Not enough camera action, but still an enjoyable anime · Waifora

My Review of "mono"!

Name: Not enough camera action, but still an enjoyable anime
Item: mono
Rating: 80
Author: HeartbreakRebel

Those 360 shots are so damn impressive.Story After graduating seniors leave the Photography Club and the Cinema Club, 2 members from each side are left by themselves and threatened to be disbanded due to the lack of members. However, after combining their clubs, they become the Cinephoto Club and work together to take videos and pictures of multiple different sceneries and help manga artist Haruno Akiyama to develop her story with references.

Characters Since there are 5 main characters, I’ll just list two of them here. Satsuki Amamiya is the president of the Photography (which is now the Cinephoto) Club. She’s a dedicated and passionate photographer. Haruno Akiyama is a fun manga artist. She writes her own stories and works with the Cinephoto Club to gain references for her works. Due to her inability to handle the hot weather, she sends the club to take the photos and videos for her.

The Good For Soigne’s first ever anime adaptation, I was quite impressed at how neatly animated it was. The scenes with the 360 perspective seemed really technical and difficult to animate for any regular studio to do, and for this studio to do it for their first ever anime makes them really impressive. I also really like the character designs, especially Haruno’s. You can tell that they all fit the comfy and cozy vibe this show goes for. Speaking of comfy and cozy vibes, the anime OP and ED are pretty good. The studio also goes crazy with the animation for both sequences, which just makes them so much more enjoyable to watch. The OST often gave me vibes of DDLC (Doki Doki Literature Club) which fits perfectly for the show (excluding the twisted stuff that happens in DDLC). This show is also very informative and you learn quite a bit about cities in Japan due to the destinations the characters choose to visit for photo-taking. Just like a couple other cozy anime this season, this show stands out from the cozy anime category by not just being an anime about photography. They choose to develop interesting storylines for the characters alongside the information they share each episode.

The Bad This is a bit of a nitpick, but the description placed for this anime is a bit misleading. At no point was there any missing camera plot throughout this show. I don’t really mind it, but for those who were expecting that or looking forward to it, that can be a bit of a letdown for this anime. Apart from that, I don’t really think I have much to complain about. I mean, I know some people complain about the lack of importance with most of the MCs towards the story, but I still found this anime fun at the end of the day and I don’t think that took much from my watching experience. Another complaint people had was the lack of photography in the anime. Honestly, I see their point. However, I think I would still enjoy this more than if this show would completely focus on photography and not branch out to do other fun things.

The Downright Ugly Apart from the really hot weather, there’s nothing downright ugly about this anime.

format(webp))Is It Worth The Watch? I think that this anime is worth watching. This show is just one of the many cozy anime this season had to offer. Shows like NinKoro and Food for the Soul were amazing in their own respective sections and mono’s able to be just like them in the way that this show stands out from a regular comfort show because of its ability to branch out from the stereotypes of coziness and be its own thing. However, be wary that this anime is NOT a photography-focused anime.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope this helped you with your decision on whether to watch this anime or not! If you already have watched it, I hope that you can agree with me with some of the points I made. If you enjoyed this review, I would greatly appreciate a follow too! ^^