Positive What you can definitely praise "Monster Story" - so it's extraordinary visual solutions. The world of this anime we see through the eyes of its characters, not some imaginary "operator". Separate details, unexpected angles: the glance of the bored interlocutor slides on the furniture or stops on the hairstyle; through the eyes of a confused guy we see the legs of a naked girl, whom he does not dare to look at; the views of the characters snatch that tree outside the window, that detail of clothes, that sign... Sometimes the “camera” shows what is happening in the heads of the characters: a schematic view of the scene from the side or from a bird’s eye view, or even the stream of consciousness in the form of flashing inscriptions, hieroglyphs on a colored background. We can say that “Monster Stories” is a visualization of the stream of consciousness, an attempt to give the video series properties more characteristic of the literary text.
Neutral It's not my anime after all. At all. He has a different target audience: young people (mostly girls, but also romantic guys, too, for whom fan service), obsessed with what is called “relationship”. And adults who remember their youthful years with warmth. But I am already over 30, and at that time I had very different priorities and lifestyle than the main character, so I did not have any warm memories and associations.
Negative There's a lot of vulgarity in Monster Story. I'm not a prude, but it's okay for some sex comedy that doesn't pretend to be serious. And this series is very much pretending. And the sexual preoccupation of his characters is baffling. And the main character just infuriates, for example, climbing under the skirt of a girl in a class younger than you - this is too much. Hand him a volume of hentay manga and leave him alone for an hour, let him relieve tension, or else do something criminal.
In light of this “fun” mood of the whole anime, the ending, which many enthusiastic viewers found terribly moving, for me looked like a bad joke. Although it is clear that the creators of the series wanted to portray drama. And there is nothing funny here, everyone is sorry, but, nevertheless, against the background of all the previous drama is vulgar.
In addition, I did not feel the spirit of this mythology in Monster Story, which is densely mixed with Japanese mythology. It seems that nature slips here, but still the video is too urban. And the appearance of demons is too conditional: apparently, the animators sought realism, making supernatural beings as incorporeal and hard to feel. But everything here is too modern, “acid” looks. Despite the fact that this series is not only about “relationships”, but also about yokai and exorcisms, the spirit of old Japan, filled with magic, I did not feel here. Whether it is the case
"Notebook of friends of Natsume" or
xxHolic - here is the ancient Japanese magic at least to add (although these series have another drawback - they are quite boring).
Result: to stand in the same row with "Death Note" and "Wolf Rain" (!!!) in that ill-fated top, this series hardly deserves. The only thing that is really remarkable about it is how beautiful and original it is. On such topics I would rather recommend xxxHolic – however, there is just a video, if not weak, then, to put it mildly, extreme peculiar. 6 out of 10
Original