Humanoid Monster Bem

Our Heroes, Ladies and Gentlemen

No one truly knows when the darkness came into the world. In that vast black, a single cell divided itself into three separate entities. These three creatures are not human, but each one of them possesses a strong sense of justice deep within their soul. And though they are monsters, hideous monsters, they believe that by doing good deeds, they will one day become human.

—Opening Narration

A remake of the 1968 series Yōkai Ningen Bem, Humanoid Monster Bem is the story of three monsters trying to right the wrongs of other monsters. Along the way they hope to gain the approval of humans who fear and despise them, and to one day become humans themselves.

They are:

• Bem: Team Dad, and oldest looking of the three. Uses a cane in human form. Looks like a tall guy in a suit, with pointed ears and blank eyes.
• Bera: Team Mom, and the only female. Uses a whip in human form. The most normal looking of the three, she's still dresses bizarrely, has pale skin, and wears heavy make up.
• Bero: The youngest looking of the three and most childlike. Doesn't use any weapons in human form. With olive Green Skin, pointed ears and fingernails, and an outfit that looks like it's right out of a circus act, he's the least normal looking of the three.

The entire 2006 series can be watched here.

Expect a lot of subverted tropes.

Tropes used in Humanoid Monster Bem include:

• Adjective Noun Fred
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: The whole point of the Trios transformations.
• Agent Mulder: Detective Mikami
• Alchemy: It can be used to create monsters, apparently.
• Alien Blood: The trio bleed green.
• A Load of Bull: The Minotaur from episode thirteen.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted. Big time.
• Big Bad: Darna Osia (O'sea?)
• Breath Weapon: Bera has freezing breath in monster form.
• Brown Note: The Portrait of Death
• Cane Fu: Bem's weapon of choice as a human.
• Can't Grow Up: Bero is the same age as Bera and Bem, but is a perpetual child. He doesn't seem to mind though.
• Circus Brat: Bero is certainly dressed for the part, and was told by Bem to live on diet of Raw Meat and Live Chickens.
• Complete Monster: Rose.
• Costume Copycat: Doppelganger uses his powers to frame the Trio.
• Cram School: Mamoru is seen at one towarsd the end of the fifteenth episode.
• Creepy Twins: Voyage of the Damned gives us Nekutsu and Nekushi.
• Cute Little Fangs: Bero
• Cute Monster Boy: Bero, ties in with...
• Dark Is Not Evil: Basically the whole premise of the show.
• Dead Little Sister: Episode 6
• Eldritch Abomination: the most likely origins of the Portrait of Death.
• Emotion Eater: The Harpy survives off of the hatred abused animals have for humanity.
• Everything's Better with Spinning: The Goblins.
• Evil Counterpart: Rose to Bera.
• Facial Composite Failure
• Fantastic Racism: The overall opinion of any human aware of monsters is that they're all bad.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Everything from Minotaurs, Dullahan, and an Evil Guitar that sucks the life out of it's user.
• Freaky Is Cool: What Kira thinks of Bero.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Not exactly what the three are, but they certainly look more like this than human.
• Fridge Brilliance: The episode where monsters become acknowledged by the police is number thirteen.
• From a Single Cell: Where Bem, Bera and Bero came from.
• Game Face: A rare Heroic version of this.
• Gonk: The above mentioned Facial Composite Failure.
• Green Aesop
• Griping About Gremlins: Impu, the Hospital Gremlin.
• Harping on About Harpies: The monster of episode 4.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Bero's motivation, besides wanting to become human. Also The Gremlin.
• Immortality Begins At Twenty: Contrasting with Bero, Bem and Bera look to be in their Tthirties or late twenties respectively.
• Immortality Immorality: Rose
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bera
• Karmic Transformation: The three heroes are doing good deeds in the hopes that they may one day become human. So I guess this would be a case of an Inverted Trope?
  • Rose is a more straight example, having a more Monstrous monster form than Bera.
• Keet: Bero
• Lookslike Orlock: Bem. Let's see, No Hair? Check. Pointed Ears? Check. Fangs and Claws? Check.
• Masquerade: Bem tells Bero not to show his transformation to any humans. Guess how long that lasts.
• Master of Illusion: Bem has used illusions several times. In the 1968 series Bera used illusions as well.
• Meaningful Name: Bem is short for Bug-eyed Monster, which is what both he and Bero are supposed to look like, though their eyes are pretty normal sized.
  • Though their "head lobes" do resemble a fly's eyes a bit.
• Mind Control: Several Monsters manipulate humans to do their evil deeds.
• Mix and Match Critter: The Harpy. Also the Chimera.
• Monster Sob Story: And not just from our heroes.
• Nightmare Fuel: Bound to happen in this show. Special mention goes to the Rose Umbrella.
• Older Than They Look: Given the nature of their origins, Bem, Bera and Bero are all the same age. Also, monsters are effectively immortal, so the Trio has been around for a long time.
• Opening Narration: Gives us the basic premise of the show and the origins of the Trio.
• Our Homunculi Are Different: A Brother/Sister pair shows up in "The Tears of the Homunculus."
• Our Monsters Are Weird: A Chimera with Goats for eyes. Not Goat eyes, but full goat torsos coming out of the lions head. It makes the fact that it's body is only the lion's head and two legs seem trivial in comparison. Oh, and it has bat wings.
• Our Werewolves Are Different
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Sure their Human forms are less monstrous, but they'd never come close to passing for human.
• Petting Zoo People: The Harpy spends the first half of it's episode as a Catgirl.
• Pointy Ears: Yep, Bero's got 'em. So does Bem.
• Protagonist Title Fallacy: In the 1968 series, Bero is arguably the main character rather than Bem.
  • Same goes for the 2006 series. However the 2011 live-action series does increase Bem's protagonist status.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The Trio seems to be created back when alchemy was still in vogue. But then again, they do run into a pair of homunculi created about five years ago, so it's hard to tell.
• Reluctant Monster: Pretty good description of our heroes.
• Replacement Goldfish: Bera and Bero are this for the Alchemist, trying to replace his Wife and Son
• Sadly Mythtaken: Where to begin. The most Egregious example would have to be The Banshee.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Bound to happen at some point. Is it spelled Bero, Baro, Belo, or Berro?
• Tear Jerker: The story behind P-Chan. And The Homunculi.And the Banshee episode.
• Token Evil Teammate: While certainly not evil, Bera is less forgiving of humans who have wronged monsters and is the quickest to lose her temper.
• The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Where the monster from the first episode comes from.
• Ugly Cute: Bero, Impu, and Pak the Baku.
• Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain: Compared to the heroes, the Werewolf from episode three could easily pass for human.
  • In fact, this is true of any of the humanoid monsters. Anything that can pass for human will do a better job than the trio.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: Seems to be the case with Bera.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: What Bem, Bera, and Bero are.
• Whip It Good: Bera's weapon of choice.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Bero.
• Younger Than They Look: The Homunculi.