fbashirian - 2015-10-09 19:00:12

Kemonozume is a thirteen episode anime that was broadcast in 2006. It is an example of an anime where it throws away the crutch of tired clichés and plot devices that seemingly become more common with each passing light novel adaptions and completely crafts its own identity free of the constrictions of modern story telling. The director  goes against fads and continues to create uncompromising visuals and bold new narratives for his shows that both challenges and encapsulates the audience. That man is Masaaki Yuasa since his directorial début in 1999 with" Vampiyan kids"  his works have always contained some sort of radical  twist on the art. Many of his works had high level of praise like 2011's the Tatami Galaxy and 2014's  Ping Pong  but his 2006 work Kemonzume is far less acknowledged which might be because of its erratic  art-style. So lets start this review.

This review has slight spoilers for the entire story.

Story 

Kemonozume is a story about monsters called flesh eaters that attack and devour humans using their gaping mouths and immense claws, yet they can live undetected because they can transform to seem to be humans. These flesh eaters combated by the  "kifuuken" a martial arts dojo that specialize in hunting flesh eaters. One day the next in line for the head of the dojo, Toshihiko Momota stumbles across a woman on the beach, Yuka Kamistuki and falls in love with her at breakneck speeds. Their is only one complication, Yuka is a flesh eater.  These two continue their relationship without knowing that each other is what they are. Other members of the dojo becomes aware of  Yuka's condition and they try to slaughter her, Toshihiko  saves her and they become outlaws running from the people who Toshihiko called friends including his brother, Kazuma and his childhood friend who was romantic feelings towards Toshihiko, Rie Kakinoki.  Kazuma takes control of the dojo and tries to push the hunting style into the 21st century with colossal  mech that can match the flesh eaters might.

For the next few episodes we get more background info on characters and there past include a flashback to the previous leader of the dojo and his struggle that are very similar to the problems faced by our heroes at the moment. These episodes continue to engage you but allow you to breathe and notice the relationship growing between the two main characters. By the end of the 13 episodes you will understand the complex relationships spanning generations. My only major gripe with the story is the very lack luster villain whose reasons for doing what he is doing is never made clear and is not foreshadowed very well making it seem like he came out of no where as the bad guy.

Kemonozume's major themes apart from forbidden love and if humans and monsters truly be happy together  that I could pull from the show is transition and temptation. Kazuma's plans for the kifuuken, the flesh eaters transformations and multiple characters undergoing horrific body mutilation all show this transition theme and all of them are  negatively seen  by the characters and humorously brought up in the lead in intros for some of the episodes.  temptation is also a prevalent theme that the characters  must go through some level , for example mid way through the series Toshihiko who has given up most of his life to be with Yuka,  is tempted with sex and unlike what most shows would do and have him decline the offer for the reason of having found true love with Yuka he gives into his urges and does the deed.  Other example is the previous mention body mutilation where multiple people willing do this to gain power. 

Characters

Yoshikiko is the main character and one half of the forbidden romance of the story. His motives are just to survive and live the rest of his days out with Yuka. He is well versed in martial arts and is a skilled with a sword. He is brimming with passion and  the resolve to live. Yuka is a flesh eater that despises what she is and what she can do. She is understanding to Yoshikiko flaws yet she continues to love him even offering to kill her self if it meant for him to be safe. As characters on their own nether of them are really that great in term of  complexity  ,but with each other they are a rather nice and realistic portray of a couple even with the fantasy elements that surround them.

The side characters feature Toshihiko's brother, his childhood friend, Yuka's past lover, a giant and the parents of these characters. The cast is rather big for just a 13 episode show and so most of them do not get a whole whack load of development and usually just develop in a way that shows the themes mentioned before. This works for some but it also comes of as pretty predictable later on when multiple people go through the same thing. The side characters do offer a nice chuckle once in a while. 

My greatest knock against the characters is the lack of foreshadowing or reasoning for the main villain. Too many things are implied or up to the viewer to guess for themselves. Other than his motives the villain is actually pretty entertaining to watch because of his wild off the wall attitude and his tendencies to act completely insane while being this intellectual force that can trick and deceive most of the cast. Overall the characters are mature, varied, and written as adults even if  some of their motives are strange or unexplained.

Art

The art of Kemonozume is both its greatest advantage and biggest downfall. blatantly the art looks ugly it looks rushed, blurry and totally unfocused . The art is sure to put people off very quickly. Yet this "ugly" art is the reason myself and others have grown so attached to this show. Often anime is purely based its visual merits at a first glance.  Animation  being a visual medium this is fair basis to judge things. This quick judgement  creates a imbalance of attention between the latest shows  with pretty colours and high production values and shows that lack that pizzazz.  Creators and animators are well aware of this first impression and how it might affect  sales  so they play things rather safe creating a vast collection of anime that fall into the generic uninspired art style. Kemonozume breaks this trend and does its own thing being a great example of uncompromising art in the industry known all too well for big breasted cat girls. I understand that people have their own opinion on the art and me talking and bashing other shows will not sway them to like Kemonozume's art, so i will leave it at that. 

The animation on the other hand is  very easy to see the skill and attention given to both the small things and large action scenes . Fights in the show take advantage of the art and its liberties that a more tradition art style would restrict such as the main villains design and how he fights along with rapid twists and dodges  done by the human characters to show extreme cases of speed and mobility. The small things are how hair and clothing  reacts to wind and water. Along with small body ticks the characters have with their faces.

Music

With so much attention the visuals get I believe the music in the show gets unjustly overshadowed. I actually had some difficulty trying to find tracks by themselves with voices interfering. The music tries to capture the feeling of young love in dire circumstances. They do this by using low lulling blues for the more melancholy scenes and blaring trumpets for action sequences , each serves their purpose well but because of the heavy use of dialog and atmospheric sound the music has a hard time sounding out. The opening is not a victim of this and hence is the track you with most likely remember the most. The track is a bit repetitive but ultimately does a great job as a blood pumper. The ending song stands in stark contrast to the opening. While the opening is loud and shows Toshikiko's side of the conflict of the flesh eaters the ending is quiet and shows a ideal world that he might get to with Yuka.

*Kemonozume at the time of writing this has no english dub*

Hidenobu Kiuchi is the leading man and does a job that on par with his other works(Hei in Darker Than Black and Kenzo in monster)his voice carries a heavy heave to it that makes it easy to make the character seem distance and stand offish this gruffness disappears when he is talking to or about Yuka which really inhances the perfromance. Overall the  voice direction top-notch. Hekiru Shiina's performance as Yuka is also well done but because of her changing into a flesh eater in times of extreme emotion, she has far less chances to show off emotionally range. The rest of the cast is serviceable with Kenji Utsumi's role as Ooba being the stand out hit. He comical quirk makes him a the odd man out in a cast and script of such serious characters. One very minor complaint is the sound that the flesh eaters make is really generic and given how different the series is it's a shame this wasn't a thought.

Conclusion 

With love it or hate it art , smart mature characters and a plot that sheds light on some notable themes. Kemonozume is an anime sure to stay in your mind for weeks to come.

For recommendations I would watch anything by Yuasa Masaaki, be warned he doesn't make the same thing twice and all of his works are highly different.

dkihn - 2013-10-23 09:05:09

watched kemonozume for second time, and how can someone say that this anime is bad?????????

the story its based on a simple concept (monsters that eat people and people who fights em), but the characters and their situations (love, drugs, personal desires) make the story to be interesting and amazing

of course the drawing its bad, its called artstyle (like on crayon shin-chan, probably worse), but that doesnt make the anime bad or something, it gives it more personality. however having a bad drawing doesnt make it less detailed and the animation its amazing so if you are complaining about this you probably are dumb as a rock and next time you probably should see some images before starting the anime or you better keep eating dominos with your fat ass sitted on a chair while watching kyoani shit

the music is composed by jazzy jazz fragments like pop pop pop watching monsters drop and stuff, nothing special to say because its pretty solid

as said before the characters and their evolution is probably the most important of this anime, as they are completely molded by their actions and experiences on the story; making them completely human - even the monster characters

if you dont enjoy kemonozume you probably are a neckbeard teenager closed on his bedroom which hugs a fucking pillow with fucking hatsune miku's body and you couldnt understand this anime if you didnt had a life with the normal feelings that every normal person has

overall kemonozume its a pretty solid anime and if you want to rate it by his artstyle you better go shingeki no kyojin or some shit like that

delta.cormier - 2013-07-03 09:27:43

I'm looking over all these reviews, the majority giving this anime 9 or 10, and am thinking to myself that it must be some kind of joke. I have watched a good amount of anime and cannot understand how such a bogus-ass anime could garner such high ratings. Story: 5/10This is pretty much a story revolving around humans and their relationship with monsters known as "flesh eaters" who are cursed with an appetite for human beings. The general story starts out pretty solid and interesting - a typical situation in which a person has to choose between his human comrades and a monster. One would think that it would be pretty hard to botch this tried-and-true plot line. However, this anime manages to turn what could have been a relatively decent story into one of absolute bullshit and nonsense. The episodes turn from engaging and suspenseful to utter crap that simply drags on. By the closing of the series i was forcing myself to hang in there till the end. Good thing it's only 13 episodes. I would stay away from this anime unless you like watching mindless, uninteresting crap pulled out of the director's ass. the only reason i give it a 5 is because the first few episodes were somewhat interesting.Art: 3/10Sticking a paintbrush in my ass and attempting to draw human figures on a canvass would produce a better picture than what would be found in the "art" of Kemonozume. i can understand the artist wanting to create a rushed, violent, and haphazard look to try and match the mood, but not to the point of looking like something out of a 10-year-old's doodling in a school notebook. I for one do not hold art in high regards when judging and anime, but for those who do - I think you will need to be a very "special" person to appreciate this lousy, half-assed artwork.Sound - 6/10The sounds and music used are nothing special. They consist of mostly jazz/jazz related music. The music is neither outstanding nor mediocre and sufficiently plays its roll in this uninteresting anime.Characters - 5/10The characters in this anime are adequately interesting. However, many of the main characters are very inconsistent in their behaviors, ideas, and actions. It isnt really clear why some actions are carried out by some characters. Many of the actions seemed to be pulled out of the director's ass in order to boringly further the plot. None of the characters appealed to me or stood out as is usually the case in animes/mangas.Enjoyment - 3/10The beginning of the anime gave me the idea that i would be in for a decent ride. However, the episodes/series turned to crap as they became filled with a third rate plot; shitty, pointless, weird ass sex scenes; and lame fight scenes. This anime was a struggle to finish. The only reason i can think of for the various high scores given to this anime is that people fall for the third-class plot line that tries too hard to be deep and philosophical. People also probably find this anime "artsy" for its use of jazz and broken-looking drawings. It is a shame that in its attempt to be philosophical and mature, this anime turned out to be inconsistent with a plot full of holes.Overall: 5/10