Re:Monster (Season One)
When Tomokui Kanata died, he was reincarnated into a fantasy world as a goblin. However, he retained his knowledge of his past life and a skill that allowed him to absorb the skills of anything he ate! Can a goblin rise to the top?
Re:Monster (Season One)
What did you watch?
I must have misunderstood the synopsis when I first looked at this title because I thought that it was a goblin who was reincarnated as a goblin once more but with his memories intact. Turns out, it was a person from a futuristic-looking world. I did mention that I was getting That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime vibes and that seemed to be pretty much spot on. Well, let’s see how my latest adventure with the Spring 2024 schedule went!
What happened?
Tomokui Kanata was a monster. Not literally, but he certainly wasn’t a nice person. He was an assassin or a mercenary. Basically, he killed people for a living and one of the things that aided him was his ability to master a new skill simply by eating the flesh of someone who had already done so. Like I said – a monster! When Tomokui died at the hands of another assassin, he thought that would be the end of his story. However, he woke up in a strange place, in a strange body. He had been reincarnated as a goblin in a fantasy world. Luckily, he retained his memories and his unusual skill.
Since goblins age quickly, Goburou used his knowledge to set himself up for success. He aligned with the largest of his brood, Gobukichi. Together, they hunted for food. They ate what they killed and grew stronger, Goburou notable so since he was acquiring skills with every meal. Before long, he evolved into a hobgoblin along with Gobukichi. Soon after they took over the horde and began to teach the others how to hunt and fight. Goburou continued to evolve getting stronger and stronger. Those around him followed suit and before he knew it, he had amassed a terrifying fighting force. It was time to create a mercenary group and see where that took them.
What did you think?
I liked the concept but the execution wasn’t quite as good. This series showed us a scene or two from each day in Goburou’s life. Then as it changed day, it told us what day it was – Day two for example. As a result, the story felt quite fragmented. It made sense in a lineal sense but it seemed to suck some of the life out of it, making it feel more like a highlights reel or a diary. I also failed to make any connection with Goburou, the protagonist as he was cold and distant, despite acting in the best interests of everyone. If you like fantasy stories, then you’ll probably like this, but it’ll be hit or miss whether you feel anything stronger.
What was your favourite moment?
There wasn’t a lot that really stood out, however, the one that does spring to mind was when Goburou hunted a giant bear that had been terrorising the forest. He ended up having a fairly epic battle considering he was just a hobgoblin at that point. He lost a limb and was very badly injured, but the bear came out worse, and of course, thanks to his abilities, he was able to heal up. Well, he couldn’t regrow his arm, but he managed to find an artefact later on that took care of that issue. It was a good fight, but I also didn’t find myself cheering on either side. I felt like a spectator with no real interest in who won. The lack of connection to Goburou was a real issue for me.
What was your least favourite moment?
Not long after Goburou became a hobgoblin, the previous generation of goblins, many of which had become hobgoblins, returned from the hunt with five human women as captives. Anyone who has seen Goblin Slayer will know where that was heading. Thankfully, Goburou, who still thought like a human stepped in and took over the group, making it a rule that no one touches the women. That seemed like a standup thing to do, but then, he kept them there for most of the series and one by one they all fell in love with him and eventually birthed his children. I get that their knowledge was an important asset in terms of advancing the horde, but I can’t say I’m a huge fan of seeing Stockholm Syndrome at work.
Who was your favourite character?
I had a really hard time finding any sort of common ground with Goburou and the rest of the main characters weren’t any easier. I think I would have to pick the red-haired woman who was captured and eventually became a prized warrior for the mercenary group. Rubellia Walline even acquired the same skill that Goburou retained from his previous life and used that to get stronger and stronger. However, she never evolved into anything else. Is that a monster-only thing? I think it would have been interesting to see her change too.
Who was your least favourite character?
As much as I didn’t click with anyone, I don’t feel like there was anyone who particularly annoyed me. I wasn’t a huge fan of Gobukichi as he felt too simple. All he wanted to do was fight Goburou and get stronger. Yes, it pushed them both to crazy heights, but that’s about all he did. Like everything else in this series, it failed to deliver anything that wasn’t just fine. It’s annoying because I think there’s the potential for a very interesting story here, although it would be very dark.
Would you like some more?
As I said, this series was fine. I wouldn’t rush out and search for more, but if another season came along, I’d probably watch it out of curiosity. I doubt that’ll happen, but you never know. This series doesn’t have the charm of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime or the likeable characters. The world-building was… fine, but never really pushed past that.
What have you learned?
As I was watching this, I couldn’t help but wonder how different this would have been had the group actually acted like goblins. Sure, they weren’t exactly heroic at any time, but forging alliances with the elves and then protecting a princess wasn’t what I was expecting. I would have liked to see this go more along the lines of Overlord where we get to see Goburou become a terrifying power who actually uses that to gain more power. For a story about goblins, there weren’t many goblins in it really. They all evolved into high lifeforms early on and lost the feral nature that we might associate with goblins. And given that Tomokui was basically a monster in his previous life, it would have made sense to see him continue down that path.
Series Information
| English Title | Re:Monster |
| Japanese Title | Re:Monster |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Isekai |
Anime
| Season | Season One |
| Released | Spring 2024 |
| Animation Studios | Studio Deen |
| Episodes | 12 |
Nice post 🌹🌹
Thanks. You’re too kind!
“One by one?” I seem to recall he tended to get/take women in much larger batches than that! Including those whose friends and comrades he had just eaten, while imprisoning and drugging the women themselves.
Maybe I’ve blocked it from my memory, but I remember it starting when he came back from sleeping with the Dryad. We saw them each getting jealous which then led to the ridiculous group session… I don’t remember him drugging them, but it sounds like something he would do. He really wasn’t a likeable character at all.
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Coincidentally, majority of what you said here described how I felt while watching 86 first cour. It has an interesting concept, but the execution treats us the audience (though particularly myself) as if we’re too stupid to not understand the subtlety that the scriptwriting (though it’s not a secret that Asato is a protagonist-centric author unfortunately) went blatantly portray the “racism is bad” with so much heavy-handed writing that I feel unable to sincerely like the series; despite my understanding she had to write for a young teenage kid’s thinking to understand the overall story.
It disappointed me a bit that the anime’s narrative presents a very black-and-white view on who’s good and who’s evil (despite the first few pages of vol 1 not being that way) the dialogue emphasizing gray morality in the works. I would prefer a more convincing visual presentations of the gray morality rather than a long exposition on “there are good people amongst a rotten group” principle.
I better stop here before I spoiler accidentally and that I don’t wanna ruin your experience of watching today’s slightly overrated (since I’ve seen it talked about many times on my timeline) mecha series. Hope my feelings don’t go anymore backwards when I watch Part 2 soon.
“As I said, this series was fine. I wouldn’t rush out and search for more, but if another season came along, I’d probably watch it out of curiosity.”
+ Yes, that’s how I will feel when 86 gets a season renewal someday.
Yeah. There’s a real skill to handling those sorts of topics without being too heavy-handed. Anyone who needs to hear the message will probably feel attacked and become defensive. Those that already understand will feel like it talks down to them and treats them like morons. Basically, nobody wins!
I wasn’t a fan of this show. It didn’t make it past the three episode test for me. I agree with you about the disjointed nature of the day-by-day telling of the story. It wasn’t my cup of tea.
It felt more like someone animated a diary than an actual story which wasn’t that entertaining to begin with.
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