it feels like my little monster starts out fine, sets up the idea that we are going to have a series of miscommunications and so on, you're like ok cool we get confessions episode one so lets get on this rollercoaster. but the characters fall flat. the backstories of haru and shizuku who are supposed to be so bad at socializing aren't explored in a way that explains them properly. (such as, shizuku being lonely since childhood and haru being... what, stifled by his dad and dealing with his dead mom?) the cause and effect simply isn't clear.

more importantly, the characters don't progress enough on an individual basis. especially haru, which makes him unlikeable and ultimately makes the viewer not want to root for him and shizuku to end up together.... which is kind of the point of this whole story. (i.e., having him threaten yamaken's life because he his jealous of the time he is spending with shizuku, repeatedly disrespecting shizuku's personal boundaries, accidentally hurting her in his violent outburtsts.) and with shizuku, she never learns truly to consider other's needs. her problems pale in comparison to haru's though.

also, especially during the latter half of the show, it has a tendency to solve problems between characters in an unfulfilling and even problematic way at times. natsume, the girl who's set up as someone who has trouble standing up for herself and gets bullied constantly by other girls because boys won't stop hitting on her, is the one who gets dealt one of the worst hands with this. it's just shitty writing to make a character like this have to apologize to the group of boys who won't stop tormenting her with their desire when she finally blows up on them. it's a shame because the dialogue between characters when they're talking about how they feel is actually good, but then they do something like tell this fucking girl to apologize. okkkk. or like when the audience is told shizuku should feel bad for telling haru to respect her space. HELLO? what the fuck is this. i think the writers confused having her regard her friends needs, for letting ppl have their way with her. i dont fucking get it. the show has a good mix of personalities and tropes and then after episode 6 all the writers exposed themselves for either being Men or being women who fetishize being in a relationship with a psycho who will kill someone who looks at you.

i think the most interesting thing about this was the relationship between shizuku and yamaken which is fucking stupid because he's just some arrogant guy. but they actually wrote him to change. to be interested in her, which was big for him, and then to go out of his way to help and offer council when she didn't know what to do about haru. or maybe it's just that haru's behavior was so fucking cringey that i was relieved to see this poor bitch shizuku spend any iota of time with another person who wasn't him.

stupidly, the fact it was only 13 episodes combined with the drama between the characters did keep me watching because i was genuinely curious as to what it would look like when haru and shizuku finally got together. EXCEPT. they DIDN'T!!!!!! around 10 the episodes start geting more and more off track and finally it's like... oh shit. they thought they were going to have a season two.

and i looked at the synopsis for the volumes in the manga and i gotta say. even if they thought they were going to get a season two. they really set up the backstories so shittily that i dont think it would have fixed a thing.

such a shame. what a waste of a fun group of characters.