A Galaxy Next Door

This is a sweet though slightly surprising anime. I had just seen some people mentioning it as a good one, comparable with a few others that I like. I had no idea going in that it was called A Galaxy Next Door because she's some kind of star child alien lady with a stinger tail.

So, yes, that was a little bit of a surprise. She leaves her special island where she's a princess after her grandmother's dying wish was that she get to do what she wants and experience some life despite her mother's objections. 

And it seems her grandmother was a closet otaku, as the old lady had a large collection of manga, including a series written by the erstwhile love interest, Ichirou Kuga. And, okay, he's an awesome standout dude. He's a struggling manga artist who took over the raising of his younger siblings after his dad dies unexpectedly and the mother is off gallivanting around. He's a sweetheart and is not looking for romance -- he's just trying to meet deadlines. 

But Shiori Goshiki (our lovely alien) is also an aspiring artist and she coincidentally winds up as his new assistant. Other than that she definitely admires him and he thinks she's pretty, he's definitely not thinking of anything else. But then, after a long all nighter, he sees what he thinks is a sharp pen sticking out of her back and she's about to roll over on it and stab herself...so he grabs it. But it's not a pen, it's her TAIL and now that he's stung, he's bound to her in some weird kind of betrothal. 

It's not a nice thing, honestly. If he's too far away from her, he gets feverish and sick. If he does something that startles or angers her, he can suddenly be inflicted with pain or want to pass out. But, through these challenges, they come to have feelings for each other. She's clueless about a lot of the real world, but she's a decent sort. 

So there's a whole plot about her mom not being happy about this, once she finally comes to see what's going on. By that time, they are actually dating, but Kuga would like to be free of the forced tie. So there's a bunch of family angst and then, when they do finally undergo a ceremony to withdraw it, both of them are having fears -- if the bond is broken, will they still love each other? 

Spoiler -- they do. The bad thing is that the end of the season is basically there and the mom has given her a year to gallivant and then she's supposed to go home. It's the kind of show where you imagine it will work out happy. I would definitely watch a second season if there is one, but it didn't quite grab me enough that I want to add it to the stack of manga that we're already collecting. So, good, but not heart shaking? Though I gotta give it to Kuga, he's definitely a Best Boy.