First Impression – Demi-chan wa Kataritai

Aren’t these monsters just the cutest things ever!?

 Time to talk about the new monster girl series! I’m super excited!

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 Hey, it’s me instead of skylion! Let’s talk about some adorbs half-monster girls!

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Fitting in is hard yo!

Can you cook with Kyouko’s Dullahan fire? 

The first thing I noticed about this episode was its side message about fitting in? I think on some level we all can relate to being the “new kid” weather in school or at a job, but for some of our main characters that is really hard especially if you just so happen to be a dullahan like Kyouko? I can only imagine how much she had to struggle just to fit in compared to the likes of Yuki, Sakie and Hikari who could totally pass off as being 100% human if they decided to keep their demi status hidden from the world.

Sakie is quite the character.

Continuing on the subject of fitting in I can totally relate to Kyouko in a few ways since she can’t really hide the fact about being demi, back when I first started the tenth grade I had to get a powered wheelchair due to some issues with walking, I remember getting lots of strange looks and when some students saw the chair coming down the hallway they would avoid looking my way or not talk to me because I was “different” which is totally fine I knew they weren’t going to be used to the chair within one day; however I did make lots of good friends who didn’t see me as some kid in a chair, which is one thing I really loved about this first episode! The random side characters around Kyouko didn’t completely treat her like an outcast even though I felt that the short scene with the random girls talking to her felt as if they were forcing themselves to include her in their conversation? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that right? That is until we get the end scene with Hikari talking to her which felt way more genuine and real, but I guess it also helps that both of them can relate to having similar problems?

Hikari is going to be a fan favorite.

With that said I don’t think were really going to be diving into that topic anymore or will we? I know with Monster Musume that series tried to tackle race learning to accept different races; however that subject was quickly kicked to the side really fast! So yeah I guess most of you can already tell that I’ve taken a bit of a liking to Kyouko who seems to be one of the more interesting monster girls for me! Besides the headless girl I gotta say Hikari is going to be a close second due to her being the token hyperactive character which tends to be my ultimate weakness when picking favorite characters.

This show is so cute!

A succubus is fine too~

I didn’t know what I’d think about this show before it aired, but OMG, this show is so cute! I think that these character designs are just about perfect, and think that they’ve pulled off the tone just right. All of the main characters are just adorable, Hikari in that bubbly goofy way, Machi in a more reserved fashion, and especially Satou-sensei in her manic desperate attempts to (over-) compensate for her stereotypical charms, even down to hissing at Tetsuo to get him to stay away from her. Not that he helps matters by acting like a love-struck guy when he tries to talk to her. Everyone was just a treat to watch interact in this show, and the way that they introduced all the characters without focusing so much on the characters feeling alienated by the way they are.

Rip snow-chan!

Of course, being the way they are is a big part of who they are. They’re different, and they’re in society, so they’re going to be a bit self-conscious about it. And so is everyone else. They have some of this in this episode, especially with Machi talking to her classmates, who look uncomfortable and change the subject when she brings up how riding a crowded bus can be difficult because “of the way she is”. It felt like she was comfortable enough to bring it up to people she wanted to be friends with, and they got skittish about the subject. That certainly seems to have tainted her relationship with her classmates, who then seem to avoid her until Hikari blithely brings up the subject and befriends her. Even as the other kids blanch, Machi lights up at the chance to honestly not have to minimize a significant part of her, the whole elephant in the room. I thought it was a great example of kids wanting to feel like they’re understood and can talk about themselves. And maybe that’ll be the catalyst for the rest of the class to get past worrying about bringing up the subject.

That smile is both cute and playful.

About the only thing I thought was less than optimum in this show was the way Tetsuo acts throughout. Some of it isn’t his fault, it’s the show’s, for doing stuff like making him the last guy to know that the new teacher is a succubus, or that there are multiple demi students in the school now. Plus, I don’t know what the structure of this college graduation paper that he’s working on is, but just interviewing a few demis seems to be a really, really weak effort towards doing it. I mean, it’s like doing a book report where you just explain the plot, isn’t it? Or writing a report just using wikipedia as a source. All a paper like that would show is that demis are people too, and while that’s a fine conclusion, it’s not exactly anything groundbreaking. But for someone who’s so interested in demis, he really doesn’t know anything about them.

Extra cute monsters

Hikari has some of the best reactions!

Fun siblings yo!

Damn this is cute.

The Hikari x Yuki yuri inspired fanart is going to be amazing. 

Does this count as a selfie? No?

Omg Hikari is going to be a lot of fun to watch!

End thoughts

Wow to echo Highway this show is so cute! I kinda hurt my jaw after watching because I was grinning with happiness the whole damn time! Story wise I like where its headed yes pun intended! I guess were going to be getting a different monster interview every other week? Besides the lack of a real plot for me this is going to be a super character driven slice of life  series which I know that genre tag is up for debate if this counts as a slice of life series? I still think it qualifies as one due to the characters going to school every day, but anyway I am looking forward to seeing more of this series.

In conclusion… ~*squeeeeeeee*~ This show is so cute. I just love it. They hit almost everything just right, and it seems like they set it up well for the future. I definitely would like to know more about Yuki, because the “yukionna” legend is one I’m not nearly so familiar with (from what I know, it’s like the Sirens, luring men to follow them but in the cold, so that the victims freeze to death). Hopefully Tetsuo gets more with the program as we go along, and we can see that it’s more of a friendship all the way through.

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We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
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22 Responses to “First Impression – Demi-chan wa Kataritai”

  1. skylion says:

    Hey, it’s me instead of skylion! Let’s talk about some adorbs half-monster girls!

    What?! Why?! OMG, how did this happen?!

    Oh, it’s because I’ve already written about enough during the weekend and the season is still young.

    you guys did a good job summing up the outrageous level of cute this show has to offer; these monsters give Tanya a run for her money in the ball of adorable competition.

    But something hit me watching this that has never hit me before. So, animators don’t spend a bunch of time animating the movement of the human jaw. They can fake tha enough by keying the mouth flaps just enough to the vocal track that it’s not really noticed…but…

    It hit’s me with Machi. Whereas other character have their heads on the top of the neck, she has her’s either resting on a pillow, or in her hands. That would affect how the jaw moves, right? Which should affect how her voice sounds. Go ahead, rest your jaw on a desk and tell me how you talk! It’s freeeeeeaky!

    But, yeah. It’s about the daily trouble of life and how we all have our needs that need to be attended to sometimes. And mostly, they’re little things that make all the difference. I’m looking forward to more.

    • Highway says:

      I notice that about the unmoving jaw-line all the time, actually (and now you will too). Although in a realistic sense, people don’t move their jaw very much when they talk. Consider how much most people in conversation move their teeth apart, it’s really not much, and it’s actually pretty constant, in that you voice sibilants with your tongue more than your teeth, and almost never do you actually touch your teeth together. Most jaw movement is with the “oh” sound opening up. And it would be more problematic to rest your head because then you would use your teeth and jaw muscles as support.

      Realistically, the depth component of moving their lips in and out (toward and away from the listener) is much more of a visual cue.

      But all of that there, Machi might just be a lot more used to it, since that’s all she’s ever done. I was more interested in the spatial teleport that must exist between her head and her torso, since she can drink things without it spilling out her neck. The other thing I thought was just precious was the way she rushed to pick up her head to shake it with “no” when talking to her friends. And wondering if someone had ever come up with some sort of frame or support for carrying your head without using your hands.

      • skylion says:

        ..not to mention, her neck is where the vocal cords are…but sometimes we can make more out of verisimilitude than need be…

      • Smiley says:

        And wondering if someone had ever come up with some sort of frame or support for carrying your head without using your hands.

        She has this in the manga, so I assume it’ll show up sooner or later in the anime.

    • BlackBriar says:

      Oh, it’s because I’ve already written about enough during the weekend and the season is still young.

      Oh? I’d have speculated you were bound, gagged and stuffed somewhere inconspicuous so he could take over. Silly me. 😉

  2. BlackBriar says:

    Whoa, now! I’ve said it first on the “Meta Team’s Winter Anime 2017 Picks” post but I’ll repeat to reaffirm: I’ve got dibs on Hikari. Any challenge to that will be met with extreme retribution. Capiche? 😉

    If I recall right, it was more than half a year’s time I came across the manga which isn’t even in its chapter 30s yet. So it getting an adaptation so soon was a surprise. Of the things I’ve noticed, the animation studio improved the character designs. They were a bit shabby in the source material, although Tetsuo seems a bit fat in the face for the anime. That aside, the pacing is fast. About 2 and a half chapter’s worth covered in this one opening. I wasn’t expecting Hikari’s interview until the following episode but I guess it was done as a hook to make sure it got viewers’ attention at the gate.

    There’s a reason for Satou’s manic behavior, which you’d have a hard time believing considering her particular species.

    I deem Tetsuo a bit unstable when it comes to his curiosity. It so gets the best of him, like his conversation with Hikari, that he loses his heads and tends to forget he’s talking to people and not science specimens. At least it’s to a degree and not like he’s so curious he’d dissect one of them to better understand their anatomy. Remember, the guy’s a biology teacher! Damn you Toshio from Shiki for tainting my outlook on whenever a human gets close to a non-human!

  3. HannoX says:

    Because of problems at Crunchyroll I haven’t been able to renew my premium membership so I haven’t been able to watch this yet. However, I have read the first volume of the manga and it is very good. The second volume is on pre-order.

    • Highway says:

      Yeah, their site was kind of hurting the last couple days. It seemed ok today at lunchtime, tho, so maybe getting all the staff back to work (especially at their vendors) for the week has helped deal with the problems.

      • HannoX says:

        It’s been a lot more than a couple days. My membership was supposed to renew on Dec. 18 and didn’t. And I haven’t been able to renew it since. At least one other person said theirs was supposed to renew in mid-Dec. and didn’t and a number of people have been complaining that they can’t renew or sign up for premium. So for now I’m stuck either waiting a week and enduring commercials or going somewhere else which might not be an authorized site.

  4. Overcooled says:

    Wow, I was surprised I liked this one. It really was just SUPER CUTE. I also appreciate how much they’ve thought through what these monster girls have to go through in everyday life, from the difficulties of having to carry your own head on the subway to vampires receiving blood rations from the government. So many nice details there, and it’s all handled so nicely.

    Man, I wish I just had to interview a few highschoolers to finish my thesis…

    • BlackBriar says:

      I also appreciate how much they’ve thought through what these monster girls have to go through in everyday life, from the difficulties of having to carry your own head on the subway to vampires receiving blood rations from the government.

      If you’re impressed with that, just wait until you see what the succubus teacher has endure in her life.

  5. BlackBriar says:

    Spammy’s at it again. Can I get some assistance, please?

  6. Wanderer says:

    Just for the record, Tetsuo isn’t working on his thesis paper any more. Since he wasn’t permitted to do any work with Ajin, he changed his intended subject and submitted his thesis on something else. He’s done with college. All the research and writing he’s doing now is purely out of personal interest, although if he gathers enough data I imagine he could publish a paper of some sort.

  7. marthaurion says:

    i agree on the side story about fitting in…it was handled pretty subtly and wasn’t thrown in our faces. really enjoyed how the comedy was delivered in this episode. it felt almost completely different from the manga.

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