if I get murdered or something and there's a documentary about it and people talk about how I used to "light up the room" know that they are lying. I have never lit up a room. I don't even like turning lights on. I probably enjoyed being murdered too
Fall 2025 Anime Overview: This Monster Wants to Eat Me
Premise: Hinako is an extremely depressed girl who’s been searching for death ever since the loss of her family. It seems like she’s going to get her wish when she runs into Shiori, a mermaid who wants to eat her…but Shiori is a gourmet who wants her meal to be as delicious as possible. So she declares she’s going to help Hinako be happy before she eats her, since happiness apparently enhances a human’s deliciousness. In the meantime, Shiori has to fight off all the other monsters who want to snack on Hinako.
Talk about a delectable story. It’s a top tier yuri horror, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s one of those reviews that’s hard to write, because I really want to convey just how good it is, but worry I’m not up to the task (especially without spoilers).
The initial hook is already great—the absolutely unhinged situation of Shiori wanting to help Hinako to come alive just so she can kill her. And there’s also the ongoing mystery of just why monsters are so attracted to Hinako. But the story doesn’t content itself with those elements, it builds on them, introducing more mysteries and complications.
I heard some found first couple episodes a little slow, and they do stretch things out a bit in those, but trust me, you need to stick with it because the pacing improves and the anime SERIOUSLY ups its game. And don’t take my word for it, look at how it jumps up in the ANN rankings as it goes on.
I was only caught up with the English release of the manga when I watched this, and I already loved the story, but unbelievably, it became better and better with each new episode. It offers so many genuinely jaw dropping twists that turn everything on its head.
Nobody is what they seem in this story—well, Hinako is what she seems, which is extremely depressed, but even for her, there’s a lot about her circumstances and past she doesn’t know. As the backstories unfold and new elements are unveiled, the characters and their relationships deepen and become richer.
I was on board the second a monster girl covered in the blood of her enemies seductively told the protagonist she wants to tear out her intestines and devour her, that is exactly my shit. I love monster girls who are actually terrifying and dangerous. Shiori’s full monster form is truly tasty, like genuinely so unsettling and inhuman, the opposite of the cutesy designs girls are usually stuck with. There are other awesome monster girls with great designs too!
And I love a good messy sapphic monster romance where nobody is okay and danger shrouds them and the monster and human have such a hard time understanding each other because they are very different beings from different worlds. Watatabe (the Japanese nickname This Monster Wants to Eat Me is Watatabe, so I’ll just go with that for the rest of this review, easier to type) pulls it all off with aplomb.
Shiori and Hinako see things fundamentally differently, and the drama that happens as a result is delicious. But the way Shiori will still fight to understand Hinako is also genuinely moving. Shiori is an intruiguing character from the beginning, poised and polite and capable of saying the wildest and most horrible things in a calm and cheerful tone.
She always cares a hint of menace and inhuman mystery, but you get the impression her perpetually unbothered attitude might be a front. She often shows signs of genuinely starting to care for Hinako, and the more you learn about her, the more complicated and compelling she and her feelings for Hinako become.
But I can’t really get into things without talking about Miko, Hinako’s best friend and the third main character.
She is the secret sauce of the series, at first seeming like the typical cheerful best friend with a crush who's jealous of the love interest, but then we get a bait and switch and she becomes a fascinating character with a lot of layers to her. The Shiori-Hinako-Miko love triangle is one of the rare ones that is genuinely entertaining. It moves the plot along rather than making it drag, the dynamic is really fun, and Shiori and Miko have one of the most interesting relationships, having a lot in common while also being fundamentally opposed in other ways. They bicker comically over Hinako (Shiori loves trolling Miko), but they’re also united in taking care of her.
And yeah, it’s one of those where you think a polycule might be the answer, (Miko and Shiori even go on a date at one point) but there’s a lot of interesting plot reasons it can’t be that way, with one of them being that Hinako is so deeply depressed she’s not gonna be able to handle one romance, let alone two.
The exploration of Hinako’s depression is another thing that makes the series special. I’ve been suicidal and had depression, so I can be particular about it. At first, the depiction of Hinako’s depression seemed a little surface level, but not badly written by any means. But as the series goes in, it digs into it in a way that really broke my heart and reminded me of my own experiences.
Hinako is the flavor of depressed where she isn’t willing to take her own life yet because she doesn’t want to feel reponsible for hurting the people she loves (in this case, the memory of her family, who she thinks wanted her to live) but is out there really wishing someone would just kill her already. Shiori, in her eyes, is the perfect answer to that.
Depression has deeply changed Hinako, draining her of her energy and muting her personality in the way it often does. Some viewers might find that frustrating, but that’s really how it is. She feels like a hollow version of herself, a nothing. Yet we see moments of affection and enjoyment peek through sometimes, giving us hints of who she might have been without this trauma. It gets more and more emotional as the series goes on—the moment when she asks Miko if her dying would hurt her, and when Miko says yes, she breaks down sobbing saying she’s sorry but even knowing that she still wants to die, honestly broke me because that is something I’ve felt too.
It’s not like Hinako doesn’t know people value her, it’s just that every second of being alive is a struggle. She tries to work it out so those who love her will be able to “move on” and “won’t be alone”, knowing they care but feeling fundamentally replaceable. To get a little personal, I got a similar way in the worst of my suicidal feelings. I kept thinking how it would hurt my Mom if I died, but isn’t it a burden to be stuck with a daughter like me who just takes and takes? But she’s too old to have a better daughter to replace me, I thought. I genuinely believed I was exchangeable good. Hinako wanting Shiori and Miko to be friends so her death isn’t too hard on Miko is the same sort of logic.
(All that is to say, if exploring suicidal feelings or seeing (non-graphic) attempts really upsets you, this series is not for you because there is a lot of that. I feel it’s handled pretty well and it’s never graphic, but it gets intense)
Hinako’s depression makes her feel monstrous, but she doesn’t think of Shiori as a monster despite everything…until a certain thing happens that seriously changes everything about the series and relationships. In that moment, the dynamics change greatly, and the story explores what it really means to be a monster.
I adore messy queer relationships involving deeply unwell women where they hurt each other and do the absolute wildest shit, but still care for each other deeply, and Watatabe is masterful at it. Unhinged sapphic romance on this level is a delicacy. The relationships are core of this series, and the juicy conflict and gay yearning is perfect.
I’ll also note that it’s nice that the show avoids the yuri anime curse of its animation falling apart. It’s not the amazing stuff the other queer monsterfucker anime this year got, but it holds together and is effective where it needs to be. The direction is well done.
I can’t wait to see where this story goes next, and I’m praying for a second season. Please give this series the support it deserves. If you’re going to watch one anime from the Fall 2025, make it this one. I wholeheartedly recommend it!
common advice for social anxiety is to tell yourself "people aren't going to think less of you just because you said something a bit daft" but the thing is. sometimes they will. and you just have to learn to be cool with that and to treat it as a dnd random encounter rather than letting it ruin your whole day
recent example. lady at my careers appointment had a post-it with her name on it stuck to the monitor, so i introduced myself by saying cheerfully "hello, i'm eliot! you must be [name], it's nice to meet you!" and she stared at me as if i was the stupidest person alive and said icily, "yeah, i'm [name]. congratulations, you can read."
in bygone times this would have reduced me to a sort of quivering blancmange. thankfully i am now in a place where i was able to pull back, calmly evaluate this interaction, and say to myself "this woman should probably not be working in a customer-facing job"
origamiaround
titsay
2087
romaincrisis
ellievsbear
stormborns
germansingergirl
