Tonari-no-Kaibutsu-Kun or “My little monster” is the anime adaptation of a popular shoujo manga series of the same name. It aired from 2 October 2012 and 25 December 2012. The literal translation of its Japanese name is “The monster sitting beside me”. The manga was written and illustrated by Robico. My little monster gained a lot of popularity after its release with the shoujo anime fans for its quirky style of story-telling. The anime revolves around the story of a girl, Shizuku Mizutani, who is obsessed with her studies and school, and a boy, Haru Yoshida, who is not even going to school. The first episode starts with a lot of incidents, always keeping the audience on their toes.
Shizuku is paid by a teacher to get some notes to where Haru lives as he is not coming to school after he got wrongly suspended. Haru doesn’t trust the school system anymore. Shizuku does as she is told, but after that, Haru starts to think of her as his friend. Immediately an unlikely friendship blossoms from there. Shizuku is touched by how innocent Haru actually is despite thinking of him as just a violent guy before meeting him. As they have more interactions, Shizuku, who was nicknamed ‘Dry Ice’ before for being emotionless, realizes that she has finally started to care about Haru. Henceforward, these two unsocial high schoolers try to care for each other.
1. Shizuku stands up to his fake friends
In episode 1, Shizuku sees some of the guys hanging out with Haru. One of them asks Haru for money, saying his allowance was cut, and to her surprise, Haru just gives him his money. Later on, she finds out that the same guy was just using Haru for money. She confronts the guys when she goes to the shop where they hang out. The guy tries to grab her, but she is saved by Haru just in time.
2. Haru cries
After Shizuku confronts Haru’s old friends about using him for money, Haru walks her back to her home. Haru starts sniffling, and Shizuku asks him to not cry about losing these kinds of friends. But Haru starts crying louder and says he is crying because he is happy. He is happy because nobody has cared about him so much before. And Haru says that he has never had a true friend like this before in his life. Shizuku hugs him and tells him that he’ll soon be surrounded by friends. He says that he’ll try going to school if she’s there.
3. Haru confesses his feelings
Now, this is something that makes “My little Monster” so unique. The anime doesn’t back down from being chaotic in the way it’s telling the narrative. Haru confesses that he has feelings for Shizuku right after telling her that she’s one of his first true friends. She gets scared and asks him if he’s just thinking that because he’s never had friends before. But Haru gets really serious and tells her that he will prove to her that he’s serious about being in love with her.
4. Haru kisses Shizuku
A kiss is something that doesn’t happen in the first episode of most shoujo animes. After Shizuku gets kidnapped by the upperclassmen who Haru beat up before, she gets angry at Haru for not letting her study in peace. Haru apologizes and tries to be more understanding about her desire to study all the time. He says that if she cares so much about studying, then he cares about it too since he cares about her. To show she cares about him too, Shizuku decides to finally go to that Monja restaurant he always talks about. On the way, Haru suddenly grabs her by the collar and kisses her. It’s not as romantic, too quick and unexpected but it definitely leaves an impact on Shizuku.
5. You’re always there to save me
Haru is getting along quite nicely with his classmates, making friends with Sasayan and Natsume. They even got over his crazy antics. However, he gets angry with 2 upperclassmen again when he sees them bully a girl. He goes to save her, but in his anger, Haru beats up the two boys quite badly. Haru realizes he had gone too far when even the girl he was trying to save looks at him with fear in her eyes. He looks around and sees that everyone is scared of him. Just then, Shizuku comes and drags him away from there in order to escape from the teachers. She saves him once again.
6. I like it when you smile
Haru and Shizuku are talking to each other in the school corridor. She tells him that other people will continue to be scared of him if he also continues to be suspicious of other people. She then goes on to tell him that she likes it when he smiles. She always wants to see Haru being happy. This scene just goes on to show just how much Shizuku has come to care for Haru. It shows the significant character growth we can see in Shizuku, from being the ‘dry ice’ who didn’t care about pets to someone who cares so much about their love.
7. Valentines Day
It was valentines day as well as Shizuku’s birthday. In the beginning, she was unhappy because her mom wasn’t home again. Her mother is always missing out on important moments in her life as she is always busy with work. But then Haru visits her and gifts her a fountain pen. This significantly cheers her up. The two decided to go for a walk, during which Shizuku gives him valentine chocolate and confesses her feelings for Haru. She also kisses him.
8. Shizuku falls asleep on Haru’s lap
Shizuku has become friends with Asaki Natsume, another girl in their class, after she helped her with her studies. When Asako comes to see Shizuku, who was studying on the rooftop, she sees That Shizuku has fallen asleep on Haru’s lap. Shizuku was too tired from all the studying, and she just fell asleep. Even after waking up, all she can think about is going back to class. But Haru stops her and drags her head back down onto his lap.
9. If you leave, I’ll probably be sad
Shizuku says this to Haru in episode 5 after their encounter with Haru’s older brother Yuzan. Haru has a troubled relationship with his father and brother. Previously he had said that he hated his brother. Yuzan came to Haru’s school to tell him that his father wants to move him to a school near their house so that he could influence Haru more. So, to avoid that, YUzan asks Haru to promise he would continue to go to school here, and then he’ll convince their dad to not take him away. Haru takes Shizuku away from Yuzan after that. As they are walking, Shizuku asks him if he wants to go back home, to which he replies that he doesn’t. Relieved, Shizuku touches his cheek and tells him that she’ll be gutted if he were to leave. She tells him to never lose sight of what’s actually important to him. Shizuku’s words to him show just how important Haru is for her at that moment.
10. Haru shows Shizuku a firefly in Winter
In the last episode of the series, Shizuku is studying alone in her room during the winter holidays. Haru suddenly shows up at her window, tells her he is looking for someone, and then suddenly leaves. However, he forgets his phone at her place. He does the same thing to Natsume, Sasayan, and Yamaken. Shizuku deduces that Haru might be looking for his rooster Nagoya who had been lost. But when she finally meets him, Haru says he was actually looking for a firefly in winter. Shizuku sighs and tells him that there are no fireflies in winter. To which Haru says that he just wanted to show her something beautiful because looking at it with her would increase its beauty since he loves her.
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