What’s it about? Long ago, humans and monsters fought one another in an seemingly unending war, battling until exhaustion overtook both sides and the meaning of said war was lost. Now, in more modern times, monsters and humans cohabitate in the same world and spaces. One such pair is Dr. Glenn Litbite and Lamia girl Saphentite “Sapphee” Neikes, a human-monster doctor duo who take care of the monster girls in the city of Lindworm.
Monster Girl Doctor is Arvo Animation’s third series: fans might know them as the studio behind 2019’s We Never Learn: Bokuben and We Never Learn: Bokuben 2. While this is a very short list, Arva was only founded in 2017, making it a rather new company. However, Monster Girl Doctor does have some talent behind it. The series is being directed by Iwasaki Yoshiaki, who is known for working on Bokuben, with series composition and writing behind handled by Shirane Hideki, who previously worked on Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?.
Additionally, the music for the series will be handled by TO-MAS, who has previously done work for both Alice & Zoroku and 2017’s She and Her Cat. Character Design is being handled by Kato Hiromi, who’s worked on a wide variety of series and has a background in key animation, directing, and character design.
Monster Girl Doctor is, first and foremost, an adaptation of a light novel series by the same name. While I haven’t read the novel series myself, it does feel pretty true to how most light novel adaptations go: episode one introduces the city of Lindworm and quickly sets up what to expect week to week as the story progresses. Safe to say that there will be a “monster of the week” that Dr. Glenn and Sapphee will need to assist, whether they’re a centaur girl or one of the other monsters that inhabit this world.
That brings us to the central point: this anime very, very sexual, in the most relentless way.
Episode one opens up on the good doctor, one Glenn Litbite, groping–ahem, I mean, giving a breast check to–a minotaur monster girl who moans through the entire exam. This cascades into the reveal that every single monster girl we encounter is very much into Dr. Glenn on some level. However, Dr. Glenn is quite oblivious, in large part because these are his patients. In his defense, Glenn really is a dedicated doctor: enough that he doesn’t notice his assistant’s very obvious crush, nor the constant romantic overtures from Tisalia, this episode’s main patient.
Like I said above, this attraction to Glenn extends to Saphentite “Sapphee” Neike, Dr. Glenn’s assistant and a Lamia with the world’s most obvious crush. Her crush results in a lot of jealousy, which the good doctor naturally never notices, though viewers and every one of Glenn’s patients will pick up on it right from the beginning.
I expect that Sapphee’s jealous streak will continue to be A Thing throughout the entire series, especially anytime Glenn meets with a female patient, which… will be often since this is Monster Girl Doctor and not simply Monster Doctor. It’s a shame that Sapphee’s character is like this: she’s actually quite likable, and has potential to be a pretty charming character.
Truthfully, I get the feeling that Sapphee behaves like this in the source material, which this show, of course, draws on heavily. However, I certainly hope she has some character growth, otherwise her jealous streak will quickly become an annoyance.
In terms of animation and design it’s… okay. The art style is nothing exceptional: it blends some CGI elements with a pretty standard 2D style. Additionally, the music blends into the background enough that it’s unremarkable, though there’s some very pleasant flourishes here and there.
The show’s salvation is actually in its source content. I think the episodic nature of the animation will most likely be a strong suit: it might yield a solid if unexceptional adaptation, though it’s not clear how many volumes this cour will cover. This series will be a light novel reader’s dream come true, if Arvo Animation pulls it off and covers a good amount of material.
Honestly, Monster Girl Doctor pretty much showed its hand in episode one: there’s monsters, there’s girls, there’s monster girls. And Dr. Glenn, ever oblivious and always focused on practicing good medicine, is going to give them the exam of their life. I don’t see the sexualized aspect of the show diminishing: if anything, I’m ready to endure frequent moans as I watch week to week.
Even with all that, I’m actually kind of looking forward to episode two: I hope that we get more world-building about the physicality of each monster girl, and maybe, a lot of growth behalf of Sapphee. It would be nice to see her develop into a less jealous character.
For now, I’m keeping my expectations pretty low. We’ll see what the next few episodes bring.
Comments are open! Please read our comments policy before joining the conversation and contact us if you have any problems.