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Monster Musume
Episode 8

by Paul Jensen,

How would you rate episode 8 of
Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls ?
Community score: 4.0

In my weekly coverage of Monster Musume, I've thus far avoided discussing a very important subject. I didn't want to make a hasty conclusion without having all the necessary information, but I'm starting to move toward an official decision on the topic of best monster girl. Despite Miia's inevitability as the early favorite, a new frontrunner has emerged with the potential to steal the win at the last minute. Could it be that eight legs are better than none?

Rachnera moves in with the rest of the monster girls this week, and her arrival garners some mixed reactions. Papi, Suu, and Mero are happy to have a new roommate, but Miia wants to kick the creepy spider girl out as soon as possible. Centorea criticizes Miia for judging a fellow non-human on her appearance, but she's also harboring some suspicions of her own. The appearance of everyone's favorite street punks offers Rachnera a chance to show her true colors, and it turns out that looking scary can be an advantage from time to time. Kimihito catches a cold in the second half of the episode, giving Smith a chance to skip work by putting him under quarantine. The girls try to instruct Suu on how to take care of Kimihito, but having a slime girl for a nurse causes as many problems as it solves.

The tension between Centorea and Rachnera is interesting and a bit more nuanced than expected. Rather than simply being suspicious of the new arrival, Centorea tries to force herself to keep an open mind. The results are amusing at times, as it quickly becomes obvious that Centorea's attempts to protect Kimihito are more dangerous than anything Rachnera has in mind. The scene that makes the whole storyline worthwhile is Rachnera's short speech after disposing of the street gang. We saw hints of this last week, but it's now clear that Rachnera is fairly comfortable with the fact that her appearance creeps people out. She forces Centorea to come down off her high horse without being particularly harsh about it, opening the door for the two of them to be honest about not liking one another.

Now that she's had a chance to interact with the rest of the cast, Rachnera has found her role in the show much faster than I expected. Her extra eyes and spider body play on people's instinctive dislike of spiders and insects to the point where I'd expect to see her as a villain in a fantasy series. Despite all that, or perhaps because of it, she embraces her inhuman appearance more fully than any other character and is willing to use humans' fear of her to her advantage. That blunt honesty allows her to call out the other monster girls whenever their actions don't line up with their intentions. In terms of character depth, she's got a leg (or several) up on the rest of the cast.

The quarantine premise in the episode's second half is more contrived, but at least the show calls itself out by making the situation a convenient excuse for Smith to avoid paperwork. The girls' attempts to nurse Kimihito back to health aren't as funny as the series wants them to be, but Suu's ability to mimic voices and appearances is pretty entertaining. While I could've done without the cheesy black and white visual effects, the brief flashback helps to establish Suu as more than just a shape-shifting blob of comedic weirdness. Someone really needs to remind her that humans can't breathe water, though.

This episode falls short of being uproariously funny or memorably bizarre, but it has enough amusing moments to make for easy viewing. Rachnera steals the show, providing the sort of new material that Monster Musume needs in order to stay above average. I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of trouble she can stir up between now and the end of the season.

Rating: B

Monster Musume is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.


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