A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans – Episode 1

Content Warning: Sexualization of children, fatphobia, fan service

What’s it About? Rei Hitoma, after being a NEET for two years because he burned out as a teacher, finds a new job in a scenic locale. He’s nervous because it’s another teaching job, however, his new students are different from the ones he’s taught before–they’re all monster girls, and his job is to teach them how to be human! How fun.

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This is a show that cannot commit to its premise in any way. It is about monster girls, but they are all normal moe girls with monster ears. They all act basically like human beings, with the weirdest behavior being a catgirl sleeping on a bench. There is no sense of what is means to “become human,” aside from acting a tiny bit differently. They are all just tropes played straight, with a tsundere bunny girl, an overly apologetic catgirl, a very enthusiastic mermaid girl, and a gremlin bird girl. I honestly don’t understand who this show is for, because monsterfuckers will get nothing from it, and anybody else will find it astonishingly bland.

Our protagonist, I’m not going to lie, did not help. Rei Hitoma seems to have just got off a bus from the loser convention, having lived with his mom as a NEET for two years and opening the series talking about how he “hates humans.” By the time he starts openly telling his students how much he hates humans it was over. I despised him. The misanthrope whose frozen heart is warmed by his relationship with kind women is a potentially salvageable trope–Monogatari‘s Araragi and Kaguya-sama‘s Ishigami arguably embody this trope and carry it out effectively. The difference is that misanthropy is an appropriate mindset for a high school-aged chuuni, not a twenty-something teacher, and both of the shows I just mentioned heavily showcase the harms that misanthropy can cause to the people around you. This show’s premise effectively prevents it from ever showing the harm of misanthropic attitudes, because if his mindsets actually cause harm it will likely be to children, which would effectively ruin the show.

Shows like this rely on a grotesque fantasy of the teacher-student relationship. It is not students’ jobs to heal your heart, to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It is a teacher’s job to help them learn and show unconditional positive regard, setting strong boundaries that allow for a healthy relationship. Telling your students that you’re single, as Hitoma does, is not setting strong boundaries.

The attempts at Monogatari-style banter between the protagonist and the girls felt like they were never going to end. This is due in large part to the poor direction and boarding of the show, where almost all of the shots were straight behind the students’ backs, in direct profile, or straight behind the teacher.

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The other adult characters were much more interesting than the students, although it is worth noting that pretty much everybody in this moe-verse looks like they’re 12, except the headmaster, whose fatness is played for laughs and an object of apparent terror on the part of the protagonist.

I’m not even going to get into the weird potential fantasy racism politics of a class that teaches nonhumans to be human, taught by a human who hates humans. Just mess all around.

This show sucked. I hope I don’t have to think about it again.