Review of Dropkick On My Devil!

Considering how often I've said "Thanks Satan" in an almost serious manner when watching this show, I think that's actually quite telling of what it means to watch this. Story: One day, Hanazono Yurine, a girl who dresses as a chunni goth loli, decided to do a satanic ritual and summon a demon from hell. From the ritual, she summons the titular Jashin-chan, a backstabbing lamia who due to being pulled out of her home against her will, is hellbent on committing manslaughter in order to break the contract and get back home. But since this is a slapstick comedy, it does not go quite exactly toplan.

First thing to note, while Jashin-chan Dropkick the anime is a close adaptation to its parent manga, there are many differences to note that make it different and by extension, less friendly than its comic form. Anime only characters aside, the adaptation kind of expects you to already know what you're getting into, throwing more or less the entire cast in your face in the first episode, and the above synopsis out of the window since that's not that well explained in any point in the series.

Logistics aside, what Jashin-chan is is a slapstick comedy that no matter the situation, whether it's attempted murder, petty crime, or being a public disturbance: Jashin-chan gets her comeuppance either in the form of torture, dismemberment, or a threatening warning depending on the severity of what devilish act she's doing at the time. As such, the show can get a bit stale, as Jashin-chan being an asshole is pretty much the entire reason the show exists in the first place, with everyone else either being sucked into, punishing, or just simply sitting on the sidelines to whatever thing she's doing at the time.

To spice it up, the show includes several other brands of comedy, most notably 4th wall breaking and referential comedy which add in a nice bit of flair to an otherwise seemingly dull experience, and having side stories involving some of the other characters. This is easier done since the show usually features A and B parts to split a single episode into smaller stories instead of stretching them out, though the stories that don't involve Jashin-chan are less enjoyable.

Solely relying on the comedic factor of its titular character, Jashin-chan Dropkick is a show that doesn't really have much to offer beyond an asshole devil and her cohorts. Its story isn't really anything to write home about, though it does try to provide character development at the end, which I think was unneeded and kind of disrupted the flow of the show. On the plus side though, it is amusing for those that enjoy a balls to the wall comedy, so it's fun for that if anything.

Overview:
+ Pretty much knows what it is and sticks with it
+ Amusing
- Not much else beyond that
Characters:

When talking about this show's characters, the only real standout one is Jashin-chan herself. As mentioned before, she's a psychopathic lamia who desires the death of the gothic loli who summoned her so she can return home to the fiery pits of hell that she came from. Among other things, she's lazy, literally backstabbing, mischievous, and that one guy who makes you pay for their meal. Which for the purposes of a karma-based slapstick show works wonders for the narrative. She's the only one who really pulls their weight in the show cause everyone else only surrounds her regarding any antics or situation that she comes across, even so much so that she becomes a bit of a tsundere due to the show's need for character growth in its last few episodes.

By comparison, her owner and dominant partner, Yurine, doesn't really do much beyond being there when Jashin-chan commits some immoral act, committing an even more immoral (and technically illegal) act by cutting her tail off, crucifying her, putting her in an iron maiden, stabbing her with various sharp objects, etc etc etc. As a result of this, Yurine arguably doesn't have a character, and ironically relies on Jashin-chan to get any form of significant screentime.

The only other standout character in the cast is Pekola, who stands out for all the wrong reasons. Being an angel who lost her halo and thus cannot return to heaven, Pekola stands as the show's B plot involving the world shitting on her while she's homeless and trying to keep up her christian morals, making almost every appearance of hers trying to make light of an otherwise suffering and depressing situation. And since her entire character is like this, it becomes one of those needlessly cruel storylines that you can't sympathize with because there's nothing to sympathize with

The rest of the cast kind of follows in Jashin-chan's footsteps (or...slither trail) as being background characters to her star position. Minos, an anime only character, only appears to be the headstrong cow she's supposed to be as a minotaur, and Medusa (despite being my favorite character), spends the majority of the series having her kindness being taken advantage of, being quoted by Jashin-chan as her 'ATM'. The most amusing member of this cast I find is actually Satan himself, who spends the entire series just popping in randomly during story transitions to drop some actually useful knowledge regarding the topic the story was talking about. It's one of those anime only features that benefits the show, cause it gave me an excuse to unironically say "Thanks Satan".

Overview:
+ Jashin-chan is a good titular character
+ Thanks Satan
- Rest of the cast falls flat
- Pekola
Art:

Produced by Nomad, a studio that's created Rozen Maiden, Sola, and Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan (they reference this too), the art for Jashin-chan is not special at all. Actually, I think the quality is actually below average, since there's not a lot that can be said about the show's artstyle in general. The color scheme is muted and not that bright, the character models are average at best, and the majority of the animation budget is devoted to any form of torture that Jashin-chan suffers throughout this weird 11 episode series.

That being said, I have to give Nomad credit for the creativity on some of their Jashin-chan torture scenes, as playing with censorship pixelation, referencing other more popular series, and doing whatever they could to make this average series stand out even more is actually quite commendable and gives the series more oomph than it could've had. So good on them. That being said, I want to ask Yukiwo (the original creator) why Medusa is...dressed in Egyptian-themed clothing. Y'know, a greek monster...being Egyptian? Asking for a friend.

Overview:
+ Did whatever the hell they could to make the art seem interesting

Sound:

"Anoko ni Drop Kick", sung by the various seiyuu in this series, the OP is...a strange mix of heavy rock and your typical seiyuu song that kind of results in a mess of genres and just...sound that actually reflects this show to a tee. Is it good? Not really. Is it interesting? Oh definitely. But probably not in the way that was intended when it was first made. By comparison, "Home Sweet Home" by Yutarou Miura is an ED that has a more slice of life feel, especially when pitted against its opening sister. That being said, it's still not that amazing of a song, and doesn't really have that memorabilia factor that I see as required when talking about good OP/EDs.

An interesting factoid about this show as well is the fact that all of the seiyuus for this show are all fairly new in the industry, and for what it's worth, Suzuki Aina, the voice for Jashin-chan, does a good job at portraying the character.

Personal Enjoyment:

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that this series of all existing manga would EVER get an adaptation. When I stumbled upon its parent story one day, I swear it was some slapstick thing that wouldn't get a lot of traction. Yet here we are writing a review for a project I thought would never get made.

Having followed the original, I can safely say that this adaptation actually blew my expectations of what I would've thought could come from a series like this. It's clear that there wasn't a large budget and low production value for the project, yet even so, they still managed to make a decent series that worked for what it was. I get the feeling that Nomad knew what they were doing when they made this, and just had fun with it despite everything. Hell they even made a jab at the Comic Meteor, the publisher of the manga, for this series not being that profitable. Even more so, I actually found the anime original content to actually be mostly beneficial to the series, adding more characters and thus more flavor to the weekly doses of lamia torture.

So as far as slapstick goes, Jashin-chan Dropkick despite a lot of factors stacked against it, manages to be a half decent comedy series worth watching to those wanting to get a little chuckle. Like seriously, this is a helluva lot better than I was expecting coming from someone who read the original thing.