First Impressions – Hatsukoi Monster

Date them, obviously

I wanted to try this one out since it was a shoujo and pretty much 10 times out of 10 that means that I’m going to enjoy it. This one was a bit different from normal shoujo though…

 

Honestly, the reason why I picked this up is because it has a bunch of good-looking guys and a little girl, which means reverse harem! I haven’t read anything about it at all, so let’s see how it is.

Age Gap is Romantic

There have been age gap romances in anime before, but this is one of the few examples I can think of between an older girl and a shota. Though the gap between them just seems to large because of how young Kanade is. Since Kaho is 15, there’s about a 5 year age gap between her and Kanade if he’s around 10-11 years old. That’s not so big if you consider that if she was interested a college student, there could still be a 5 year gap. …Though of course, one age gap is just slightly more off-putting than the other when you consider that Kanade hasn’t even hit puberty yet. Or maybe it already hit him and his friends like a bus, but that doesn’t really mean that he’s anywhere close to being legal or even mature enough to have an older girlfriend.

Dude is five, by the way

Though what might make this anime work is that Kaho herself is extremely sheltered and pretty child-like when it comes to some things. From how easy it was to fall for Kanade and her personality in general, she’s probably as mature as he is when it comes to the topic of love. So maybe this is the opportunity for something that could be innocent and cute, since some of the normal events from the shoujo genre would be pretty creepy in this situation. The male love interests in shoujo tend to be really forward, with emphasis on how mature and/or sexy they are as they kabedon the heroine against the wall or whatever. With Kaho and Kanade, maybe the love story can focus on being more emotional as they grow up together. I remember that when I was a kid, I figured that dating just meant hand holding and being nice to each other, so maybe that’s what the show will do. It did seem like the other child/bishounen characters had a kind of childish mindset towards love and dating since they thought Kazou would steal away Kaho just from how cool he was.

 …Or the show can just be about how a bunch of grown up looking anime men play tag and adjust their penises and we can see how far that takes this show. To be fair, it’s actually kind of funny watching the trio act like children despite their appearances. Especially when one of their seiyuus is Sugitan, who isn’t even trying to pitch his voice up.

Kids who Act like Adults

When I read some people discussing about the age-gap, I thought it was the girl who is an elementary kid. Usagi Drop, Barakamon, and Love so Life are few of many titles who have little kids as their main characters. There are many anime and manga where one of the main characters is a little kid. However, I was so shocked when the elementary kids are the mature-looking adults. Now, is it fine if the little kid is a guy? It’s totally fine. If it can work with females, then why not? The problem, however, is how mature-looking the little kids are. They are not even depicted as kids who actually look like kids. Instead, they are designed as teenagers who are actually little kids. It’s as if they’re forcing the characters to be kids. Everything about the “kids” is so awkward – design, voice tone, fashion style. Everything about the “kids” scream teenagers and adults, but here we are with them being “little kids” so that the studio can add up some spice in this series. Thanks, DEEN, thanks a lot.

Climbing the path of adulthood

To make it even worse, the “kids” don’t even act like kids at all. Sure, they did the whole butt and tag thing, but the whole wiener thing is just… What- what is that? Do little kids these days talk like that? In Japan? I can imagine teenagers talking about wiener, but for Japanese kids to talk about them in such a way? I don’t think so. Here is another awkward point. Their design is already weird enough, and they have to make it worse by making the characters do such unnatural behavior for kids. Forget about the kids, the whole cast (with the exception of the shy high school boy and college freshman) is not acting like a proper Japanese citizen. Everything about this show scream underage romance, but none of the cast seems to mind. I can understand the main female character since she lacks experience and normal daily activities, but for the high school boy and college dude to blatantly accept such relationship? Like Kara said, five year gap is not a problem, but the problem is the fact that the boyfriend is a kid. As citizens of Japan where obedience of law is hammered into their minds, they sure are not doing a good job at realizing how wrong the relationship is. Or maybe that’s the whole point of this show. Meh. Whatever.

The beginning didn’t really work well for endearing the characters to me. The introductions were pretty abrupt and I couldn’t care less if assertive girl knew if people fell in love or not (that whole thing was pretty dumb). In fact, I don’t really care about any of the characters really. Though the first episode did end up catching my attention with the whole dumb joke that these guys are bishounen, but they’re all elementary school aged. Especially during times when they showed the rest of the grade, and everyone looked pretty normal and child-like. I don’t know if that joke can carry the entire show or not, but it was surprisingly funny for me. Maybe the anime can becomes more interesting once Kaho and Kanade establish an actual connection aside from being boyfriend and girlfriend in name only. As for now though, this introduction to the series was a little weird, but kind of average.

 I can’t. I can’t do this. It’s just so wrong in many levels. Everything started great in the first half of the episode. Kaho’s character is actually pretty great for a new series. It was perfect. But then they had to introduce the “kids”, and everything went downhill from there. Seriously, who the hell came up with this idea? Are you a proper citizen of Japan? Who are you parents? Let me have some serious talk with them. At least make them act like proper kids! Though of course, I got the chance to listen to Sugitan saying wiener, but I have heard that so many times that’s not the point. It has an interesting concept, but it is executed badly. If you, having an open mind, likes something new or maybe listen to Sugitan saying wiener lots of time, go ahead and watch this. But I can’t. I feel like a criminal when I watched this. But maybe I’ll crop Sugitan’s wiener part and put it as my ringtone.