S-Rank Monster no "Behemoth" dakedo, Neko to Machigawarete Elf Musume no Pet toshite Kurashitemasu

'Beheneko: The Elf-Girl's Cat is Secretly an S-Ranked Monster!' is basically an unnamed knight who got reincarnated into an S-ranked monster, a behemoth, but mostly takes the form of a cute cat named Tama. Whilst a character offscreen came from Japan and the world of Beheneko is an isekai, for our purposes, it is effectively just fantasy.

I am recommending this but I can only give a 5 out of 10. Why? It's a great guilty pleasure or close to degenerate. It teases about bestiality without going there.

Its story is decent. It has a decent beginning, some character for Tama and his master Aria, an introduction ... to Aria's comrades, and some fights. Whilst Tama is this powerful beast, he is often challenged, which is why it's not one of those anime where the protagonist is overpowered and easily defeats his enemies. The final boss is a worthy challenge, though one may nitpick how he was defeated.

It includes an LGBT couple. Some people may object to this and call this woke DEI shit. I can't blame them, and I also hate woke/DEI. But let's get real. The problem with woke/DEI stuff in Western media is that they make the inclusion of marginalised people the raison d'etre of why a piece of media should be celebrated and neglect the story and entertainment value. In contrast, this anime can and does entertain, albeit it's imperfect. Also, true diversity would allow media that excludes LGBT and ethnic minorities but also allow media that also includes them. It should not be a one-size-fits-all where every piece of media should include DEI.

BUT HERE'S WHERE IT STINKS:

Except for Tama, the character designs are mostly generic. Aria in particular isn't distinct enough from Seras of Failure Frame, who also has a generic design. Contrast this with the character design of Frieren and Marcille from Dungeon Meshi.

It is advertised as uncensored ecchi, but it falls flat spectacularly. Even if we see their large boobs and nipples, it doesn't feel sexy. They look and feel like generic slop. Thus, the bath scenes in almost every episode, which last around 3 or so minutes, feel like a waste of time. If this were not an uncensored ecchi, I would have given this at least a 6 because its story is at least decent but its USP of having uncensored ecchi is a disaster.

It's not bad. It is certainly watchable. It can be a guilty pleasure, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

Ok first things first. If you are looking for high quality anything...it's not this. This is a Guilty Pleasure at it's finest! It is just a goofy good time and that's it. This series knows what it is and leans into it full force. It's a hot mess, but in a good way...or in a neutral way for some. It's basically a Popcorn ecchi.

Having said that as someone who loves both ecchi and fantasy.....it was fine.....and that's how I rated it. Truthfully it's pretty average across the board. I bumped it up to a 6 because I did enjoy watching it ... the whole way through, even if it was a bit repetative. My biggest issue is the wasted potential. This premise is interesting enough, but nothing was really fleshed out at all. The story felt extremely rushed and very little was explained in the way of character building and background information. The typical tropes both story and character are present so nothing really new there. The animation is good for what it is despite what some say. As someone who grew up in 80's I know bad animation and this isn't bad. Granted it's not great, but for what you are watching, it's fine so some of you need to get off your high horses.

Bottom line if you like goofy ecchi fantasies and aren't bothered by all the main female characters being horny for an animal you'll likely enjoy this for the Popcorn Anime it is or at least want to finish it. Otherwise avoid it.

Welcome to the nth entry in the 2020s isekai/fantasy deluge of utterly forgettable slop that has continued to plague the airwaves (or should I say bandwidths) of anime for what has felt like time immemorial. The twist this time is that the main character was a fallen hero who has reincarnated as a cat. But not just any cat - he's an S-rank behemoth, capable of astounding skills and abilities that can beat pretty much any threat or enemy he comes across, which takes away any cinematic tension (I shudder at even applying that phrase in this context) that builds up during the course of ... the show. This makes him, well, just like any other invincible isekai protagonist, except that his hair (or fur) is brown, rather than black like his brethren of clone brothers from the countless other isekai universes. The supposed "twist" here unfortunately doesn't add much to the story, failing to help it stand out from the surrounding cesspool of crap. There were many interesting ways the story could've gone to dive into the challenges and advantages of being a cat in a fantasy world (like how the video game Stray did it within a cyberpunk world).

Perhaps this story never set out to achieve anything of note - and it was cheap, fun entertainment with attractive female characters playing up ecchi tropes. Wholeheartedly embracing the degeneracy could've been a somewhat refreshing take on the genre. In that case, it could have gone further with the fanservice and spent more time and effort on that, rather than shoehorning in some contrived overarching conflict with an unnecessary level of seriousness. It could've done better to have picked a lane and stuck to it.

In terms of production, the theme songs were somewhat unique compared to similar offerings in the genre, and the voice acting performances were solid. The animation was nothing to shout about.

It would've been a complete waste of time, but at least the show had plenty of bath scenes (I think they had one in pretty much every episode). 1 point for the boobs of the main elf girl, 1 point for the boobs of the cat girl, 1 point for the boobs of the dragon girl.