Dropkick On My Devil!

Jashin-chan Dropkick, yes Jashin-chan Dropkick. One of the series that has defined the cultural slice of life comedy series of the last generation in the history of anime. This is a series that has changed significantly over the past summer. What I love 'bout Jashin-chan Dropkick is the whole “devil aspect” of the show. Every technique had substance, quality and all of the assassination arcs really shown the defining elements of how devils worked within the Jashin-chan universe. These qualities are something I will soon not forget. I know a lot of people complain about Jashin-chan Dropkick being a half-ass wit that can’t do anything Orperhaps Pekora being useless. But in a way, I look at the series as being a little different, especially in the developing of characters. Yukiwo did not intend to create the story with a “badass” character right from the start, toppling people one after the other, no. Jashin-chan Dropkick was set up in a way that much resembles an ordinary life and the tribulations and tests you must go through. Death is at every corner and Jahsin-chan is a devil that is trying to fit in with the rest of the humans and be "recognized" I think that was one of the main defining elements of the series. Yukiwo wanted to show that Jashin "is a character that no one likes because she has the body of a serpent". You can only wonder what she is thinking, being in his predicament. Watching her grow up as a devil and trying to kill Yurine, but realizing that she is in a world fraught with fascinating anime girls. Watching her friends get all of the food while Jashin-chan only gets a very small slice that can't even stand on its own. The degree of emotion in the series was something I really enjoyed. It was really powerful. I remember hearing people spout nonsense in the discussions boards "omg too much drama, get on with the fighting already" But I actually liked how Jashin-chan Dropkick had that drama, it fits in with the entire theme of the series. It kind of brings a whole different realism to the show compared to other slice of life series. I won’t state any names. One of the things that Yukiwo really focused on in the original was friendship and bonds. That's one of the major theme's watching this group of friends grow up together, learning from her friends and becoming a great devil in the process, learning the ways of the human world. This show explores themes of lust, love, epic fighting, and greed to a very astounding degree. The characters in this series were in every sense of the word children, growing up in a world full of adults that were much more talented in both skills and combat. That is not to say the show was made for children. Just that Yukiwo wanted to show the younger generation the main characters of the show grow and the progression and development into well-rounded characters. They had to learn the ropes of what being a devil is like. These devils are put to the test to show how they must use every ounce of their ability to survive and protect the people they love. Perhaps maybe the reason that I love Jashin-chan Dropkick so much and the reason it feels very nostalgic to me is because when I watched it for the first time when it was airing, It was one of THEE most popular anime series on the net and not a single person had anything remotely unscrupulous to say about it. Suddenly after the first episode filler arc, or the not so appreciated “trying to kill Yurine”, it lost its reputation and became a show just muddled by idiots that call anyone a Jashintard for watching it. I have seen how the fanbase has changed significantly over the past summer of watching Jashin-chan Dropkick. It is quite sad really. I still consider Jashin-chan Dropkick to be one of my favourite quality anime series, regardless of where it’s going. Perhaps maybe its because I'm very infatuated with devils and like the unique way that Yukiwo has created this human world, similar to how I really love Initial D for its drifting. Every arc is something new and fresh so Yukiwo can develop on that and expand upon the show in various different ways. Initial D had some of the greatest character backstories and cast I’ve seen in a series, but it did suffer from story progression a bit thankfully Jashin-chan Dropkick does not. It has a pretty solid pace and some of the most groundbreaking plot twists. I guess it’s all a matter of personal preference and what you like to see in a show. I myself am not a huge fan of typical slice of life tropes that are used consistently, but I love how the original series gave us a so much of a more powerful emotional impact to the show. In a way, it felt more humanized as opposed to the more generic school girl elements of slice of life animes.

In the season of intense comedies, Jashin-chan Dropkick is the no man's road followed, the black sheep of the genre with the comedic supernatural "violence and gore" aesthetic. Despite all this, you know it's legitimately bad when straight at Episode 1, the producers don't even care to open to us about the characters and their traits, and just straight dives into the comedy action. For this reason alone, there are 2 camps: the enjoyment and frustration factors. If you enjoy this series (like myself), the jokes are few yet decent, the many parodies it tries to imitate with the slapstick comedy. Other than the misplacements of thejokes and such that I willing to forgive, this is yet a decent move in the right direction. If you hate this series (like everyone else who dropped the ball at the very beginning), the violence and gore from Jashin the viper herself will turn heads off, and the comedy will get old really fast. To top it all off, there are barely traces of character development, just their precarious situations towards the harm of another. With that said, studio Nomad (rise from your grave!) has done a good representation of the anime adaptation. Sure, it looks simple and bad, but for comedy purposes the drawings are meh but OK, and they fit their purpose. In the season of less stellar OPs, I thought that Jashin-chan Dropkick had one of the most creative and funny OP sequences, and props to the VAs for the OP song, which I like a hell lot now, and watching this with song lyrics subtitles just up the ante for me. If you feel like you have time on your hands and need a little breather, this series will do, if not go watch others that are much better. And while I enjoy this series from start to end and is underrated, unfortunately it's not a show you will remember in time to come. Jashin-chan is no mere devil, she'll Dropkick on you heavy!

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.

I'm using this to review all the seasons and OVAs since I'm not about that "um actually the second season is a different show" BS because "um actually it's all the same show" With that out of the way, I love this show and it's super entertaining, but also in the awkward spot of being a kind of janky adaptation of the manga, to the point where it works better as a compliment to it than a straight adaptation, so maybe read the source material first. Episode one is actually around chapter 58 or so of the manga and they skip almost every character introduction andeven the inciting incident that kicks things off in the first place which means viewers who haven't read the manga will feel a bit lost. The basic premise is sort of "Ultra-violent Tom & Jerry crossed with Seinfeld but with demons and angels" and granted, it isn't really plot driven so you can kind of pick up the archetypes in media res, but even as far as the third season the effects of skipping so much are still felt to the point where they make meta jokes out of it and point out which volume of the manga the skipped plot-point is in. That said though, it makes a fantastic companion piece to the manga if you have read it. Unlike a lot of shows that are 1 to 1 shot for shot retellings of the source material, but in a different medium, the Jashin-Chan anime is more like a remix. You'll get scenes, stories and gags from the original, but small gags from the manga will be expanded into their own little storylines and there's a lot of new glue holding things together. Sometimes when I read a manga or watch an anime after consuming the source, it kind of feels like going through the motions because I know what happens, but Jashin-Chan actually keeps things fresh even if you've read every page. My favorite character ended up being the Baphomet Devil Narrator who doesn't even have any lines in the manga, but fills in the scene transitions of the anime with all kinds of wacky gags and strange trivia. The voice actors are all perfect and almost exactly match how I imagined them reading the manga, the artwork is constantly gorgeous (especially for a gag series), and the characters are as lively and fun as ever. The real charm of the Jashin-verse is how the more you consume it, the more it feels like a living world. It's not just Jashin-Chan and her battles with Yurine, but all the characters around her have their own lives that just happen to intersect with Jashin's antics, and even the smaller background characters like the three otakus who follow the angels everywhere or Pekora's part-time manager kind of have their own rhythms and gags that develop over time. There are some gags that just straight up wouldn't be doable in a manga (like Jashin-chan's impressive but insane song she works on over the course of the series) so they know how to take advantage of the medium. Most of all I think it's the tone that I really appreciate about this series. When doing a dark comedy it can be tempting to make everyone unrelentingly awful or just have cruel things happen for the sake of laughs, but while Jashin-Chan is a very violent series, it also has a ton of sincerity and knows when to let the characters be nice, have a good moment, or even grow as people without pulling the rug out from under it as a joke. Most of the cast is deranged, evil, or insane to some degree and there's maybe 4 characters total you could call "well-adjusted" but somehow they all generally get along at the end of the day and you want to tune in to see what else they're doing next. While I do think this series is best-served after reading the original manga, the anime version still grows into something complex and beautiful with a lot of original material, and the fun thing about this type of comedy series is that anything extra isn't really "filler" so much as it's more hilarious chaos with characters you already love. I eagerly await whatever comes next.