Confession time. The Demon Girl Next Door was a show that came out last year in the Summer season that apparently was received very well, but I actually never heard of it until now that I have the opportunity to watch it properly and review it. Well okay, there are probably a lot of shows that I don’t really pay 100% attention to. The big franchises, of course, but there is a full list of lesser-known ones that miss my radar, and it’s often not until a few years later that I hear about them and think about whether I want to check them out or not.
Well…The Demon Girl Next Door was indeed received quite well, with attention mostly on the two main characters, Yuko and Momo. At first glance, this looked like a rather ridiculous comedy show, which was largely the reason why I made the decision not to cover it in my Otaku Theater column. So now I’ve watched it, have my initial opinions changed at all?
The show doesn’t mince around in the first episode and gets straight into it. It turns out that Yuko Yoshida’s family are descendants of a demon clan that was cursed into poverty by the light clan centuries ago, and have been fighting for revenge ever since. And by poverty, I mean literally; Yuko’s family live in a tiny apartment with very little money, and look for every chance they can find to get food, like special offers at the local market. In order to restore the clan’s honor, Yuko must take the life of a magical girl and offer their blood to a statue…that is currently being used as a doorstop by her mother, who is well aware of their ancestry, and just decided not to tell her children.
There’s one major issue though; Yuko, or Shadow Mistress Yuko (her registered demon clan name), is an extremely weak girl, both physically and emotionally. She trips up on random things in the street, has a bit of a short temper, and cries a lot at impromptu moments. As for the magical girl she must defeat? That would be Momo Chiyoda, a withdrawn and non-social girl from another class, who despite being incredibly strong, is one of the weakest magical girls in her light clan. These two couldn’t be more different, and of course with typical anime being what they are, that is precisely why the two of them work together so well…even given the circumstances. Yuko has to defeat Momo to restore her family clan’s name, but Momo doesn’t seem too concerned about it at all.
We really do get the impression that being a part of a clan that vanquishes evil (cute and moe demon girls included), along with being able to transform into a magical girl, is something that just doesn’t bother her in the slightest. Even Yuko’s classmates aren’t that bothered with the fact that their friend has suddenly grown horns and a tail, and are fine with her being a demon girl. It becomes more like a “whatever” to them all. And I suppose that is precisely what makes The Demon Girl Next Door the comedy show that it is. The supernatural part of the show is not only put at the back of the priority list, but is also just one of the many running gags in the show.
Now a lot of other school/comedy/slice-of-life shows have something similar to this, I know. One show I covered for Otaku Theater, Gabriel Dropout, followed angels and demons who were sent down to the mortal world to live normal lives, only for them all to develop very…human traits. The lead angel and MC ends up becoming a lazy NEET, while another angel turns into a very manipulative and sadistic girl. So what makes The Demon Girl Next Door any different from those kind of shows?
Well it’s something that I can’t quite put my finger on…or rather, it’s a lot of little things put together. With a show like Gabriel Dropout, the main characters were all people I would enjoy watching but didn’t really feel that level of connection with. Here in The Demon Girl Next Door, we get to sympathize, laugh and take pity on nearly all of the characters here, both in the demon and light clan. We really love watching Yuko’s misfortunes, and Momo’s indifference to the whole situation. One other humorous thing that crops up often in this show is that in nearly all of the instances where Yuko finds a way to battle her enemy, Momo turns out to be the one to take pity and help her sometimes. For instance, in episode 3, Yuko makes some kind of projectile weapon to use against Momo, only for Momo herself to teach her how to use a magic wand.
But The Demon Girl Next Door isn’t just a short gag slapstick comedy; it does have an ongoing story (of sorts)…which isn’t Yuko trying to find a way to defeat Momo. Later on in the show, we learn that Yuko’s and Momo’s family are more linked with each other than we originally thought. I won’t spoil those parts, but they’re definitely things that bring Yuko and Momo closer, and make them work together, instead of having to fight each other like they are apparently destined to.
A second season of The Demon Girl Next Door has been greenlit, and it might well end up being something I’ll choose to watch for Otaku Theater. There are a lot of things I can compliment about the show, and most of them center around the character design. As I mentioned, these are all people I really enjoyed watching, and wanted to cheer on. Even with Momo being rather indifferent to the idea of being a magical girl, we laugh at the moments where she ends up aiding someone who is, according to destiny, her mortal enemy. Most of the gags center around Yuko herself, though, and there certainly is a lot for us to laugh and poke at. Heck, one motivation for Yuko to actually take her role seriously is when she realizes that completing her destined task means her family will be rich again, and can afford all-you-can-eat pancakes.
The Demon Girl Next Door is a show that leaves us wanting more…even more than it gives us as each episode goes by. I know a lot of people would welcome a second season, and with this first season ending the way it did, I want one too. A lot of other similar school/comedy/slice-of-life shows tease sequel seasons by leaving final episodes rather empty; one reason for this is, I believe, is because we’d just assume that all the action would carry on in the next season like some next episode or something. Here, we’d be getting more gags, sure enough, but at least we’d have a working story we can follow. Maybe by the end, Yuko will get those all-you-can-eat pancakes, even if it means Momo lending her the money to pay for them…
