English Dub Season Review: A Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans Season One

Overview:

Shaped by experiences that left him weary of human relationships, Rei Hitoma openly dislikes people. Seeking a quiet, uneventful life, he accepts a teaching position at a secluded school in the mountains, only to discover that his classroom is anything but ordinary. The students under his care are demi-humans who have gathered there with a singular goal: to learn what it means to become human.

Our Take(Spoilers):

One of the things that sets this series apart is something that I loved and hated, let’s discuss. Oftentimes, a show like this hinges on it’s characters and this show isn’t afraid to get rid of characters. Not in a bad “let’s kill em off” type of way but this is a story about demi-humans graduating and becoming human. So it stands to reason that when they graduate they won’t come back.

I like it doing things this way because we see a lot of growth from the characters but it’s also a bit disappointing because you’ll start to enjoy a character and before you know it they’re gone. With the progession of time not being addressed in a meaningful way it makes even tougher to realize when a student might move on but they might not stick to your typical scheduling. One thing I realized just now is that might be part of the point of the show. As a teacher, Hitoma is barely a blip in these students lives from a time perspective, doubly so with them being demi-humans. But he still makes a profound impact on them that carries them into their new lives as humans.

If you’ve ever watched another monster girl show like Monster Musume, or Interviews with Monster Girls then you know what you’re in for. Though a big difference from this and Monster Musume is a focus on romance. Monster Musume has all of the girls being in love with the main character and that isn’t the case here which is good because that would be problematic. There is one student who constantly talks about marrying Hitoma but that’s about it. All of Hitoma’s crushes are fellow teachers which is a nice change of pace.

My biggest problem with this show was that the thing that interested me the most wasn’t introduced until the last couple of episodes. Hitoma was living the shut-in lifestyle because of something that happened during his previous teaching job with a student named Haruna. Haruna eventually gets hired as a teacher at the school and learns under Hitoma. The issues with these two doesn’t feel resolved in the least bit and I would have liked to see more of that.

This was a hard show to give a season review because doesn’t progress in a traditional way. One of the “main” characters in the opening is a mermaid girl who graduates a few episodes in and was one of my favorites. But as I said it’s a double edged sword and ultimately I would like to see more of this series but I imagine this was another example of “read the source material.” Lucky for us the light novel currently has three volumes out by Yen Press if you liked the show.