This one will be quick because I watched it very quickly. I
found it to be really entertaining, but it was one of those formulaic, episodic
series that I usually stay away from because they tend to go on FOREVER. But
this one just started, and I honestly didn’t know that the third season is
underway until today.
Jeez, time flies. But I also finished a series right after my last review. HELL YEAH
Time to eat. Good thing the FOOD HASN’T *SPOILERED* HAR HAR HAR
Animation/Art:
8/10
While the character design is actually pretty outstanding,
the animation is definitely (and unfortunately) above average. It really isn’t “WHOA MAH GED DEM
ANIME PEOPLE MOVE LIKE UHAULLLL” worthy, but an honorary mention should at
least go to the studio, because they used animation that fit with the
characters’ personality (i.e. body language was pretty good).
Background characters tended to be animated some of the
time, but you can see that some scenes are still… Well, animation stills (geddit?). Like
those big old crowd establishing shots? Not animated.
I’ve gotta hand it to them, though. The colours are vivid,
the animation (on the characters that move, of course) is pretty telling of
their emotions, and the character designs were excellent, save for a few
others… I’m looking at you, Background Character Girl.
Meh. You did have one of the
better storylines, in my opinion, so you’ve got that going for you.
Characters:
7.5/10
Okay, so there are loads
of characters. Most of them are girls. So I’m just going to go over the two
main characters, and then give you an overview of the girls:
Keima Katsuragi – He’s a douchebag. But you might like him,
anyway.
Keima Katsuragi – What’s a formulaic anime series
without the “standard male protagonist”? Well, it can be a lot of things. It
can be a farce on all of the stereotypes you see in plenty of harem anime, or
it can actually become the stereotype itself and become something else
entirely. But I digress.
Keima is an avid dating simulator player. He is very cynical
of the real world, and prefers the fake world of his games. However, when Elsie
(we’ll get to her later) arrives, he is bound by a contract to basically do
what he’s been doing all along in his gal-games—attract girls! This is actually
very off-putting to him, however, and he claims that he does not care for real
girls, because they are not “ideal.”
According to Elsie, though, if he doesn’t abide by the
contract, he will die, and so will she.
Keima is kind of a big jerk throughout most of the series
(that means both of the season of the anime that I watched), but he has plenty
of moments to redeem him as an interesting and vaguely moral character.
Basically, he genuinely wants to help these girls who are possessed (sort of)
by evil demonic spirits, which is really redeeming in anyone’s book, most
likely.
Other than that, he spends most of the time in an episode
doing the impossible while playing his PFP (PSP knockoff thing), gives Elsie
advice on “conquering” a girl, and is mercilessly beaten by a new catch of the
day. All in all, that’s pretty dang interesting, but I don’t think he would be
quite as interesting if it wasn’t for Elsie to contrast with his personality.
Elsea de Lute Irma – Whoever thought a demon could be this
cute? Probably half of the writing staff. And the animators. And stuffffffvvvv
Elsea de Lute Irma (AKA “Elsie”) – I kinda forgot why
she appeared, but I really don’t wanna bother with looking it up again. Don’t
get me wrong, though—I think Elsie’s adorable and great in this series—I’m just
not motivated to really check out the first episode again.
Anyway, Elsie’s a demon from Hell. Not the kind of demon
you’d really expect, but apparently, this is what Hell has come to. Adorable,
archetypal female humanoids with classy boas that apparently allow for magical
abilities have taken over Hell.
Thank you, Japan, for this profound scenario.
Anyway, she’s the ditzy, adorable, moé magical girl. Thing.
Demon. Whatever. And she is bound by the contract she made with Keima to
release the “Loose Souls” that have escaped form Hell and have entered the
bodies of the girls at Keima’s school.
Despite all of these strange circumstances she falls into,
she is another one of my now-favourite moé characters in an anime. I mean,
what’s a classy character without a classy catch phrase?
I rest my case.
Oh, and her other demon friend came over to the house and remixed it.
The girls that Keima and Elsie go after all surprisingly
have a lot of depth for one- to four-episode story arcs. Who can forget good
ol’ Track Star Girl? Or Library Chica? Or That One Girl Who Was All Boring but
Ended Up Being the Most Dynamic Girl?
Ah, Japan. I can never remember your characters’ names.
Oh! How could I have forgotten Japanese Pride Girl (AKA Idol Woman)?
Music: 7/10
Okay, so I kind of didn’t like the opening or ending songs
for either season of the series, so that’s a good place to start. Also, I don’t
want it in my head, but the opening song is there, and it’s annoying.
I don’t know what it is with me, but I just don’t care for
opening or ending songs. There are exceptions, of course, but there are so many
of these rather uninteresting songs that play during these (either good or bad)
opening sequences.
Aside from that, the background music for season one was
forgettable, but I’m sure it’s still good music. The background music for
season two was actually much more appealing to my tastes, and I have got to say
that it is probably one of the only things that brought the rating up to a
seven.
This picture makes up for the music being just okay for me, dawg.
Story/Execution
7/10
This series is, as I’ve said before, considerably formulaic; arc begins, emphasis on a particular girl is given, girl is discovered to be
unwillingly harboring a Loose Soul, Keima charms girl with his knowledge of
dating sims, kisses the girl, releases the Loose Soul, Elsie catches it, girl’s
memories are erased, and we see the girl is much better, now. The arcs do vary
sometimes, but this is the basic formula for the series as a whole.
What makes this show succeed, in my book, are the characters
and the humour they create in their interactions with each other. Not only
that, but I really liked pretty much all of the characters to some degree.
The story arcs were pretty interesting, and each arc
presented Keima with an opportunity to develop his own character, which usually
happened. The development was very subtle, and probably not significant, but
his cynicism seems to reduce by, like, 10%, by the end of the two seasons. That’s not a lot, but maybe, if
this series goes on for any longer, he will end up changing completely.
Since this is a much quicker review, I won’t go into too
much detail, but I can tell you that the comedy is where it’s at, and this
series was full of wonderful laughs.
This would make sense in context to the actual series. I swear it’s
funny.
Overall: 7/10
While I can’t say I’ll hold this anime close to my heart as
one of my favourites, I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could
call this one a “guilty pleasure” because I usually don’t watch ongoing series
(like this one is potentially turning out to be), and I’ll gladly continue
watching it, because I really like what I’ve seen so far.
If you haven’t seen this series yet, check it out on
Crunchyroll for free! I mean, it’s freaking high quality and everything!
Hmmmyessss….
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