Skittles

Monster girls to ecchi are like strong characters to shounen. Just like how a shounen anime would feel strange without a cast of muscular fighters and hotheaded heroes, an anime about monster girls would feel insufficient when lacking the presence of slender harpies and buxom centaurs. But is it possible for monster girls in anime to be presented as something else other than fetish fuel? What if they possess charm, cuteness, and character worth sympathizing for? Enter Winter 2017, and Demi-chan wa Kataritai arrives to answer my call. At first glance, Demi-chan wa Kataritai seems to be a harmless slice of life with a dash of supernaturalelements. Cute girls? Check. Pleasing visuals? Check. No solid plot whatsoever? Check. All these common tropes are present, so some might simply pass it off as another moe-fest destined for the backlog. But don’t be fooled! Beneath an otherwise generic sounding premise lies an anime consisting of likable characters, great social commentary, and the right dosage of comedy. Since it lacks a distinct plot, Demi-chan wa Kataritai primarily markets itself using an all-lovable cast. In this feat, it really succeeds. You’ll be expecting a trio of BFF schoolgirls, a teacher with hilarious romantic issues, and a biology instructor who looks like Okabe Rintarou twenty years after Steins;Gate ended. The catch? Except for our eccentric teacher protagonist, all the main characters are monster girls—or demi-humans, as the show calls it—of various species. What makes these characters entertaining, however, aren’t their abnormalities, but rather their struggles in coping with them to adapt to human society. Hikari is an upbeat vampire girl who quarrels with her sister often because of issues such as placing her blood packs in random places. Machi is a dullahan who feels that her headless presence would forever create tension between her and everyone else. Yuki the snow woman is worried that becoming too close to others would cause them to meet a cold demise. Sakie is a succubus teacher who dresses conservatively from fear of seducing males in her vicinity. Rather than merely being demi-humans for the sake of vanity, the characters of Demi-chan wa Kataritai learn to deal with problems that stem from their irregularities. It’s an interesting formula that always provides each new episode with a fresh perspective. Of course, how can we forget the protagonist himself? Tetsuo might be the only male and human of the group, but such normalcy only makes him even more intriguing. As both a mentor and father figure to the girls, Tetsuo tasks himself with the mission to discover more about demi-humans by conducting casual interviews with them during recess hours. Some interviews will make you laugh, others will educate you more about the girl’s species, and in few instances, these interviews can bring you warm feelings. Whatever the case, Tetsuo's dynamic conversations with the girls represent the soul of Demi-chan wa Kataritai. Admittedly, the show can sometimes veer dangerously into harem territory whenever the girls show borderline lust for Tetsuo due to the intimacy of the interviews. But since Tetsuo is their sole source of help to cope with human society, how can we blame the poor guy for inviting unwanted attention? Thankfully, this point isn’t major enough to turn the show into a full-blown harem like Monster Musume. Demi-chan wa Kataritai also surprises its viewers with a good deal of social commentary. Think back to the girls struggling to adapt to school life because of their differences; doesn’t that sound a lot like contemporary issues regarding prejudice? Though Demi-chan wa Kataritai appears to be fluffy on the surface, it’s certainly not afraid to tackle serious matters during certain points. In one episode, a visiting detective named Ugaki discusses with Tetsuo about the state of demi-humans in Japan. Despite being regarded as perpetrators of crimes in the past, says Ugaki, demi-humans have now come so far as to become respected members of the national police force. Another episode involves Tetsuo realizing the struggles of Hikari’s family to make their vampire daughter feel welcome at home—a responsibility that doesn’t burden them even one bit due to their overwhelming love for their daughter. These problems might only be a fleeting extra for most people, but attentive viewers would be quick to draw parallels between these subtle messages and real-life contemporary issues. Small tidbits like this make Demi-chan wa Kataritai an engaging show to just about anyone. Now that the darker stuff is out of the way, what about the humor? In a time where most slice of life rely too much on their moe factor to produce chuckles from the audience, Demi-chan wa Kataritai thankfully carries a brand of comedy that feels surprisingly genuine. Loudmouthed Hikari is obviously the main perpetrator of laughs, but I also had fun watching Sakie struggle with romantic concepts and Machi being oblivious to non-academic pursuits. During the second half, however, the show feels somewhat less funny, but that may be due to the story trying to wrap things up for the finale. Character designs in Demi-chan wa Kataritai are nothing groundbreaking, but the show’s bright color palette creates a good match with the uplifting nature of the story. The hair color for the girls and the scenery of the backdrops give me the impression of a city version of Non Non Biyori, another slice of slice series which ironically bears many resemblances to Demi-chan wa Kataritai. The OP and ED themes are catchy enough, but what’s most interesting about them are their visuals. For a small treat, pay careful attention to them as you progress through the show. Proving that anime with monster girls can be something different, Demi-chan wa Kataritai marks itself as an endearing slice of life that plays with the not-so-similar elements of cuteness and social issues. Despite being buried underneath this season’s big hitters like KonoSuba S2 and Masamune’s Revenge, Demi-chan wa Kataritai won’t fail to surprise viewers with its interesting take on an otherwise unremarkable premise. My only wish now is that I can find a real-life figure like Tetsuo to be my life coach.

3xTripple

“The warm and fuzzy feelings are strong with this one” - Darth Vader This series truly deserves its popularity, because it was so much more than just another generic “cute” anime. I watch a lot of anime regularly and often dislike most moeblob anime, so it’s pretty unusual that I truly enjoyed this series enough to be smiling in excitement when each new episode aired. This is a review without any plot spoilers beyond the first episode. TLDR/Summary at the end What if rare and terrifying monsters were actually cute teenage girls that attended school ordinarily like humans? At first glance, this anime may seem like justanother ordinary fun “cute girl” series, but there is something special---something much more unique about this series that sets it apart from the others. This anime distinguishes itself by beautifully conveying some of the different social consequences of being a monster or “demi-human” trying to assimilate into human society, while the series also injects you with a profound dosage of “cuteness” in the process. Story: 8/10 Tetsuo Takahashi or "Takahashi-sensei" is a male biology teacher who has been fascinated by the biological nature of demi-human for a while. He’s well-respected throughout the school for his warmhearted approach to students, but he’s never actually encountered a demi-human before since they are extremely rare beings. By a huge stroke of plot---I mean luck, four demi-human girls end up in the same school as him. The story begins from there while primarily following Takahashi as he works to understand and help the four of them with their demi-human characteristics in this show’s ordinary school setting. The story shows the struggles of the four demis and their biological characteristics as they live their daily school lives. Afterall, how does a Dullahan, Vampire, Yuki Onna, and Succubus actually even function in ordinary society? Find out by watching the show :) Considering the core elements of this story, the story itself was absolutely beautiful thanks to its primary focus being different from just “cute girl” eye candy, unlike many other similar anime. There’s a certain degree of realism to the storyline since the characters develop as you would expect a real person to. This makes the characters more interesting and relatable than anime with generic characters. I appreciated the fact that there was very little fanservice in this anime because I feel that it would take away from the genuine fuzzy warmth of this series. However, I also feel that any fanservice in this series was timed appropriately to fit the anime’s settings. The pacing was pretty good; I didn't feel that this anime was too slow or moved too fast. Also, the light-humor in the series was timed perfectly and hit hard, which made even it more entertaining to watch. While everything in this series was really enjoyable, there weren't really any moments that made me “think” or “feel” strongly about something. That quality is what I feel separates a really good series from a great one, so the story can only get a max score of eight from me. Art: 7/10 The art is pretty damn simple in general. The color scheme is basic, but they used a lot of light and vibrant colors to give a pretty light-hearted mood. There is nothing particularly unique about the art style, but this show did do “cute” really well and, let’s be honest, that’s all it really needs anyways. I like the fact that the characters aren’t just “cute” in the sense that they just look like moeblobs with faces. Instead, the characters’ cuteness comes from various hairstyles and facial expression ranges, that were thoroughly expressed through the artstyle. The background art is nothing spectacular and is pretty average, but the 3DCG blended nicely into the backgrounds. The camera angles weren’t really THAT good because of the plentiful amount of stagnant angles, where only the character moves. The animation’s frame-rate is pretty normal for a series like this. Overall, the art is nothing special. However, they did do “cute” rather well, so it deserves a seven to me. Sound: 6.5/10 The opening is really good and perfectly sets the mood for the anime. The ending’s pretty generic, but still fits. The background music in this anime is pretty damn unnoticeable except for a few pieces that really stand out. There’s really only one OST from this anime (that I recall) that I would actually enjoy listening to on my spare time. The voice actors/actresses voiced their roles very well, there wasn’t any particularly unique or powerful about their voices but their voices were all pretty mellow and nice to listen to. Overall, the Sound is only slightly better than average, but the perfect opening accounts for the .5 additional I gave it. Character:9/10 I feel that the characters were the strongest point of this series. Takahashi-sensei comes across as a mature older adult who is a genuine person when it comes to helping the “demis”. He’s a buff science-minded adult who’s kind of like a father-figure to the demi students. The demi girls each have their own unique personality that I truly came to love and appreciate. Yuki comes across as a shy, misunderstood, kind of awkward girl, but she becomes more confident and we see various other fun sides to her personality as the series progresses. She's often the one laughing at jokes in secret and she turned out to be my favorite character in the show. Machi is a very intelligent girl who loves to study and is very humble. She's relatively shy as well but is great when it comes to spoken academic subjects like speeches, unlike Yuki. Satou-Sensei is a pretty awkward 24-year old succubus who's shy mainly because she often strongly attracts people of the opposite gender because of her nature. Her awkwardness is often the source of the comedy relating to her. Hikari is basically an honest, lovable, and lively extroverted girl. She's not smart and not studious. Her personality is very necessary for this story, but I didn’t really see her as anything "new" or "special" per se. Overall, this series has some really lovable characters; watching them overcome their nature, seeing them grow closer together, and witnessing their group dynamic are probably the most fulfilling aspects of this series. Enjoyment:9/10 As I mentioned numerous times throughout this review, I truly enjoyed the entirety of this series this series and actually re-watched some scenes several times! TLDR (Summary) Overall:8/10 This series was an unexpectedly entertaining watch as it followed the biology teacher, Takahashi-sensei, as he helps four girl with their demi-human characteristics. The series surprisingly goes pretty deep into the scientific logic of "demi-humans". The art was nothing spectacular, but the vibrancy of the colors helped to set a light-hearted mood for the viewers. The VAs and music were only slightly above average, but the opening set the tone perfectly for the series. The characters were the strongest point of the series because of their diverse, non-archetype personalities also because of the group dynamic that the characters create together. Bottom line: would I recommend this to you? If you like light-hearted, school, cute girls, and/or fantasy anime, then yes this is a great series to check out. If you enjoy a nice non-dramatic story, then sure. If you’re looking for romance, fanservice, super powers, or action, then no. It doesn’t focus on any of those. Hope this helps you make your decision! Let me know if you agree or disagree~