Tonari no Youkai-san

This was my biggest surprise of the season, and I came to love it and looked forward to each episode. It definitely deserves more attention, If you like Miyasaki-san, while it's not quite to his production level, it has a very similar vibe. The art work is beautiful, and the animation, while not mind blowing, is very skillfully rendered with few shortcuts taken.

I've always loved Yokai as a concept of Japanese culture, and they are lovingly displayed here along side their human counterparts, as equals in a peaceful and serene community. The writers do such a wonderful job of fleshing out the characters. It's ... hard not to love, or at least understand, them. Another brilliant stroke for the writers is they weave a sinister undercurrent to the world, and they make this hidden conflict work, and resolve, in a surprising and satisfying fashion. The best anime always have superlative stories and characters. And this series demonstrates that principle nicely.

The VAs are a strong part of why this works so well. They are calm and strong; no flat renditions or screaming mimis. Shows the director knew what he was doing. And there was further evidence in some of the limited action scenes, or the more light-hearted segments.

While I might not have a Yokai next door, I wish I did now. Or at least let me have a nekomata. 😺

If I graded this, it would be 93/100; about as high an A- as I could give without reaching into 10 territory. It was oh, so close, and it definitelty deserves your consideration. At least give it the 3 eps test, to see if it's something you could dig.

Tonari no Youkai-san is a Slice of Life with elements of mystery and heavy drama. The setting is a fantasy world where "yokai" (imaginary beings brought to life due to power of rumors, emotions, desires etc..) live with humans.

Plot
The show starts when a 20 year old pet cat is reborn as a nekomata (a yokai cat with two tails and power to transform). As a newborn yokai, he starts learning the ways of this world and this allows us audience to tag along for the lessons. We keep meeting new characters (around 15+ major cast members at this point) which all have their own ... stories/backgrounds (both current and some flashbacks). At the same time, there is a larger mystery plot unraveling in the background. The pacing is great, leading to a decent climax that provides enough closure for this season.

Review
I definitely love the setting of humans and yokai living together in a slow slice of life with a rural backdrop. And the mystery behind the world's lore is also intriguing. And there are some ridiculous characters (eg: wagen-san) which are memorable.

But, the series has a few negatives:
1. The background stories of characters are often boring and predictable. And they say lines like "How could you understand how I feel?"..
2. Unnecessary "power of friendship" moments. Some dialogues like "I want to protect/save you" feel cringe when its middle schoolers (or even younger children) saying them.
3. Some drama is stretched too much and takes you out of the story.

I would recommend just watching the first episode. The series maintains the same vibe throughout the entire season and you can easily judge if it is to your taste. While I don't regret watching it, I don't exactly feel glad either. Its a decent enough series, that is worth its runtime, but nothing memorable.

What I hate about this show is that it just slaps on some supernatural beings into the show without integrating any of the actual historical accounts to the shinigami/Japanese folklore. For example, Tengu are said to be mischievous and enjoy playing pranks on humans. Why is Jiro just a literal human being in an anthropomorphic crow body? How about the fact that Buchio was reincarnated from a cat, so wouldn't it make sense for Buchio to have cat-like tendencies, reflexes, etc? I just fail to see the appeal. Even in a game like Touhou, Tengu are seen as people who love gossip, which makes sense ... since their nature is to enjoy pranks. It's not an exact connection, but at least there's some sort of background that makes sense to the folklore/legend that they're portraying in the game.

This show fails to even do the bare minimum when it comes to connecting folklore to characters, which makes me give it an extremely low score. The setting and characters are mere surface-level and don't create any depth for the story.