Pass the Monster Meat, Milady!

Episode 11

If this anime thinks it can distract me from how boring it's quickly becoming with a cute puppy, then it's absolutely right. It 100% can, and did this week. What a cutie. And frankly, I'm glad this episode had at least one highlight, because to reiterate: In the past couple of weeks, this anime has graduated from being sloppy to just plain boring. And to happen just before its ending, no less, is certainly doing it no favors. Indeed, at least anecdotally speaking, I've encountered way more mid anime that get marginally better in their last three or so episodes, than ones that only got worse.

Like last week, this episode has remarkably little going on, and just feels so incredibly, painfully slow that it's hard to help but feel time slow down while watching it. Still, to its credit, it had at least one highlight—the sirius puppy—so I guess that technically makes it better than last week's episode by default. And let's be clear: The puppy is very cute. So cute that I'm not even going to be nitpicky and ask something to the effect of, “And how, exactly, did Aristide keep this energetic puppy quiet, still, and completely hidden under his blanket in the exchange that he and Melphiera had leading up to his showing the puppy to her?”

But old habits die hard, and I'll be nitpicky about something else instead: I can't help but find it a bit strange that, going into the finale episode, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the last food we're going to see Melphiera make a dish out of is the screamwood fruit. Namely: This whole series has revolved around monster meat, specifically. Meat. It's in the title and everything. Theoretically, the whole series revolves around people finding specifically monster meat disgusting, and Melphiera wants to change their minds about it. There's a certain stigma that comes with monster meat, whether due to animism or association with the famine. And yet, the screamwood fruit seems less stigmatized in the way monster meat is, and more just a fruit that people don't understand all that well. I think it would've worked better as something accompanying a monster meat dish, and less as the main attraction the anime is trying to paint it as. But to be fair, I guess that could change next week—all Melphiera and co. did this week was snack on the screamwood fruit, so maybe next week she's planning on using it as a way to highlight the royal moodle, or some other monster meat. But given the likely subject matter of next week's episode, I can't say that with total confidence.

The way the last moments of this week's episode made it look, it sounds like next week is largely going to be about Melphiera meeting all the other nearby nobles and people of note. I'd be shocked if the anime found a way to make time for anything else, too, especially given how lately, the pacing has been slowed to a grinding halt. This is in stark contrast to earlier in the series, where even if they weren't always exciting things, the pacing was still generally pretty fast.

The point I'm getting at here is that I don't have my hopes up for next week's episode, and by extension of that, for this series making a (very) last-minute turnaround. Given the likely premise of next week's episode, I'm just really skeptical it's going to be able to play up any of the strengths MM has had thusfar—and if anything, it only invites more situations that play into its biggest weaknesses. I'd love to be wrong, but if precedent means anything in this series, we're in for a nothing-ending to what's become a nothing-series. Which is all the more disappointing, remembering how optimistic I was about it at the beginning of the season.

Rating:

Pass the Monster Meat, Milady! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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