Kemono Jihen

Kohachi Inugami, a detective who specializes in the occult, arrives at a remote village in the Japanese countryside, tasked by a hostess at a local inn to investigate a string of incidents involving rotting and mutilated livestock corpses that have been appearing for seemingly no reason. While surveying, Inugami notices a peculiar young boy working in the fields. Evaded by his peers and called "Dorotabou" for his stench, the young farmhand is surprised that anybody would take an interest in him.

Inugami, piqued with curiosity, enlists Dorotabou in helping him with the investigation, despite scorned looks from the villagers. Unbeknownst to Dorotabou, this investigation will reveal a strange new world to him—one of the beast-like entities known as Kemono existing in tandem with humans—along with breathing new purpose into his previously empty life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kusaka, Kabane Main

Fujiwara, Natsumi Japanese

Iwakiyamayukisatoshironanogojuurokushi, Akira Main

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Tademaru, Shiki Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Inugami, Kohachi Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Kon Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Florescu, Mihai Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Nobimaru Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Iwakiyamayukisatoshironanogojuurokushi, Yui Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Tademaru, Aya Supporting

Hondo, Kaede Japanese

Inari, Yoko Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Yoshida, Tsuyoshi Producer

Shiraishi, Youko Producer

Endou, Naoko Producer

Reviews

Mar 28, 2021

Ethan_07

Recommended

Kemono Jihen is, without a doubt, the dark horse of Winter 2021. Dark, not only in its fame and premises that are being overshadowed, but also in its plot and story that twists the audience around its bloody, red hand-gloves.

Among tons of promising sequels and exciting, intriguing anime that are pumped into this season, I step into watching this show with no clue whatsoever it is about, and it left me impressed with the gory yet thrilling adventure of the protagonists against the relentless demons, warm my heart with a genuine portrayal of friendship that exceeds 'protect to protect' values, and really blew my expectation ... away.

In a society where demons of different races and classes exist unbeknownst to the human, it's up to a detective office cooperating with the higher-up in police officials to keep the boundary between two kinds clear, and visible. The main character, a child with high regenerative skill and enormous brute strength is recruited into the detective team from outskirt.

But, there's a catch: he doesn't know love, and is emotionless.

As the plot progresses, ensemble characters with different talents, and most importantly, captivatingly dark background stories intertwine together. It's almost like a celebration of a cluster of broken demons, yet with human emotions, that are brought together for a chance to live—regardless of the numbing pain that are yet to be unfolded, or lingering truth that are to be discovered.

Strangely, it is because of their childish like interaction and casual exchange of worries and concerns that forge the trio's (sometimes, quartet) relationship. It's not 'tomo-tachi' (friends) given the perilous and critical nature of their work, but it's 'nakama' (comrades) between them that added much depth to their bond. When one of them is in pinch, they do not shout or fill themselves with flashbacks to fuel their power and become temporarily invincible.

They cry.

Like a little child; because, in many senses, they are. They cannot shoulder the whole responsibility and burden that the world dropped on them by themselves. And this is where the depiction of comrades, where they would rely on each other, comes in through the perspective of the emotionless main character, Kabane. It is precisely because he sees thing subjectively—evil as evil, good as good—that he can evoke the best in his comrades, that they know how frustrating it is to be powerless and how powerful feelings, emotions are. And, as he learns more about the meaning of empathy, with love in its many shapes and forms with his comrades, I believe the story will reach much greater heights than what were depicted.

As for the animation, the fighting sequences are fluid and colorful; for the soundtracks, the music matches the ambience the show was going for perfectly. It seeps in creepy, thrilling piano notes in the moments of suspense and danger, while giving off a blood-pumping, hopeful, evil-hero-like vibe when the protagonists are face-to-faced with the merciless demons. The opening is great, with its editing matching the tempo of the songs while the J-rock ending ended each episode in a positive note.

Overall, Kemono Jihen is a show that wraps its hidden dark elements, and stories inside layers of pure, and genuine bond of reliance that the protagonists share, exhibiting their fragile, yet unyielding determination and emotions. It can get really, really dark sometimes, yet at the same time, you couldn't help but to crave for more of their heartfelt moments.

So, if you're into exploring some supernatural stories of demons through the eyes of young protagonists, I'd definitely recommend Kemono Jihen. Beware though, as it could shock and traumatize your senses, then warm and melt your heart when you least expected it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 29, 2021

PiereDelecto

Mixed Feelings

I was impressed by the first episode. There was a thrill and impact to the way the detective tested the kid Kabane to determine his disposition, Kabane's circumstances were intriguing. Even in Anime it's not everyday a guy just shoots a kid in the head at point blank range, especially when the dude has been set up as one of the "good guys". Least of all, where the kid just smiles, utterly chill about it - trying to make the dude feel better about the whole thing just in case he has trauma/guilt or something later since I'll just be dead anyways. You actually couldn't ... be 100% at that time, whether the guy with the gun was going to be the main character or whether this kid was going to undead himself somehow. The whole episode gave off that weird creepy intrigue you want a supernatural journey through some shadow world to have. There was a clear differentiation by way of contrast between the two main characters and the humans who had hired the one guy that shot the kid. Hot DAMN, I thought. That was cool, pleasantly surprised at the quality of the show - wonder where they're going with this, I thought...

Well, that's the issue. Where they go is a silly place known as The Kemonist's Office. Supposedly mediating issues that arise between humans and murderous furry of the week as some kind of appendage to local law enforcement, which is under the complete and total control of a somewhat evil foxy lady Kemono anyways so raison d'etre unclear. Most of the story is centered on this one trap kid and yung spidey, the kids already enrolled in Kemonist daycare when Kabane shows up. They both get arcs, those arcs basically take up the whole season - except for Kon, her thing is she's dumb, and she gets left in a park and waits there for the rest of the series as the Kemonist's battle against Mr. Freeze - the trap kid's brother.

There is just something not quite right about the framing - why are they all kids? Why is one a trap? Why is the racoon girl such an idiot? Why is the evil head of the police department so scary but so completely, conveniently impotent when it comes to the Kemonist guy? Why is there a video-game addicted vampire living in the closet? You know what the problem is - I don't care why. I just, don't.

Honorable mention - yung spidey has some character development of mild interest during his arc, and in interacting with the omnipotent MMO guild master vampire living in the clost. Also in the show's favor, there's some cool fight mechanics sprinkled here and there, and Kon's replacement does pretty well for himself as a wunderkinds who is playing double agent one way or another and you can't tell 100% which way... but honestly the villains are lame, nearly across the board. There's literally no tension, it's about as suspenseful as an episode of care bears. I found the backstories for the Kemono races flat as hell, sometimes almost an afterthought - like the vampire MMO guy, "vampire's are an advanced race, even among Kemono". Tsk.

What began as a surprisingly mature first step into an intriguing lore, ended up being exactly the kind of show I was afraid it was going to be when I saw all those kids striking dynamic poses on the poster. It's not outright bad to be fair, but I didn't get what they did here personally. If I had been expecting a slice of life, kooky kids doing grown up things so cute type of show - maybe it would earn higher marks in that category. Overall not my jam, wouldn't recommend.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 13, 2021

PixelB

Not Recommended

I have definitely seen a good amount of modern Shounens feature more "edgy," "mature," and "deep" themes. Oh well, honestly, probably for the better. The whole "every good guy lives" and "MC protecting his friends" tropes are really getting old.

Kemono Jihen is a good example of a modern shounen integrating "mature" themes while also trying to relay as little good storytelling as possible by using edgy shock value while not developing characters in any meaningful way. It tries to integrate brutality into a morally good cast of characters, and while this can work, the execution of these themes are terrible to say the least.

I'm only ... going to focus on Shiki, because it just highlights this absolutely horrendous edgy shock value story telling at its finest.

Spoilers ahead, but trust me, nothing much of value has to be said about the story.



At the point of the story where you reach Shiki's backstory, you already know that the main cast of characters have performed a few missions, few of which include killing anthropomorphic and intelligent beings, all of which were warranted. That being said, no humans have been harmed or killed by our main characters. You get where I'm going with this?

Shiki's uncle performed many atrocities on his mother. Forcefully jailing her, inseminating her for many years to forcefully breed offspring, and Shiki, morally scarred and scared of reality, runs away at the prospect of her mother's plight. So far so good.
Many years later, Shiki comes back to discover the truth. Guilty because he abandoned his mother and fueled with rage, he storms upon his Uncle and decides to kill him. Using shounen storytelling tropes, of course he is able to escape. Shiki has a mental breakdown after being confronted with all of his mother's offspring, and loses motivation to kill his uncle. After having Kabane kill all of his mother's offspring, Shiki decides to spare his Uncle. Using arguments such as "He'll have a fate worse than death if he lives," "Killing him won't bring back my mother," he decides to spare his Uncle.
What's wrong with this picture? First of all, I'd really like to point out the timeline of these events. They're extremely close! Shiki goes through more mental development than an adult would do in their entire life in the span of a few days. He gets over his guilt and trauma, gets over his rage, and becomes and enlightened one over the span of a day or so. It's extremely surprising to me that he would not, in a fit of rage, just immediately kill his Uncle, but I guess we have the "shounen" genre to thank for that. Sure, could you "reasonably" say that Shiki could have matured so much? Yeah, as much as Ellie could have rationally spared Abby. Again, even Ellie in TLOU2 has around 60 hours of character development while our boy Shiki has 20 minutes, so Ellie's actions make a bit more sense than Shiki's. It's so frustrating seeing how Shiki spares his Uncle without much of a solid reason; his mentality changes way too quickly. He just commanded all of his siblings to die, and yet he's going to let the perpetrator of all of his pain get away? In fact, you could say that his siblings had no sin, and yet, they took the brunt of his rage, while his actual source of grief and rage is let of scot free. Oh yeah, he's a better person after killing many innocents because he let his main source of rage go. But wait, his siblings were half monster. Wait a second, he himself is half monster. All of his allies are also half monster. What gives? Well, if you don't look human, you're just a monster still! Fire at will. Perfect reasoning. Human looking monster = good, monster looking monster =kill. But wait! They're less intelligent than humans, so they're just animals. Yeah, how about we just kill all mentally disabled while we're at it?
For people thinking that revenge is immature and that Shiki's reasoning was solid, I'd really like to see how they'd react if they had their loved ones tortured and raped for years before their eyes. There's not a shred of "well, his Uncle had some good in him," in which you could perhaps argue for someone like Abby in TLOU2. Again, this is a good example of how the show loves to frame people as "100% good, or 100% bad," and nothing in between. Or how about the argument that "him living is worse than death because I can deny any sort of future achievements he might have." Well, killing him would be the absolute fool-proof plan on eliminating any sort of achievements his uncle might have in the future. And you can see, right after the incident, his Uncle isn't disheartened and is ready to perform atrocities over again. I just hope that Shiki understands that he's letting his Uncle commit more acts of torture and allowing more victims to pile up for his own fragile ego.

Let's go over how Shiki is unable to make his Uncle provide testimony about where his mother's location is. Instead of any confrontation, Inugami gets convenient plot device in the form of information on his mother. I like how the Uncle gets spared so thoroughly, and how Shiki and his friends are at a loss. Yeah, I can't imagine just tearing his Uncle limb by limb or doing any sort of torture would unable to extract his mother's location. I like how it doesn't even cross his mind even though he should have had the resolve, reason, and drive to do so.
I have so many problems with this story, but I'll focus on the masking of any moral indictment that this show tries to do with it's framing of the story.
Kemono Jihen is a story that features killing and murder. Our main characters experience it for good reason. They kill monsters that harm other humans and society as a whole. So what exactly is the morality of our main characters for killing monsters that killed humans, but sparing humans that kill other innocent people?
Monster bad, human good? That's basically the story Kemono Jihen wants to present. God forbid these kids go killing humans even if they're monsters inside, but they can go kill monsters for sins that are doing crimes less severe than humans they spare. It also aggravates me in the process of making the story so black and white in determining what is good or bad, it eliminates any sort of mental gymnastics by the viewer. You're merely being fed "human good, this monster bad, revenge bad." Everything can be labelled as good or bad without any distinction.
Killing and murder are featured in the story, but the brutality and nastiness of anything macabre is merely glossed over. It's the same idea where many people are dying, but you don't get a good sense of how brutal everything is merely because you barely see the killing happen. They just die, and you move on. Just the fact that the brutal act of imprisoning and having his mother being raped continuously to produce over 100 offspring is limited to a few seconds is a tactic that this show employs in order to undermine the "evil acts' that Shiki's uncle makes, and this sort of masking of violent undertones is always present in this story. Even Kabane's bullying and frensy backstory are flimsy. These trauma inducing events are extremely short and are barely a blip in the radar for what they are. You'd think that these events would be essential to the story, but they're glossed because it's a shounen, and everyone is happy and can move on, apparently. You're given a narrative that shoves the idea that our main characters are of quite a high moral standing without much thought put into it because again, it's a shounen. MC good. OK? Even other chilling acts of someone like Kon immediately decapitating Kanabe are just "kids being kids," "Kanabe didn't die, so Kon's all good." In the end, Kon just becomes good friends and gets invited over to eat. "Well, as long as there are no repercussions, I'll forgive you." Cringe. There's so much atrocities that happen in the show, but it's just not focused upon and people just get over it. Whether it be on the receiving side or the side giving it out, cruel acts are not questioned or emphasized in the least bit. Instead, it maintains a "lighthearted" tone. Thanks a lot.
I'll give a shoutout to the other flaws. So in Shiki's backstory, her mother just complies with his Uncle? She is a monster, a strong one at that, and she just willingly, day by day, gets inseminated and raped by random monsters because Shiki's uncle tells her to? She doesn't get any warning signs when she's being locked in a room and unable to see her son? Oh, what about her barely intelligent offspring. Surely they would be loyal to her, and not the Uncle. Inugami, basically aware of this situation, allows Shiki's uncle to do whatever he wants for over a year. Inugami's kind of scummy in that regard. This plot is as secure as swiss cheese, and should not be taken seriously, as once you start combing through the details, you start to realize that this story is only there to serve as character development for Shiki. It not only does not characterize Shiki very well, but it also is just an extremely poorly built backstory and plot that clearly points fingers and the situation is allowed to stay the status quo until Shiki needs character development.
As for other characters, we have our classic vanilla OP MC that doesn't have a shred of personality. He's the type character in which "he's unfeeling," but also has a "good sense of morality" built into him due to the teachings of his master. Akira is just a flamboyant trap character for comic relief. Shiki, he's ok, but again, the backstory makes him terrible as well.
Let's not even talk about how power progression happens. Everything about how powerful people are is a whim that the author decides. Hey, character too weak? Slap a random power up arc so that they're powerful. In the case of our MC? What do you expect? He's OP as hell in the very beginning and gets even more OP. It's not even like Jujutsu Kaisen, where at least our MC has limitations.
Overall, a story that tries to incorporate edgy themes without much thought put into it and tries to maintain the "shounen" more lighthearted tone, and as a result, you get a insincere narrative in which the bad guys and good guys are clearly defined in which their actions don't quite match their supposed morality.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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