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... Saturdays. ⏎ How was the first episode? ⏎Richard Eisenbeis ⏎ Rating: 4 ⏎ It's funny. As a rule, I don't enjoy slice-of-life stories—especially of “the cute girls in school clubs” variety—but Mono does a great job of showing there is an exception to every rule. This is because, despite being a part of the genre, there is more to it than simply reveling in everyday youth and cuteness. Mono has a message it wants to impart—more than one actually. ⏎ The main theme of this anime is the relationship between subject, artist, and art. Satsuki finds herself the subject of Makinohara's art. This, in turn, inspires her to make art out of Makinohara's art—taking pictures of Makinohara as she works. This goes even a step further when we learn that An was taking pictures of Satasuki taking pictures of Makinohara taking pictures. But of course, it doesn't end there. ⏎ Once Makinohara leaves the story, we get a new Inception-style cascade. We have Satsuki and An taking pictures. Then we have Haruno, making a manga about Satsuki and An taking pictures. Then you have us, the viewers, watching an anime about Haruno making a manga about Satsuki and An taking pictures. ⏎ The point the series is trying to make is obvious: capturing the act of making art can be art in and of itself. Being inspired by others' art and making your art from it is a beautiful and wonderful thing. ⏎ The other theme Mono touches on is the relationship between technology and art. Photography has been around since the invention of the camera—drawing since time immemorial. Yet with new technology, Satsuki is able to easily get breathtaking shots with minimal effort and Haruno is able to sit at home and do all the work of a manga artist with nothing but her tablet. Technology can artists in achieving their vision—and even facilitate new kinds of art like strapping a video camera on a cat for a week and seeing what happens. The bar of entry for creating your own art has never been lower. ⏎ In the end, I am shocked at how thematically strong this episode is. Beyond that, it has a fun and silly central trio, solid visuals, and some clever humor. While I don't know if this series will be for me in the long run, watching this episode was a real treat and I can't recommend it enough. ⏎ Caitlin Moore ⏎ Rating: 2.5 ⏎ Mono might have scored higher with me if not for a single scene: Haruno Akiyama, a dopey manga artist who sold the protagonist Satsuki Amamiya her first action camera, gets a text from her editor with instructions for her new series. It must be a four- comic about high school girls getting into a hobby. Her editor suggests it includes a scene of them eating a meal together and setting it in her hometown of Kofu in Yamanashi prefecture. How convenient that she just met two high school girls who are getting into action photography, a hobby that involves going to various places in Kofu! And they had even had okonomiyaki together earlier. Well, isn't that tidy. ⏎ It was just so… self-referential. Like, I don't think Afro, who also wrote the much-lauded Laid-Back Camp actually sold a camera to a high school girl and then started hanging out with them to get ideas for their next manga. However, I could see them having that exact conversation with their editor and using it as a springboard for their new series. Or maybe it was just an excuse for this grown adult to hang around this group of teenagers and drive them places? I don't know, but it rankled me to see the narrative's seams so nakedly and turned me sour on what is frankly a perfectly fine hobby anime. ⏎ To be fair to myself, I wasn't feeling super warm toward it to begin with. Hobby anime are not my genre of choice to say the least; I'm not fully immune to their charms but they have to win me over in some way that mono failed at. The episode was quite pretty—showing off the intricacies of action photography when back in my day, you chose between either a point and shoot digital camera or invested in an expensive DSLR. It only makes sense that an anime about photography would look good; if the skill invested in the show's visuals are subpar, you can't very well make a convincing show of the characters' own skills. ⏎ But man, did that episode drag! It felt at least as long as its runtime plus half. The photography aspect is cool, but the characters involved in the hobby left me completely cold. Neither Satsuki nor Ai had much personality other than obsessing over their respective girl-crushes, and Haruno is a stereotypical beer-swilling ditzy adult. I also felt a bit like I was watching a tourism campaign for Yamanashi—and while I like series that take place in parts of Japan other than the metropolises, I don't care for feeling d to. ⏎ Still, mono did a decent job of depicting what it's like to find a new hobby you're excited to learn more about. ...But seriously, why are those girls getting a random working adult to drive them around? Where are their parents? ⏎ James Beckett ⏎ Rating: 4 ⏎ Mono is the...