Not Your Mom’s Little Mermaid – ‘Monster Girls,’ ep. 5

This weeks episode of Monster Girls really did it for me, in a variety of ways. Now, for your sake, I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of some of those “ways.” But just know that, for me, this show is still doing its job, and better than ever. I honestly think that I would have watched this show all the way through just to get to the scene with Suu and Papi making out. If you’re wondering what my favorite part about this episode was, it was that. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I am compelled to put the screenshot into this article.

Suu Shenanigens

And through the first half of the show we get Suu doing her job as the show’s own personal molestation machine. Because it seems like whenever she’s on-screen, and is not being buddy-buddy with Papi, she’s molesting someone with her sliminess. These scenes are great. They offer a good amount of titillation and toss in some good physical comedy and wit in the writing. However, I totally understand that someone would see these scenes as “rapey.” But do they really want to just let Suu dehydrate and die? That’s as good as manslaughter. I’m more than willing to take one for the team and watch intensely as Suu gets water by whatever means necessary. This joke still feels fresh no matter how many times I see it, and I think the more I can see it coming the better it makes the payoff.


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But we’re on episode five now and that means some of the jokes may be wearing off for some people. While Monster Girls progresses in episodes, I can see the novelty of it being the monster girls wearing off with some people. As the show goes on, it’s more important for the jokes to start taking meta route and for them to be hitting harder and more frequent. This can be seemingly hard, seeing we’re five episodes in and still introducing more characters. Introducing more characters takes away time from jokes because they have to lay a ground work for new characters. The way it seems Monster Girls has remedied this is that every new girl they introduce is partly a joke in and of itself.

For example, while Mero has an almost royal appearance and demeanor to her, that’s not what defines her character in Monster Girls. The thing which defines her is her goal, to acquire a tragic love like the one in The Little Mermaid. Now, I’m not going to get into women being portrayed poorly in a harem show. Since it is a harem and it’s a unique set of circumstances, girls acting certain ways and being defined by that is at least a little more tolerable. And to be honest, no one in the show gets actual character development anyway. Literally every character is a walking joke waiting for the right time to be unleashed. It just seems like it’s degrading towards women because it’s primarily women characters. So if all that defines Mero’s character right now is that she wants to be some sort of tragic mistress, that’s perfectly fine with me. I’m sure the show will at least give something more in due time. But seeing as she was just introduced, I can live with this.

Tragic Love Story

With the introduction of Mero, we get to see a very aggressive side from Miia. Now it’s been the defining part of her character so far to overreact and be overly forward with her “darling.” But having someone who is seemingly advancing on Kimihito makes Miia go sort of over the edge in this episode.  I’ve already seen people complain about how she overreacted in this episode, but I think it’s completely in character for her to be doing so. It’s great to see characters react to a situation that feels natural for them, instead of them just doing whats convenient for the story. I also think its great that everyone else in the house is being rather calm about it, except Miia. I mean, it would be weird if Cerea openly objected Mero because that’s not her personality. And having the conflicting dynamic of Miia and Cerea reacting to the same situation makes it feel more natural.

Miia's Outrage

Maybe I look into the dynamic of character a little too much in Monster Girls, but it’s honestly the thing that really ties the show together. In between the echii and comedic scenes, its nice to see character interactions that don’t make me want to blow my brains out. And while people may have the complete opposite opinion, well they’re just wrong. So if you think that, come and fight me over my love for Monster Girls. I’m not afraid, I’m ripped…

Logan Peterson
Logan Peterson
My names Logan and I love writing about Anime. Other art is guchi too. When I'm not writing gonzo reviews I'm writing books. *If interested look up The Dream Sequence on Amazon.* I usually write more editorial stuff than just plain reviews. I like my writing to be more big picture. I feel consumer reviews are a thing of the past and more personal reviews are the most valuable nowadays.