Strange Love is a good one.

Beauty, brains, athletic abilities, unparalleled skill in jan-ken-pon... Chizuru has it all. However, Chizuru doesn't really know what it's like to be in love, despite having hooked up with one of the hottest guys in town. Chizuru's perspective changes when she meets Azumi, a naive girl who's not too used to life in the city. Coincidentally, Azumi lives in the condo unit next to Chizuru's boyfriend and goes to the same school as Chizuru. For some reason, Chizuru can't stop thinking of Azumi -- to the point that she fantasizes about having sex with her! But Chizuru is also having trouble accepting her newly awakened feelings. A lot of humorous situations come up as a result of Chizuru's dilemmas, which had me laughing throughout.

The art and animation are quite good. Character designs are strangely attractive, and I was surprised to find out that the same Yasuomi Umetsu behind more hardcore fare like "Kite" and "Mezzo Forte" was responsible for them. Sex is depicted rather mildly. Although you get to see people doing it, the most you'll actually see are boobs and butts. Chizuru's humongous breasts tend to look weird, especially in side view. The English dubbing is okay. This time, I found fault in the original Japanese dialogues -- specifically Chizuru's voice. Chizuru sounded like a brash and unrefined girl, which was a stark contrast to her supposedly sophisticated character. Everyone else was perfect though. The DVD version includes an interesting behind-the-scenes feature narrated by Chizuru and Azumi's seiyuus.

Strange Love is about one girl's amusing (albeit rather short and open-ended) journey to self-discovery. It's entertaining, tastefully done, and funny -- which is certainly a combination that can't go wrong.

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