Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: This Monster Wants to Eat Me
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1726 |
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Yeah. Miko gets pretty interesting.
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IronWish
 Posts: 240 Location: Ukraine |
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Damn, if I had a nickel every time girl named Hinako from provincial Japanese town gets tricked by disguised fox spirit.
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zensunni
 Posts: 1303 |
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[Golf clap] Gotta give props to this! I read some of this manga a long time ago but I'd forgotten what variety of non-watery youkai Miko was... the red hair should have been a major hint, eh? |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1698 |
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While I think the cut to a laid-back flashback wasn't a very elegant measure, I wouldn't call it a non-sequitur. Afterall, at a moment when Shiori is trying to turn Hinako against Miko, this scene makes it very clear what her current opinion of her is - and it's one of appreciation, fondness and gratitude.
Which raises the stakes for what's to come, as to what matters in this conflict isn't which monster is stronger, who is being more honest or who is human and who is not, but what their relationship with Hinako is and will be. And now that we're certain that up to this point Hinako hasn't associated with Miko just because she happened to be there but because she genuinely likes havig her in her life, there's more that could be lost in the ensuing conflict. Miko's new aspect as a kitsune has me intrigued - three tails already! She must be centuries-old already, and at this point either she's somewhat associated with the Inari-side of things or evil and cruel, and she doesn't seen to be the latter. Plus that bead bracelet/bead whiskers thing has been given a lot of attention, and they make me think of buddhist monks a lot... But also intriguing is what the series intends to do with this reveal? The messy relationship between Shiori as the protector-murderer and Hinako as the protegée-victim is at the core of this series' appeal as a toxic romance and all that. But with the current reveal Miko is not just an excellent social worker of a girl that happens to be very nice: she is also up to speed on the supernatural side, she is into Hinako in some way, she has been protecting her and she can protect herself should Shiori want to get rid of a "meddler". For all intents and purposes, Miko has all of the positive sides of Shiori's role covered while seemingly being completely benign and an overall positive presence, plus the extra appeal of being a cute fluffy! And Shiori is trying to antagonize and get rid of her? I came in called by the messy yuri promised by Shiori, but how am I supposed not to root for Miko instead?! |
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 945 |
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Still enjoy parts of this adaptation (mainly the sound design), but Lings must be really stretched thin because boy does this show not warrant a minute of recap every episode lol
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1726 |
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Sylvia’s right about the soundtrack. Great music, highly listenable on its own.
Last edited by dm on Mon Dec 29, 2025 8:55 am; edited 1 time in total |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1726 |
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Miko has (or had) about six tails. You’re right to be reminded by Miko’s beads of Buddhist monks: in her story she says she was a normal human-eating yokai until she was bound to the land by a Buddhist monk. He’s shown binding her with the beads. She probably can’t take them off, only change their appearance along with hers (in her bake-kitsune form, she’s still loosely wound with the beads. I like her little pointy-eared fox-colored case for her smartphone. |
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Yuvelir
Posts: 1698 |
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I think the implication now is that she is no longer bound by the monk's power, but she has actively chosen to abide by it. She has chosen to keep being what she has become, and that's why she's holding on to the beads, they no longer wrap around her mouth but she's holding them instead. She was not prevented from eating Hinako, she chose not to on her own. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1726 |
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You may be correct, with respect to Miko’s relationship to Hinako. But I think she is still bound to that specific place — episode seven makes it clear that she’s able to travel to the basketball training camp because it is close by. I am becoming increasingly convinced that Shiori rescued child Hinako from the wreckage of her family’s car. I don’t know if it was predatory — this child will ripen into a lovely snack — or something else. Possibly it started as predatory but is evolving into something different. Lots of wonderful conversations between Miko and Shiori in episode seven. Interesting glimpses behind Shiori’s mask, too. Creepy ocean haunting. A mysterious new character, who is, apparently, not a yokai, but still seems a threat to Hinako. |
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Thesarum
Subscriber Posts: 779 |
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I'm liking the layers we're adding to Shiori.
Until now she's presented herself as perfectly and brutally honest. She wants to eat Hinako, and she'll taste best if she isn't miserable. Thus Shiori makes like a wagyu beef farmer, playing music and giving massages to their cattle. But now we get the sense that it's not as simple as that. Shiori clearly lies. The question is which bits are lies, and why? Or perhaps more accurately... what are the omitted truths? I think the way our attention is constantly drawn to the various ways in which Shiori isn't human are also great. Her offer to draw the ghost hands to the beach if one of them was a member of Shiori's family is just super jarring. Is that actually something Shiori, with her crushing survivors guilt and trauma, would actually want? Is there a world in which that would do her any good? Their existence would be to Hinako a confirmation of their suffering and anger, but there would be no chance for communication, no means for them to release her from her guilt. Shiori drawing a hard line ruling out "friendship" in this context leads us to believe there's a lot of complexity under that statement. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1726 |
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I think I read Ayame sewing while her child was ill as a sign of the pull of conflicting responsibilities — maintaining the household (perhaps i’ve encountered too many Dickensian stories of impoverished seamstresses) vs care for her child. Of course that reading just adds to the burden of resentment and feeling trapped that might be Ayame’s story.
It occurrs to me that Hinako’s scarring might be at least partially the result of Shiori sharing her blood at the time of the accident. |
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 600 Location: Poland |
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I think that by now Miko is bound not so much by the what monk once did, but by her current status as local deity that she ended up cultivating, which grants her power but binds her to her shrine. We've seen that she is immediately recognized as local ("land") deity by other yokai, so her whole being's aspect must have been somehow altered from her old days as man-eating kitsune yokai. In that interpretation, her beads can be now more of sign of her current holy status, rather than her chains, though they're kind of both in that regard. |
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Wizardizar
 Posts: 210 |
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This show will never get its flowers because the OST is not as bombastic as, let's say, DanDaDan, but I feel it is one of the best soundtrack of the year when it comes to building up the emotions of every scenes. |
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Imdifferent
Posts: 3 |
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It doesn't need 5 stars Steve because this is horrible the Writing is horrible, The characters are horrible, the plot is horrible, and the music I agree with some of the people was bad, but as it stands it won't be no 1 and I wish it won't get a second season and that the finale is a total letdown. Also your right it is Toxic (in a bad way).
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 945 |
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The show must be doing something right, since it had you make a burner account to be a contrarian about it down to username choice lol Anyways, loved the most recent developments. It's extremely tough for a series like this to revert back to a status quo without it feeling cheap, but they threaded the needle fantastically here by presenting that reversion as a stalling tactic that hasn't actually solved anything and if anything has only made the relationship between Hinako and Shiori worse |
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