Starting with the hit manga "Monster Musume" in 2012, and the anime television adaption that would follow in 2015 (which despite being officially titled "Everyday Life with Monster Girls," would still be referred to as "Monster Musume" or "MonMusu" by fans), a trend swept the Japanese entertainment scene for the years that followed. Monsters will officially hot.Which is strange, given that female monsters have appeared in anime almost since the beginning. An old anime film from 1958 called "The Tale of the White Serpent" featured a snake that transformed into a beautiful princess to her master. There are hundreds of other examples past and present of female anime characters being fetishized with ferile features: angels and demons, devils and vampires, snakes and werewolves, succubi and zombies... the list goes on.Then what makes "Monster Musume" different? For one, it focuses on the normal every-day life these monster girls live, forcing us to think about what it is like for them to deal with things we think are common. Second, many of the monster girls are approximately half-monster: while previous depictions might have had girls transform to attractive human states or to have a constant set of ears or a tail (to make it easier to fantasize about something we would be familiar with), the main girls of "Monster Musume" now have flippers, snake tails, spider legs and horse bodies almost always replacing their lower bodies, changing what we might think of as a monster in anime standards. Third, there are a huge array of monster types to fantasize about, over a dozen on screen, plus hints at several others in the imaginative end-card bonus at the end of each episode giving a short fictional encyclopedia excerpt. This might be one of the first shows to make teenagers want to learn about how snakes, horses, fishes, birds or spiders actually have sex, and it says a lot about the psychology of someone after they admit who they think is "best girl" in the show.Indeed, "Monster Musume" bucks the trend in a few ways, while keeping on the straight-and-narrow of the genre for easing in viewers who might be used to the anime medium. The story is simple: the human governments of the world learn and fully accept that there exist other intelligent species other than their own on Earth. Instead of fearing the monsters, they reach out for all cultures to cooperate and learn about each other for the betterment of all involved. This means monsters can now stand alongside humans, walking down the street, going to shops, playing in the park, working human jobs, etc. Well, sort of... due the the nature of certain species, it is expected that "visiting" species have a human host to be with them at all times to live and learn with, like a foriegn exchange program. Poor Kimihito Kurusu finds himself hosting a Lamia (half-snake, half-human) named Miia due to an assumed paperwork error by the somewhat-lazy Ms. Smith. But they make the best of it, and Kimihito treats Miia with the utmost respect throughout her stay in his home while his parents are out of the country for work. That's not so easy when Miia is continously affectionate, when the government in its haste has a law in place to ban any interspecies procreation, for fear of what might happen or how each species would treat those involved. This all gets even more complicated when new monster girls also start showing up at Kimhito's house due to Ms. Smith further not giving a damn, including by the end of the show's twelve episodes: a harpy, and centaur, a slime (if Dragon Quest has it, it is an official monster of Japanese lore), a mermaid, a spider-woman, and eventually a dullahan (headless reaper of death). And seemingly, all are in heat, all of the time. Well, especially so when there is a full moon out (yeah, that's in the show).Where the story surprises the average viewer is how it treats the concept of learning about new species, seeing them as equals, and not letting appearance dictate our opinions. Basically, it is a course on racism, accessibilty and acceptance. Right away in the first episode, we see our giant snake girl having to explicitly look for stores that carry clothes in her "size," and see a bystanding couple (who appear multiple times in the show) laugh and ridicule her as if she belonged in a zoo. It challenges the viewer more than once as well: one of the characters explicitly claims the only reason the main character is attracted to her is because of the parts that seem human. And for most people, even the most seasoned anime fan who has seen all manner of characters, that is probably true! It may not be subtle with its message, but how many other shows would be successful in communicating a concept the human race still has trouble understanding?
And despite these heavier themes, the show remains lighthearted, thanks in part to Kimihito. Despite being put in over-the-top situations over and over, and being expected to take in strangers into his home one by one, he continuously does so with a smile. As his house is slowly transformed to meet the unique needs of each new girl, he is always understanding and accomodating, often more so than the girls are with one another. It's common for the main character all the girls fall in love with to be kind to everyone, but there may not be a better role model in the anime world then this man.So yes, I was impressed with this show, and would recommend it to just about anyone... well, anyone who doesn't mind the titulating bits. While the character designs lean more into the unusual "monster" side than most shows, the one constant with all the girls is the torso, and most of the girls have huge globes hanging from their chest. And being a romantic-comedy at heart, nearly every episode has the girls scheming about how they can make "Darling" fall in love with them, or to pick them over everyone else. I was surprised at times how risque they were willing to go, both in what is shown visually and the situations the characters find themselves in. If you aren't convinced, look for pictures of the special edition BluRay set released by Sentai Filmworks: it comes in a square box that unfolds to become the shape of a heart... that is skin colored... and has nipples... and if you turn it upside down OH I see it's a pair of boobies about the size of Centurea's in the show! Classy. So if you like breasts, and like the type of show this falls into, then even the monster body parts likely won't be a problem (and let's be honest... those other parts are likely an asset for some of you!). The sexy humor adds to the lighthearted tone. Add in a catchy and cute opening song, and the entire show is refreshing entertainment that can brighten anyone's day. It really is difficult to find a reason not to recommend it to anyone over 18. Except maybe on the animation side... the character diesgns from the manga are great, animation is usually fine (sometimes particularly good), music is sweet, acting in either English or Japanese becomes the characters. But if watching in high-definition, you will notice there are many shots where it starts as a close-up, then zooms out to show another character. This is normally fine, but it is clear that Studio Lerche used bitmap images, and only scaled them to the size of the zoomed-out frame. That means when the frame was zoomed-in, it is very noticable how pixelated the characters are. It doesn't help that this type of shot occurs many times throughout the season. It's a clumsy mistake, and might not be noticable on DVD or online streaming quality, but Studio Lerche really should be more careful, even if this was meant as a show for television.But it probably doesn't matter as much as I think it does. The show was a huge success, such that it confuses me why as of this writing (about three years after the original first season), a second season has not materialized. Perhaps other than showing off even more obscure creatures, there simply wasn't any more story to tell in this little comedy. And with the perfect final frame of the show's last episode, I think I can be ok with that.