I admire the efficiency with which Monster Musume No Oisha-San establishes its setting and let’s you know exactly what kind of anime it is in its first two scenes:
Remember the Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou anime that came out in 2015? Hapless nerd gets saddled with a veritable harem of monster girls living at his home through a combination of government incompetence and his own abnormal kindness. It was hugely popular at the time, but sort of got buried under the isekai boom a little later on, so we never got the flood of monster girl knock-offs I’d expected. Until Monster Musume No Oisha-San that is. It’s not that both are monster girl harem series, but that the exact same monster girls show up. Main girl is a lamia, her biggest rivals are a centaur and an arachne, while there’s also a mermaid and a harpy knocking about. Where it differs is in giving its protagonist, doctor Glenn Litbeit, a better excuse to meet monster girls, by making him a physician in a fantasy city who specialises in treating monsters. Also a good excuse for having him fondle, sorry, ‘examine’ all the monster girls he comes in contact with, most of which are presented with the same sort of soft core porn presentation as in the scene above.
So why should you watch this if you don’t think adolescent sex jokes like this are hilarious? Even if I personally don’t mind this, had light harem antics been all this series had to offer I wouldn’t be writing about it. What makes it interesting is the setting: ten years after a war between humans and monsters, in a city build to encourage human/monster cohabitation, ruled over by Skaldi, a literal dragon lady. She’s the one who forced the end of the war and settled Lindworm as a town where both humans and all kinds of monsters could thrive. It’s her health, after she suddenly collapses through a speech, that is the subject of the series last four episodes. What I immediately thought of, as I’m sure you did too, is Yugoslavia and the death of Tito. When Tito died in 1980, there were fears it could tear Yugoslavia apart; in the process it took another decade of nationalism, but you can see how it sprung to mind. Without lady Skaldi, would the town of Lindworm remain peaceful or would both factions fall back in their ancient hatreds?
No of course Monster Musume No Oisha-San doesn’t go anywhere near that. Instead, the plot is all about finding a way to handle her illness as well as convincing her she should not accept it as her fate to die just yet. But while it’s not explicitly mentioned, what that last story arc shows is the entire city, monster and human both, pulling together to save their beloved leader. It’s not a case of Glenn pulling a miracle out of a hat and saving the day all alone. Instead, he gets his old mentor, an octopus woman to do the difficult parts of the operation, trains an arachne woman to assist them both and gets a centaur girl he treated earlier in the series to make a set of needles that can actually handle dragon flesh. In the end, the dragoness who ended the war and created the city is saved by the people she did it for.
Ultimately, Monster Musume No Oisha-San remains a light hearted harem series slightly too fond of jokes too corny even for an eighties teen movie. For me however it manages to avoid most of the sleaziness of other fanservice oriented shows. I liked the various haremettes and it helps that all of them clearly have lives outside of their love/lust for Glenn, even managing to be friends with each other. an enjoyable way to waste an afternoon watching anime.