English Dub Review: My Oni Girl

Coming of age movies can be fun and inspirational. Movies like ET, Back to the Future, Neverending Story, and other classics have been instant go-tos for anyone looking for a way to ignite that childhood wonder linking to adulthood, and even rekindle it if you’ve lost it along the way. Anime has also had a string of recent hits in this regard, with the acclaimed Your Name, Mirai, and Maquia, among others. And it looks like it’s trying to add another to that list with the recently released My Oni Girl, whose Japanese title “Suki demo Kirai na Amanojaku”, translates roughly to “I like it, but I don’t like it”. Following a fateful encounter between a shy nerdy schoolboy and an outgoing demon girl on the hunt for her missing mother, My Oni Girl evokes a lot of those recent teenage anime romance movies like Your Name, Suzume, and others by evoking the nebulous magic of youthful experiences that bump up against more mature matters and finding one’s self, in this case focusing on being able to overcome one’s fears and share the true feelings bubbling beneath the surface. So, how did I feel about how it balanced and executed those themes? Well…I like it, but I don’t like it.

Hiiragi, the main human protagonist, lives a normal (if boring and somewhat stifling) life as a soon to be high school student, but comes across a strange girl, Tsumugi, who is the total opposite in terms of personality and is revealed to be an Oni. The story is, for the most part, set in a regular modern Japanese city, with the small touch of urban fantasy being that Oni, Japanese demons, do actually exist as a sort of hidden race. Apparently, in this world, Oni are made when humans hold in their feelings for too long or too much…or if they’re born to an Oni, I guess. But then those Oni can sometimes turn into “Snow Gods”, which are giant floating translucent serpents like the one that hunts the two kids for a good portion of the movie. I’m getting way too caught up on the lore, but it is basically what drags this story down at the end of the day. Thematically, it’s pretty clearly about being able to be true to yourself when it counts, something that Hiiragi struggles with when speaking to his belligerent but caring father, as well as Tsumugi with her mother, but the fluid animation and charming character designs do only so much to keep me from getting lost down the rabbit hole of weird choices here.

Anyway, if you like anime movies and want something to put on to pass the time or a cute date night with your equally anime loving partner or friends, this could fit the bill well enough. But it’s hardly the best choice out of the vast, VAST selection of feel good anime movies out there, even among the ones just on Netflix. It’s fine, and what it does it does well enough, but nothing about it stands out or is all that remarkable. It’s by no means awful or offensive and it does genuinely feel like it was a labor of love for the studio and animators (or as much love as anime animators can put in when they’re not being overworked to death), but it’s most definitely not going to on anyone’s Top Ten list by the end of the year. Honestly, if might’ve been better off being stretched out to a series so it could maybe have a better shot at filling out the mythology a bit, but as it is…I like it, but I don’t like it, ya know?