If I said that I'm disappointed with Afro for this show, then that would be putting it lightly. If you know me, you'll see I love Yuru Camp, it’s one of the CGDCT I use as a bar that others have to try to reach because of how great it is. Mono is extremely forgettable to the point I can't remember the name of its main characters except for Haru, and I remember her name, not because I like her, but because I think she steals the show, and I don't mean that in a good way.

When I watch a CGDCT, I think the most important part is the characters, since they’re completely based around them, there usually isn't a bigger plot picture but following these adorable moeblobs, so the way they behave, how funny they are, or even how visually appealing they can be are the key to make this kind of series good, especially because the theme used to start their interactions might not be touched heavily. The main girl in Mono, who joined the photography club because she was a fan of her senpai who was in the club, has so little presence she might as well be a side character in her own show, and her friends are not exactly more entertaining than her.

I singled out Haru earlier because she is the part I disliked the most about this show, she is basically Afro's self-insert: she draws manga and asks these girls to help her with it by going to different locations, so she drives most of the episodes' plot because the main characters stopped having agencies for themselves after about episode 2. Imagine if after Sawa-chan appears in K-On, she is the one telling the girls what they are going to do and where they are going to go across many episodes. I'm not saying you can't focus in an older character, Sawako had great episodes that were mostly dedicated to her, but seeing Haru is like watching Afro's blog but with moeblobs around her for her to order around. I mean, there's an entire episode about Haru and her mangaka friends complaining about making manga, her presence is just overwhelming in the show, it really isn't a surprise that the best episodes in the series are the ones where she is featured the least.

The photography aspect is also pretty ignored after episode 2, despite the fact that they keep going to locations where they could most likely take pictures, but they just not do it, there are some episodes that focus more on it later on that are actually kind good, like the skateboarding episode, but the photography club aspect is almost ignored most of the time. K-On is usually mocked by detractors pointing out that they don't spend much time doing music, but you can at least see them practicing for about 5 seconds in multiple episode, if this series was memorable I would surely pinpoint you in which episodes photographing anything at all was important, but being too focused on going to different places in Yamanashi following whatever Haru is telling them to do is clearly more important.

And as you might have guessed by watching it, this series is happening in the same city as Yuru Camp, so it has Yuru Camp cameos, to the point it's like this series isn't trying to be its own thing. Yes Afro, just shill your waaaay more popular manga here, because we clearly forgot about Yuru Camp and we need to see them some more here. Some cameos are more obvious than others, while in some episodes you can see them on the background, in some others they will have lines or be the punchline of a joke. Again, I love Yuru Camp, but this isn't necessary.

The biggest saving grace of this series is the animation, as when it wants to, it’s colorful, dynamic, creative and full of life, they really got a great team working here and I'm grateful for that, because I have seen series about visual creativity that looks like shit. It was made by a pretty recent studio, but some people working on it who are very much veterans, like Masanobu Nomura being the art director and he has been fantastic across the years, so it's not surprising that the quality of both the animation and backgrounds is great here.

Mono is, to my displeasure, a pretty forgettable series, I was really excited when it was announced, but I guess I'll keep myself to Yuru Camp, as this series kept mentioning and it is clearly the superior product.

Thank you for reading.