Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls (2015)

[モンスター娘のいる日常]

Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara
Studio: Lerche, Seva
Starring:Junji Majima, Sora Amamiya, Natsuki Aikawa
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
An ordinary guy hosts an ever-growing household of monster girls as part of an interspecies exchange program.

Impressions:
I started on this series not long after it premiered. I saw a picture of Darling-kun all wrapped up in Miia's coils and it piqued my interest. My relationship with the series has been complicated. On the one hand, there are some nice things going on in the character dynamics and some of the attention paid to the biologies of the different species shows a degree of rigor you don't normally see. On the other hand, the ecchi elements go so far that it veers into the realm of softcore porn at times. It's one thing to have some sex appeal and tease around a bit, but it gets downright exploitative to the point of being repellent, particularly when Papi's involved (yes, she's supposed to be the same age as the other girls, but she sure doesn't look the part and it's a cheap trick to have a girl with the body of a 13-year-old and try to justify it by claiming she's chronologically in the safe zone). Also, by continually expanding the harem, character development gets pretty thin, but we start to get to the point where the plot is there just as an excuse to deliver more fanservice. I will say that Darling-kun is a little more assertive than most harem leads but he's only a step or two above the average, which is a rather low bar. In the final tally, there are some merits to the show that kept me going, but I've got a lot of negative feelings about the content and the handling of the characters, so I'd say take it or leave it. If what I count as negatives actually appeal to you, then you may enjoy yourself, but if these things are a turn-off, go ahead and skip it.

Rating:
50/50