Manga Conception Sai Naekawa, the writer and illustrator of
This Monster Wants to Eat Me, was inspired by the ocean. She created Shiori as a "beautiful and scary"
ningyo, drawing on the association of
yōkai with the sea. Unlike the idealized beauty of Western
mermaids, she wanted Shiori to carry an "ominous flavor". Hinako's last name, Yaotose, is a reference to
Yaobikuni, a priestess from Japanese folklore who lived for 800 years after eating mermaid flesh. Naekawa cited
Arina Tanemura, a manga artist and character designer, as an influence on her early work, She stated that
Shigeru Mizuki's artbooks sparked her interest in
yōkai, Before creating
This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Naekawa produced fan works for
Kantai Collection and
Touhou Project, both of which feature a mostly female cast. She credited these series for inspiring her work's darker elements, along with
Maria Watches Over Us for her interest in the
yuri genre. and portrayed Hinako and Shiori as "enemies [...] working towards the same goal". Initially, Naekawa intended for the story to be more lighthearted, with Hinako and Shiori being portrayed as less mature than they ultimately became. On the advice of her editor, Takumi Kamemaru, she shifted the work in a darker direction. The story is set in
Ehime Prefecture, a region of Japan located on the island of
Shikoku. (pictured) is one of many coastal villages within the prefecture.
Development Naekawa had mapped out the narrative's major plot points by the time publication began, and focused on connecting those elements together and developing the story. During meetings with Kamemaru, she made small adjustments to the plot, but left the overall elements mostly unchanged. Takagi selected Yūsuke Suzuki as the series director. While Suzuki's previous work had mostly been aimed at younger audiences, Takagi believed that his style was well suited for the material. To support Suzuki, he asked Naoyuki Kuzuya to serve as chief director, tasking him with handling pre-production duties such as script development and
storyboarding. Hirota closely read the original manga, focusing on its atmosphere and emotions, and adapted the story up to the point where the relationships among the main characters became more firmly established. He then submitted scripts to Kuzuya, who developed storyboards based on them. After finalizing the series' episode count, Kuzuya focused on the pacing of individual episodes. He devoted particular attention to Miko's character arc, which he regarded as a central part of the work's appeal. and carefully depicted each character's emotional state. Ueda expressed a sense of
apathy to reflect how Hinako lacks even the energy to articulate negative feelings, She noted that Hinako's gradual willingness to express her feelings over the course of the story was important to her performance. Ueda described Hinako's actions as "not very coherent" at times, and avoided portraying clear fear or panic, since Hinako is not afraid of death. Although she found her role difficult, she expressed appreciation for Naekawa's guidance throughout the recording.
Yui Ishikawa, who voiced Shiori, found her character's personality difficult to grasp, observing that Shiori could shift between being serious and joking in a matter of moments. Nevertheless, she emphasized that Shiori's feelings towards Hinako are strong and central to her personality As such, in her performance, she balanced a wide emotional range with an underlying sense of conviction. Ishikawa began preparing by reading the original manga and writing down her impressions of Shiori from Hinako's perspective, which helped her better understand her role. Because Miko harbors strong feelings regarding Hinako, Ai aimed to convey the intensity of those emotions in her performance. During the third episode's recording, she went so far that the sound director told her to tone down her expression, since she sounded like a
yandere, a character who takes romantic feelings to obsessive extremes. In response, she adjusted her performance to sound like an upbeat character who occasionally behaved in subtly unsettling ways. Having previously worked with Ishikawa, Ai noted that the two were able to interact well together. Ai experienced difficult personal circumstances during much of the production, and she often questioned whether she was suited to portray Miko's cheerful demeanor while being despondent herself. However, she reflected that her struggles allowed her to better understand Hinako's character, and by extension, Miko's interactions. Ai felt that many of Miko's lines towards Hinako also served as encouragement to herself, and expressed gratitude for the work's impact on her.
Soundtrack Keiji Inai composed the series'
background music. He often created pieces to match the atmosphere of specific scenes, basing his composition on the mood of the narrative and its characters rather than following strict directions. Inai and Naya used
film scoring techniques, which involves recording music timed to match specific moments in scenes. Naya observed that due to the story's use of silent and slow sequences, scoring directly to the visuals was more effective than composing based on the script. Suzuki was impressed with the result, stating that Inai's ability to portray "emotional subtleties" allowed the story's feelings to "come alive". The song's instrumentation features
classical guitar and draws on
Latin American rhythmic influences. Its lyrics are inspired by the original story, both in word choice and connotation. Yoshino felt that the lyrics expressed Hinako's emotions well, particularly her despair towards her past. The title of the song translates literally as "sacrifice", which Yoshino explained has many possible interpretations, particularly in the context of love and obsession. while the song's key was lowered at Ueda's request so that she could better express Hinako's nuances. For the 11th episode, a different version of the ending theme was recorded, featuring vocals by Yui Ishikawa. By the time she performed "Lily", she understood her character deeply, and looked for moments that reflected emotions that Shiori shared, even though the lyrics were written from Hinako's perspective.. She aimed to balance between matching Ueda's performance and expressing Shiori's own unique feelings. Ishikawa felt that despite Shiori's carefree appearance, she has a strong sense of loneliness, which she sought to convey through her performance.
Special ending theme For the 4th episode, a special ending theme titled was created. The song prominently features Miko's character, with vocals by Fairouz Ai, lyrics by , and composition by John Kanda. Because the song focuses on Miko, Andō and Kanda studied her character carefully to ensure the music would remain faithful to her portrayal in the original story. The decision to commission the song was made at the last minute, For the chorus, Andō drew inspiration from the imagery of Miko being as bright as the sun. At the request of Tanoue Mamoru, the theme song's director, she added a moment for a brief spoken line for Miko right before the chorus. a type of mixed-media animation often compared to
AMVs. To emphasize Miko's cheerful personality, INPINE included a drawing of Miko by Ai along with
chibi visuals of Miko dancing. He also incorporated scenes from previous episodes and illustrations by Naekawa. The video's design was partially influenced by
K-pop music videos, using a mix of
retro aesthetics and modern technology, while a scene where Miko spins around while holding her phone was compared by INPINE to
Tomoyo from
Cardcaptor Sakura. Due to time constraints, only part of the music video was shown in the anime; the full-length version contains additional scenes meant to show different sides of Miko's personality. == Themes and commentary ==