REVIEW: ‘My Oni Girl’ Doesn’t Quite Stand Out

Hiiragi Yatsuse (Kenshô Ono, Summer Time Rendering) is a people-pleaser who struggles to stand up for himself. When a chance encounter causes him to meet an outspoken girl named Tsumugi (Miyu Tomita, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury), Hiiragi soon finds himself chased by malevolent spirits and discovers how important it is to speak up for himself in My Oni Girl, directed by Tomotaka Shibayama, written by Yûko Kakihara (Buddy Daddies) and Tomotaka Shibayama, and animated by Studio Colorido.

Some story setups are considered classics for a reason. They speak to a large number of people, they provide ample opportunity for character exploration, or perhaps they bring an excellent means of escapism for the audience. While these classic plot outlines can be utilized with ease, they demand a higher degree of polish if they hope to stand out. You can’t just be good in a crowded genre, you have to be great. Unfortunately, My Oni Girl never manages to step beyond what’s been done before.

My Oni Girl‘s middle-of-the-road qualities begin with its pair of protagonists. Hiiragi and Tsumugi are well-implemented characters who serve their purpose while falling just short of memorable. They form classic opposites that complement each other, which works well throughout the movie’s two-hour runtime. Both characters embody the concepts they represent, giving the viewer a clear understanding of what each will bring to the movie’s narrative. The only element between them that the film tries to use to make them stand out at all is the oni element of the story. However, this doesn’t add as much as one might expect.

While Tsumugi is a titular oni girl, that special nature doesn’t serve much purpose. She has a horn on her head, but no one from our world but Hiiragi can see it. There doesn’t seem to be anything about oni to set them apart from the rest of us in My Oni Girl. The lack of separation between humanity and oni feels like an even greater miss when we learn early on that Hiiragi is himself becoming an oni.

Whenever Hiiragi withholds his feelings, small jellyfish-like spirits leave his body. Tsumugi explains to him that those are mini-oni. If someone withholds too many of their feelings, they will eventually become an oni themselves. When My Oni Girl first reveals this to the viewer, it’s presumed that this transformation entails something. That Hiiragi will disappear from our world, or some other seismic shift in his life will occur. But no such revelation comes. It seems the only use his impending transformation serves is as an excuse to put him in the sights of the film’s villains.

Throughout the movie, Hiiragi and Tsumugi are hunted by skyborne spirits. The spirits’ purpose isn’t clear for much of the film, but the fact that they target both of the leads implies it has something to do with being oni. This monstrous attention is the only major repercussion of being an oni.

The sequences featuring these assailants are tense moments that bring an adequate sense of peril to the proceedings. The monsters slither through the sky, creating an unnatural and perilous feeling. The fact that they are always preceded by snow, even though the film takes place in the summer, gives their arrival a level of impending threat that helps build up their place in the film.

My Oni Girl’s journey morphs into several different forms. Initially, it follows Hiiragi as he helps Tsumugi search for a shrine she believes she’ll find her mother. While this quest occupies the first half of the film, the narrative transforms in the back half a couple of times. How the story reshapes itself brings some freshness to the proceedings. As Hiiragi and Tsumugi take turns in the spotlight, the film tries to bring its changing narrative to a powerfully emotional conclusion.

As with other elements of the film, the ending manages to pull off its final moments well. The film’s final triumphs give its characters a rewarding closing chapter to their stories. However, too many of the elements, both narratively and visually, feel too familiar to truly stand out.

My Oni Girl’s good qualities are reinforced in its soundtrack. While the score brings some solid atmospheric music that plays into the tone of various scenes, it never comes into its own as a real presence. No single piece ever stands out to elevate the film.

My Oni Girl is a decent movie. If you are someone who can’t get enough of the everyday person drawn into a fantastical adventure concept, this film will scratch that itch. If, however, you are looking for a film that sets itself apart from the rest of its genre, this one does not offer enough to stand out.

My Oni Girl is streaming now on Netflix.