Justin: It’s hard to overstate just how genuinely I’ve been forward to reading Eniale & Dewiela. Witch Hat Atelier was released a couple years ago in the US, and with its captivating art and engaging story about a girl joining the witches’ world in order to save her mother, it’s been one of my favorite manga series ever since. There are very few announcements that make me fist pump nowadays, but once Yen Press announced last year at Anime Expo Lite that they picked up Kamome Shirahama’s first serialized work, I fist pumped and possibly yelped at the same time.
But talk about pressure — Eniale & Dewiela‘s her first serialized work! Witch Hat Atelier‘s fantastic, so what if this one isn’t so great? Would settling for just good be fine? It was actually worrisome as I finally opened my copy of this manga up…
…and by page 20 I found it would take so much to go wrong for me to dislike it. So let’s get into this manga where the general idea is angels and demons hating each other’s guts means the Earth is in dire straights, right? Well, in Eniale (Angel) & Dewiela (Demon), this is a manga where Earth probably wishes this angel and demon actually did hate each other’s guts!
This isn’t to actually say these two don’t get into spats — Eniale and Dewiela each end up arguing or fighting each other throughout this first volume. But rather than it being super serious, they each argue over frivolous things, like a brand of eyeliner or how they want to help a certain child. Aside from that, they each have shorthand names for the other, they interact a lot — heck they even go clothes shopping in Paris at one point — and either console or help each other in their time of need. So it really is about historically known enemies being best friends forever.
So what, say, is the problem? Well, the problem is their spats are fairly frivolous for them, as angels and demons. Everyone else? Catastrophic! The first chapter has the two discover an abandoned baby in their area. Their desire to find its mother ends up involving them essentially hacking all manners of audio, bringing in the military to subdue a massive pooch, and the Statue of Liberty preparing for New York Fashion Week. And how it concludes with everyone surviving involves two birds.
Basically, whatever minor troubles they’re involved in generally impacts the world in a bad way. Which is why you can’t stop laughing when Eniale’s desire to have a comfortable hot spring, fueled by Dewiela’s desire to make her spend all her money to go broke, is the cause of global warming somehow. Or what happens when one child aims to save her sick mother, summons the both of them, and this manages to result in lots of souls roaming all around the area. There are just a lot of hilarious scenarios involving these two and the people around them, and with their personalities, it makes everything succeed.
The art also helps make it succeed too. If you’ve read Witch Hat Atelier you can jump into this and see a number of similar aspects, from how the characters are drawn, the amount of detail for certain creatures or fashion, and the comedic timing, in this manga. It certainly amused me to see how Eniale in particular totally reminded me at times of Coco — there’s one part where Eniale says when she was little she paraded around in the buff (also included in that section: “buck-nakey”) — and that’s just a testament to the craft and how much thought was put into this work.
If there are some warts, it definitely involves the story. While the first two chapters are connected, the manga appears to have no compelling goal other than to let Earth fall prey to the whims of these two. So it’s heavily dependent on whether the chapters themselves are pretty good. Also, there are explanations regarding the hierarchy of angels and demons, but you’d think there would be some reprimand occurring after the Earth faces near destruction right? Basically, what type of Earth is it where every country can get posters of a poorly drawn baby and no other angel notices this? So it does feel like some details are missed in how these angels and demons work.
But for me, it obviously didn’t take me out of the chapters. Nor did it stop me from laughing at Eniale whining about not being satisfied about her hot spring, Dewiela looking incredulous, one bird demon going all Hulk in anger, and the world having to deal with dead people reviving and enjoying a hot spring in the middle of the street while the Earth’s climate (hot springs in the South Pole!) cries in anguish because of these two. Simply put, Eniale & Dewiela’s incredibly fun. Totally looking forward to the next volume of this.
Justin’s rating: 4 out of 5
Helen: Eniale is a lowly angel, Dewiela is a high-ranking demon and yet, these two opposing forces of nature seem to get along with each other quite swimmingly. Well, when they aren’t trying to murder each other for stealing eyeliner, ruining outfits, or fighting over a lost soul, some things are just unforgivable! But for everything else, Eniale and Dewiela are living the high life of luxury that money alone can’t buy, the kind of lifestyle that requires a miracle, or maybe a demonic intervention!
Like a mash-up of Good Omens and Blood Blockade Battlefront, the forces of good and evil have come together for the right reasons, for the wrong reasons, for mayhem, and possibly for some sexual tension. Eniale is hardly a chaste angel and Dewiela can be prevailed upon to do a good deed every now and then, although it seems as if they are the outliers of both heaven and hell. One wonders if angels should really cause that much chaos, like taking over global communication systems to find the mother of a missing child, or if demons should show that much compassion for other beings, like summoning one of the lords of hell for diaper duty, but that’s the fun of it! Honestly I wonder how many near-apocalypses these two have caused. It certainly seems like they came close a couple of times in this volume alone and they even got kicked out of paradise!
Kamome Shirahama’s art continues to be a delight and it continues to remind me of Kaoru Mori’s art in some ways. Although, this time it’s not Shirahama’s lavish use of detail that reminds me of Mori’s art so much as it is the way she draws her female main characters. Eniale and Dewiela both look otherworldly hot and stunning in all panels and with the casual usage of suggestive angles and the occasional nudity it certainly gives the work a more mature feeling than Witch Hat Atelier (although it’s not so prevalent that Yen Press’s Older Teen rating feels out of place. It’s potentially titillating in places but never comes close to being pornographic).
Shirahama certainly takes every chance she gets to draw them in new outfits, with lovingly detailed hair and wings; Eniale & Dewiela is a feast for the eyes while you’re laughing yourself silly!
Helen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5