a care in the world. Then come to find out, she didn’t know the meaning of some of the words she said.

It’s not that the transition from one Kanata to the other was jumpy. It's that it was not existent. From a technical standpoint, this is a mark against BKMSSBK. That said, I’m glad this did happen. There were enough up-front characters already.

The next person from this main group was Rina Saijou (voiced by Natsumi Yamada). Compared to Kanata, I don’t have that much to say about her, even though she had more of a presence in this show. But then again, no she didn't and that was why I liked her.

Rina was the definition of a support character. She was never in the spotlight. There was almost no time dedicated to her alone. And yet she would always be around to help with whatever Haruka and Akiho were doing. That or she would make things more awkward.

Also, Rina was not a romantic rival for Akiho. You can say BKMSSBK was a lot of things, but harem anime wasn't one of them. Instead, she was a mutual friend of our main couple. As well as an instant best friend for Akiho. These two didn’t have any filter for the things that came out of their mouths.

So, while not front and center, Rina owned the space that was hers.

The last of this core cast was Shizuku Ariyama (voiced by Rarissa Tago Takeda). She could have been the most annoying thing about this show. Fortunately, she turned out to be one of the best things about it.

If you’re looking for that romantic rival, Shizuku was much closer to this than Rina ever got. That notwithstanding, to label her as such would still not be right.

Did Shizuku hold some romantic feelings towards Haruka? I would say yes. Despite that, her happiness for her friend finding someone special did appear legitimate. Did that stop her from teasing the living hell out of Haruka and Akiho? Absolutely not.

Shizuku was relentless in her attempts to get under Haruka’s skin. She enjoyed adding fuel to the fire and watching everything burn. This could have gotten out of hand. But BKMSSBK kept one important possibility open. Sometimes her jabs would backfire.

Shizuku would try to be the most extreme person in a conversation. Then on occasion, whether intentional or not, someone would top her. She would get stuck and wouldn't know what to do, and it was great.

BKMSSBK wasn’t above putting its female-heavy cast in compromising positions. I’ve seen other shows go much, much further, but that’s not to say this was all that tame either. And though this series didn't have to go or should have gone further than it did, it’s in a good position to push its limits.

Do I want there to be a second season? Although this series could make a continuation work, I’m satisfied with where it ended up.  That’s thanks in large part to a pretty stellar collection of characters.

But when you get down to it, this stuff was secondary. This was not the reason why BKMSSBK surprised me. There was something this show needed to get right and it nailed it.

Haruka and Akiho’s Relationship

These two were what made this show as fun as it was.

In the beginning, Haruka and Akiho were almost like a comedy pair. Make sense since this was a comedy series. Except it was amazing how well these two played off each other. Haruka was a fantastic straight man. Akiho would deliver a never disappointing deadpan.

And every bit of that credit goes to the performances of Mitsuhiro Ichiki and Aoi Yuki.

This was great and everything, but so what? I don’t want to diminish how funny this was, except this was nothing new. Nor is the first time we’ve come across this type of humor in this review. I’ve already named two shows that did this, MWSCP and Seitokai Yakuindomo. And in the case of Seitokai, it did this much better. And yet I said BKMSSBK stands alongside these two shows.

This distinction comes from how Haruka and Akiho’s relationship grew. Comedy and making jokes remained the imperative. But along the way, these two’s feelings for each other kept getting stronger.

Akiho was never one to tone back who she was. And she was aware of how other people saw her because of that. So, when Haruka confessed, it was a big moment for her. She had never been in a relationship before and she wasn’t sure how to go about it. Thus, her asking about Haruka’s favorite sexual positions, though odd, was her trying to figure this whole thing out.

Over the course of the show, Akiho became more susceptible to embarrassment. But this was only under certain conditions. And these conditions involved Haruka. She could spout all the perverted things she wanted, but the fact remains she had never held a boy’s hand before. Now here was that chance with a person she had feelings for.

Haruka was much the same way. To reference MWSCP once again, in that review, specifically season one, I gave a lot of credit to Hayato. The extreme factors of both shows are different, but the circumstances were similar.

Both guys often found themselves in, let’s say, temptation-filled positions. In MWSCP season one, that’s key to remember, I said Hayato did a decent job of keeping his temptations in check. Haruka made Hayato look like the sleaze he would end up being in MWSCP season two.

Men can have relationships with women without having it get romantic or anything like that. For Haruka, Akiho was his girlfriend. Rina was his friend. Nothing more. He saw Shizuku as an older sister. Nothing more. Kanata was his sister. NOTHING MORE.

With this being the case, what happened? Surprise, the person he became more intimate with was his girlfriend, Akiho. And there came a point in episode ten, I Can’t Take It Any Longer, that sealed this. This was a natural realization Haruka had with his feelings and it was my favorite moment of BKMSSBK.

Another side note. I did not realize every episode title was innuendo based until I had to look one up for that reference. Well, isn’t that egg on my face?

…Wait?

Series Negatives

I can’t ignore this any longer. Never before have I brought this up to talk about a series because it’s never bothered me. Except it’s impossible for me to ignore this.

The title of this show weirds me outs. Yes, I have an issue with the actual title of this series. And it’s because it doesn’t make any sense.

It’s the “Shojo Bicchi” segment of the title that irks me. Especially the “Bicchi” part. This is the Japanese pronunciation of the word “bitch”. For the other half, “shojo” is Japanese for “virgin”. I’m neither here nor there about that, but it does play into the English title of this series, My Girlfriend is Shobitch.

First off, grammar-wise that’s dumb, but whatever.

Second, when I saw the word “shobitch” I thought to myself, “does that mean something? It has to mean something.” It doesn’t mean anything. It’s simply the combination of the words “virgin” and “bitch”. Since that’s the case, who’s the bitch?

There was no character in this show where that would be an accurate representation.

It then occurred to me that I was only considering the English meaning of “bitch”. Sure enough, “bicchi” does hold a different stigma in Japanese.

In Japan, “bicchi” means “slut”. Therefore, a shobitch is a “slutty virgin.”

Oh, I get it now. Wow, that’s way worse. And my point stands. No one in this series was remotely close to this.

Why do I have so much to say over a damn title? This has never happened before. And I liked this show. Plus, it’s not as if I don’t have anything else negative to talk about.

For instance, the animation looked cheap. I don't think there was a big budget behind this one and it showed. This came out during the same Fall 2017 season as Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou. Not to mention, in a few reviews after this one, I’m going to be getting to Land of the Lustrous. And that looks stunning by the way. I can’t wait for that one.

Then you have this series which looks flat in comparison. It’s a good thing this show has so many other qualities to it. But that's another reason why I don’t like this title. I can see it now. A friend comes up to me:

“Hey Odyssey, whatcha been watchin’ recently?”

“Aw, I saw this pretty good one. You should check it out, man.” I proceed to describe this show.

“Aw cool man. Hey, what's it called?”

“Oh, ya know. Just um…mm…ah…Shobitch.”

“Eh…Wha…What’s a shobitch?”

“Nothing. It literally has nothing to do with anything.

Where did that come from? I’m sorry everyone. I have spent way too much time on this issue. We need to close off this rant. There is another thing I do want to talk about.

Underuse of Characters

Earlier I said that some of these characters had potential remaining by the end of BKMSSBK. The truth is, a lot of these characters had a lot of potential remaining at the end of this show. So much so that this series wasted its energy on them

Those first three characters I listed, Saori, Sayo, and Misaki didn’t need to be here. I’m happy they were because they were funny when they were around. But this show never gave them a proper introduction. They showed up and that was it.

And then after that, they didn’t make appearances that often. In the case of Misaki, I would forget she was in this series. When she came on screen it took me a second to realize we met her before.

Was there anything BKMSSBK could have done instead? That’s a big yes. We could have had more episodes with Akiho’s parents. There could have been more moments with Shizuku or Rina. For that matter, there could have been more time spent with Haruka and Akiho. And if none of that would do it, then Kanata should have gotten something.

Although I listed her as one of this show’s core members, Kanata was on par with Saori, Sayo, and Misaki. This was disappointing given how solid of an introduction she had.

Had this series had more focus and two more episodes, it would have been fine.

Final Thoughts

Pet peeves aside, I did enjoy this series. I enjoyed this series a lot.

This was one of those shows that knew how to take erotic humor and make it funny. It wasn't sexy for the sake of “because we can make it sexy”. There were actual characters with actual personalities. Personalities played off each other. Thus, this gave a lively feel to the whole thing.

There was a solid group of characters. There was a fantastic main couple. There was quite a bit to this one.

Boku no Kanojo ga Majime Sugiru Shojo Bicchi na Ken gets a recommendation.

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