Why You Should Watch: Interview With Monster Girls

A slice-of-life anime that deeply explores the lives of students with extraordinary characteristics.

Have you ever wondered about what school life would be like if there were students in your classes who have the characteristics of a monster? You may have seen or read this kind of story before, but have you thought about how these kinds of students would adapt to school life? How do these different students feel and interact with human students when they are in the same classroom? What do these students do to adapt inside and outside the learning environment? How does a teacher teach and guide these specific students to help them grow?

These questions are answered in Interviews with Monster Girls, also known as Demi-Chan. The story takes place in a time where demi-humans, people with the characteristics of a monster, have slowly become accepted in modern human society. Demi-humans are similar to human beings, but they are in need of special services to integrate into society.

The main protagonist is a high school teacher named Tetsuo Takahashi (Pictured above) who has an immense fascination with demi-humans. He eventually gets assigned by the principal to help out three demi-human students and a demi-human teacher after Mr. Takahashi demonstrated his proficient guiding ability. Throughout the story, he strives to help each demi-human through interviews so he can learn and understand their life problems.

Interview With Monster Girls explores these human species on a level that differentiates from other slice of lifes with similar premises. Throughout each episode, Demi-Chan investigates trivial issues regarding the unique traits for each demi-human, their interactions towards regular humans, and how their characteristics affect them psychologically. The demi-human’s abnormality itself is not what makes the anime engaging, rather, the struggles that each of them face during school life due to their special characteristics.

For example, some demi-humans feel isolation, anxiety, and awkwardness when it comes human interaction because of their differences. Interview With Monster Girls handles these issues in a way that is consistently very captivating with a fresh, new perspective on a demi-human’s problems each new episode. Without giving too much, there is one character in Demi-Chan that best exemplifies how demi-humans live in society.

Hikari Takanashi (Pictured above), one of the demi-human students Takahashi interacts with, has her own set of troubles. As a vampire, she has to be cautious of sunny weather to prevent burns. In addition, her entire family is non-human in the household. Despite their love for Hikari, her family struggles to make her feel welcome at home as a demi-human.

Although, it is not just the struggles that are explored in Mr. Takahashi’s research, but it is also learning the truth of certain demi-human facts the public tends to wrongly assume. Hikari explains that while she requires blood for her diet, she is additionally quite fond of garlic despite public vampire beliefs. The way Demi-Chan interprets these mythological human beings to make them feel human makes learning about demi-humans more fascinating when watching.

Every main character that is a demi-human in Interview With Monster Girls is as equally explored as Hikari. Each demi-human has their own distinct set of personalities, issues, and traits to discover in each episode that creates a diverse cast of interesting characters. Furthermore, they also have their own standout and humorous moments to shine, all of which feel very genuine and benefit the viewer’s attachment to these characters.

Part of the reason Demi-Chan excels at demi-human exploration is mainly because of Mr. Takahashi. As the only human main character, his primary objective in the story is to conduct interviews with various demi-humans. Some interviews can be humorous, explorative with a certain demi-species, and even bring warm feelings. This helps to give Takahashi a good understanding of each demi-human’s behavior and traits. Watching him discover them through thorough conversations can be very intriguing.

Tetsuo Takahashi can potentially be boring in the first few episodes. However, as the series progresses, he gradually begins to grow very close relationships with the demi-humans. The relationships sprout to a point where demi-humans see Mr. Takahashi as a personal father figure and mentor, which as a result make him more endearing as the Demi-Chan anime moves to its end. Takahashi’s interaction with the demi-humans creates an interesting dynamic that fundamentally runs the core of Interview With Monster Girls.

Demi-Chan also benefits from its vibrant background art, expressive character movement and voice acting, and adorable character design. These particular elements of the anime help create a light-hearted atmosphere that makes demi-humans feel like genuine people and mesh well in a real life school environment. In spite of these positives, if there are any problems with Interview with Monster Girls that might affect personal enjoyment with the anime, there are some things to caution and mention.

The anime valiantly explores demi-humans themselves in almost every aspect imaginable. However, there are not many moments where human side-characters get substantial interactions with demi-humans. Giving these human students deeper relationships with demi-humans would have made Demi-Chan more intriguing to watch.

There are also two certain characters that have an interesting close connection to one of the main demi-human characters. Those particular characters that primarily appear in Episode 7 mysteriously get not much exploration after their first appearance. As a result, questions can be brought up as to why they appeared in the anime at all. These aspects are more so disappointing, personally speaking, but this potential can be fully fleshed out in possibly another season.

In terms of soundtrack, the music for the opening and ending fits well with the core themes of Interviews With Monster Girls. The background music, however, does not stand out as much even if it somewhat fits the tone of the show. The anime also shows occasional mild nudity and demi-humans having romantic feelings towards Tetsuo that might turn some people off. Fortunately, those aspects are not a major focus in Interview with Monster Girls and do not come across as frequent annoyances.

If you are looking for a relaxing show with character building, in-depth character exploration, and a small unique twist, I would highly recommend Interviews with Monster Girls. In my opinion, Demi-Chan is one of the best anime that came out in 2017 with a lovable cast of characters and genuinely enjoyable moments that can vitalize your heart with warm feelings. This show available to watch subbed on Crunchyroll’s website and dubbed on Funimation’s website. I would not miss out on this precious treasure of an anime.

“The new life I stepped into this spring with the demi-girls was one of stimulation and excitement. How demis live their lives, what they think, how those who make contact with them think and how they change… I want to consider it all much, much more!”

-Tetsuo Takahashi (Interview with Monster Girls)