My Thoughts on Pass The Monster Meat, Milady!
This anime surprisingly entertaining. It's not incredible, but considering its target demographic, which have a tendency to not have much for anyone outside of said demographic, it kept me watching and invested. This is an anime that's clearly aimed for women, it's escapist fantasy for women the same way battle shonen or harem anime are for men. It's about a young woman named Melphiera Marchalrayd, who is the daughter of a count. She loves eating monster meat, a trait that earns her disgust from most of her peers. She also studies monsters to learn more about how to cook them and the dangers of it, a passion that she took over after her mother died. One day she meets a Duke from a neighboring kingdom named Aristide Rogier du Galbraith who obtains an immediate fancy to her. He falls for her looks of course, but also her cherry personality and straightforwardness. Also she convinced him and his attendant to eat monster and they both loved it. Not long later Aristide sends a notice of proposal to Melphiera's father, which is important because her father has been wanting her to find a man to marry, even going as far to say that at this point even a knight would do. While he doesn't believe the Duke is serious at first, and neither is she for that matter, it doesn't take long until the Duke convinces them, and the consemate the engagement and Melphiera goes to live with Aristide for awhile until their marriage.
There's many things that separate this anime from many of its contemporaries. The main female character is NOT boring and bland. Most of the time the female lead of these anime are meant to be blank slates so the women watching can project onto them. But Melphiera has personality. She's passionate, she's funny, she can be serious but also silly. She's more than just a pretty or cute face that only serves the purpose of providing the fantasy for women of marrying a hot, wealthy, powerful man. Of course that aspect is there as well, but there's more to it so someone like me can also enjoy it and this pleasantly surprised me. There were multiple times when I chuckled or even laughed out loud, and most of the time Melphiera was at the center of it when that happened. I also liked her father more than I expected. In most anime like this her father would have been incredibly unlikable as a way to make us sympathize with the female MC more, but that's not the case with him. I got the feeling that he genuinely cared for his daughter and wanted the best for her, but didn't know how to approach helping her since she was so different from everybody else around them. We know he did support her research, albeit silently, because it was revealed that he was the one who spread the nasty rumors about her that made people afraid of her specifically to protect he research. And if you think that makes him unlikable, I don't think so, it makes him flawed, especially since he was willing to admit he'd gone too far.
There are things I didn't like. Melphiera does have a mean stepmother. I don't know why so many stoires need one of those. Like what does the father see in women like that who ar ejust going to be awful to his daughter? Is the woman just really good at hiding her true nature from the man? Because she makes no attempt to hide it when the daughter in question is around. And why is it always a duaghter that has an evil stepmother, why never a son? And why is there no evil stepfather? I have so many questions that I don't think anybody, even the creatives, have answers to. But thankfully she doesn't appear very much. In fact in only like one episode, for a couple minutes. And like I said before this anime wasn't incredible, but it was funny, entertaining, and very wholesome, and that's way more than I expected going into it.
There's many things that separate this anime from many of its contemporaries. The main female character is NOT boring and bland. Most of the time the female lead of these anime are meant to be blank slates so the women watching can project onto them. But Melphiera has personality. She's passionate, she's funny, she can be serious but also silly. She's more than just a pretty or cute face that only serves the purpose of providing the fantasy for women of marrying a hot, wealthy, powerful man. Of course that aspect is there as well, but there's more to it so someone like me can also enjoy it and this pleasantly surprised me. There were multiple times when I chuckled or even laughed out loud, and most of the time Melphiera was at the center of it when that happened. I also liked her father more than I expected. In most anime like this her father would have been incredibly unlikable as a way to make us sympathize with the female MC more, but that's not the case with him. I got the feeling that he genuinely cared for his daughter and wanted the best for her, but didn't know how to approach helping her since she was so different from everybody else around them. We know he did support her research, albeit silently, because it was revealed that he was the one who spread the nasty rumors about her that made people afraid of her specifically to protect he research. And if you think that makes him unlikable, I don't think so, it makes him flawed, especially since he was willing to admit he'd gone too far.
There are things I didn't like. Melphiera does have a mean stepmother. I don't know why so many stoires need one of those. Like what does the father see in women like that who ar ejust going to be awful to his daughter? Is the woman just really good at hiding her true nature from the man? Because she makes no attempt to hide it when the daughter in question is around. And why is it always a duaghter that has an evil stepmother, why never a son? And why is there no evil stepfather? I have so many questions that I don't think anybody, even the creatives, have answers to. But thankfully she doesn't appear very much. In fact in only like one episode, for a couple minutes. And like I said before this anime wasn't incredible, but it was funny, entertaining, and very wholesome, and that's way more than I expected going into it.
Commentaires
Both love interests were born in a world, already populated with magic and monsters. No reincarnation necessary. I found it refreshing the mother of Melpheira was not called a Mage or Witch. Just someone preparing tabooed food ingredients. She had a food lab, which didn't have to operated out of a guild either, lol.
I did like Duke Aristide, as a monster killing man who understood what it took to be top predator. But prepared to dote on his dragon and love interest as it suited. He made up his mind quickly, about a proposal and had her move in straight away. They allowed him to be in charge, with a lot of male knights at the helm.
I preferred that to the overkill of brow-beaten by estrogen submission. No such token ratios of women in these ranks! The Duke even forgot ladies in waiting for his bride to be. I found it refreshing, lol.