Humans in this world belong to one of four races: cat/goat people, centaurs, winged beings, and merfolk. In this world, Hime, a centaur, and her friends Nozomi the winged demonoid and Kyoko the goat-person take on the challenges of daily life. Whether it be putting on a class play where one classmate wants the scripted kiss to be real and the set builders don’t consider the extra weight of centaurs, or trying to run a marathon without resorting to riding on Hime—after all, centaurs used to be enslaved to be ridden on so that is a big no-no now—these girls have plenty of things to worry about in A Centaur’s Life (Japanese title: Centaur no Nayami).
The show starts off with a kiss between two girls, so that’s something that might drive away some of this site’s readers. If you can get past that and various other yuri-teases, though, this is another fun monster-girl slice-of-life show. The show’s two halves are broken up by a bit of clunky exposition on how this world’s beings evolved over time, though there’s an amusing bit of commentary when the teacher remarks that, with the extreme racism and discrimination in human history with four distinct human forms, had humans instead evolved to only have differences in skin color, discrimination wouldn’t be a problem. These little moments of biting social commentary, including when Kyoko notes that trying to ride on a centaur’s back could send you to a correctional facility, help give this show a bit of extra flair. Add that in with the usual moments showing how life is just a bit different for these beast girls compared to the life we know, and this is definitely another show I will be hedging my bets on this season.
— stardf29
A Centaur’s Life is streaming on Crunchyroll.
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