Common Name: Centaur no Nayami
Alternative Name: A Centaur's Life, Centaur's Worries
Score: 4/10, 1/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, Monster Girls, School Life, Pseudohistory
Summary: Set in a world where evolution took a slightly different course from our own, the creatures we typically with mythology and cryptozoology have all taken up as the title of "humanity." With so many various forms of being, however, it is an unfortunate truth that some more severe forms of racism and hatred took hold of this world at one point or another. For the sake of the youth of today though, the Japanese government has taken up a policy of quashing any and all sentiments that could lead to a revival of racist behavior. All these rules and restrictions don't exactly ease the worries of the young-- those who are in the midst of discovering themselves and the traits of those around them--especially one carefree and spacey centaur named Kimihara Himeno. Luckily, Hime has several friends who are willing to ease her worries regarding adolescence, her future, and life itself.
Review: No matter how much I may praise shows that have something thoughtful or intellectually stimulating to offer--going so far as to turn it into one of my conditional gateways to what I consider a "masterpiece"--I will always argue that a show that fails to make its food-for-thought interesting or engaging then that will be an outright failure. While I'm aware that such a stance threatens to put intellectual or artistic shows on a precarious pass/fail scale, consider for a moment what a good teacher, mentor, confidante, etc. looks like. The way I see it, a truly "great" teacher is one who engages their student with the subject matter to the point that their curiosity or drive to learn end up turning the role of the teacher into something more akin to a supervisor. A "good" teacher is one who is familiar with the subject matter and is capable of passing a fraction of that knowledge onto their student. A "bad" teacher is one who thoughtlessly drones on about an overly complex topic, making the learning process dull and aggravating, if not outright impossible. Following that theory, I believe a show that tries to teach something should be held to those same standards I used to define the quality of a teacher. So, you can probably guess by now whether or not I fell asleep during Centaur no Nayami's lecture on adolescence, social order, and the intrigue of racial politics.
Oddly enough, the show's "main character" seems to share my lack of interest at times.
To put it bluntly, Centaur no Nayami is something of narrative train wreck that has no solid idea it wants to be. On the one hand, it generally acts like a cutesy slice of life that hinges on realistic conversations and problems. On the other, it changes its tone, main character, and general message so frequently that it all turns into a garbled mess. During Centaur no Nayami's runtime we see everything from a high school girl trying to take care of her family in spite of her deadbeat father, a business executive showing respect for all forms of life due to his time in a concentration camp, and a young girl who is worried that her vagina looks weird because of a boy who teased her when she was six-years-old. I'll let you try to guess who the main character is in that list.
If you guessed high school mom, you would be correct, assuming amount of total screen time or
character complexity dictated who was the main character.
I'll grant, however, that all those mindbogglingly different stories do all hold one thing in common: the world all these characters, engaging or otherwise, inhabit. While the show was advertised as a cutesy slice of life comedy, it actually spends most of its time reflecting on the "what," "why," and "how" of the world at large. In a way, this approach makes some amount of sense since the author went so far as to logically and reasonably create a world where centaurs, angels, and merfolk, among several other races, live and prosper. All that thought and consideration would have gone to waste if the show itself didn't bring attention to everything from the existence of an anti-racist "Big Brother" state to these characters' beliefs regarding the matter of the soul.
In case you were still wondering, vagina girl, aka the centaur Kimihara Himeno,
is technically the show's "true main character."
As I said before though, no matter how "thoughtful" or "complex" a show might be, none of that is worth a thing if the show it's built on just isn't interesting or engaging. I honestly can't think of any way to describe Centaur no Nayami than to call it boring. It's like the show was written by a sociology professor who took interest in anime after hearing his kid likes Monmusume. From start to finish it feels like some kind of dull lecture on the human condition using humanoid anime characters. While, sure, the "lecture" is usually broken up with some typical anime hijinx and sapphic overtones, these moments just feel like they add on to the lecture. We see several moments where Himeno romantically engages with members of the same sex, as anime girls are want to do, yet these moments aren't titillating. They're just scenes of a young girl testing her sexuality in a world where inter-species and same-sex relationships aren't frowned upon the same way it is in many parts of our own world. Similarly, we see the usual gag moment where friends stalk their classmate while they're on a date several times. Rather than being silly and humorous though, that scenario just speaks to the aggressively cautious and probing nature of this world where any racist actions, thoughts, or ideals are instantly and violently snuffed out.
Yeah, in case you thought I was kidding about this being a Big Brother state, the main cast has guns
pulled on them at one point for tapping a classmate on the head and calling them an idiot.
Heck, even some of the show's more "fan service-y" moments feel like they're part of the lecture since we see subcultures where showing skin is just a convenient norm as well as moments where the youth of this society are in the midst of discovering themselves. In all honesty, though, this constant barrage of sociological analysis isn't my only gripe with the show. One thing in particular that really bothers me is the creator's apparent obsession with young children in a way that sets off a few alarm bells in my mind. While I'll admit I might just be over-thinking this particular issue and am willing to wave away a few scenes with an explanation that the children are just mimicking their teenage elders, I just don't know how to process the rationale behind an entire scene where we see a very young centaur child fully undress. What I don't think can be argued, however, is the fact that this show just isn't funny so much as it is cringe-worthy. Each and every aspect of the show that is meant to lighten the mood just makes things feel weird and stilted or outright unnecessary--noting the "weird vagina" story as a combination of all three.
So, with that all said and reiterated at least three times, I honestly can't say I liked this show. It felt like a half-hearted attempt at a slice of life comedy or a thoughtful commentary about our own world. While the art, animation, and music are all serviceable, they aren't good enough to make up for this show's absolute failure in every other category. And, honestly, what else can I call a show that is dull at best and outright insulting at worst other than a failure. So, to put it simply, I REALLY don't recommend this show under any circumstances. Even for those who are diehard fans of the "monster girl" subgenre, I'd say it's better to avoid this one since it's just not that kind of show. As much as I hate to say it, it'd honestly watch Monmusume again than suffer through this show.