Episode #1 Staff

Unending Summer

Last season, we had an amazing series in The Summer Hikaru Died, which was beautifully directed and had a horror-esque story that symbolized taboo in a small town and the issues that can arise from it, using a monster/god as a metaphor. This Monster Wants to Eat Me is often compared to Hikaru, but I do think tonally it is quite different. This Monster Wants to Eat Me is a series I read a while ago, and while it does contain some horror elements, it has much less of it. It is more a story from the mind of Hinako, who is very depressed, with other characters trying to bring some light despite the dark themes of the show.

Hinako, from the intro of the episode, is very clearly not doing well mentally. I was pleasantly surprised by the direction they chose to take in portraying this, even if I might not have liked every choice. The show has a very outwardly dramatic representation of Hinako’s suicidal thoughts, with the idea of drowning in the sea almost being presented as some sort of release, which is, of course, present in the manga. But the haunting music, alongside Hinako’s wonderful voice acting (by Reina Ueda), and the visuals emphasizes the vast emptiness of the sea and how small Hinako appears in it. It shows that, inside her head, she cannot fully connect with everyone around her; she wants to sink away to where “family” is, yet the sea truly holds nothing there, not her family, nothing at all.

The depiction of the outside, especially in the morning, is extremely bright. I don’t think it’s the prettiest visual, particularly since some of the environments do not look very well done to me. The houses in the background look like they lack textures, and some of the green tones on the trees are a bit too neon for my taste. Still, I can see what they are trying to do with it, as summer is Hinako’s least favorite season. This is the time when her saddest and most painful memories return to her mind. Yet the world outside is extremely bright, with children running around, having fun, and families at the beach. Hinako cannot seem to comprehend any of that except by relating it back to her “former” happy life. Even though the whole world seems to lit up, the people around her are happy, and she has supportive friends, she still cannot rid herself of the suicidal urge to drown her thoughts away.

While I do like that contrast, I actually wish the ocean served as an even darker contrast, more similar to the one we saw in the opening, which is an incredible opening, by the way. The underwater sequence feels much darker in a way I expected them to display it, because at times in the actual episode, I felt that even though it was darker than the outside, the ocean still had a sense of brightness, which can almost be misread as a sense of wonder. I like the idea of the ocean symbolizing death better in the opening. The hair caustics and compositing in the opening, in general, are super pretty, and I hope we can get some shots like that in the show too. I’ll list the staff below here for the beautifully done opening.

Opening Staff

Miko and Shiori

Moving on to the rest of the episode, of course, I cannot fail to mention our titular “Monster” or Shiori, the mermaid who first appears by stopping Hinako from going into the ocean, our first character introduction aside from Hinako herself. Shortly after, once Hinako gets to school, we meet Miko, her best friend, who seems almost obsessed with caring for Hinako. Intentional or not, most of the background characters are not drawn with any facial features. While this could just be a budget choice, I find it kind of neat in some ways.

Miko is probably one of the only reasons Hinako has even kept living. She puts on a semi-“happy” facade in front of Miko, as happy as she can be, which eventually submerges again in the ocean of her mind as soon as she is alone. And Shiori is someone she cannot get off her mind because she reminds her so much of the ocean. Not only are these characters the main cast of the anime, but in Shiori’s mind, they are almost the only two people she even externally acknowledges at the moment. This makes sense to me and explains why everyone else is essentially faceless.

After school, Hinako ends up wandering off somewhere while waiting for Miko, and she gets tangled in a literal bundle of hair before being pulled into the ocean by an “Iso-onna.” However, as she begins to sink and has already accepted her fate, maybe even wanting to die, she opens her eyes to find herself in the arms of Shiori, the girl she met earlier, the one whose scent reminded her of the ocean. Shiori reveals herself to be a mermaid and saves Hinako by killing the Iso-onna.

I thought this sequence wasn’t the strongest. I’m not the biggest fan of how the choppy, low-frame ghosting effects are handled in this show overall, and I hope the animation improves in future fight or action sequences. Still, I can see how these effects could work well for dramatic moments, such as when Hinako first walked out of the school, though I did feel they were a bit overdone at times.

After saving her, Shiori of course reveals that she actually wants to eat her, but that now is not the right time. The show does not really reveal much of Hinako’s inner thoughts on this yet, at least until the next day at school, when Shiori, the mermaid girl, somehow transfers into her class. It is a beautiful moment, by the way; I loved the music choice. As Hinako stares at Shiori in disbelief, some anime-only viewers might expect her to be scared or shocked, but instead, she smiles, happy that someone has finally appeared who might let her die.

And that’s it for episode 1. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting from the series, but I felt like this was a bit above my expectations, especially in terms of direction. I’m still not a major fan of the art direction or compositing outside of the opening visuals, but I think so far this is shaping up to be a fairly decent adaptation. Let’s see how it goes. Next week’s episode will be storyboarded by Yuusuke Suzuki, who I think is the stronger storyboard artist of the two, and I’m curious to see how he does.