I have to say that this anime season has had a disappointing trend of
otherwise stellar shows with less-than-stellar endings. First came
Chuu2koi, whose conclusion wasn’t terrible, but went overboard in
trying to re-establish the lighthearted tone of its first several
episodes. Now we have My Little Monster, which was actually already
struggling by about two-thirds of the way through the season – as the
later episodes wore on, the key relationship between Haru and Shizuku
just about stagnated, and the main cast’s antics lost their freshness as
a result. I know there’s a possibility that the show’s producers are
leaving open a hook for a second season, but the fact that they ran out
of momentum partway through the first doesn’t speak well to a potential
sequel’s prospects. With that in mind, I can only recommend watching My
Little Monster if you stop about halfway through the series, while it’s
still hilarious and quite perceptive.
That being said, it’s better than what I’m expecting from the three
episodes of Say “I love you.” that I haven’t yet gotten around to.
My Little Monster (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun) is an odd beast, if
you’ll forgive the pun, and not just because the first episode feels
like someone’s compressed an entire movie into twenty-two minutes. In
more than a few ways, it reminds me of Maid Sama! from a couple of
years ago, particularly in the personalities of its main pair: Haru is
Usui, except twice as erratic and possessing half the social graces, and
Shizuku is Misaki with loner tendencies and a stronger sardonic streak.
Also like Maid Sama!, My Little Monster also has a mild
self-awareness problem — not the lack of it that’s stereotypically
associated with shoujo, but an almost positive excess of it. For
instance, it’s almost unbelievable that Haru, poor communicator that he
seems to be, manages to so often get straight to the point of his rather
complex emotions. I say “almost,” because the idea that he can dispel
the usual romantic confusion of teenagers so readily with his child-like
credulity makes some sense. In any case, it makes for an entertaining
show where Haru, intentionally or unintentionally, is constantly keeping
Shizuku on her feet. I do hope that the teasing doesn’t get as one-sided
as it did in Maid Sama!, but otherwise this is a promising, if
puzzling, opener.
