Teenagers go through a lot of changes, both physical and emotional. Gleipnir follows Shuichi Kagaya, a teen who is trying to hold on to his humanity in the midst of high school life. Shuichi has a secret, he transforms into a monster. Keen sense of smell, abnormally brutish strength, and the look of a sports team mascot that has had it's outfit repaired too many times. As if teen angst, depression, the longing to fit in and self-hate were not enough to deal with, Shuichi is also a monster.
One sleepless night Shuichi goes outside for a stroll and spots a building fire nearby, which he rushes towards. His sense of smell leads him to first year student, Claire Aoki, who appears to be unconscious inside the burning building. He rescues her, bringing her out of the building and laying her clear of the fire. That is when he notices her beauty and allows his hormones to take over.
He stops himself before undressing her and in his shock and embarrassment changes back into human form and runs back home. What he doesn't realize is Claire wasn't unconscious and after attempting to undress her, she saw him flee and he had dropped his phone in his hurry to leave. The next day Shuichi is in a panic trying to find his phone, scared that the fire investigators might find it and think he started the building fire.
Claire, as beautiful and innocent as she may look, is just as much of a monster as Shuichi, if not more. She confronts him the next day in school, telling him that she knows he is a monster and she has his phone. She blackmails Shuichi into doing her bidding under the threat that she will let everyone know his secret. She later decides to give his phone back, placing it on the edge of the roof, only to push Shuichi off when he picks it up. Claire did this to catch him transforming into a monster, which he does to prevent from dying from the fall.
This anime was based off the 2015 manga Gleipnir and has seven volumes to date. This anime falls within the action, supernatural, mystery, seinen and ecchi genre. The ecchi scenes are not nearly as bad as some anime and are not the primary part of the story. After reading the manga we feel it could also fall into the psychological genre as well, with the clever portrayal of Claire as a monster. This anime has our attention this season and we feel it should be one of the top anime this season. If it isn't on your viewing list yet, then you should add it. We're going to watch this one all season long.
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