Anime Reviews ⇢ My Little Monster
My Little Monster
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (となりの怪物くん)
Average Rating: 7.33 / 10

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Ratings: 3
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Content Overview
Violence: 2.7 / 10
Nudity: 3 / 10
Theo Theme: 1 / 10
Neg Theme: 2.5 / 10

Brief Description:
Bookworm Shizuku Mizutani has few interests besides her grades and future career. She is bribed by her teacher to deliver homework handouts to Haru Yoshida, a boy who was suspended due to injuring another student on the first day of school. Because of the favor, Yoshida now considers Mizutani a friend, and she learns that Yoshida is in fact very nice but has no social skills. Mizutani has to decide if she will let Yoshida into her life to be friends, and perhaps something more.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=14419

Date Released: 2 Oct 2012 to 25 Dec 2012
Suggested Age: 13+
Complete at 13 episodes.
Related works: The original 12 volume manga.
User Reviews
09/15/2013: ForeverInspired [ Already Rated ]

Since it's been a while since I saw this and quite a few series later, the only major problem that I remember is as follows:

Nudity/Sexual Content: In one of the beginning episodes, Haru takes off his clothes in class/school. I do not remember the reason why (I do remember that Haru misunderstood... greatly). You end up seeing only the backside of his figure.

August, 2013: Rose Faerie [ Already Rated ]

Violence: Well, there's nothing crazy or frequent shown on screen. There is a blood stain in the shape of a person permanently stuck to a wall from a fight not shown on screen. Haru likes to try to fight people and there's a little bit of blood on occasion (if someone gets punched in the nose).

Sex and Nudity: Well, the first episode was kinda yikes. There was an incident that could be read as a rape joke, so... Nothing happens though. Haru makes suggestive comments towards Shizuku maybe once every other episode. Also in the fist episode he takes off his clothes in the classroom and you see him from the back. (He was confused about where he was supposed to change I think? I can't follow his thought process...)

Theological Themes: None.

Problematic Themes: Haru's cousin is always shown with a cigarette in his mouth. For swearing, there is one use of the a-word.

Overall: I liked it. I would have given it a higher score if there had been some resolution, but there wasn't. It's a shame because it looked like there could be an interesting plotline with Haru's family. I guess this will join the ever-expanding ranks of shoujo anime that I want finished. Why can't they finish these adaptions?

I loved the dynamic between Shizuku and Haru. Even though things came off kind of weird from the start, it's interesting to watch them bounce off of each other. If you hate girls who let guys walk all over them, pointless miscommunication, and couples who take forever to confess their love, you might want to give this one a shot. Also there's a pet chicken. Who can say no to that?

Our main couple are both brutally honest and blunt. However, Shizuku is a studious, rational, often insensitive introvert, while Haru is spontaneous, aggressive, and extraverted. They balance each other out very well. Haru pushes Shizuku out of her bubble and inspires her to open up to others, while Shizuku's lack of self-consciousness makes Haru feel at ease (not to mention, she doesn't let him walk all over her). I liked the other characters too. Everyone was dynamic in some way.

I was actually okay with all the ships the show put out. The love rivals were actually good fits with our leads, too. I was surprised. Oshima, Shizuku's love rival is actually just a girl who happens to have a crush on someone in a relationship. She doesn't really try to pursue him even. I thought that was a nice, realistic change.

I liked the art style. It's so cute and fresh. It's probably some of my favorite art in a shoujo anime so far. I liked the opening and ending, too.

I'll recommend it for teenagers and up for the one joke in the fist episode and suggestive commentary.

August, 2013: GeneD [ Already Rated ]

This is not a complete review since I saw the show too long ago but there's one thing I'd like to comment on.

Nudity / Sexual Content: In one of the first two (I think) episodes, Haru grabs Shizuku and threatens to rape her if she screams. He's not actually planning on doing anything to her and grabs her just to get her attention. Some people viewed it as a rape joke and decided that they couldn't continue the series in good conscience While I wouldn't necessarily disagree with anyone's opinion on that, my personal interpretation was that it was not intended to be a joke but a way to show that Haru has no normal social interaction skills.

Added: August, 2013