I take a look at Dropkick on My Devil! and ask myself what really drew me to watching slapstick comedy anime. Was it the funny but predictable jokes? The visual humor? The idea of short sketches over an ongoing story? Luckily this show is able to give you all three. Whether the jokes and visual humor is actually good or not is dependent on the viewer though, especially when the main punchline of the show is overworked to death. Now that wouldn’t normally be something that would throw me off a show; there have been plenty of slapstick comedy shows with overused punchlines that have gone on to become decent ones. So what makes this one stand out among them? Well I suppose one would start this argument with how it was made in the first place. The animation studio usually wouldn’t normally matter in such a discussion, but I feel it does.
Nomad is not a well-known studio. It’s only around 20 years old, and tends to make slice-of-life and comedy shows. Its most famous shows are 2004’s Rozen Maiden and 2009’s Kämpfer. In fact, as I looked at the studio’s resume, those two franchises were the only ones I am actually familiar with. Their next project (as of time of publication) is an adaptation of a mobile game, Alice Gear Aegis, that I have never heard of either. Hard to tell whether Nomad is a studio that is more reliant on the success of existing franchises rather than building on original shows. Well despite getting some mixed receptions (Kämpfer especially), their two biggest titles went on to do well. But if there is one thing that these big franchises and Dropkick on My Devil! all share is that the studio doesn’t exactly spare any expenses when it comes to animation.
We’ll get to the animation in a moment, but let’s start with the show itself. Human witch and college student Yurine Hanazono summons the lamia Jashin from Hell. Unable to return to Hell herself, Jashin finds out that the only way to go back home is if her summoner dies, and so while she thinks of ways and devices to get rid of Yurine for good (and Yurine thinks of ways to send her back), Jashin simultaneously spends her time living in her tiny apartment and getting used to this new world she has been summoned in, with fellow summoned demons (and a passing angel). And that’s just about the plot of the show, if you can even call it that. Dropkick on My Devil! relies on this slapstick comedy so much that the idea of just adding a story with a beginning, middle and end seemed rather fruitless.
With the small plot that the show does have, its execution is something a lot of people have said was poorly done. One part in the show I will pick out in particular is the opening scene to the first episode, where we are given a very small introduction as to how the summoning happened and how Jashin ended up living with Yurine. This introduction goes at such a lightning speed that if you didn’t read the show synopsis before starting it, you would have little-to-no idea of the show context and the relationship between Jashin and Yurine. Outside of that, the show begins with the two of them arguing (plus three others who aren’t even given the privilege of introductions at that time). I would have been fine with just a text explanation on screen as to who they were (name, type of demon, etc.), but instead we are dropped straight into a violent argument as to who deserves the most meat in a hotpot they put together.
Having context and introductions is extremely important in a show, especially in something like a slice-of-life comedy show, as it gives us more of a reason to like them and/or want to get to know them more. And so since we don’t get that in the opening episode, we’re torn between wanting to know them and wishing they had less screentime. Saying that though, I think that introducing context and such does depend on the show itself. I mean in a cartoon like Spongebob Squarepants or Tom & Jerry, we accepted these characters for what they were. Even in an anime like Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, we accepted their crazy characters and their crazy powers. Fallen angels using their lingerie as weapons to battle ghosts so they can return to heaven? Sure, why not? But perhaps the key difference there is that Spongebob, Patrick, Tom, Jerry, Panty, Stocking and so on are all characters we get to like in time and eventually cheer on. I didn’t give a damn about any of the people in Dropkick on My Devil!
You can have an annoying & obnoxious character that can also be fun & likeable to watch on screen. Their negative characteristics end up defining who they are, and therefore making them people we look out for and potentially enjoy. But Jashin (who is voiced by the same VA as Mari in Love Live! Sunshine!!, by the way) is completely different. She isn’t just annoying and obnoxious, but selfish and manipulative. Her negative characteristics make up what she is, and that makes her wholly unlikable instead of someone to potentially cheer on. In odd moments where she shows some resemblance of human emotion, they are quickly dismissed as her just bullying the others just so she can get her way.
Yurine isn’t that different either. It’s fine to have some visual slapstick violence and fighting in comedy shows, but the violence in Dropkick on My Devil! goes all the way up to 11, and it’s all so unnecessary as well. She may have been the one who summoned Yurine to the real world, but she is treated not just like some unwelcome guest in her home, but as a punching bag. Perhaps the writers can make some kind of excuse out of this unnecessary sadistic violence by saying that Jashin is a demon and can regenerate anyway; that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable to watch though. This comedic violence feels like the only punchline in the show; it’s something that’s used over and over again, is worked to death and gets old very quickly.
As much as I’m talking smack about the show, I am a little disappointed with this, as this is a comedy show could have really worked. We just needed to be given a reason to cheer the main characters on. If Jashin wasn’t so obnoxious on screen, then maybe we would root her on for wanting to go back to Hell. If the violence gimmick wasn’t so overused, then maybe we’d see more focus on all the characters and want to know them more. And speaking of the minotaur, medusa and fallen angel who just tag along, I had hoped that they would get just as much screentime, but instead of adding things we might want to know about them, the show retreats back to its tried and tested over-the-top violence gimmick. Watching Jashin get cut up into tiny little pieces with a machete or a chainsaw seems to be more entertaining than watching the other characters on screen grow, the studio might have thought.
We can talk about all the ridiculous characters, but what about the animation itself? Well…it’s something that just doesn’t stand out. The colors used feel washed-out and models move extremely clunky. The colors black and white are subtly used a lot in clothing and backgrounds, and it’s something that gets old; the palette we do get just isn’t able to balance it out and make the show look like a decent watch. It isn’t so much bad animation really, instead it just looks…cheap. Were Nomad just cutting corners when it comes to the animation? Well this kind of show relies a lot of visual gags, and while we’re able to see Jashin get cut up in all kinds of detail, I just wish that they had devoted more time to everything else.
Dropkick on My Devil! does remind me of the more recent Gabriel Dropout, where two angels and two devils move to the real world and live lazy human lives. And outside of the excessive violence, the big difference between these two shows is that Gabriel Dropout has characters we like watching on screen. Some of them aren’t exactly noble characters, but they are still enjoyable to watch. I found it hard to see how this was able to get not only a second but a third season. The third one (in 2022) was apparently crowdfunded by both individuals and what is apparently a hometown tax system. Whether a fourth one would come is something I neither know or care about. Season 1 is on Amazon Prime while its sequel seasons are on Crunchyroll, so if you actually want to make the effort to dive into Amazon to watch some blandly-animated over-the-top slapstick violence with a weak plot and characters you don’t really want to know about as episodes go on, then this might just be the show for you. Otherwise find something else.
