This anime is a strange beast, just like the manga it's based on. It's primarily a slice-of-life series, set in a world where all people are hybrids of various sorts (centaurs, goatmen, sirens etc.) and follows everyday life of Hime, a centaur high school student and her classmates. It mostly focuses on the problems and challenges that Hime and people of other hybrid races face, some coming from their racial features (ex. sirens not being able to move on land) and some very much universal (ex. taking care of younger siblings in one-parent household). It also hints at possible romance between the main character and one of her female friends. But that's not all...

The other major component of the story is the political reality of this world, with many totalitarian themes, mostly connected to forced equality between various races and extremely harsh treatment of all forms of discrimination. While the everyday life of the characters seem pretty much normal, we are regularly shown cases of extreme propaganda, security apparatus etc. giving us the feeling that something's very wrong under the surface.

The problem is, the show's pacing is extremely slow and if it follows the manga faithfully, it probably won't be able combine its various themes into any coherent storyline. You would expect the political intrigue to influence the main character's life in some drastic way, transforming the show into a fully-fledged dystopia, but all that I've heard about the source material says it's not really the case. As it is now, Centaur's Life is pretty relaxing and have redeeming qualities as a slice-of-life story and kind of a though experiment, with its super-realistic approach to modern society with fantasy races. On the other hand, it seems to suffer from perpetual identity crisis and it's hard to get a proper feeling on what you're actually watching and whether it will ever go anywhere with some of its story elements.

Still, I find many of the reviews here overly harsh. The show definitely have its intriguing elements and I think that the emotional dynamic between the three main characters is really enjoyable. For now, I give it four stars and I will continue watching it, with a slight hope that authors will be able make the story a bit more cohesive and dynamic in the future.

EDIT: As a small update for the end of the season, I think that the series sadly fell victim to the traps I've mentioned earlier and maybe even more so than I expected. The last episode especially left a bitter taste in my mouth, mostly consisting of cute filler and fanservice, with absolutely no substance. The series creates myriad of stories, but never gives them any closure, making the whole experience sadly unsatisfying. I'm not lowering the score to three stars mostly due to respect for its original and bold ideas, but much of that potential was in my opinion wasted.

The first episode is cute, and it has been interesting to watch more of them. FYI this is NOT the same as Monster Musume, but has a few similarities with Interviews With Monster Girls in a general way. That being said, there are some weird things that show up that give an impression of disrupting the flow in small ways.

It looks to be presented as a slice of life in a world filled with only animal people. While it does touch on social, sci-fi and supernatural topics, it doesn't end up getting too serious. We have a peak into a world of 'humans' that have evolved much differently than our own, which is expounded upon in part B of episode 1. There are also several points with some very serious socialist overtones that probably came in reaction to past history that resulted from the diversity of people's forms.

The primary focus starts with the friendship between three girls, a centaur, a demon, and a goat. The centaur has a very honest and straight forward innocence that will both support her friends, and get her into trouble at times. The devil is slightly mischievous, with a penchant for fun that hurts her academics. The goat seems to be paying the straight man with a laid back personality, but low physical stamina. The trio will set a course through their school life to find fun and a future in this alternate world. Other characters and humanoid types blend into the story in time, and they even have quite a bit of fun with mixtures of types such as a child with angel wings with cat ears. Overall it's just a fun little comedy show.

I don't normally watch moe anime, but I watched this because I like centaurs.

This series starts out cute at first, but definitely loses focus by the end. Instead of focusing on slice of life, you get all sorts of dangling plot threads that start to take on a serious tone, but ultimately lead nowhere. At times, they even joke about the plot making no sense, as if I'm supposed to laugh along while the writers giggle over their own laziness? Even a crappy explanation for events or a hand wave is better than blatantly wasting my time.

Though there are broad themes of diversity and acceptance, the show never really goes beyond the surface so whole episodes dedicated to non-cute, non-slice of life things seem wasted at best, and wildly inappropriate at worst.

All that said, the first part of the series was enjoyable enough. The novelty of the animal bodies, particularly the centaur and mermaid bodies and the challenges they present, is enough to carry several episodes. If the series had stayed focused on its own gimmick, it would have easily been a solid 3 stars. As it is, the end of the series is a confusing and unnecessary letdown. I won't advise you not to watch, but I can't help but expect that if you do, you'll also be disappointed in the end.

This is definitely the slice of life series that was expected. I personally enjoyed the first episode and perhaps the second. We are now mid season and I've had my moments of considering dropping this show from my queue. However, I am currently still watching it but it's not anywhere near my favorite list. There's a lack of character development both within the character and their interactions that's expected in a slice of life. Many of the episodes become mundane, and I find myself fast forwarding because there's a very slow pace. At times there's an ecchi theme but it's over the top and doesn't fit with the overall series development. It's like this show is trying too hard and ends up making it worse.

It's a show with great world building and a thin plot. I don't think there is a plot, just a girl living her life as a centaur, but because she is a centaur, it's slightly different.

This can be great for mindless watching while doing the dishes, but with such an unique world, it's almost a waste to be about almost nothing. It's like harry potter, but without voldemort, anyone of slytherin or ministry and everyone was just enjoying a happy life together in a world that is just the same as for humans, but slightly different.

But I don't necessary dislike it. I did say it's almost about nothing, but every character introduced seems like fun. They are open to LGBT, they have slice of life questions and it makes you think about how the evolved people live in a world made for humans. They mention rules, politics, history and war and science that can change a persons lifestyle. Those are very interesting, but it's barely mentioned. It just glosses over it to remind you the world they are living in.

Maybe they will shift their tone, but I doubt it after seven episodes. I might watch the other episodes of it's finished and it has great reviews or something. For now, this isn't for me. It might be interesting for other people, so check out the first episode and judge for yourself.

Yes, the political stuff at the beginning is satire. However, it will be interesting to see if they get to any of the historical stories that happen later in the manga, which are also extremely racially and politically charged. (Hime's red hair is canon, rather than an art decision, and NOT native to Japan.)

That said, this is, so far, a good adaptation of the manga. It's a slice-of-life with monster girls. The animation is decent and the voice acting is good. If the quality keeps up, it should be a winner.

I've read lots of the manga, and the anime adaption is pretty damn good, it has the similar "feeling" to it.
Some people will say it's weird, the story is all over the place etc. That is just like the manga, so the fact that they stay true to the manga is what makes this really enjoyable.

It doesn't have enough ecchi to justify watching it for boobs, nor enough humor to be a fun show. I just find it interesting anyway.

I really enjoyed this anime, and the manga even more so. It doesn't really go anywhere, so if you're looking for a story with lots of plot development, this is not the show for you. The story jumps around a lot, and most of it doesn't really have a set plot. However, If you're like me and LOVE fantasy races/monster girls but dislike over-the-top fanservice, and drool over lots of worldbuilding, come along for the ride. Even if the biology wouldn't really work, the author clearly put lots of thought into how actual centaurs and other fantasy races would live and function as a society. And he did it without shoehorning too much fanservice into the panels and storyline. At least, compared to something like Monster Musume... (excluding episode 12. Also, it is probably a good thing that the animators delayed the events of episode 4...the manga has that as its first chapter, and that kind makes it seem like the series is going in a different direction...)

Overall, it's not a show for everyone, but it is quite enjoyable if you can look past some of the flaws.

Set in a world where humans have seemingly fallen to extinction during the evolution and diversion of the race into many different sentient demi-human species (some even more physically animal like than their human counterpart). The post war society depicted in Centaur no Nayami is very anti-discriminatory, and although this is only subtle at first and the girls we see the story through have no racist tendencies in and of themselves; there are even laws that go beyond simply anti-discrimination and into hyper criticism and and verbal oppression about the topic of the people's different races. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with a slice of life anime or even if I'm painting it out to be more morally challenging and less Slice-Of-Life. I assure you however;

This is absolutely first and foremost a cutesy, girly, high school Slice Of Life anime mostly through 3 girls' perspectives and a few other characters as the series moves along. They talk about normal things, and beyond that things that are different as we know it but feel normal all the same; like the girl's bodies (which is normal amongst guys and girls alike to talk about their bodies and development, yet it is even more interesting to hear it from the perspective of demi-humans). They do cute things, silly things, dumb things, touching things, relaxing things, and just go about their merry lives for the mostpart.

What I think makes this series a little special though, is how they throw underlying questions at your sense of morality and beg you to consider for yourself what the right ways to treat people are, and how we all and yourself honestly make internal prejudices about other people (which is always fine, even if it seems extreme, because having prejudices is being a person, it's how you chose to act or not act on them that defines you as an upstanding person).

On a scale of 1-10, I give Centaur no Nayami a flat 8, for being cutsey, lighthearted and enjoyable, and also throwing in some not-so-lighthearted topics and giving me something to really internally debate over. It just feels very real, despite being a series about the everyday lives of animal girls, which just sounds ridiculous (in a good way).

I will also say that the voice acting is very smooth, the graphics are mediocre to the modern standards but enjoyable, the fluidity and scene transitioning is surprisingly pretty good, and that the selling point of this series is definitely it's sense of Slice-Of-Life immersion and it's moral portrayal. Those who are not interested in highschool life kind of things and girls being girls will probably not enjoy this series though.

I hope this review helped you to decide for yourself whether or not to watch this series, without spoilingy the actual experience in any way.