My Little Monster

Genre: Comedy
Age Appropriate: Any Age
Emotional Response: Ha.
Notable Features: high school, socially inept students, a chicken
Language: Japanese
Length: 1 seasons, 13 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Great

"You can't be lonely is no one is around." - Yamaken

My Little Monster is a romantic comedy starring an awkward young freshman girl, Shizuku. She is cold, and brainy, and believes that studying to get the highest marks to be the center of her world. One afternoon, a teacher asks her to bring some worksheets over to a student who hasn't been in school since the beginning of the year, and despite her immediate rejection, ends up doing it anyway. Somehow, she stumbles into the young man, Haru, and ends up in a bizarre friendship with him - mostly made bizarre because he is bizarre all by himself. His overwhelming desire and enthusiasm to have a friend drives Shizuku up the wall at every turn, but she seems unable to separate herself from him.

Part of it seems to be an interesting take on interpersonal relationships, and part of it seems to be from a confusing misunderstanding about Haru's declared feelings for her, or not declared, or taken back, or maybe just friends, or definitely friends but not love in the same what that the other persons feels...etc. The whole series includes various mini-situations, but all stem from Shizuku trying to figure out what is going on, and how her controlled lonely existence has turned into this weird mess. Include a handful of additional brand new friends, including some delinquents, another smart guy, and awkward pretty girl and a baseball player, the advice for the two kids becomes varied and often wrong.

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This series reminds me a lot of Say "I Love You." Despite being a comedy, the characters remind me of each other - or at least Shizuku does. The two female protagonists have the same level of awkwardness between them. My Little Monster is not quiet, however. It's crazy, and amusing. The best part, I think, might be the chicken, and I don't mean that in any derogatory way. The chicken is pretty awesome. I found it interesting for myself to actually be rooting, at some points, for not the obvious couple. I kinda wanted Shizuku to end up with the other person who is interested in her at some point.

The series is a little open-ended. So, maybe one day they will make a sequel. The series was just released, so there hasn't been anytime to figure that out. It does feel like it might be the end, though. I did enjoy it quite a bit. I think for a good amount of time I was just confused, but I also thought the whole mess was kinda sweet. There wasn't much character development shared between the secondary characters, which I think might have worked well, but when a series is only 13 episodes, I supposed one can't expect much. I would still recommend it, especially is you liked Say "I Love You." They're similar without being the same. There really isn't much else to say on this short series. It's definitely a chick-flick.

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Something new: Witch Hunter Robin

(Guest Review! I've had a friend do a review for me. You can read his thoughts next time - I'm sure it will be a treat to have a geek BOY do a review.)