Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Kemono no Soujya Erin, Kemono no Sou-ja Erin
Japanese: ็ฃใฎๅฅ่
ใจใชใณ
English: The Beast Player Erin
German: Erin
Spanish: Erin
French: Erin
Information
Episodes:
50
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jan 10, 2009 to Dec 26, 2009
Broadcast:
Saturdays at 18:25 (JST)
Source:
Novel
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Score:
8.311 (scored by 2303223,032 users)
Ranked:
#313 2
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#2474
Members:
94,397
Favorites:
1,535
Available AtResources
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Ranked #313Popularity #2474Members 94,397 In the land of Ryoza, the neighboring provinces of Shin-Ou and Tai-Kou have been at peace. Queen Shinou is the ruler of Ryoza and her greatest general, Grand Duke Taikou, defends the kingdom with his army of powerful war-lizards known as the "Touda." Although the two regions have enjoyed a long-standing alliance, mounting tensions threaten to spark a fierce civil war.
Within Ake, a village in Tai-Kou tasked with raising the Grand Duke's army, lives Erin, a bright girl who spends her days watching the work of her mother Soyon, the village's head Touda doctor. But while under Soyon's care, a disastrous incident befalls the Grand Duke's strongest Touda, and the peace that Erin and her mother had been enjoying vanishes as Soyon is punished severely. In a desperate attempt to save her mother, Erin ends up falling in a river and is swept towards Shin-Ou.
Unable to return home, Erin must learn to lead a new life with completely different people, all while hunting for the truth of both beasts and humanity itself, with tensions between the two regions constantly escalating.
[Written by MAL Rewrite] | |
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MALxJapan -More than just anime-
| Characters & Voice Actors
Reviews
Feb 19, 2026
Ok, so this is kind of a mixed bag (I'm still recommending it, hence the "recommended" tag). If you don't feel like reading too much: this is very close to Ascendance of a Bookworm levels of good as far as the story, characters, and world building are concerned. If you've read Bookworm you know how insanely high that bar is. It's a slow burn, but definitely give it a chance.
The good:
- The setting is spectacularly good. The story takes its time to build the world properly. It's a fantastical world in that there are fantastical beasts in it, but other than that it's a medieval
...
setting with all that entails.
- The characters and their relationships are equally as good as the setting. The important characters are developed very, very well. Their individual arcs happen naturally as the show progresses and what's at their core remains true throughout - even the ones that go through significant changes do so in a way that's coherent with who they are. As for plot armor, there's little if any of it, which is always a great sign.
- The effects of politics in the lives of people are made very clear very early on, even the one arc with little of it still has some that prove absolutely central to the overall plot later on.
- The pacing is great, in my opinion. The flow of events is very natural, character changes are as well. More on this on "the bad" lol.
The meh:
- The soundtrack is very average 2009, but I think it's good. It's not particularly inspired but it does its job well enough.
- The animation is average as well, there's very little sakuga but this isn't an action anime so I'm not holding that against it. There's an important distinction to make here: the backgrounds are, in my opinion, absolutely gorgeous. It's the stuff that moves that's deserving of the "meh" category; it's not bad, but it isn't good either. Colorful, symbolic depictions of events are rather abundant, probably a result of the studio trying to keep things as family friendly as possible in general - they make it work due to the art itself being really good for those bits, but they're either static image pans or short animations that while good are recycled several times each (partly because of the first point in "the bad").
The bad:
- So many flashbacks, Saint Seiya levels of flashbacks. I'm guessing this was both to fill in some time and to make sure the viewer wouldn't be lost if they missed an episode here or there. I still think the pacing is good because what's actually happening is paced extremely well, but the damned flashbacks keep getting in the way. Things that could have been dealt with, symbolically, with just a sequence of two or three still images representing the events in question instead turn into 2-3 minutes full blown flashbacks almost on every single episode.
- The art for the characters and the Touda is extremely, depressingly watered down in my opinion. You get used to it after a few episodes, but once I finished the whole thing I decided to check the manga and it's in a completely different league. The art in the manga is gorgeous and extremely expressive, the adaptation doesn't hold a candle to it.
- The family friendlyness is, in my opinion, the most likely reason for both the excessive use of flashbacks and the watered down character designs. It feels like they tried to make it digestible for 10 year old kids which isn't inherently bad by any means, but the end product suffers a great deal because of it. The character art in the manga is way, way sharper.
The reason I'm rating it an 8 and recommending it is because the story, setting, and especially characters and their relationships are THAT good. I can't bring myself to rate it any lower on account of the things I didn't like about it, the good is so good the overall package deserves an 8.
I'd recommend reading the manga in a heartbeat, since from what I read there's no flashbacks there and the feel overall is even better... but sadly I can't find it past 3/4 of the story. From what I could find it wasn't officially translated, and fan translations stopped with the last 25% remaining. It's so good I'm seriously considering just reading it in Japanese with some help from google translate, but that would detract so much from the experience I don't think I'll do it.
Reviewerโs Rating: 8
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Jul 17, 2023
I stumbled upon Beast Player Erin in search of anime with good world building like Slime Reincarnation and Ascendance of a Bookworm.
There are already many great reviews so the purpose of my review here is to provide expectations to potential viewers of this show:
Each episode will consist of:
10% mini music videos with overly played songs,
40% overly used flashbacks,
50% actual scenes that progress the story.
This series did not have to be 50 episodes long as a great much of it was just filler content. Frustratingly much of that wasted time used for flashback filler could have been used more meaningfully such as providing a more conclusive
...
ending as it felt rushed despite all the time it had for its 50 episode run.
If you're going to give this show a chance keep in mind it does not do a good job in respecting the viewer's time with all the wasted flashback fillers, but I suggest you give it a chance anyways as the story is really beautiful if you have the time for it.
Reviewerโs Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Mar 12, 2010
While it may strike as inconsistent to rate a series a 3 when I "finished" 50 episodes of it, there is one essential reason, that is pacing of this series. Not only is the pacing typically slice-of-life slow from the very start, but it has the most self-indulgent use of flashback I have ever seen. By the midpoint of the anime, flashback starts taking up easily perhaps 1/10th of the total time. We already saw these events, and they are already in our heads. Bringing the same events up as much as five or ten times is a horrible abuse of our viewership. Maybe it
...
was for the kids, but it was a horrible mismanagement of structure.
Also, this anime seems to exist in some bizarre world where, despite there being super skilled assassin type figures and two types of invincible beasts, poison ends up being the most worrisome agent of life. I think the plot spends as much time on poisonings by the end as it does touda.
I did enjoy core elements of the plot, and that is the main reason I finished the anime. I liked the focus on Erin, and I could even forgive her being the typical "supergenius, super caring" character who can do absolutely no wrong because of the nice voice acting and the interesting progression of her life. I also liked the touda, though I liked them less once another super invincible creature was introduced. I felt that both touda and beast lords should have been introduced right away, or it should have only been one the whole way. I felt that after Erin&Jone, the anime struggled to ever keep itself at quite the same depth of interaction after moving to focus on beast lords. It especially struggles to make any action feel slightly convincing, and several conversations as it goes on become more and more incredibly tedious, e.g. Erin talking to either queen.
This is absolutely a children's anime, and I do not see why everyone is trying to vehemently deny it. The first OP and ED, the narration (utterly childish storytelling tone, constantly interferes with the quality of interaction with the story), and interaction between characters (Erin and her mom, the Queen and anybody, Erin and Yuuyan, any and all explanations about anything ever from one character to another) all make sure that this cannot progress above being childish. People can try to use the more violent moments to write it away, but the art contradicts that. Also childish are all depictions of Erin imagining anything horrible happening (the last example episode 44, 19:30 or so in, when she pictures what is happening at the academy).
The music is very nice sounding, especially when you have only heard each song once (with the exception of the song that inscrutably rips off one progression from Trigun). Unfortunately, they ram the same songs into your ears relentlessly, and eventually at very wrong moments.
Not much really needs to be said about the art, since the flaws are much more glaring than usual. Sometimes the mistakes are much more glaring (like when the touda are swimming underwater episode 7 and llook like barrel of monkey figures). Also, lots of shots that are the same shot being panned very slowly, or zoomed out from very slowly. Kid Erin is a bit annoying to look a thanks to her eyes (not that any character's wayward pupils are any fun to look at). The Beast-Lords, paraded as a paragon of beauty, are actually ugly beasts in motion, and simplistic when "shining" and flying to save the day.
Overall, I really have to rate this anime a waste of anyone's time. It loses what depth it has as it goes on, it struggles to balance the time and how the time is spent on any action, and everything is far too predictable. It is enjoyable enough, and there are plenty of cute moments, but it cannot be said to be worth anyone's time due to the length - it should have absolutely been a normal anime season, not 50 episodes.
Oh, like a lot anime and manga that lack substance, this series spends a lot of time making up for it pretending that characters going "oishiiiiiii" and talking about food should actually be entertaining. Like always, it definitely is not appropriate outside an anime or manga about food. I did not keep any official count, but surely somewhere around ten times.
Reviewerโs Rating: 3
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50 Entries ยท 64 Restacks
27 Entries ยท 27 Restacks
Poll: Kemono no Souja Erin Episode 50 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )
goral - Dec 26, 2009 |
122 replies | by oNephalem ยปยป
Apr 9, 9:53 PM |
Poll: Kemono no Souja Erin Episode 9 Discussion
wakka9ca - Mar 8, 2009 |
35 replies | by oNephalem ยปยป
Mar 24, 7:00 PM |
Poll: Kemono no Souja Erin Episode 42 Discussion
DeathfireD - Nov 1, 2009 |
32 replies | by Dred_Sins ยปยป
Mar 7, 10:36 PM |
Poll: Kemono no Souja Erin Episode 28 Discussion
wakka9ca - Jul 26, 2009 |
41 replies | by Aletheia_xxx ยปยป
Aug 8, 2025 7:31 AM |
Poll: Kemono no Souja Erin Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 )
DeadIEnd - Jan 10, 2009 |
82 replies | by Aletheia_xxx ยปยป
Jul 1, 2025 4:00 PM |
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