Review of My Girlfriend is Shobitch

ShoBitch is exactly what it says on the tin: a full-length anime episode with non-stop lewding and dirty jokes. It never promised anything more and I won't fault it for that. What I will fault it for is the fact the jokes got stale about 1/3 of the way into the series. The episodes are "boy talks to girl, girl has a lewd misinterpretation, boy further misinterprets ad nauseum until we finish the episode". What variation comes in the form of other girls (the younger sister and the best friend) but they more-or-less repeat the "who can make the lewdest statements" game. Don't get mewrong, there's some fun to be had, but it's hard to see why they decided to stretch it into full-length episodes instead of sticking with a 15-minute length à la Aho-Girl. Variation doesn't come until we're well into the series when we're introduced to the other main male character, but he arrives a little too late. We're left with characters who make you wonder if they've experienced sexual trauma or were isolated from people.

Still, every so often it lands a nice joke, whether it's the imagined yuri between the main girl and the main guy's Haruka best friend or the main guy finally having enough of these antics, but there's not enough. You will laugh, but not as often as you roll your eyes.

Ultimately, ShoBitch is redeemed by Aoi Yuki, who plays Akiho, the "good girl" who manages to lewd every conceivable situation. As we've come to expect, she plays the role with just the right amount of naivete, so you almost believe a near-adult woman could believe these things. That's about it for the characters. Everybody else is a trope: self-insert MC with his clingy younger sister, the lesbian friend, the will-they-won't-they best friend and the overly-sexual gay guy who isn't subtle at all.

I've also argued ShoBitch has a halfway decent romance lurking below the low-hanging fruit which rears its head every now-and-then. We get to see the main boy and the main girl develop their relationship beyond mere interest up until the credits roll for the final time. I was shocked as this is something missing from better series.

It's a fun romp in short bursts. Don't go in expecting anything that pushes the boundary in any new & innovative way. Definitely don't binge it.