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Usually harems aren't something I generally go for, what with them usually being generic and bland with a boring copy-paste main-protagonist-slice-of-plain-pizza that everyone wants for some reason, tedious jealous fits from the girls which waste the potential of ever having an actual plot because of the pointless fighting and bickering, and not to mention the sexism and the same old tropes and all that good stuff that comes with the genre. But
Monster Musume, however, was a very different experience for me, at least.

Firstly, from the first episode, I found this series to actually be pretty /relatable/, of all things... x'D I am transgender, and ... I am all too familiar with feeling discriminated, alienated, disrespected, and receiving the always common dirty looks from passers-by simply because of who I am, what parts I may or may not have, and how I look like, and all that society has to go one in regards to knowing anything about me are harmful stereotypes that might make me out to be scary or dangerous. Monster Musume tells a story of finally finding acceptance and trust in someone after constantly being rejected and feeling insecure and the like, finding someone where all these things that might set them apart from the rest of society really doesn't matter, and are treated simply as normal girls with a chance at love.
It's also explained in the premise of the series that monster girls have always been around, but have only recently been accepted into society and are protected under law, albeit with many holes, which striked me as all too familiar with the recent recognition that trans people are finally starting to get in many parts of the world. Certain scenes seemed to highlight how despite their acceptance in society, there was still a long way to go as far real acceptance from the general populace.

But relatability aside, the sexual innuendos were pretty heavy throughout the series, and at first it caught me a little off guard; I was expecting some suggestive themes for sure (it is a harem, after all), but I didn't expect it to go as far as it did at times... x'D Again, usually not my thing, I have to be in a certain mood to enjoy such things, admittedly, but nonetheless, it was still quite welcome, I guess... x'D The art style and animation was pretty good too, especially in the finale, they really wanted to put a bow on it when wrapping it all up.

My only real tiff with the series was how bland our main protagonist Darling-kun was (he was so bland, I couldn't bother to remember his name...); alas, I suppose that's what comes with being the star of a harem series. But nonetheless, they did include something of a potential dark past to him in the finale, which was probably a joke but could have actually led to something and spice up his character a little? x'D The girls themselves definitely weren't generic, and they actually had stories to go along with them that actually managed to get me to grow an attachment to each of them, but even so, they still sometimes filled in the usual roles/tropes in the harem, what with there being a loli (plot-twist, there was actually more than one x'D But one could change her form between loli and big-breasted beauty, so I'm still not sure if that counts, but in any case...), and et cetera.

All in all, this series was simply at its core fun and light-hearted, and it definitely got a few laughs out of me. Darling-kun summarized it best at the very end: "It's a bit noisy and difficult at times, but every day is a lot of fun."