A curious biology teacher, Tetsuo Takahashi, suddenly discovers himself in the presence of four unique individuals in the delightful anime that is Interviews With Monster Girls. Sorting through fact and fiction of what we believe about the supernatural, we watch as Takahashi slowly gets to know more about each Demi's everyday life while helping them with whatever problems they may face with their birth-given attributes.
Storywise, it's quite similar to how harems/reverse harems direct episodes. (Note: this is not a harem, it just shares a few similarities. Teacher x Student would be incredibly inappropriate) The first few episodes are an introduction to each character and a brief description of their "species", and the rest of the episodes each focus on one of the already established characters and continues to explore their characteristics and their effect on their surroundings. Mixed in with the calm and peaceful school life, it provides us with an entertaining yet informative experience about the world of Interviews With Monster Girls. There is a little drama scattered around the series, but luckily it's done well enough so that it doesn't feel like it's trying too hard to make the show more interesting.
There is quite a lot of information dumps on each Demi-human, so the dialogue is an important part of this show. Although it can seem forced and unrealistic at times, such as a few conversations the Demis have with their classmates, most of the time their interactions with others come out quite naturally and allow us to learn about each Monster Girl without it feeling like a lecture. There are many times where serious issues are brought up, such as bullying and disabilities, giving the show a sense of deeper meaning mixed in with it's cute and happy theme. Often they'll also throw in a bit of comedy to prevent the sense of boredom, and they do it quite well so it doesn't negatively impact on the topic being discussed.
I'm sure you've all seen the usual MC that plagues this kind of anime. A group of girls show up in a guy's life, but our poor boy is usually too socially awkward around the opposite sex or too dense when it comes to females. Not Takahashi. An adult with responsibilities, he doesn't have time for that bullshit. No more blushing and nose bleeds, Takahashi is able to interact with everyone around him without looking like a complete idiot. Although still a little dense at times, his kind-hearted and level-headed nature allows him to properly perform his job as a teacher and a second guardian.
Continuing down our list of characters, a group of four Demis are the real focus of the story. These consist of an energetic vampire (Hikari Takanashi), a shy dullahan (Kyouko Machi), a troubled snow-woman (Yuki Kusakabe) and a succubus math teacher. (Sakie Satou) Each one is born with features that separate them from the norm, forced to accommodate these differences into their lives. Throughout the show, we watch as each one learns a little bit about themselves due to their bonds with Takahashi and each other, using their new found knowledge to grow as individuals.
The background characters aren't really elaborated on much until the second half of the anime. They're mostly there to bring up topics about Demi-humans, so they don't really get much character development. This is a huge shame as many of them have interesting views and personalities that would have allowed the show to feel more like an actual school instead of a setting created only to have the main characters move around in. Instead of only becoming relevant in the later eps, some of the focus on the main characters should have been used to explore more interactions between normal students and Demis.
So you're probably all wondering right? Monster Girl Anime without an Ecchi tag? Does this show still have fanservice? Well yeah, but they only come from two characters, Takahashi and Satou. One has an incredibly set of toned muscle, (like holy shit embrace me Tetsuo!) and the other has a beautiful and admittedly erotic body. (I wanna overdose on Sakie's aphrodisiac effect!) We don't see their (AMAZING) bodies much as Sakie usually wears clothes that fully cover her so that she doesn't accidentally sexually stun any men around her, and a biology teacher doesn't get many chances to show off his ripped build in a school setting. What we do things is done well enough so that it doesn't feel like a cheap way of getting more viewers.
Finally, the animation needs to be brought up. There is nothing really breathtaking about this anime, but it's not the type to rely on heavy sakuga to appeal to its viewers. Like the show, it's quite colourful and cheerful, but is still able to properly express any feelings the current scene requires, may it be happy or sad. There are a few times where the animation quality dips a little or looks slightly out of place, but other than that the show is pretty consistent across episodes.
The wonderfully charming show that is Interviews With Monster Girls is a fresh take on the usual School and Supernatural Girls tropes. Well worth the watch if you enjoy Slice of Life animes that are different from the usual "cute girls doing cute things" we see often.
