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Apr 8, 2024
A simple google search for the show monster would end with you pulling up a repository of all your favourite NTR doujin protagonists, but i'm here to convince you that's not reason enough to hold the show in such high esteem, and here's why:-
The show starts with a Mary Sue Japanese surgeon who is forced to decide on whether to operate on a dying child who came to him first or some rich dying politician whom his father in law, the hospital director, wants him to operate on first. Hilarity ensues as our conscientious mary sue combats the peer pressure of his awfully caricatured
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evil looking coworkers, wife, and father in law to save the life of the child cause first come first served is the foundation of modern civilisation. Actually, JK, he had some weird caricature of a mourning woman whose husband died come to him and tell him he's such a good doctor so he could've saved him reeee. Said woman's ramblings convinced our hero that it would only be morally right to operate on the child and not the politician (evil occupation+rich+first come first served bitch!)
Following this apparently there's a breakdown in a lot of his important human relations and his career, but worry not, the author has a plan to bore you with a pseudo-profound exploration of morality as the child this surgeon saved is about to turn into a full fledged psychopath. Our conscientious Mary Sue from hereon gets a new self actualization goal, to stop this wanker from swatting more of these jojoverse charas/ BBM caricatures.
If you don't already see the issue in the type of work it's turning out to be, no problem, just combine that with what I'm about to talk about. Did you notice how all the side characters except our surgeon MC look like ugly bastards from NTR hentai? If not, try looking around a little. They seem to exist there to contrast as unsubtly as possible our mary sue MC with the rest of the characters in the story who lack his moral greatness. Afterall, the point of the story is to explore the moral distress of our Mary Sue. The characters don't just look like ugly bastards, they exhibit exactly the values you see on their faces and they also do this just as unsubtly. It's there to accentuate the Mary Sue nature of the MC.
The show looks overly serious and drab as if it actually is a serious work with a lot of thought put into it, but actually it is very unsubtle, dull, and barebones where all the developments feel forced and the absolute lack of viscerality in the scenes make it so easy to spot what the author is trying to do with the caricatures and our mary sue. It only works to accentuate the aforementioned contrast to levels it shouldn't reach. This contrast then just highlighs how artificial the story writing is where you see moment to moment what the author is making the character do and why. It's like seeing the seams of a cloth along with the cloth THROUGHOUT the episode. See you can tell these things, but usually you have to put effort into making it out, Like "oh the author made her say this, that actually helps bring out the feeling of tenderness between the charas, and that he is trying to show she is that much more comfortable with him now than at the start of the show" etc. Monster isn't like this, it's in your face from moment to moment, every moment. Extremely unsubtle and extremely low effort, like just see the dull moral dilemma that started this dull show in para 1.
The plot is so generic that I don't know what to watch it for and then there's all this, just imagine what you're in for in 74 eps. It might work as an afternoon soap on TV, but this is competing with anime with all its animeisms. The only animeism here is the caricatured faces, but the content is from an uninspired afternoon TV soap. With caricatured characters like these likely jojo kind of comedy might work, just make it more memey internet red pill kind of trashy with waifu beating humour and what not. This is irredeemable stuff. 1/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jan 14, 2024
I would like to preface my review by pointing out that the show gets a lot of unwarranted criticism for being the kind of detective show where deductions are made up (they don't use solid, concrete pieces of evidence), but that is exactly the point of the show and they are done quite intelligently while integrating the supernatural into them, something which is best exemplified by the "yuki onna" story arc that stretches from the second to the fourth episode of season 2. The fake deductions in the show work towards solving the problem at hand in a more wholistic way, taking into account its
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other aspects, which is more than just solving the mystery of the problem mechanically (like, for example, just deducing who the culprit is, as opposed to maybe trying to give the victims closure as well).
The flaw of the show instead can be understood from another very common criticism, i.e., there's way too much talking. Now that isn't an issue on its own. After all, Monogatari series does that, and it's an incredible series. The problem with the show is actually the inability to properly integrate the intellectual masturbation of the author into a larger more visceral extended plot with more of the fun elements present in it. To give a rough and simple example of the idea, imagine you're playing a complex military strategy game (game 1) and imagine playing another game (game 2) that has the same gameplay but this time it is embedded into a great story (like, let's say it's set in the world of the Youjo Senki light novel and you're Tanya). It's obvious which is better. The short yuki onna arc feels like the former. Even when the arcs are longer, the visercal elements are not that many.
The aforementioned yuki onna story arc, with which the story's main selling point (MSP) peaks, i.e., false deduction, also highlights best the main flaws with the show. We are introduced to a yuki onna and her human darling, both of whom are not all that endearing to you, and you get to see their story for 2 episodes (ep 2 and 3), following which you get our FMC and MC making contact with the duo, doing the deduction work (regarding the issue of the duo) in the final episode of the arc, and delivering a brilliant piece of deduction-exposition that lasts for that one whole episode (ep 4). Brilliant as it was, your ability to care for anyone is non-existent and that includes our main characters, and you can guess the entertainment value of the arc from that (for the majority of people). There aren't more fun elements woven into it. It's too to the point. You just made a setup and provided the solution to it with no viewer involvement. THIS is its main and fatal flaw.
Now imagine if the same yuki onna story were woven into a longer arc where our MCs were roped into the story of the yuki onna, where they get to have some good interactions with each other and other characters for us to watch, and they get involved with the tale of the yuki onna which makes us care about the tale since you can't really care all that much about side characters. Finally, the whole of the otherwise brilliant deduction comes at the end of all that, like at least 3-4 more episodes down the line after the author made you engrossed in the story by making the FMC or the main overarching story get involved in the short and to the point story arc with elements such as more FMC-Mc interactions, some interesting jokes etc put into it. The brilliant deduction would then be the closing act of this long arc and would be elevated to another level.
Another way to see this flaw can be from understanding how interesting detective shows are written in general. We need just one phase of it for the sake of this review, which is the exposition phase of the deduction. In this phase, while the exposition goes on regarding the culprit and his modus operandi, there are also things like creative banter between the characters you've come to like and some quirky behaviour of theirs that gets shown while the deduction is going on (as punctuation marks in the exposition). A show like this with longer expositions than usual needs more of that or something similar, the purpose of which is to endear us to the characters and to the show, which in turn also endears us to the story and the other elements as a side effect. Sadly, it's not that well done. Take the example of a similarly supernatural but much less intelligent show with a much less intelligent writer doing this specific thing better: Undead Girl Murder Farce.
All in all, Kyokou Suiri is a flawed work of an intelligent man, which despite having some charming things (like the FMC kotoko ofc) ultimately falls a bit short in reaching the level of viscerality which would raise it and its intelligent aspects (some brilliant false deductions) to the level of a masterpiece, or at least a really great show. A 6/10 with "mixed feelings" for this particular but fatal flaw.
Tl:dr needs a bit more waifubaiting and fun times to make it the great show it should have been~~
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 19, 2023
This might be biggest disappointment this season. You don't need to know much about it to know why it's not worth your time except that it's one of those explore and learn about human feelings slop. The story is about a long lived elf whose fwens die (oh no~), so elf-chan needs to journey around retracing the steps she once took with them on her adventure to give the melodrama enthusiast some low quality cri pron.
To accompany elf-chan on her adventure in stead of her boring and uninspired teammates, she finds an even more boring and uninspired kuudere. Together they travel the brilliantly uninspired world
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of whatever it is and run random errands for the NPCs of the world. Each such errand reminds elf-chan of her time with her companions, what they liked, what they said to her, all in her quest to understand human feelings and more specifically to know about her now deceased comrades (and their feelings?)
Also Please also note that the elf grill travelled with the guys for 10 years, didn't get to know them. One of the teammates (one guy from her party of four) dies and elf chan has an epiphany that she needs to get to know her comrades, then she doesn't get to know about her still alive comrades because they need to be dead to set the find my feelings find myself cri pron journey into motion. Sasuga~
Now i haven't seen violet evergarden or fumetsu no anata e, but if you have, you don't need to see this. All of these kinds of stories are usually this exact kind of slop and if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Solid 4/10.
To further expand on my earlier review, it hasn't improved one bit and im already almost 11 episodes into it. The female main character is as expressionless as ever and so is the aforementioned kuudere. joining them now is a third character that is not very expressive himself but seems like he is just because of the contrast with these 2. In fact, no character in the show is very expressive, it's like the FMC in a low effort shoujo manga, the one with the personality of a fish with her mouth open in an O shape. Or like a guild of serial killers killed these guys and now wears their faces, like yakuza clans and their tattoos. The writing might be taking a battle shounen-ish turn at this point but it is not one bit better than it previously was. Itt might be going the battle shounen route in part/partially. It might thus be undoing the one thing it is praised for, which i don't think it was doing well anyways. The battle shounen parts you can guess won't be as good as a genuine battle shounen since they're about the feels and viscerality and emotionally charged characters. It tries to play on power fantasy where frieren is stronger than some mighty demons, but again there's better shows to do that as it's again not that gratifying seeing the mixed nature of the show and again the lack of viscerality.
Earlier i compared this to violet evergarden, but You can't expect any visercal sentimentality from it (which you might from violet evergarden?), or compared to other titles with drama like koe no katachi which is memorable and makes you feel. It has the drama tag but it lacks the visceral nature of a good drama. There's some lighthearted jokes sprayed in, some of them sexual, but these jokes are just as lukewarm as the show's drama is. The delivery may be okay and so is the comedic timing, but they're the usual generic uncreative kind and they don't offset any pressure from the barely visceral drama and they are not unexpected twists on another visercal chain of events to catch you by surprise and be humourous. You can get a smile, but the comedy won't either warm your heart or make you laugh heartily.
But maybe, just maybe, the show is something like the monogatari series? No, it is exactly what you would expect from a show with characters like these, it's not particularly atmospheric, there's quite a bit of generic tavern ost with some decent tracks and the locations, quests, characters etc are all one dimensional things from generic fantasy. It's not exactly some chill/relaxing travel where you take in the journey and the beauty of the locations or activities the party is indulging in. Like it does not create an appreciation for the mundane by presenting it in a different form. Like for example you find a ditch in a road, and then maybe you see a bunch of children floating paper boats in it with insects atop. There's nothing like that here. watching paint dry can be relaxing some time, but you can't say it's anything more than being just that, but sure it might relax you if that's your inclination, just that there's nothing to see there and you can't say it is more than that (used paint dry as an example and drew an analogy, not used as the usual insult).
There are little moments where the show tries to give the characters a layer of subtle emotional responses and dialogues but it feels mechanical and jarring and that it was done to manipulative you into thinking it has depth. But why does it fail? why is this manipulative feeling and not koe no katachi? because again the show is bland and not viseceral, and because of its mechanical nature the tool of subtlety too feels mechanical and that it is there based on a formula. It doesn't get disguised as you're not on an enjoyable ride where you don't get the chance to sit and nitpick.
All in all, i don't know what slice of life or drama is on display here because everything is so lukewarm that it amounts to nothing from what i've seen and felt about it. There's no form of visceral charm to it. Even a laid back relaxing atmosphere is fulfilling, kind of like denpa onna for example, it's not mundane but a title can be the run of the mill mundane that is beautified in presentation. Slice of life shows elicit different feelings but they're visceral just like blood and gore shows, just without most of the adrenaline. frieren is not this. It is brilliantly uninspired.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 5, 2023
Another edgy, vengeful, battle academy manga with some isekai elements. It's clear by now that the battle academy mangas (of the harem kind especially) churn out the highest amount of poorly written, uncreative, and cringey stories. This manga is no exception.
It starts with an MC that wants to be the main character and has a huge ego but turns out he has one of the weakest familiars. And as is usual for this kind of shlock, every classmate of his makes fun of him for being a weakling. Now you know how stories like these develop, the MC either got a power or
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familiar that people underestimated and is actually OP, or the MC comes across some plot device that allows him to become strong. The manga aims for the latter.
Now here's where the issue starts, most battle academy mangas like these play on the feeling of being "the eminence in the shadows"/"secretly op dark horse a few know about" more than the edgy isekai vengeful kind of thing where the reader wants to get back at the world or some others to regain his self esteem, kind of like the "equal rights, equal fights" folk who fantasise about being #MeToo'd to then be able to get back at the other sex, whom they feel has been raised to a higher standing while degrading them (Cough shield hero cough). This manga embraces a feeling similar to this quite strongly.
What makes this even worse is how blatant the abovementioned feeling is in this work, there is no subtlety to it, the MC starts out acting like a hotshot who proclaims he wants to be a main character only to be degraded by his classmates and teacher verbally in a way that no suspension of disbelief works in making it seem realistic and that it wasn't done blatantly to write the abovementioned kind of story, there is no subtlety whatsoever. Guy swears vengeance upon his classmates and the mangaka even writes a scene where the next day after making fun of the guy one of his classmates comes to give an apology, the MC brushes him off sulkingly with a "whatever" while anothes classmate glares at him and he glares back from a distance with his thought bubble reading "what did i ever do to you". Again this goes to show the lack of subtlety and makes it obvious this is a pure victimhood-revenge fantasy.
The lack of subtlety is so jarring that it is genuinely one of a kind trash even for these edgy, revengey, kind of light novels and mangas. The generic art, characters, and the lack of any positive creativity in any aspect at all only accentuates the trashiness.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jun 24, 2023
The writing ability of the author is very questionable, but the show works. Most of the show is a trek through the wasteland meeting people, but this time the character interaction and dynamics work because the interaction isn't cliched, like cliched sentences they speak to each other and the like. The fanservice isn't the "fell on crotch" kind and works even with these chara designs. It's stuff like the FMC , who is a genderbent guy inhabiting his sister's body, worries about MC going missing. Then when Mc's found, the FMC and MC hug where the MC gets a boner and the FMC is completely
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chill about it while only remarking, "something hard is touching me".
It's vibey and there's a mystery plot that lends to the atmosphere and builds with the wasteland trek each episode, which in turn helps it not feel it is just a generic episodic post apocalyptic journey like many others and that things are moving somewhere and things link up. As an example, it's Kinda similar to how annoying spider girl's parts in the start of the anime "kumo desu ga" helped make the harem dude's introduction and his parts feel less generic and somewhat entertaining.
That was about what makes it entertaining, but it's also worth pointing out there's some pretty bad writing from the author to go along with it. While I did say you get the feeling the jigsaw puzzle is coming together, it's not done well enough to be gratifying. It feels more like the retcons of kumo desu ga if i am to draw a comparison, just even more numerous. THe main charm of its mystery parts is it lends to the vibe/atmosphere.
To illustrate the poor writing, the mawkish behaviour of the characters at the death or tragedy of randos is a good place to start. Then there's an NTRish-vibes rape scene of FMC which could've been avoided in a show so reliant on FMC-MC dynamics and fanservice within that dynamic. The rape doesn't immediately build to anything and its mainly there as shock value and to make the show look a tiny bit smart (as its hinted the genderbent FMC's body's real owner, his sister was being groomed by this rapey guy).
It's building events on foreshadowing for the sake of building on foreshadowing, and the show is littered with moments like these. characters are wasted/killed just to foreshadow and build on the foreshadowing, all for the sake of making the show look like a smart show where everything is connected to everything else and nothing happens for no reason. There's too much of this attempt, and It feels shoddy. Lots of small chunks of foreshadowing+ building on them that don't build to anything worthwhile that lasts overarchingly over a significant period/portion.
The charm of the show is not its mystery but the atmospheric post apocalyptic journey of a duo whose dynamics works. And it's also worth pointing out again that It's a show that works despite the poor writing ability of the author.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 31, 2023
Take up a subject matter for writing a story, think up 5 creative thoughts within the subject matter, now string them together and place them contiguously. Can you get an interesting plot worth your time? If yes, you'll like tonari no seki kun. If no, you're the audience that's the target of my review.
While the abovementioned is not a perfect analogous comparison, it's to give you an idea of what I'm about to say. Tonari no seki kun is flawed in that it does exactly what its synopsis claims it does and does it religiously. The 'setups' that seki-kun conjures up, mostly on his
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desk, may be creative but they don't make the show entertaining on their own. If the 'setups' themselves were enough you wouldn't need named, faced characters in the story. Infact, some floating marionettist's hands would suffice for enacting the setups, kind of like how they're shown in reenactments of fairytales of the worlds in visual fantasy media through puppet shows or paper puppet theatres.
The creative aspects of this show aren't properly enmeshed into a plot equally creative and great. Any creative element is a part of a whole with interesting characters, plots, and situations through which you live vicariously while feeling different things, being different people, and achieving some goals or reactions vis-a-vis other actors ( directly or indirectly through working upon a situation or plot in which you and the other actors all act). The subjects of stories are sentinent actors.
Tonari no seki kun's characters are barely endearing, and the entire episode focuses on the setup, which is again the case for every episode in the show. There isn't a lot happening in the outside world resulting from the setups that would also make the show as a whole endearing. The reactions of the FMC are not entertaining, the situations borne out of the main male character's antics won't give you a rush of dopamine, and the personal chemistry between the characters is nothing to write about. You don't feel a fantasy of competence, you don't see anything that makes you fall off your chair laughing, there's nothing to amuse you and hold your attention in any substantial way, you don't see SoL moments that evoke intense emotions, and most importantly you can't describe this show as memorable, a fatal flaw for its kind of show.
The charm of this dull show, for the little it's worth, lies in the fact that it might trick you into thinking its spectacle of creativity of 'setups' means the show as a whole is just as 'creative', with all the positive connotations of this word that make it a sought after quality in a show ofc.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 1, 2022
The manga is nothing but a chimera of every possible cliche you've seen in "ecchi harem" battle academy mangas, but ofc without any ecchi or harem. Think of it as that "Maou Gakuin" anime with one "Anos Voldigold" but even more generic and coupled with an isekai-ish setting (he's a native of the world, but the world unfortunately is the same generic one).
The rest is all standard affair with the cold distant protagonist that hides his past, is op etc but added is the feeling of victimhood of isekai edgy protagonists whose story always starts with: "Abused by his black company", "talents not recognised
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by coworkers", "betrayed by the party" etc to provide him the edginess license. The most noteworthy aspect of the manga in fact is the fusion of the worst aspects of battle academy with the edgy isekai protagonist type of guy.
The plot development is of the usual lurid kind with developments like battle entrance exam and what not, the nobles picking on the OP MC commoner (what else were you expecting? Read the above para again), the very first heroine that the MC must help in her quest for strength.
To close off, it is fascinating how something can be so generic and ordinary that it turns out to be something extra-ordinary, something extraordinarily awful. It's nothing short of magic; a sky touching trash heap born of little pieces of trash.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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