The story of "Kemonozume" is definitely an unusual one with many twists to offer. The fierce and extremely dangerous monsters known as Shokujinki run rampant. Toshihiko Momota falls in extreme love with a woman who ends up being one. He comes from a family who are renown for being capable swordsmen whose occupation is to hunt down these grotesque monsters, and many issues that arise as he attempts to be with her. Their interactions together is the second most interesting aspect right behind the art.
The problem is that the interactions between them aren't as heavy as they should be. The emotional resonance for the main characters is weakened by the lack of focus that sometimes appears in this anime. "Kemonozume" gives them some nice development and back story, but not as much as it could have. Many of the other secondary characters that are introduced feel fairly dull and serve the sole purpose of being killed. They take up unnecessarily long amounts of screen time, and ultimately only hold the anime back by not leaving it enough time to fully develop the main characters, which are easily the most interesting ones.
Its art is the most noteworthy feature of the anime. It is impeccably gritty and alluring. Uniqueness does run much through this anime. Character designs are very rough and sketchily drawn. This anime does not use the huge-anime-eyes-possessing character molds that many other typical anime incorporate. Fans of moe will definitely not be pleased by this move; standard anime artwork fans are simply not catered to in "Kemonozume". Action scenes are fairly fluid, and the artwork in it enhance the intensity well. Backgrounds are often riddled with heavy brush strokes and very moody.
Much of the anime's soundtrack is jumpy and jittery. It's composed of jazz music that slightly elevates the tense or exciting moments. Other smoother and more laid-back songs preform their role well, and don't intrude the dramatic scenes they are played in. Most of the soundtrack is nice but not all too memorable. The standout is the opening theme "Auvers Blue" by Katteni-Shiyagare. It is an unrestrained jazz song that becomes as intense with excitement as the most action-filled scenes in the anime. The ending theme by Santara, "Suki", is nothing special or irksome. It's just a decent, somewhat melancholic song.
"Kemonozume" is bloody, creative, albeit lacking, fun with a gripping and odd twist on traditional monster and love stories. The flaws are not enormous and the visual approach is fresh enough to outshine many of its contemporaries. Those who enjoy overtly strange, violent, and fascinating anime with an appealingly coarse and offbeat art style should definitely check this one out.
Seven Large, Staining, and Darkly Red Blood Splatters out of Ten.
