Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki no Monmon is my favorite anime of Fall 2023. The Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya arc had some good scenes this season, but is kinda settling into not having much of a plot, pushing it further into just some teenage power fantasy. The Tokyo Revengers Tenjiku arc is…fine but I am just getting a bit sick of Takemishi’s main redeeming quality being limited to having unlimited HP.

Terakomari Gandesblood goes super saiyan

The geniuses at MyAnimeList convinced me to check this out from an email describing this show as “Clumsy Vampires, Pervy Maids, and Politics Galore!” They might know their audience too well.

Summary

Terakomari Gandesblood spends three years as royalty never leaving her room, too afraid to face the world due to scars from childhood bullying. She stands alone in a world of magical vampires as physically weak, shy, clumsy, and unable to do any magic. In this world, vampires become stronger by drinking blood, which she refuses to do because she doesn’t like the taste. One day, her royal father gets her a job as a “Crimson Lord”, one of the commanders of the vampire army, hoping to bring out her full potential.

The Good

  • I really like the representations of the military here as 99.9% a cesspool of warmongers, frat bros, pedophiles, and dunces who will kill their commander at the first sign of “weakness.” That seems pretty on the money.

  • How do you get American weebs to think a tiny bit about racism? Make the target of the racism cat girls , as in RWBY . How can one make American weebs think twice about their representation of terrorists/terrorism? Make the terrorist an anime lesbian. Brilliant.

  • The constant wars being inconsequential facades to ’entertain’/distract the people and occupy some of the worst members of society (the army) is a bit on the nose. In this world, vampires don’t “die” as long as there is a “dark core” that can revive them, which each nation has.

  • The titular portmanteau of “hikikomori” (shut-in) and “komari” (main character’s name) into “hikikomari” is pretty slick and clever.

  • I am a sucker for anime that leans into Tolstoy ’s adage that “little girls are wiser than men” . I would also highly recommend that short story. In Hikikomari, the consequences for believing that one is wiser than a little girl include decapitation, getting one’s arm ripped off, and/or death (death is a bit nebulous in this show, atleast so far).

    Odilon after Komari rips off his right arm and destroys his sword
    This dweeb thought he was wiser than a little girl. She ripped off his arm and destroyed his sword.

  • All of the scenes involving this shirt are great. In-show shirt made with a dinky Komari face

  • It is a bit gay.

    Komari and Vill wake up in the same bed.
    They are just good friends. All friends wake up in the same bed. Technically they can get 6 inches closer before it becomes gay.

The Ugly

Vill is a tad problematic and underused. Vill constantly pushes herself onto Komari despite the latter’s consistent rejections. This would be deeply uncomfortable if Vill was 3 years older and a man. I guess it’s better than buying a slave and therefore not the weirdest plot point I saw this week in anime? She definitely has her endearing moments though an it doesn’t detract too much from the show. Adding a couple more dimensions to her character would make it easier to play some of her… weirder characteristics off as a joke.