mono

## Season 1

### Soundtrack

I actually enjoyed a lot of the background tracks that were used in mono. They were used reasonably, so to say. I also heard a surprising amount of variety, which was surprising.

The opening track, sung by the voice actors(?) was really great. They really captured the vibe of the anime itself, which is kind of important to me for an opening song. Other than the song itself, the animation for the opening was pretty nice. I really enjoyed the 360 camera gimmick, which also tied in to the anime.

Moving on to the ending song, halca dropped another banger ending song. Of course, like most ending songs, this one's just as sentimental sounding as any other one, but it's also definitely more upbeat than most of its kind. It's honestly way too good and really emphasized the vibe of the anime. Definitely a nice song to add to my playlist. Besides the song itself, the animation was pretty nice, if not respectable. It's alright, so I have no more comments for it.

### Thoughts

When you boil it down, mono is really just a slice of life anime. There's a bit of "substrate" to bite at the beginning about photos and the photography club, but it gets overshadowed by the road trip theme that I didn't find to be as captivating. There's at least some justification for that which I will talk about later, though. Despite the nonexistent plot, I still enjoyed the anime, which almost doesn't make sense at all.

As I mentioned earlier, mono starts off with the premise of a dying photography club and its two members, Satsuki and An. I thought this anime was going to be a more light hearted version of Insomniacs After School, but I was surprised to see the story pivot so quickly to a road trip theme. Okay, it started off with them taking a timelapse at a point of interest, but after that I feel like the show put too much emphasis on the places they go to, to the point that I almost forgot about the whole photography club thing. I'll give it some slack for that though, as I think the reason for that story decision is so that the main character, Satsuki, gets to see more beautiful things in the world that she wants to photograph (because she only photographed her oshi senior previously). Unfortunately, that plot point isn't really explored that much other than the occasional semi-emotional scene. Yeah, mono kind of missed the mark. It could've been the Ruri Rocks of photography, but instead it's just a mid slice of life anime.

I don't think the characters themselves are great at all. They barely have agency and things just kind of happen to them. The first two main characters, Satsuki and An just don't have anything going for them. I don't even know why Satsuki even likes photography beyond her photographing her oshi senior. At least their better third character, Sakurako was alright, though. Is this what you call moe? Sakurako is a pretty good chill character that's also the subject of some comedic moments. Again, things just kind of happen for no reason, though, like her suddenly being good at skateboarding and that being a one-off moment. I did enjoy her participation in the final episode, though. Other than the main three girls, there are also the two adults, Haruno and Kako. Maybe it's just because I read another review of this anime, but Haruno felt kind of like a self-insert at times. She's very girlfailure-adjacent and gets too much slack from the other cast members. I liked seeing her and her friends, though, it's not every day that you see a mangaka friend group in an anime. They were pretty interesting, and I actually liked the video call episode. Kako, on the other hand, was a really good character. Her appearances in the story, being a motorcyclist and all, just make sense. She also gives an ample amount of exposition about the food they eat or the places they go too. My only problem with her is the lack of emotional connection, though. The other four main characters at least have problems they want to solve and desires they want to fulfill. Kako's almost like a feather blowing in the wind, and I expected that to be explored more, especially when it was revealed that she quit her job, but the story quickly wrapped up after that. Definitely leaves more to be desired.

I've been very negative, so I'll talk about what I actually like about the anime. I will say that mono is basically a tourism promotion anime, especially with the overemphasized road trip element. Though I disliked the underutilization of the photography aspect, I still enjoyed the overall anime. The road trip theme made for a lot of good moments between the characters. It was also nice to learn about the various points of interest that the cast visited. It felt just good enough to be watchable. Other than that, I also liked the folklore horror "undercurrent" aspect that was revisited more than I expected. I mean, it makes sense to utilize that for a countryside road trip anime. I really enjoyed it, even if it was very sparse. Finally, as a vibes guy, I must say that I enjoyed the vibe of this anime. It's an anime that made me feel warm through and through, and despite all of the shortcomings, I don't regret that feeling at all.

Overall, mono is almost a nothing burger. But I like nothing burgers. It's an anime that's captivating enough with the endearing main cast to keep you watching twelve whole episodes. It's not about photography, nor is it about coming-of-age, but somehow it's a road trip anime. It relies too much on the exposition given just by the road trip theme. It's not boring—it's just not very interesting (NOT AI, I ACTUALLY USED THE EM DASH). Despite all of that, I still enjoyed watching mono. It's an anime about teenagers enjoying life, and it executed that perfectly fine. 8/10 Mid-Mid.