This Monster Wants to Eat Me Serves Up the Main Course, Live and Wriggling

It’s October, but can you have your pumpkin pie, human flesh, and eat it too? This Monster Wants to Eat Me is a yuri horror anime about two girls — at least one is a real girl — and a macabre dinner date. Episodes one and two left me chilled and curious. Can a beautiful friendship blossom between the entrée and the connoisseur?

No girlfriend? No problem! April 14 is Black Day in South Korea, when single men mark the occasion by eating black noodles. They missed out on Valentine’s Day chocolate on February 14 and had no one to give white chocolate to on White Day, March 14, so April 14 is their day! J-List is celebrating with a huge 15% sale on all Japan-based products through April 20. Start browsing now!

This Monster Wants to Eat Me, from Manga to Anime

Yuri? Yes.

Hinako (voiced by Reina Ueda) suffered a profound loss when her family died in an accident. While struggling to recover, she meets two youkai who want to eat her. One of them, Shiori (Yui Ishikawa), defends Hinako from the other because Shiori will wait until Hinako reaches her optimal tastiness. Hinako thinks this is a great deal. She can finally die.

Sai Naekawa writes and illustrates This Monster Wants to Eat Me (or Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi in Japanese). Printers published the first volume in late 2020, and the series is ongoing, with ten volumes in print. Yen Press publishes the English translation.

Hinako’s profound loss and hopelessness give This Monster Wants to Eat Me a dark undertone. Cannibalism makes it even darker. It’s the budding friendship between Hinako and Shiori — a deep, close, yuri friendship — that brings the show together intriguingly.

Love, Terror, and Tender Meat Treats

Horror. Yuri. Two words that seldom share shelf space. But the mix of two women finding companionship against a backdrop of building terror is a genius concoction.

What emotions are more arresting than love or fear? H.P. Lovecraft, the horror writer best known for his Cthulhu Mythos, called fear the “oldest and strongest emotion of mankind.” I disagree. My experience is that love beats fear. Always. Fear is the more primal of the pair, but love is conscious, active, and the perfect foil to fear.

Maybe that’s why the combination works so well. This Monster Wants to Eat Me is a fascinating, thoughtful, and chilling tale of longing and overcoming hurt. Each emotion — love or fear — contrasts and improves the other. We’re left with a poignant story that’ll be hard to forget.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me Leaves a Mark

How can you tell This Monster Wants to Eat Me affected me indelibly, after only two episodes? Puns. I’ve ignored a buffet of foodie puns and an ocean of sea quips. That doesn’t usually happen.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me is available to stream on Crunchyroll with subtitles. Hinako and Shiori earn four Chibi Megumis for giving us a unique and moving monster romance that has all the spirit of Dracula, reimagined and fresh.

If you enjoy This Monster Wants to Eat Me and its type of yuri, then you’ll adore the Flowers series of visual novels. Shy Suoh Shirahane begins her first year at Saint Angraecum Academy in volume one, Flowers -Le volume sur printemps-. Do you have other recommendations for cerebral yuri anime, manga, or games? Drop them in the comments below!

Let’s Chat

You made it to the end of this post! Thank you! As a token of our appreciation, enjoy an extra 5% off your next order when you use the code BLOG at checkout. Also, don’t forget to follow J-List on all our platforms!

• Twitter / X, where Peter posts anime booba for you
• Bluesky, where we post several times a day
• Facebook, where we used to share memes and discuss anime
• Discord, if you want to chat with other J-List customers of culture

No girlfriend? No problem! April 14 is Black Day in South Korea, when single men mark the occasion by eating black noodles. They missed out on Valentine’s Day chocolate on February 14 and had no one to give white chocolate to on White Day, March 14, but so April 14 is their day! J-List is celebrating with a huge 15% sale on all Japan-based products through April 20. Start browsing now!