violence – Anime QandA

Dropkick On My Devil! – Full Season QandA Rundown

What’s the important information? Dropkick On My Devil! Is a Summer 2018 Comedy anime that aired 11 episodes from July through September. It is based on a long-running Manga series by author Yukiwo.

What’s it about? A gothic-lolita witch named Yurine summons Jashin-chan a snake woman devil from hell. Due to ~reasons~ she can’t send her back though so Jashin-chan is forced to endure everyday life on Earth until Yurine is killed—which Jashin-chan attempts to do, but always fails miserably. They are joined by various acquaintances from Heaven and Hell in there everyday adventures!

Moments with *all* these characters together are very rare after the first two episodes.

Why did you watch it? I honestly don’t know, I was wary to pick the show up from the beginning as its premise sold it as a ‘violent slapstick comedy’ and while I love comedy anime I’m mostly indifferent to slapstick. I suppose I was just hoping for cute monster girls.

Did you enjoy the show? That’s a question I asked myself many a times during the first few episodes, a question that morphed into ‘why am I enjoying this show?’ then finally ‘is enjoyment all there is?’ For what it’s worth this series is unexpectedly deep—it just takes a long while to get there, I’ll touch upon why exactly in a later question but to answer this question, yes I did enjoy this show a lot more than I expected to!

What was your favourite episode? It’s hard because while this show certainly had its fair share of entertaining, interesting and occasionally thought provoking plot-lines it also too often indulged in dumb, aggressive and mean-spirited behaviour that skirted the line between what’s enjoyable and what’s just unpleasant. I think the final episode—episode 11—was the least mean-spirited overall and struck the balance as well as it could possibly.

What were your most favourite things about the show? I enjoyed the characters for the most part; likewise I really enjoyed the meta-humour, like when Jashin-chan referenced how surprised she was that the ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ manga got an anime adaptation. That and the references to other media, anime and otherwise were always fun!

Episode 10 has a *lot* of references to other shows~

Wbat were your least favourite things about the show? There’s a lot of cruelty towards Pekola, an angel character who lost her halo and can’t return to heaven and so much of it feels completely without a point. If it’s to get us to side against Jashin-chan, then it works but the show simultaneously ties to humanise Jashin-chan too so it makes these moments of aggression towards the downtrodden Pekola feel all the more pointless.

This was probably Jashin-chan at her cruelest, eating a meal in front of homeless Pekola, then proceeding to eat the bread crusts that Pekola had saved for her own dinner. All on Christmas no less!

Who was your favourite character? Minos is a sexy cow-girl (that’s a half girl, half cow FYI) that despite being the least featured of the main cast I still found myself inexorably drawn to. She is without a doubt a character most deserving of a spin-off of any anime character this season—even if it’s just a 5-minute anime of her daily life!

A hard working cow-girl deserves a drink after work!

What’s something unique about this show? Despite being a “violent slapstick comedy” this show certainly relished in delving into deeper and more mature subject matter than expected. What other anime out there would deliver such cold and brutal facts such as that Japan is 144^th in the world for gender equality? I can’t say I ever expected to learn such a sobering factoid from this kind of anime but here we are!

What other anime are most like it for the sake of comparison? In my episodic reviews of the show I found myself comparing it to Gabriel DropOut a lot which still stands true as a comparison, but this show is far more committed to its overall aesthetic and delivering a complex world-view than the aforementioned ever was. Not to mention its more dim view of humanity as a whole.

She’s got the evil eye and it’s set on Jashin-chan.

Who would you recommend it to? It’s hard to pinpoint a target audience or demographic because this show is in of itself a hard show to categorise. Comedy fans certainly, but those perhaps expecting a bit more from their comedy than just the jokes and nothing else—that’s as much a recommendation as it is a warning. Also for those who aren’t squeamish because this show can get pretty violent and sadistic—especially early on.

Sum up the season in one sentence: ‘Even though its dumb and violent its smarter than it looks, it’s also occasionally cute and sweet—it’s basically a tsundere incarnate as an anime!’

Final score? 78 out of 100.

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

Snake Girl Sashimi – Episode 1 Review
Don’t Eat The Yellow Shaved Ice – Episode 2 Review
No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk/Blood – Episode 3 Review
Police Sexuality – Episode 4 Review
Angels, Demons And Minimum Wage – Episode 5 Review
Currying Favour – Episode 6 Review
A Snake With Legs – Episode 7 Review
Reality Isn’t Funny – Episode 8 Review
Hi, Society! – Episode 9 Review
Under The Hammer – Episode 10 Review
All Devils Go To Space – Episode 11 Review

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All Devils Go To Space – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 11 (Finale) Review

All Devils Go To Space – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 11

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 11.

So what happens in this episode? Unexpectedly, this is the season finale, and, while not unheard of it’s pretty rare for a series to end on Episode 11 but here we are!

Well, fair enough then—that doesn’t change the question though! Right, well it’s more of an introspective and low-key episode—at least the first half of it is. Yurine is sick and bed-ridden with a fever and only Jashin-Chan knows, she considers just leaving Yurine to die because after all then she’ll be able to return to hell but evidently Jashin-Chan has developed some feelings for her captor and so enlists the help of Medusa and Minos to get her medical attention.

I guess she’s come a long way. Yeah and that’s kind of the theme of this episode, after Yurine recovers the four of them have a deep and meaningful conversation where Yurine laments the fact that she’s a human and confined to 70-80 year life span while the rest of them are devils who’ll live hundreds and hundreds of years. But Medusa and Minos have some wise words, saying that a shorter life means a life that prioritises a legacy and living meaningfully whereas a longer life makes one lazy.

And the second half of the episode? Well in sort of a send-off the whole cast gathers for a Cherry Blossom viewing festival and partake in the usual shenanigans, albeit with a sort of melancholy that seems to suggest the show knows it won’t get a second season. Then in a final segment Yurine and Jashin-Chan are out bread shopping when Jashin-Chan starts playing up and being childish, afterward as they’re walking down the street they see a kid whose balloon is stuck in a tall tree and Yurine suggests for Jasin-Chan to make for earlier mischief by getting the balloon down for the kind. She eventually obliges only for the balloon to carry her away, passing by all the characters who’ve appeared in the show before floating away into space.

Huh?! Yeah it’s a bit of a random ending, albeit kind of foreshadowed in the song Jashin-Chan sung to Yurine while she was recovering in bed. As far as an ending goes it was kind of appropriate for a show that’s been tonally all over the place it’s weird, it’s contemplative, it’s silly, it’s sincere and most of all it’s funny—which for the final episode of a comedy series is kind of all you need!

I never thought I’d say it, but I’m gonna miss these girls… well except Jashin-Chan…

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

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Under The Hammer – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 10 Review

Under The Hammer – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 10

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 10.

So what happens in this episode? You know, this show more than probably any other this season never fails to surprise me, even if it’s in a little way.

Keep reading til the end to get context for *this* image!

Yeah, how so? Well the last few weeks this show has been showing off the fact that it’s apparently the most ‘woke’ anime of the Summer 2018 series, what with Episode 8 bringing up such tough to swallow topics as Japan being 144^th in the world for gender equality and Episode 9 basically being a complete metaphor for the class systems in Japan, not to mention the continuing plot-line of Pekola’s battle with homelessness. This show isn’t afraid to go places most comedy shows don’t bother.

It’s nice to see Pekola happy sometimes!

And what lofty subject matter does the show seek to bring up this week? Well nothing quite as far-reaching and pervasive as the previous topics but we do get a rather unflinching look into the dangers of idol-worship and hyper-aggressive fans—again courtesy of Pekola’s storyline.

So what happens then? Okay so basically Pekola takes a job as being a bodyguard for fellow fallen angel turned pop idol Poporon and while she’s performing a song a crazed fan storms the stage with a hammer and threatens to “kill the bitch” for “being cold on Twitter” and “not answering his R-rated questions” towards her.

And how’s the scene portrayed? Well this is still a comedy—I’m not going to go an say this is some incisive critique on toxic fandom and the fragility of the male ego. As Pekola dives in the way of his hammer-swings they make squeaky sound effects as they hit her—I’m not sure if that was the joke or whether the scene played too dark with ‘realistic’ sound effects. But she is physically attacked and ends up in hospital from her injuries so it’s not like this was to be a wholly comedic scene either. It brings up serious issues, it just treats it semi-seriously because—well that’s the nature of this show.

It looks darker than it actually comes across, thanks to those squeaky sound effects.

Okay, fair enough? Anything else worth mentioning? Jashin-Chan continues to see-saw between being tolerable and amusing and being an absolute c-word. The final segment softens her a little and at least shows ~some~ personal growth but she’s still the worst thing about the show. Though I must admit the in-between-segment gags of her dressing up as Annie from Attack On Titan and Soma from Food Wars were pure brilliance. Ultimately though, regardless of whether or not the social commentary is pulled off successfully or not I’m at least glad for it existing—if nothing else it makes for interesting review fodder!

I never realised how cute Soma would be as a girl!

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

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Hi, Society! – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 9 Review

Hi, Society! – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 9

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 9.

So what happens in this episode? … I had something of an epiphany while writing the review of this episode… I ended up deleting most of what I’d written because of said epiphany too. So here it is, it took me this long to realize the kind of story this show was telling through its characters.

Right, uh, so what’s this show trying to say then? Basically this show is Japanese society boiled down to five (maybe six or seven if you count the side-characters) character archetypes and I can’t believe it took me this long to realise that! I mean ~maybe~ I’m reading way too much into it—I am fond of doing that after all—but I seriously believe this is what the mangaka was going for.

Okay, care to explain your “epiphany”? I’m going to put this into bullet points to make it easier to follow.

Jashin-Chan represents the worst of civilised society; the gambler, the leech, the glutton, the bad friend, the bad roommate, just the general kind of douche who makes other people’s lives difficult by virtue of existing.
Yurine represents karma—say what you will about it, maybe you don’t believe in it but the Japanese do—she is reactionary and strikes down Jashin-Chan maybe not immediately but eventually and with the unrelenting and unapologetic wrath that’s almost always proportional to the crime.
Medusa represents the kind soul who always helps a friend even if said friend is an irredeemable parasite. She’s unfailingly forgiving, she keeps giving and giving because it makes her happy to give—but she’s also attractive and well-off enough that she’s never put out by having to give.
Pekola represents the everyman, downtrodden by society, judged for struggling to make ends-meet and always on the receiving end of bad luck or bad people. The more life wears her down the more bitter she becomes at those who have it well off and the more difficult continued existence becomes.
Minos represents the everyman who embraces difficulty, finding joy and satisfaction in a hard days work and blowing off steam at the end of the day with food, booze and friends.

Wow, okay, I see you put some thought into this! What about the two side characters, who do they represent in Japanese society?

Poporon represents those blessed with exceedingly good genes and charisma but don’t suffer fools gladly. They are in ~somewhat~ positions of power but only over “stupid men” who idolise their physical attributes. Basically they are idols but ones who have to work hard all the same.
Mei Tachibana represents the obsessive otaku—it needn’t be anime related, just someone obsessed with something. They fawn over the materialistic, crave a completed collection, and desire adulation in the eyes of their peers—even if it’s hollow praise.

She literally says “insta-worthy”, I am dead.

You have way too much time on your hands. I know, I know.

But what about the episode itself? It’s all well and good to speculate about deeper character meanings and how they relate to Japanese society but what about the people who just wanted a review of the ‘silly comedy about angels and demons’? It’s not the funniest of episodes but it’s still pretty good, there’s a lot of fun little references thrown in, some of them obvious like a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ reference to the Payday game series and some of them distinctly Japanese like Konyakku and induced nightmares by placing wet towels on people’s feet as they sleep…

Sometimes I don’t even know what you’re on about… That’s fair enough. Also it’s worth mentioning that Jashin-Chan is such an absolute c-word and an a-hole here, she’s like the unholy combination of a c-word and an a-hole—whatever that would be.

A cloaca? Don’t bring logical biology into this…

If only you’d use your power to turn Jashin-Chan into stone!

Fine! Anything else you want to add? Yes! Best girl Minos finally gets a decent whack of character development with a ‘segment’ of the episode devoted to her daily life! Man I love Minos’ character design so much, plus she’s just such a high-spirited gal! Oh and the episode ‘ends’ about 5 minutes earlier than normal for an elongated post-credit sequence that involves a zombie apocalypse and it’s undeniable how well-made this show is, something else that I ~also~ only came to realise this late in the game. As much as I hate Jashin-Chan sometimes, I almost feel like that’s the point of this show, the very Japanese mentality of “hate things that make people’s lives more difficult” and, well—it’s hard not to sympathise with that mentality!

Best girl enjoys a drink after work, huh? Guess who just got promoted to *better* best girl!

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

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Reality Isn’t Funny – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 8 Review

Reality Isn’t Funny – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 8

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 8.

So what happens in this episode? …Man this show made me think this week… and that’s not what I usually expect from this show so I’m not quite sure how I feel about that…

Oh? Well that at least sounds more interesting than the usual ‘cartoon violence and cruelty’! You’d think so but I kinda hated a lot of this episode—I know I know, it’s almost a meme to say something along the lines of “how dare this ~thing~ I watch for mindless entertainment make me think!” But that’s exactly where my head was—like don’t go about bringing in cold hard realities into my silly comedy about angels and demons!

And what made about the show made you “think” too much? I guess Pekola’s become the moral compass of the show and she’s gone from being a poor, pitiable homeless fallen angel into some sort of fact spewing, holier than thou, Japan-hater. It’d be like if Anzu from Hinamatsuri suddenly started giving out statistics about Japan’s systemic inequality problems that have led to homelessness—nobody wants that!

Some people probably want that… And I don’t ever want to meet those people! I’ll admit I’m a shameless Japanophile, to the point where I willingly and wilfully overlook the various ~issues~ Japanese society as a whole has with many things because I love the culture and modern convenience afforded by the city (not to mention everything to do with anime). But I don’t need the anime I’m watching telling me that Japan ranks as the 40^th best place to live in the world, 51^st for happiness, 2^nd for the country where people get the least amount of sleep, country where people take the least paid leave from work, and 114^th in the world for gender equality gap.

Harsh realities can be a bitter pill to swallow… Ugh, is it too much to ask for a little escapism? I know I’m absolutely being selfish here, I know as a white, straight, cis male living in Australia the last thing I should be doing is criticising a show for bringing up ~actual~ issues affecting actual people on a daily basis. I should be praising this show for being politically minded and raising issues that people might otherwise overlook but I just can’t right now.

I have to ask, is the issue the message or the messenger? Do you mean, ‘would I be okay if a serious show brought up these issues’? I mean, yeah probably, if I was watching something like Persona 5 or Tokyo Ghoul and they felt it plot relevant to drop these stats I’d be like, *strokes chin* “hmm, these are some serious issues that should be addressed”. But having them here, sandwiched between scenes of Jashin-Chan gambling all the dinner money on Pachinko and deep throating a giant sushi roll it’s just a little hard to see it as anything other than a writer who came across of negative statistics about their country while writing a manga rather than anyone with something meaningful to say beyond depressing bullet points.

Still… that “114^th for gender equality gap” is pretty atrocious. Yeah, no denying that. Pretty damning…

Okay, so what happens in the episode aside from the stat-spewing fallen angel causing you to rant far too long? Other than that it’s kind of an ordinary episode, Jashin-Chan is an absolute c-word to everyone around her—not the least poor Medusa who she’s still using as her personal ATM. Then there’s the introduction of a cute little Ogre (Oni) who comes to visit. Plus some kind of inspired commentary on the way attractive women can make money in Akihabara by “letting men lay on your lap and clean their ears” and “selling artwork to wealthy otakus” that was far more prescient and relevant to the show then the ‘other’ social commentary.

Well, we almost went a paragraph without returning to RantVille. Anything else? Oh yes. Jashin-Chan, in addition to blowing all the household food funds on Pachinko also develops a mobile gaming habit, racking up thousands of debt on Medusa’s credit card. And despite it all Jashin-Chan is remorseless, so Yurine has only one choice, drop her through a time-portal in the floor of her apartment, sending Jashin-Chan back in time to repeat her actions until she learns the error of her ways.

Sudden time travel? You okay with that? Yeah, it’s a comedy after all anything goes!

Ahem. Well almost anything.

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

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A Snake With Legs – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 7 Review

A Snake With Legs – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 7

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 7.

So what happens in this episode? You know what’s funny, every time I finish a Dropkick On My Devil review I think, “well that’s probably it, the last time I’ll be reviewing this show” and then before I start every new episode I think, “well doubt I’ll find enough to say about in the review for this show but here goes nothing” and then by the episode I’m left scratching my head and thinking “well, shit, guess this show is better than I give it credit for after the fact.”

Well I wouldn’t say you’re exactly harsh on the show, you speak of it rather fondly—despite its inherent issues, I mean you said it was better than Gabriel DropOut an actual CGDCT show, so that’s got to count for something! Fair enough, but if we’re talking about Gabriel DropOut again let me say one thing for certain this show actually does something interesting with its premise unlike the aforementioned…

I feel like you’re giving that show a lot of shit unnecessarily, should we clear the air before people think you hate it or something? I don’t hate Gabriel DropOut at all, it’s a very good show—it’s also the victim of its own originality. That is to say it’s a CGDCT show so the characters are of paramount importance, which it more or less succeeds at but it also has the promise of something more given the unique premise of angels and demons and heaven and hell but it lives up to that promise approximately 25% of the time. Dropkick On My Devil however, a comedy masquerading as a CGDCT show with a similar if not identical premise has less appealing characters and less cute moments but makes use of its unique premise about 70% of the time. So, in conclusion while Gabriel DropOut is the better CGDCT show it squanders greatness in favour of towing the line, whereas Dropkick is just more flat out interesting even if it’s frequently mean-spirited.

‘Kay… If you’re still reading congrats on being so bored to do so! Don’t roast our readers, please.

Sorry. So, what happens in this episode? Jashin-Chan finds herself confronted by the antagonistic angel she threw into the sea last episode; so she does what any gluttonous demon would do, eat the angel’s halo. Later, Jashin-Chan makes Medusa cry, Jashin-Chan gets a gift from Satan-Sama, it grows her a fancy pair of legs and she and Medusa hit the town and…

And?… Just want to take a brief time out to say, I love the realistic setting this show has. Not only do we get scenes (previously) set in Akihabara, but this episode we get a scene set in Shibuya and Harajuku and (most specifically) the Kawaii Monster Café (here called the Kawaii Creature Café) which me and the irlwaifu spent time at during out last trip to Japan!

Wait, did you say Jashin-Chan gets legs? What’s all that about? Don’t worry about it, just some special potion that Satan-Sama gave her for “levelling up” that grew her a temporary pair of legs, I want to talk about the Kawaii Monster Café some more!

I kind of see why you like this show more than Gabriel DropOut… it panders to you specifically. That’s got to be a ridiculously narrow target audience. As I wrote this review I had pause to wonder, since this show obviously was at least partially funded by Amazon, whether it was told to curtail to some obviously tourist-y depictions of Otaku Japan, or if it’s just a big ‘ol coincidence and these references appear in the manga too?

I don’t know, and honestly I don’t care, this review is already been more about Gabriel DropOut than it has been the ~actual~ show you’re supposed to be reviewing. Care to wrap things up in a succinct manner? Uh… okay… this show is consistently interesting and brimming with character and if you like CGDCT shows with a subversive, enigmatic, self-referential edge than watch this show? But come on, let’s face it, no one who isn’t watching this show is reading this review… and if they are this half-hearted recommendation is going precisely nowhere. Simply put, this show is for people who are already watching it, and if you aren’t you either don’t care or are too busy and either way that’s just fine…

This made me laugh way more than it should have.

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

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Currying Favour – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 6 Review

Currying Favour – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 6

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 6.

So what happens this episode? Oh how far we’ve come from the first episode, from such humble beginnings!

What do you mean by that exactly? What started as a rather one-note series that basically revolved around the ‘gimmick’ of Yurine “killing” Jashin-Chan over and over in violent and ridiculous fashions with a bit of meta-humour sprinkled on top has evolved into a series with character development and an over-arching plot! I mean compared to the first episode where Jashin-Chan was killed 4 times (I think) in episode 6 she’s only killed once and it even happens off-screen! How far we’ve come!

I see… so does it even feel like the same show at this point? It feels like a better show. It’s somehow become a better show than the very thematically similar (but much more boring) Gabriel DropOut and I do make mention of that deliberately because the parallels keep adding up.

Oh yeah? Like what? Early on in these reviews I expressed a wish for this show to do some world-building in order to keep things interesting, just like Gabriel DropOut did. And while that show did so perhaps too late in its run to ~truly~ make an impact here we’re half way through and we’re already introducing a heaven-based rival for our poor homeless Angel Pekola in the form of Poporon who—previously Pekola’s apprentice—has been made full-fledged angel and has come to Earth to kill Pekola in order to retain job security.

If this show is anything to go by apparently all blondes are evil… hard to disagree, tbh.

Not very ‘angelic’ of her. Indeed, and what’s more unexpected is who comes to her rescue, Jashin-Chan, fresh from a curry cooking session and unintentional time-travelling trip to 7000 years ago (don’t ask) has come bearing food for Pekola only for Poporon to “throw it on the ground”. Suffice to say this was a bad move for Poporon, who gets her ass promptly handed to her as Jashin-Chan throws her width-ways across Japan and off a cliff into the ocean.

I don’t know why but I laughed a lot at this.

Still seems like violence is the route of the comedy here. Maybe, but having an (arguably) more despicable villain than Jashin-Chan on the receiving end of the violence changes things up enough. But that’s not even the whole episode.

Yeah, you mentioned something about her time-travelling to 7000 years ago or something? Uh, I said “don’t ask”. It’s complicated, Jashin-Chan is making curry for Yurine and ends up intentionally summoning herself to the outskirts of hell and meets up with a younger version of herself, Minos and Medusa and they mention something about Earth being completely flooded and so I guess Jashin-Chan and the other ‘demons’ are all 7000+ years old?! But they send her back to present day Tokyo and she sets up a shaved ice stall to rival the ice-women sisters, and then Jashin-Chan climbs Mt Fuji to get superior quality shaved ice and my god… I didn’t think a show like this would ever get so convoluted but…

Is that f**king mayonnaise on shaved ice? Curry I can get, but shaved ice?!

But? I kinda love how stupid and messy and freewheeling this show has become. If there’s one thing I’ll say definitively about what this show has become in recent episodes is that’s no longer one-note or predictable. Also, there’s at least 3 references to Amazon and Amazon Prime in this episode and I wonder if that has anything to do with this series streaming exclusively on Prime Video or if that’s just a coincidence… I’m guessing intentional since they didn’t even try and change it to sound like a soundalike service with a similar sounding name but whatever, as long as it keeps us getting strange and interesting shows like this I’ll deal with a little product placement in my anime!

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

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Angels, Demons And Minimum Wage – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 5 Review

Angels, Demons And Minimum Wage – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 5

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 5.

So, back at episode 3 you were almost ready to drop this show, episode 4 came and you were singing its praises again, what does episode 5 do for you? It does a lot, not the least realise how kind of unique this show is—at least in comparison to its contemporaries.

Right… and that means specifically? This show is unexpectedly funny in unexpected ways and despite the central premise being nothing but an elongated episode of ‘Itchy & Scratchy’-style violent shenanigans the side characters once again steal the show, to the point where I’m wondering if there’s any point to our protagonists anymore…

So the side characters shine here, who are we talking about specifically? Well obviously our down-and-out fallen angel Pekola, this episode sees her moved into a sort of homeless-cardboard shanty-town that was at least passingly reminiscent of Anzu’s homeless times in last seasons’ Hinamatsuri. Obviously Jashin-Chan shows up to be just a general c-word and gets her comeuppances from Yurine in a satisfying fashion. Indeed, the more Pekola shows up the more I’m convinced she’s the unsung underdog hero of this show much like Anzu was in Hinamatsuri—the parallels just keep drawing themselves!

That’s great and all, but what about the other side characters? We finally get a decent bit of Minos ‘action’, I love her character-design far too much for my own good and I like that she doesn’t take any shit from Jashin-Chan despite apparently being one of her “friends”. Then there’s the crazy cop Mei Tachibana we met last episode, who patrols the streets of Akiba—does an absolutely awful job of it (I remember being confronted by a woman selling “art prints” last time I was in Akihabara too, luckily I’m not an idiot). See, Mei is into collecting ~things~ at first I thought it was cute things but the fact she has, amongst her collection, totem poles and bus-stop signs means she’s probably just insane and I loved every minute she was on-screen!

That’s good to hear— Speaking of insane, we get to see poor little Pekola at her below-minimum wage factory job and I don’t know what it was but this whole sequence was a delight to behold, from the infuriatingly inefficient work tasks, to her wholly terrifying and delusional co-workers I could really relate to her struggles—more so than the usual ‘homeless’ oriented ones.

Just f**k her shit up. (Man this show is making me more sadistic by the second!)

Sounds like Pekola’s won a spot in your heart. I wasn’t even that enamoured with her as a character, she’s kind of annoyingly pious—which I hate—but her “journey” is undoubtedly the most compelling out of all the characters and that includes our two protagonists who feature—but not nearly as prominently as Pekola and Mei.

Does this mean you’re sticking with the show for the long-haul? I don’t know, I still kinda loathe every second Jashin-Chan is on screen, to the point where I want to turn the show off. And while seeing her get brutally tortured by Yurine offers some sadistic relief it’s not nearly enough to make their parts of the anime enjoyable. But at the same time the side characters are so well integrated and so much better and interesting characters that it’s worth suffering through violent mediocrity to get to those parts.

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

Snake Girl Sashimi – Episode 1 Review
Don’t Eat The Yellow Shaved Ice – Episode 2 Review
No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk/Blood – Episode 3 Review
Police Sexuality – Episode 4 Review

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Police Sexuality – ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’ Episode 4 Review

Police Brutality – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Dropkick On My Devil’ Episode 4

What’s the show? Dropkick On My Devil!, Episode 4.

So what happens in this episode, if I recall you were getting kinda bored with the premise of this show—or rather hoped it would “shake things up a little”, has it done so? You know, I put off watching this episode a day or two longer than I usually would have—that’s how prepared I was to drop this show. Not because it did anything ~wrong~ perse just that it wasn’t doing anything particularly interesting and then guess what happened?

What happened? It went and did something interesting!

Oh? Well I’ll try and not over-exaggerate things, it didn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, but at least delivered an enjoyable experience that didn’t seem quite so shackled to the tired-formula that was already developing last episode. And what’s even more surprising is not only did it try its hand at a bit of world-building, and character development and introducing new characters but it also managed to pull each of these new/improved facets of with minimal fuss.

Impressive. So what were all those “new and improved” things? Firstly the show gets an automatic big tick of approval for starting off in Akihabara… it’s as if this show knew the fastest route to my heart and tapped right into it. The scene with the gachapon was not only delightfully reminiscent of my own experiences with the capsule toy machines but somehow even managed to make Jashin-Chan vaguely relatable as a character. There was also a brilliant streak of surreal humour that starts in this part of the episode and continues more-or-less most of the way through the episode which was appreciated as a contrast to the usual sadistic over-the-top kind of comedy this show revels in.

And the other things? A new character, and she’s cute and funny and utterly deranged. She’s a police officer named Mei Tachibana, working the beat in Akiba who arrests Jashin-Chan because she wants her for her own. And in her brief introductory scene manages to be more intimidating and more of a threat to Jashin-Chan’s well being than Yurine has in the previous 3 episodes! Also, not ~quite~ sure if she’s a lesbian or just has a things for snake girls but I can totally relate to that!

And that’s a good thing, is it? Well it’s ~different~ which as you may remember was what I was craving out of this show. And that’s pretty much the name of the game in this episode, ‘being different’—even if it is slight, it’s still noticeable. The varied humour, the breadth of reactions, the almost (dare I say) Family Guy-esque cutaways, it all added up to a much more interesting viewing experience! I won’t go as far as to say this show is completely redeemed, what with the ending segment with Medusa being as much a tease of ‘progression’ as it was a statement of retaining the same ol’ ‘Dropkick On My Devil!’-style that it’s been the past few weeks. But and this is a big “but” I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and not even on a subversive level—just plain good ol’ fashion enjoyment. Here’s hoping the show can commit to this more laid back and whimsical humour style while continuing to introduce new and interesting characters and comedic scenarios with unexpected punch lines!

Previous Dropkick On My Devil! Reviews:

Snake Girl Sashimi – Episode 1 Review
Don’t Eat The Yellow Shaved Ice – Episode 2 Review
No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk/Blood – Episode 3 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!