Follow TV Tropes

Following

Manga / Interviews with Monster Girls

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bf00bb9314272a29b058894cf331d6ed1483790667_full.jpg
Just a couple of kids hanging around with their teachers.

Be forewarned, for in this world, beings that are not entirely human are very much real...

Tetsuo Takahashi, a biology teacher at Shibasaki High School, was always intrigued by Demis — how much does the fact differ from the fiction? How do they deal with their conditions? How do they socialize with humans? He had one ambition that goes back to his college years — to conduct research into Demis, interview them and learn more about them. Unfortunately for him, his many attempts ended in failure — either the government didn't want to aid him, or because he just couldn't find Demis out on the street — most of them don't look that much different from normal humans. In fact, despite his deep interest in the matter, Takahashi has yet to actually meet a Demi.

This changes in an instant when he suddenly meets not one, but four Demis. They're his freshman students Hikari Takanashi the vampire, Kyouko Machi the dullahan, Yuki Kusakabe the yuki-onna, and his new co-worker, the math teacher Sakie Satō, a succubus. Takahashi can finally fulfill his lifelong dream, but may he have bit off more than he can chew? Meanwhile, despite being Demis, the girls continue to live out their daily lives to their fullest.

Interviews with Monster Girls (Demi-chan wa Kataritai, lit. "I want to interview demi-girls") is a Slice of Life Manga series by Petos, which began serialization in 2014 (starting out in Young Magazine the 3rd, but later moving to Weekly Young Magazine in 2021). It was adapted into a Anime series as part of the winter 2017 anime season by A-1 Pictures. It is available for worldwide streaming on Crunchyroll here. Funimation's SimulDub of this series began on January 25, 2017, with new English dubbed episodes every Wednesday. Watch it here. The manga is also translated into English by Kodansha USA.


Provides examples of:

  • Accidental Innuendo: Hikari describes Takahashi's arm as hard, thick, and hairy enough to get them stuck in her teeth. He quickly rebukes her to never repeat those words. invoked
  • Accidental Passenger: Our dullahan character accidentally had her head and body seperated by quite a distance when her body didn't get off of a train quickly enough, while her head was still in her parent's hands.
  • A-Cup Angst: Briefly in episode 12 with Imori and Kimura. The former turns out to be a case of Hidden Buxom, leading to sharp glares by the latter. Doubles as a mild case of D-Cup Distress as it is implied her different physique causes Imori to tire faster than she used to.
  • Adaptational Late Appearance: Koji Takanashi, Hikari and Himari's father is introduced in Chapter 3 in the manga, but doesn't make a proper appearance until Episode 6 in the anime, well after Takahashi has met and befriended Hikari, Machi, and Kusakabe.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Some scenes in the manga are greatly expanded on, such as Machi and Takahashi's "date" in Chapter 5 being the focus of the later half of Episode 2.
  • Alien Catnip: Succubi are this to vampires, because the latter group reacts to food and sex in a different way compared to humans. Satou and Yuki discovered this when Hikari literally acts like a cat on catnip after spending time next to Satou (who was clad in her tank top and shorts since she was alone at the time).
  • Anger Born of Worry: Takahashi ends up yelling at Machi when she almost drops her head out of carelessness and downplays the accident. He later apologizes for it.
  • Art Shift:
    • The folk tales read by Yuki in episode 5 are represented as some sort of shadow theatre.
    • The explanation of cases of sexual harassment involving succubi in episode 7 are rendered with simple icons akin to infographics.
    • Episode 8 features some panels of the manga Yuki and Satou read, and they're all appropriate to the period and genre (adventure/horror and josei).
  • Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: The Vice Principal, whose first appearance suggested he might be a cold-hearted bigot, even ordering Takahashi stop doting on the girls, although he came up with a reason that sounded like it was in the girls' best interest. He is shown to be a stern Reasonable Authority Figure, and after some further consideration, changes his mind and apologizes to Takahashi for saying it.
  • Beach Episode: Of sorts, they go to the school swimming pool instead, even though the series takes place in a coastal town with proper beaches.
  • Bookends:
    • Episode 8 both start and ends with the girls checking out the list of top scorers at an exam, with Hikari commenting on Himari's rank and later going Colour Failure over Machi's.
    • The series ends like it began, with Hikari meeting Takahashi outside the school entrance, and even lampshading that this is where they first met.
  • Brand X: "Wukupedia" shows up on an article about Snow Woman when Takahashi is searching for information about them.
  • Bully Turned Buddy: Imori and Kimura, who pick on Yuki, mistaking her initial reservedness for arrogance. After the situation gets sorted out, they are shown to get along well, going to the karaoke with Yuki (as well as Machi and Hikari and Satake) as soon as the next episode.
  • Chuunibyou: Discussed. When Takahashi-Sensei bring out the topic about traditional views on vampires, Hikari commented "Crosses? They are only fashionable through middle school." Given the word "Chuunibyou" practically meant "Middle School 2nd-year syndrome"...
  • Cold Touch Surprise: Inverted. Hikari is a vampire, and is vulnerable to both heat and light, though she is still a Daywalking Vampire. If she feels overheated, she'll deliberately cuddle up to Yuki, a Yuki-onna (Snow woman) whose body is naturally cold.
  • Color Failure: In Episode 8 Hikari does this twice over Machi's exam ranks.
  • Creatures by Many Other Names: Monsters in general are called demi-humans owing to the fact that they are seen as Human Subspecies and treated as humans. Calling them "monsters" is considered to be akin to "It" Is Dehumanizing.
  • Crush Filter: In the anime, whenever the girls hear Takahashi say something that gets their hearts racing, the words echo their head... but sounding more baritone and sensual each time it's repeated.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Outside of Himari, every main female cast member is a Demi.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • When Machi mentions how she can't really use public transportation because of her condition (as in, being a dullahan), her classmates get unnerved and hastily change the topic. The scene felt like they were uncomfortable, because they didn't know how to talk with a handicapped person.
    • Ugaki, a detective in the demi-human department, brings up succubi-seduction cases as being the most difficult part of his job with Takahashi. Succubi can unintentionally seduce men into committing a sexual crime, but there are also cases where the man is intentionally seduced into committing a crime. As such, Ugaki's department has great difficulty determining what is what in such cases. Additionally, he states that there are methods to getting a clearer picture, but it primarily involves staying in contact with the succubi under their management for communication and research, which he admits is like investigating a crime that hasn't happened yet.
    • Hikari, being a vampire, has a strong biting compulsion and loves to chew on people's arms (without breaking the skin) to relieve this impulse. At one point she's asked to rate different people's arms on how much she would enjoy biting them. When she comes to Takahashi-sensei, she examines his arms and says "It's really hard... really thick... I think I'd get hair stuck in my teeth!". Takahashi immediately warns her not to say that in public as Yuki tries to hide her laughter.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe and Played for Laughs; Takahashi isn't thrilled by Machi's joke that he's really a dullahan since his head's about to roll (as in, fired from his job) when he rushes to chase Hikari down after she walks in on him and Machi hugging.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: There's a narrator randomly commenting whatever happened during episode 1 and 3 of the anime. She's conspicuously absent in all episodes forward.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Machi and Satou find Takahashi's muscular and imposing physique to be absolutely ravishing. All of the monster girls enjoy being hugged by him, since it offers an opportunity to feel his muscles.
  • Evolving Credits: A small example. After episode 5, where Takahashi is able to deduce the limits of Kusakabe's freezing powers and the girls befriend her, she becomes much more cheerful in her opening segment and turns the pop-up book's winter into spring. Also, the horse in the homage to Fuseli's "Nightmare" behind Sakie resembles Ugaki after his first appearance.
  • Fantastic Racism: Demi-humans used to be heavily persecuted in the past, but by modern times, this has lowered down immensely up to the point that there have been anti-discrimination laws passed.
  • Fantastical Social Services: Demihuman support is considered social welfare in this universe:
    • Vampires, like Hikari, are provided rations of blood to help keep them healthy.
    • Succubi like Sakie are provided with remote housing if they need, to prevent Power Incontinence.
    • Succubi also are the subject of a special investigative branch that looks into incidents of sexual harassment involving succubi, whose job is to determine if the incident was caused by Power Incontinence, a deliberate use of their powers to test their limits, or if someone was targeting succubi with the hopes of claiming that the succubus caused it.
  • Food and Body Comparison:
    • Episode 9, Hikari and Yuki wonder why Machi wears a vest during hot summer weather. Machi explains that the sweat will make her undergarments show through her shirt. Machi lifts up her vest, cue a cut of two watermelons.
    • In another episode, Hikari discusses her habit of chewing on her sister's arm to satisfy her vampiric biting needs, then examines the arms of her fellow Demis, and her teacher. She says her sister is like bubble gum, Yuki's was like soft-serve ice cream, Machi is like a chicken tender, and teach is "inedible".
  • Forced Orgasm: When Reluctant Succubus Sakie Satou was in the middle school, a boy named Takkun attempted to pick on her... and learned the hard way that the combination of her having studied some Judo and being a succubus, turned his screams of pain from being tossed into screams of absolute joy and ecstasy. Needless to say, he's so thoroughly humiliated that a guy actually almost feels sorry for him. Almost.
    Takkun: Ow ow ow! Stop stop stop stopDON'T STOOOOOP!! It hurts... It hurts... Don't stop... Don't stop! Make it hurt more! More... More... MAKE IT HURT MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRREEE!!!!!!!
  • Foreshadowing: There's multiple references to Takahashi's guns, and two of the girls said his arms are rockin'. Come the pool episode, and we see he's rocking the Heroic Build.
  • Headless Horseman: The dullahan-type Demis, such as Machi. Though she doesn't have a horse or anything like that to go with it. Her head is separate from her body, though sensations carry over, she can control her body remotely, and food can somehow teleport from her mouth to her stomach.
  • Hell Is That Noise: The buzzing/humming sound Machi's flame emits in the anime, especially when she's flustered.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Takahashi suffers a minor one when, after years and years of trying to get in contact with a demi-human, four of them appear next to him like nothing happened.
    • He gets another one much later when the vice principal cracks down on him for seemingly playing favorites with the demi girls. Thankfully, the girls' reassurance and the vice principal apologizing for being too harsh on him snap Takahashi out of it.
  • Holding in Laughter: Yuki's Covert Pervert tendencies are usually most prominently displayed when she's trying to stifled laughter over Accidental Innuendo.
  • House Husband: The Takanashi's father' Kouji.
  • Human Subspecies: Demis can be called this, being humans born with traits of fantastic creatures.
  • Human All Along: It is implied that this happened some time before Present Day, which is why "monsters" became "demi-humans."
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Hikari asks Takahashi to use the term "demi" rather than ajin, or "demi-humans". Not that she finds it derogative, mind you. She just thinks "demi" sound much cuter.
    • Machi is conducting an experiment with Takahashi, which is very definitely not a date!
  • Invisible Streaker: The epilogue of the OVA has Takahashi interact with an invisible girl, and it's implied she was also the mysterious voice "haunting" the cast in the latter half of the episode. She and other Demis of her kind are completely invisible when fully nude, though some of them are still embarrassed to be naked around people despite the invisibility.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: The vice-principal lectures Takahashi about the Demi-chans becoming too dependent on him and him alone. While everyone aware of the conversation is upset at the vice-principal for saying it, they also take time to seriously consider the point. A group of the girls' classmates even begins discussing how they can better support the girls in their school lives.
  • Last-Name Basis:
    • As is proper for a Japanese school setting, characters frequently refer to one another by their last name with appropriate honorifics with the consistent exception of Genki Girl Hikari, who uses first and nicknames liberally. The students are generally more casual among themselves and Takahashi is fine with the students' nickname for him, Iron Man.
    • Chapter fifteen hangs a lampshade on this whole issue when Kusakabe notices that Takahashi refers to Hikari, and only Hikari, by first name. Hikari, in turn, refers to Takahashi simply as "Sensei", instead of "Takahashi-sensei" or "Iron man". Takahashi says at first it's to differentiate her from "Himari-chan", only for the girls to pick up on the use of "chan" for Himari and no honorific at all for Hikari. What follows is a sequence of Takahashi referring to Hikari as "Takanashi", making Hikari wonder if she's in trouble, "Hikari-chan", making the Genki Girl respond with extra Genki, and just "Hikari", which gets her to respond naturally. The narration notes that it's simply become too habitual to change now. In the course of the chapter, Takahashi also refers to Machi and Kusakabe by their first names. The former explodes in embarrassment and the latter ends up finding it awkward, despite being the one who first brought it up.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • In Episode 7, when the detective tells Satou that Kurtz is their weapon against succubi.
      Satou: Stop trying to make this sound like some anime.
    • In chapter 52, when Kaoru seemingly tells the readers that they might be the protagonist of their world while in fact she is talking to Hikari who is not in frame.
      Kaoru: Oh hey, it might even be you.
  • Mutants: This is pretty much what the demi-humans are: humans born with genetic mutations that cause them to exhibit characteristics of the fantastic creatures.
  • Not What It Looks Like: As Takahashi hugs Machi in the biology lab at her request, he lampshades that anyone walking in on them would likely get the wrong idea and get both of them in trouble. Of course, he has to add that they should be fine as long as any person who finds them isn't some loudmouth like Hikari...
  • Oddly Common Rarity: Takahashi spent a good part of his life looking for demis, and suddenly finds four of them in the space of a day.
  • One Cast Member per Cover: Volumes 1-4 have one of the main demi-girls on the cover; Hikari is on Volume 1, Kyouko on Volume 2, Sakie on Volume 3 and Yuki on Volume 4. From Volume 5 on, the covers have multiple characters or one of the main girls once more.
  • Our Monsters Are Different: Takahashi's initial interest in demi-humans is documenting how much folklore about them is fact and fiction. In fact, demi-humans in general seem more transhuman than outright supernatural.
  • Political Overcorrectness: Downplayed. When Machi feels that, despite her classmates being friendly and helpful, there's a social barrier between her and them and that they constantly avoid the topic of her being a dullahan, Takahashi figures this might be because they don't know what the acceptable boundaries are and are afraid of saying anything that crosses a line. He suggests that if Machi herself openly jokes about her nature as a dullahan, her classmates will take cues from her example and become less afraid to talk about it too.
  • Potty Emergency: When she finishes her drink while... conducting her experiment with Takahashi, Machi almost instantly realizes she has to pee badly, and stands up — banging her knee on Hikari's table, since her body is at Hikari's house while her head is away. It takes a few moments for Hikari to work out what's going on and escort Machi's body to the bathroom.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Hikari said that Machi's detachable head is quite the useful feature to sex up one's sex life.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: The anime combines different chapters from the manga together based on subject matter. For example, Episode 3 combined Chapters 6, 10, and 16.5 together due to all three being focused on Sakie and Tetsuo.
  • Production Throwback: Episode 6 has a scene where Takahashi explains to Himari that her sister is not just either a human or a vampire, but the sum of all her life experiences. This is shown with a scene of film reels coming together to form a picture of Hikari: said picture is identical to the cover of the manga's first volume.
  • Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: This trope's Japanese background is alluded to when Hikari and Takahashi discuss the sexual undertones of sucking blood, as Hikari feels quite awkward at the thought of biting a boy since she doesn't have any experience with boys and hasn't even kissed anyone yet, and Takahashi guesses that she probably feels so much more comfortable imagining biting Yuki because they're both girls and it's therefore easier to play off as a joke.
  • Randomly Gifted: This is how apparently one becomes a Demi. Best presented with twin sisters Himari and Hikari - the former is a human, while the latter is a vampire.
  • Relationship Upgrade: In 2023, Valentine's Day, series author Petos had drawn and posted a short One-Shot chapter on Twitter, being set after the end of the manga series, it humorously portrays the first time Tetsuo and Sakie have sex, despite the Doujinshi nature of this special chapter it is not explicit in any way; the couple get naked and face each other comically as if they are about to battle, in a reference to Like a Dragon boss introductions, the outcome is Tetsuo being completely drained of his spirit and Sakie happy she actually managed to have sex with her loved one.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: After Takahashi and Satou get together, one post-series chapter spends an agonizingly long time on the foreplay, with the latter stripping down to her underwear and the former wasting no time getting naked. Then when they collide for the actual sex to happen, the scene cuts to the immediate aftermath; Satou is absolutely glowing while Takahashi lays nearly dead on the floor, spent up and dried out.
  • So Proud of You: How Takahashi felt when Hikari confronted Yuki's bullies and solved the whole thing in a civil manner. He pets her head and offers to buy her a nice meal after school.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Regarding the anime's opening animation: if you're wondering what does a lecherous horse have to do with Satou, the whole scene is a reference to Henry Fuseli's painting The Nightmare, only with a cute anime-styled succubus—Sato without the self-invoke Hollywood Homely—in place of the creepy little incubus.
    • Episode 1 of the anime: Hikari explains that a stake through her heart will kill her (...just like anyone else), while holding a book with a picture of a Classical Movie Vampire seemingly based on Christopher Lee.
    • Episode 3: Satou unwinds at home by drinking beer in hot pants and a tanktop, in the manner made famous by Misato Katsuragi.
    • Episode 7 has another brief Evangelion reference: when Ugaki explains that Kurtz is the best "weapon" they have against succubi, the boy is very briefly shown in the pose of EVA-01 coming out of the ground. Sakie then has to tell him that he's not speaking of an anime.
    • Episode 13 has a moment where the girls, badly startled, see Takahashi as a large, brutish monster which has a more than passing resemblance to the Hulk.
    • The spread of Takahashi and Satou colliding before having sex resembles the intro to the final battle of Yakuza 3.
  • Smoking Is Not Cool: Hikari, with her heightened sense of smell, finds the scent of cigarettes repulsive.
  • Speaking Up for Another: Hikari overhears some of the girls at the school gossiping about Yuki behind her back, and sees Yuki running off in tears. Hikari drags Yuki to the stairwell where the girls are hanging out, tells her to stay quiet and out of sight, and then she gives the two a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, where she informs them that she's putting everyone in the school on notice that she will not tolerate smack talk and rumor-mongering, and will be there to shut it down the moment it happens.
  • Succubi and Incubi: The succubi in this universe is a mixture of folklore and Hollywood variants. While like in the folklores the succubi are not fed by sexual vampirism, but their seductive powers and beauty more aligns to the Hollywood type. As for who can be affected by their seductive powers, though, they are a bit unconventional: the power to induce Erotic Dream is equal-opportunity, while the rest of their seductive powers is dependent on sexual orientation. In any rate, Satou is a Reluctant Monster, and goes to great lengths to avoid seducing anyone.
  • That Came Out Wrong: During a discussion between the girls about how they taste to Hikari, Takahashi thinks about how Hikari's hunger for blood has a sexual undertone. And since Sakie is a succubus, he suspects that to Hikari, she might taste the best. However, he ends up saying that out loud without the context of his thoughts, causing the girls to think he is perving on Sakie.
  • They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: One of the main problems Takahashi had with finding Demis to interview. It's not that they hide in human society — most of them just really don't stand out that much.
  • Those Two Guys: Two sets in fact. For the boys there are the occasional appearances of The One Guy Satake and his friend Oota. For the girls there are Kimura and Imori, Yuki's classmates and Bully Turned Buddy.
  • Translation Matchmaking: The title Interviews with Monster Girls was chosen by Kodansha to imply a connection with Interview with the Vampire and Everyday Life with Monster Girls, works that don't have much to do with it. The term "Demi-chan" would be consistently translated as "demi-girls" in the subtitles, let alone the fact that, in-universe, calling demi-human girls "monster girls" is offensive.
  • Unkempt Beauty: Satou, the math teacher, dresses in bland gym clothes, keeps her hair slicked down in an unflattering way, and wears unfashionable glasses. She's still very pretty, and everyone can tell she'd be drop-dead gorgeous if she tried. Of course, she does this intentionally so that she doesn't seduce anyone by accident.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Machi can't hide her condition unlike the other girls, and she's also supposed to be one of the only three dullahans in the entire world. While regular people aren't really racist against demis anymore, it's curious that nobody seems to react at the sight of a person holding her own head with a jet of green flame coming out of her neck.
  • Vegetarian Vampire: Hikari mentioned the existence of vampires who live by without blood, not even the government-rationed units. She even explicitly compares vampires who live without blood to vegetarians.
  • Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Discussed and averted. Takahashi and Souma talk about what other types of Demis are out there, and conclude that six-limbed creatures such as centaurs and winged humans cannot exist since all land vertebrates have four limbs.
  • Visual Pun: In episode 12 Takahashi sees a photo of Hikari at night, noticing that her eyes flash like animals' ones, and explains her why they do this. Several animals have a membrane in the back of their eyes that reflects back the light, and this is shown with an animation of super-deformed smiling Hikari faces bouncing against said membrane. Hikari means "light" in Japanese.
  • Wham Episode: Volume 7 ends with a discussion on how Machi is functionally a dimensional door that, if used, would break reality like a bug in a video game and potentially end the world itself. At the same time Machi arrives at a party between several of the demis and reality does indeed start breaking. Everyone present is capable of seeing and interacting with Zashiko, her head becomes attached to her body, and the auras of the girls present begin mixing into an ominous "dead fish eye" color. These changes are met with immediate confusion and horror by the girls.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Human opinion on the Demis seems to move from "non-human monsters" to one of "as human as muggles." The internal justification seems to be that Demis are human, biologically speaking they all came from genetic mutations among muggles and developed differently as they age.
  • World of Technicolor Hair: A few characters have unusual hair colors, such as Yuki having teal hair and the Invisible Girl having bright red hair. Himari is noted to dye her hair auburn, but aside from that nobody seems to think anyone's hair color is strange, likely because demi-humans are already becoming an accepted part of society.

Alternative Title(s): Demi Chan Wa Kataritai, Interviews With Monster Girls

Top

"Is Timmy stuck in the well?"

(What?)

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / TimmyInAWell

Media sources:

Report