#166: Electromagnetic Girlfriend (2009)

 

a.k.a. Denpa Teki na Kanojo

Director: Mamoru Kanbe

Screenplay: Hiroyuki Yoshino

Based on a light novel series by Kentarō Katayama and Yamato Yamamoto

Voice Cast: Ryou Hirohashi as Ame Ochibana; Yoshimasa Hosoya as Jū Jūzawa; Akemi Satō as Kanako Fujishima; Ami Koshimizu as Ichiko Ayase; Eri Kitamura as Nao Hirose; Kana Ueda as Kaori Shiraishi; Kozue Yoshizumi as Hikaru Ochibana; Mai Nakahara as Yukihime Kirishima; Mitsuki Saiga as Madoka Endō; Yu Kobayashi as Miya Satsuki; Hideki Tasaka as Kiyoshi Kakura

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Some Major Spoilers onwards

Whilst it can be found, hence why this review even exists, here we have a real obscurity, a two part OVA in itself is distinct as that format that became a rarity by the late 2000s, in terms of original content rather than tie-ins to pre-existing work being what was released straight-to-video than a series or theatrical production. Also because, based on a three novel series, its rarity comes from being only available with copies of Kure-nai, a manga adaptation of the work by the original light novel creators behind Electromagnetic Girlfriend's source text. This has meant the show is very likely to be unheard of; a shame as with its flaws to consider, Electromagnetic Girlfriend is a fascinating piece.

This also has a personal weight for me as its director, for both forty plus minute episodes, was Mamoru Kanbe, an obscure name I know of for Elfen Lied (2004), a popular but vary divisive series from studio Arms, original a hentai studio who made a break into the mainstream and had that show as a huge dividing line between this transition. Ultraviolent and with material which is of issue, I will nonetheless defend that show, for all its flaws, for what it did well and as a result I have always been fascinated by the man in the directorial chair and wonder if his other projects showed the same inspiration. Kanbe to my surprise, in a career of only a few directorial project and other roles, has however gained an unexpected jewel in his cap of universal claim, as the director of the first season of The Promised Neverland (2019-), a dark fantasy tale which was of acclaim which is a good thing.

Before then there was Electromagnetic Girlfriend, and whilst not necessarily because it is original, it is fascinating because it feels like The Garden of Sinners (2007-2011), an ambitious multi part work including feature length chapters which in the late 2000s was an elaborate and dark tale mixing the supernatural with very adult, even uncomfortable, subject matter. Electromagnetic Girlfriend has differences, including the fact only three novels were released and this is based on the first and third of them. But alongside the edgier attitude, this comes off as the more quirky (if still messed up) cousin. The oddness is from its initial premise- school loner Juu Juuzawa finds himself messaged to meet up with a female student named Ame Ochibana under a tree, claiming that he is a reincarnation of a lord and her once his servant, wishing to follow from this by being there under his command as his "knight". It is asked by many in the story whether this is real or her own delusions, her younger sister Hikaru when introduced thinking Juu is taking advantage of her mental faculties, whilst a choice line talks of her sister and mother preventing her from cooking in the kitchen, adding more ominous detail or that, if a harmless comment, Ame observing she is treated with kid gloves even by her younger sister. Whatever the case, she definitely has an uncanny psychic link to Juu, where the "denpa" of the original Japanese title comes in. A term which translated to "electromagnetic wave", it has (alongside creating a niche music genre around this phenomenon) become a term to denote people who feel disconnected from their environment or act oddly, originating from the idea of hearing voices or instruction from electromagnetic radiation; in this case, she can tell whenever Juu is in danger, and does come to his aid throughout, so there is more to her then being with a mental illness.

The darkness comes, wrapped in a presentation which obscures, immediately before our leads are introduced in the first episode onwards as Electromagnetic Girlfriend tackles very heavy subject matter. The first episode more so, the first scene of this OVA work is a woman being raped, even punched, by a male assailant with both faces obscured for plot reasons, with mind to warn the viewer about how the show goes about in terms of mature content whilst mentioning it is tastefully done without any context, just shown as something awful that transpires with future context in the episode. It is extreme to begin with, and if anything Electromagnetic Girlfriend's biggest issue in its entirety, alongside some unintentionally ill advised plotting choices, is that its tone is jarring and not appropriate for tackling this type of material all the time. It has a lot of humour and comedy, which definitely for the first episode, where a killer is attacking people with a baseball ball and using wire to finish them, is inappropriate at times in tone.

And yet, in the midst of this, it is still compelling. One foot in the unnatural, the other in the nature, this has the right ideas in terms of tone, style and plotting that would have been a great story for me personally, and it is definitely fascinating. It does rush through the plot of the first OVA, but it does also have a clear style which is distinct. The show wants to be existential, and whilst it does not succeed completely, its attempts are admirable including cutting to text which has an unseen voice ruminating existence, particularly as the art style includes different fonts including as if the letters were cut from different materials. It never gets pretentious either, because whilst the show's darker tone proves its undoing, I also like the contrast in the humour when it does work.

And that the leads are actually interesting is a huge virtue, adamant to an idea, whether you like his work or not, of the late manga writer Kazuo Koike that characters were always more important to his stories then the plots, to which this two part OVA has two main characters (and side ones) who are worth having more stories on. The male lead Juu is not invulnerable in the slightest and is actually more than a bland stock protagonist, whilst Ame as an eccentric character with an insane case of uncombed hair is fascinating too, someone with her head basked in fantasy but also between a form of possible mental vulnerability and a wisdom beyond her years which means she is still a vital figure to have to keep you protected. When they are properly introduced in the second episode, more exaggerated and fantastical than appropriate for the tone, her female co-workers at a maid cafe, one a shorter girl who asks obstinate questions and is a bit too happy to hurt people, the other significantly taller and (in an odd joke) hates both men and broccoli, they are immediately interesting and worthy of more stories which were more appropriate to their character types.

If anything, even with the absurd touches, this show has moments of interest and even unexpected intelligence which I have to admire. Even if it is with faults, even the premises for both narratives have ambition. The first is a murder who, believing they are killing aliens disguised as people, includes twists such as a disturbing case of Stockholm syndrome that, whilst potentially offensive in how it was actually executed, is a complex puzzle which could have been of worth if pulled off in a better context. The second is surprisingly relevant still, more so now and a better episode, in which a game is being played by classmates of Juu and Ame's school to cause awful things to others to collect "happiness stars", which is hauntingly more relevant as the internet is both a place of trying to gain similar tokens online and of "awful" behaviour, putting probably too lightly how bad people can be online without identity. The aesthetic as is has sparks of creativity, in-between some awkward designs of faces and obvious CGI, particularly a habit of intercutting two moments in a scene together in the same shot. One example proves the best moment: in a moment of horror, where someone is trying to force another to mutilate herself, it has Ame in a moment of emotional shock being comforted by Juu which is abruptly emotional.

And the stories have clever touches. Some of it is coated in dumb touches, such as Ame having a bad tendency to pick up evidence in an immediate crime scene, and others have to be understood later on when more is known, such as how photos just before murders and during appear on the internet, but there is also a surprising amount of mature moments. Dealing with a villain by rationally picking apart their ideals, even if ridiculous, is creative, as is Juu, when he accidentally causes Hikaru, an eccentric martial artist, to lose a potential boyfriend acts in a kind way to her, even finding a way to patch them up by having a fight with the guy off-camera just to let him beat him up.  

The two episodes do however have an issue, if accidental, of touching problematic subjects without real care made, making it an issue with Electromagnetic Girlfriend that has to be considered. The first episode, as mentioned, involved Stockholm syndrome, actually the female rape victim and a fellow classmate who joined the killer in his work in the episode's main twist. It is a lot more carefully done than that sounds, but it is not sufficiently depicted (alongside being rushed) to tackle a troubling subject, the idea of a female character who is psychologically damaged to the point she joins in the work of her victimiser requiring a lot more care if even an acceptable subject for some to tackle at all.

The second episode is not helped by the initial set-up being that Juu is falsely accused of groping a woman on a subway train as part of the Happiness Game. False accusations of molestation and rape are a plot trope in fiction are problematic, in whether there are actually any real cases of this or a sufficient amount at all, whether you can tackle them at all as a concept and with care, and that unfortunately it is something that in its nature does fall into the web of how women in real life have not had their cases of real rape and molestation taken seriously. That last point is why this plot idea will always have the stigma to it, and bear in mind that after the #MeToo movement, where men were being ousted finally for committing such acts or even misogynistic behaviour over the internet by their female victims, these type of plot points will be much more difficult to digest regardless of the artistic virtue or lack thereof. It is not helped as this plot point is one which is not a one-off here never seen anywhere else, one that has existed in other forms, whether the number that exist was merely slim.

It neither helped that both stories involve women are the antagonists or psychologically damaged; I am not accusing the production or its creators for anything from that, like accusations of misogyny, just pure bad coincidence considering that, whilst I am someone who will defend these two episodes for good ideas and content, they do represent the inevitable danger of trying to make your pulp narrative tackle edgier content to come off more adult, especially when its gendered in the archetypes or plots you used, rather than a gender-neutral attitude even for deliberately offensive and transgressive horror. Nevertheless, that slither of ambition does also pay with some reward. As much of this review is going to be that, if you are comfortable sitting through its mistakes and can even find the two OVAs, Electromagnetic Girlfriend was a curiosity worth seeing. One I have had an interest in for a while; it suits my general fascination with flaws curiosities worthy of more notice just for their mere existence, and it also fits perfectly into that category of premises which I wished had lasted longer, in tighter written and more tonally appropriate work to let interesting characters as here breathe and be developed.