I don’t know what I was expecting with a title like that.
Set in a suburban town by the sea, This Monster Wants to Eat Me (WataTabe) follows Hinako Yaotose (Reina Ueda), a young girl struggling with survivor’s guilt and suicidal thoughts after her family died in an accident. On her way to school, Hinako notices something strange in the sea but is stopped by a mysterious girl named Shiori Oumi (Yui Ishikawa). After school, the creature reveals itself to be an Iso-onna and it attempts to attack Hinako. The yokai is soon thwarted by Shiori, who reveals herself to be a powerful mermaid. After the fight, Shiori explains to Hinako that her blood makes her attractive prey for yokai. She too wants to consume Hinako but she’s waiting for the human to be at her “tastiest” so she offers to protect her until that time comes. Seeing as she wants to die anyway, Hinako accepts Shiori’s proposition.
Suffice to say, this premiere isn’t exactly the most wholesome romance anime out there. I personally didn’t have much problem watching through it but I won’t deny that it goes through some heavy stuff and someone else’s mileage will vary with that. For what it’s worth, I thought this premiere navigated through its material quite well. Both the writing and the direction dedicates a good amount of time helping you understand and relate with Hinako. In particular, there’s a recurring visual metaphor that compares Hinako’s depression to the image of her drifting deeper into the ocean. It’s a bit on the nose given the implied circumstances regarding how her family died but it’s otherwise a very effective image that resonated with me and it’s indicative of how much tact the show might exercise. I’m not entirely sure how the curious, budding romance with Shiori will play out. It could get self-indulgent for all I know (which I’m by no means prudish over but you really need to know what you’re doing to pull that off). For now, it does appear that the show fully acknowledges that Hinako is far too happy to allow Shiori to kill her so hopefully, it has the nuance to explore their relationship.
In addition to Hinako and Shiori, this episode introduces the viewer to Miko Yashiro (Fairouz Aiz), a close friend of Hinako’s who attends the same school. Miko is featured pretty prominently in the OP and the key visual, which has me thinking she’ll play a far bigger role than simply comic relief. Miko is presented as very protective of Hinako so a safe bet is that she will eventually find out about Shiori’s true nature and her strange little arrangement with Hinako. I can also see the show eventually establishing a rivalry between Miko and Shiori. I imagine Miko would likely presented as a less complicated love interest for Hinako but it’d admittedly would be more interesting if somehow, the writing manages to articulate Miko’s relationship as Hinako in a way that you’d make you root for Shiori more.
The only huge problem I have with this episode is the animation. Like, the show isn’t by any means ugly and there’s some solid direction to back it up. Things start to get concerning however when you get to the climatic fight scene between Shiori and the Iso-onna. You don’t actually get to see Shiori rescue Hinako and her brutally executing the yokai is obscured by a cutaway. I suppose this show has to be careful with how graphic it gets and if this is how the scene plays out in the manga the show is based on, then fair enough. Still, it does give the impression that the animators might’ve had to cut some corners and I hope that doesn’t set a trend for the rest of the show.
Watch This Monster Wants to Eat Me on Crunchyroll
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