This Monster Wants to Eat Me Episode 1
Based on the manga by: Sai Naekawa
Director: Yusuke Suzuki
Series Composition: Mitsutaka Hirota
Character Design: Nozomi Ikuyama
Studio: STUDIO LINGS
Release Date: Oct 2, 2025
Rating: 14+
Content Warning: This series contains subject matter related to suicide. Viewer discretion advised.
This Monster Wants to Eat Me by Sai Naekawa, an ongoing dark supernatural manga series from Yen Press, was greenlit for an anime adaptation last year. The time has finally come, and the first episode has hit Crunchyroll‘s library on October 2, 2025! Here’s a spoiler-free review on whether you should tune into it or not!
Hinako wakes up to a day that feels like every little thing is against her. She feels depleted, and her aunt messages Hinako to let her know she won’t be able to make it to the anniversary of her family‘s passing. Her friend Miko will not make it to accompany her on her walk to school on their first day. Even the bright sun and pleasant weather that bring joy and vitality to others don’t seem to be able to penetrate Hinako’s frozen exterior.
While passing by the bridge, she stops in her tracks. She feels the pull of the deep, seemingly endless sea as she gazes at it shimmering under the smothering summer sun. Suddenly, bubbles surging to the surface unnaturally catch Hinako’s attention as if someone or something is drowning. Just as she bends over the railings, she’s stopped by a young woman whose eyes resemble the sea that Hinako feels equally lost in. Who is this strange person who sees Hinako through? What does it mean that she’ll eat her when the time comes? Why is she suddenly a transfer student in her class? A coincidence too good to be true.
In The Insatiable Man, Lee Huchu‘s debut Boys’ Love VSC, Inwoo asks his now-partner Jiho what he thinks of when he stares at the sea as they sit side-by-side at the beach. Jiho gives a simple answer while Inwoo expresses conflicted feelings. To him, the sea is a place where “beauty and death coexist.”
The sea indeed holds many layers. The water can hold you, free you from the weight of your body, softly envelope you, and drown out the sounds around you. It’s a beautiful and calming sight, and the smell of salt with the gentle breeze on your face is a pleasant experience that nothing else can replace.
But as Inwoo points out, it also has layers where the sun barely reaches sea creatures that roam those depths, and when you’re submerged underwater, it can feel isolating as much as it is freeing. It’s a huge body of unknown, a terrifying one where even when you wish for death, in the face of it, you can’t help but get cold feet.
The strong pull Hinako feels is like a death wish. Throughout the first episode, the sea serves as the familiar unknown, the comforting pair of hands that wrap Hinako around, tunes out the voices around her, calling her into its chasm. It’s the return to sweet nothingness she so desires, a resolution she yearns for. It’s cold, numbing, dark. Almost like her mother’s womb, resembling it in certain aspects, contrasting in others. I also noticed Hinako’s wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck despite the season and heat, which hints at the possibility of scars that might have been left by an accident or self-harm.
Shiori, the monstrous creature in the form of a young woman whom Hinako meets for the first time at the beginning of the episode, is the personification of the terrifying sea Hinako yearns for. Towards the end of the episode, as stated in the official summary, she reveals that she’s a mermaid and she’s here to eventually eat Hinako after saving her from another monster. Until that day arrives, she’s to stick to this delicious human side and protect her from other monsters who dare to approach Shiori’s “food.”
Eating and being eaten, being consumed by the other as an act of love and providing nutrition/life for the consumer or becoming a part of their physical body through consuming, is not at all an uncommon theme in horror, especially in queer horror. As the mental state Hinako is in, she welcomes this monster, who will take her to the destination she wishes to arrive at eventually.
This Monster Wants to Eat Me is not a Yuri, or Girls’ Love title. However, a fan of the genre won’t miss the ending theme full of white lilies from the beginning to the end. For the uninitiated, the Japanese word “yuri” means lily, and because white lilies have come to symbolize the purity and beauty of women, the flower was embraced as the symbol of the genre by its fans.
While I haven’t read the source material, this codependent relationship between Hinako and Shiori has the potential to turn into romantic love. I’m looking forward to Hinako being able to love once again and receive love through genuinely embracing Shiori and what her being means in the context of their relationship—the finitude and fragility of life.
Reina Ueda does a fantastic job portraying Hinako and bringing the subtle changes in her demeanor and emotional states to the screen. She also sings the ending theme song, “Lily.” Her notable recent roles are Kanao Tsuyuri in Demon Slayer, Chinatsu Kono in Blue Box, and Reze in the upcoming Chainsaw Man movie, which we look forward to!
Shiori is voiced by Yui Ishikawa, who also voiced Wako Izumi in the brilliant adaptation of the Keiichi Arawi manga City, Rifa in The Apothecary Diaries, and Philia in The Too-Perfect Saint. Ishikawa’s voice has a nice weight to it without being in the lower register and carries with elegance. Meanwhile, behind the close friend Miko is a voice everyone will recognize. Fairouz Ai is known for her roles as Power from Chainsaw Man, Kikoru Shinomiya from Kaiju No.8, and Yumiella Dolkness in Villainess Level 99.
STUDIO LINGS is behind the production of This Monster Wants to Eat Me. The same studio was also behind the well-received Yuri series adaptation Yuri is My Job!. While I thought the parts where the sea drowned Hinako’s senses were a nice touch, I felt like the eeriness of it all could’ve been a bit more underlined visually.
Kowloon Generic Romance achieved this through sound design, the atmosphere, and characters reacting to it. The moment cicadas start their cacophony, their sound swallows up everything else, puts a tangible weight on the scene, and conveys the sweltering heat perfectly. In This Monster Wants to Eat Me, the difference between the so-called happy, carefree “normal life” and Hinako, including Shiori’s appetite, doesn’t look as heavy as the plot indicates. Thankfully, the sound direction and the tracks, by Ryosuke Nara, do the heavy lifting in this regard. Can’t wait for the official release of the soundtrack!
As I’ve mentioned in my Common-Sense Monster review, 2025 is the year monsters beat closeted queers in this game called “normie life,” and fans are here for it! This Monster Wants to Eat Me will definitely be among the series I’ll keep up with weekly this season, as I’m curious how the themes introduced in this first episode will develop later on. A new episode drops every Thursday, and there’s even a short interview with the series’ creator, editor and the anime producer available on The Beat. So if anything I mentioned here is of interest to you, don’t miss out!
The screener and the stills are provided by Crunchyroll in exchange for an honest review.
You can catch a new episode of This Monster Wants to Eat Me on Thursdays at Crunchyroll!
