Today marks a sad day for all monster-girl lovers out there. Despite Funimation’s earlier advertising for the anime adaptation of Interspecies Reviewers, a fantasy anime in which a party of male adventurers rate and review monster brothels, the company has decided to pull the anime from its streaming service. Their official statement on the removal is as follows: ” After careful consideration, we determined that this series falls outside of our standards. We have the utmost respect for our creators so rather than substantially alter the content, we felt taking it down was the most respectful choice.”
Despite the vagueness on what standards the content of the anime failed to meet in order to be kept, it’s worth noting that at the time of writing this article, Funimation does in fact stream anime that contains mature elements and themes that are sexual in nature, such as Prison School. However, reviews of the series suggest that the anime version of Interspecies Reviewers pushed the envelope, causing Funimation to censor content in order to keep the majority of the content available for viewers to stream.
While the manga is much more conservative in its physical content, often taking the time to explain the characteristics and behaviors of each monster-girl, and keeping the majority of the “review” off-page, it makes sense that the anime would reinforce the physicality in order to keep viewers engaged. Another issue would be that the series manages to be frank about topics such as the nature of sex work, as well as exploring other issues relating to sex such as genitalia size and how women experience sex.
There’s no word yet on if another streaming service will pick up the anime, or if it will be able to be streamed uncensored. Sexual content aside, Interspecies Reviewers manages to be an entertaining anime.
Interspecies Reviewers anime visual:
Source: Anime News Network
