It can be challenging to go back to the beginning on something you have been following for a long time, to see where – and how – it begins. You’ve watched the story develop, the character mature,  and now you’re back with everyone unsure of the who and what and where. A good example of that is Steven Universe, where a return to the beginning, as Steven is so immature and very, very loud, can be difficult to watch after later seasons.

Not so for This Monster Wants To Eat Me, the anime adaptation of the manga by Naekawa Sae (one of the guests at this year’s AnimeNYC.) 

This story has always been atmosphere first, plot second and the animation really leans heavily into this. One of my favorite things about the visual narrative in the manga is how Hinako is always “drowning.” The darker her thoughts are, the deeper and darker the world around her. Bubbles float past her even in the classroom, as if she takes the deep ocean with her everywhere she goes. 

This is a story about trauma and depression and surviving, and how the horrors of the world take many forms. Including yokai.  Yokai, like vampires and werewolves, are born of fears shaped by the primal dark, the noises of the night,  of getting lost, of the inevitability of death. They are the horrors that we know are not real, but are real enough when we are faced with the truth of the world. A car may go off a cliff and fall into the ocean, but the ocean will not give back what it has taken. If you have ever watched a riptide in the North Atlantic, you may have seen that it is not angry, but it is dark and very hungry. Won’t you come and play in the surf?

This is the vibe of This Monster Wants To Eat Me. 

Something wants to eat Hinako, and Hinako is not opposed, but somehow cannot manage to successfully be dead.

This anime is being spoken of as a “Yuri” anime, but again, I remind everyone that the story is not a romance as such. Yes, Miko’s affection for Hinako is strong, and definitely a kind of love. What Shiori and Hinako may be to one another will not be revealed for a while. In the mean time, sit back, watch the ocean rise up to claim Hinako, and see how her life changes now that Miko and Shiori will vie for her attention…and her life. But not in the way you think.

Ratings: 

Art – 10
Story – 9
Characters – 8, but give it a few episodes
Service – 0
Yuri – This will be debated

Overall  – 10

Beautiful, atmospheric, dark, immensely sad, This Monster Wants To Eat Me, streaming on Crunchyroll, is fantastic.

Renako was an introverted nerd in middle school, but now, in high school, she has determined to fit in with the normies. She’s gotten a physical upgrade and somehow was adopted by a popular girl, Mai, which means she’s surrounded by a group of talkative girls. Only, Renako is still an awkward nerd and gets overwhelmed by conversation, blurts out some random word, then runs away mortified.

It was a deeply uncomfortablemaking set-up, but then…

Mai goes after Renako, and after a ridiculous plot complication that we just have to handwave, they talk sincerely about what they want. Renako is assured that she is not required to be eloquent, which leads to the one genuinely lovely bit of this anime, as Mai neatly inserts herself as Renako’s spokeperson whenever she gets overwhelmed. 

On the other hand, Mai wants something far more intimate from Renako – she wants to be her girlfriend. Love comedy shenanigans ensue! Renako and Mai will spend quality time together and, as the second episode develops, will find themselves building intimacy with the other. The conflict is how each desires and interprets that intimacy. Mai is insistent on a romantic and sexual relationship, while Renako is hoping to have a best friend. Both make legitimate cases for their wants but, despite saying she will not force herself on Renako, Mai does. Again, less funny than uncomfortable.

There were several things about this set-up that worked against it, right from the beginning. The nerd trying to fit in with the normies in a media for nerds… well, bzzzt. I don’t care about fitting in, neither should you, nor Renako. Who the fuck cares if you’re a nerd? You’re fine, full stop.

Mai insisting on violating Renako’s boundaries is…not cute. Mai is otherwise likable and relatable, and Renako, after that first scene, becomes increasingly sympathetic. By the end of episode two, I hope they can work something out. But as a driver of a “comedy?” Bzzt.

There is a lot of fan service and it’s neither subtle nor amusing. Thigh shots, a pointless and excruciating leering at Mai in bikini, that kind of thing. Extended bathing scene in ep 2. Bzzt.

The final strike against this anime has nothing to do with the story, but I am VERY salty about this series getting the decent animation that Whisper Me A Love Song failed to get. It seems wholly unfair that the adorable, practically all-ages Yuri that you could show your grandmother was a powerpoint presentation, and Renako’s thighs are better animated than any episode of Takeshima Eku’s wonderful ongoing series. This is especially irking as this series character designs are by by Takaeshima Eku-sensei, so it’s hard to ignore.Oh well. 

On the other hand, the shenanigans actually got me to chuckle once or twice. And I found my sympathy for both characters growing as the episodes developed.

Ratings: 

Animation – 8, sometimes 9, dammit
Characters – 7 with room to grow
Story – 6 same as above
Service – 4
Yuri – 9, in the classic predatory style

Overall – 7

As not-for-me as this series is, I did not hate it and will continue to watch.

There is something that this anime edges close to and I hope it actually addresses – there really isn’t (or, at least doesn’t have to be) that much of a difference between a romantic partner and best friend. It comes up a lot in rom-com manga, I’d like to see a series that delve into it.

If you have ever watched Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, Season 1, then you know why it took me this long to get through disk 2 after I reviewed Disk 1 in January. It is large heaping doses of trauma with just enough wholesome that you’re ready to be traumatized all over again.

The duels has been all but rendered moot, by the corporate shenanigans of unsavory adults who see their and others’ children as pawns. The council members frankly lose their minds in this disk. Guel’s arc becomes increasingly desperate, culminating in yet another horrific moment, while his brother Lauda begins his descent toward unhinged. The politics of Space vs Earth, which one might hope makes sense, simply doesn’t. as Earth attacks not the products, but the people, with a team lead by a psychotic pilot. The plot spins out of control, and Shaddiq pulls strings to no apparent purpose. Who was any of that for? It wasn’t going to help Earth, obviously and no one in Space gained, either.

Suletta and Miorine have one of their periodic fights only to be reunited just before they suffer yet another trauma, this one well-intentioned, but utterly horrific, nonetheless. Suletta’s continued “baby seal waiting to be slaughtered” isn’t the right tone one wants from one’s hero…or villain. And one begin to feel that Prospera doesn’t love Suletta so much as sees her as a useful pawn, like all the other adults in this story. Should there be a moment of respite, another trauma will rush to fill the void.

This disk is rough, there’s just no getting around it. Knowing that going in to it did not actually help. Worse, the animation is really very good, one can mostly follow the mobile suit fights, which are always, IMHO, the weakest points of any mecha show. Good animation when terrible stuff is going down, again, does not make it better. ^_^;

Phew. I’ll need a long break between this disk and the next season, for sure.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – The continued trauma of children for no reason is so much fun. Not.
Characters  –  Deep breath….8
Service – I’m going to say that the violence is the “service” this time. That’s a lot of detail for animated violence.
Yuri – 5
Rage – 10

Overall – 8

In those few moments when Sulette and Miorine do connect, one feels hope and sees the beginning of a meaningful relationship. I know it’ll be fine, but there’s a lot between the story now and that end.