The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil

Sometimes, the score rated on MAL is right since it reflects the true content of the anime series can provide to audience, which I barely have anything to oppose. However, if you do it as something default to watch or skip by the point rated on MAL, you will miss the gold! Like this anime. Honestly, I still don't get and understand how this anime gets 6.92 out of 10. Summary real quick: 1. If you like 86 - Eighty six -> go watch this 2. If you think Horiyama story is well constructed -> Go watch this 3. if you like the animation figthting scence from unlimited budget fromFate -> Go watch this 4. if you like twisted, lovely romance like love is war -> Go watch this 5. Till the last point -> everything looks perfectly cooked well with animation. I would say this anime won't be 9 out of 10 but. in this seasonal, it should be around 8.6 to 8.8 out of 10. Enjoyment I got from watching this better than Mashle season 2 and Solo Leveling or Tomozaki or nozomanu Fushi.

I think the majority of users who’ve left a rating for this show didn’t make it past episode 3. I’ll be straight: the first two episodes are BAD, and the third is very mid. I nearly dropped the show myself, but I have a goal this year to finish even the trash shows I start in 2024. I’m glad I didn’t drop it, because things get really good in episode 4. I’m not sure if the author needed time to get his comedy down, but every joke in the first three episodes landed completely flat for me. However, the first few minutes in episode 4actually had me audibly laughing, much to my surprise, and the episode continued on this good trend of “wait, is this show ACTUALLY getting good??” Then episode 5 comes and has one of the best and most well directed romance scenes I’ve seen in a long time. The scene’s combination of a having a good buildup, a complete drop in audio, and then just hanging in this moment for as long as it does makes it so impactful (despite its usage of typical romance clichés i.e. the phone ring and falling on top of each other). And that’s the big thing about this anime overall: consistency. It lacks it. It has horribly boring and eye-rolling moments, quizzically outstanding moments, and then just mid moments. It’s all over the place. Each episode is like a fresh slate of quality: will it be good, bad, or average? Whether or not you’d be willing to deal with that to get the good stuff is up to you. I will say that the poorer writing of the later episodes is easier to shrug off, because at this point I had built up some sort of understanding of and appreciation for the characters and their developments. Like I said, I definitely don’t blame anyone for writing this anime off as trash and dropping it within the first three episodes. But there is something here that I at least think is worth sticking with until the end. At least to see if its hilarious and impactful moments (amid a rubble of mid and bad) are as enjoyable and memorable to you as they were to me.

Sometimes you need a change of scenery. After years of exclusively working on hentai titles, Sawayoshi Azuma presents his first "regular" story here - and one has to say: the "career change" was worth it. The story revolves around the young demon Masatora Akutsu, who is sent from hell to earth to find a new leader (a so-called "idol") who will motivate the demons to confront the angels from heaven, because although while the angels seem to be exorcising demon creatures every day, no one there really seems to be getting their asses up. He disguises himself as a typical high school student and meets the youngLily Amane on the same day. With her cute and charming nature, her classmate seems to be exactly the right person for Akutsu's job. When he reveals his plan to her, she unexpectedly turns out to be one of the angels who has the mission to wipe out demons on earth. But instead of fighting Akutsu, she decides to use the situation to her advantage. From now on, Akutsu will be her "slave" and his ability to track down fellow demons will make her job as a demon hunter much easier. To do this, she puts chains on him - literally, by putting a magical collar on him, with chains that she can make appear and disappear at will. In his desperation about betraying his comrades to the enemy in this involuntary cooperation, Akutsu comes up with a supposedly saving idea while watching a love TV-show. Since, in his impression, couples in love are willing to do anything for their partner's happiness, Lily should fall in love with him and thus fulfill his original wish to go to hell with him and motivate the demons there. Too bad Lily saw exactly the same show on TV - and so a bitter battle of love begins. Who will be able to seduce whom first and win them over for their own purposes? But in addition to their love battle, Akutsu and Lily also have their hands full. So demon creatures continue to run around freely through the city, Akutsu's supervisor Liz is breathing down his neck - without knowing that he is hunting with an angel against his own kind - and then there is the curious classmate Yuuka Tanahashi, who sees Lily as a potential love rival for her crush Kensuke, because of her sweetness and who is clearly interested in why Akutsu has been spending so much time with her lately. It takes a while to warm up to “Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru”. Especially at the beginning, the title oscillates somewhere between different scenarios, and you're not sure whether you're watching a demon-, comedy-, shōnen- or romance-anime or a watered-down version of "Kaguya-sama". Maybe it's also because it's Sawayoshi Azuma's first "real" story and he probably wanted to try out a lot of things at the beginning. While the first two episodes focusses more on the conflict between the demon and the angel, in the rest of the first half of the season the emphasis is on the love battle between the two - so one could get the impression that it is purely a comedy/love anime. It is more in the second half that the background to heaven and hell comes to the fore again and new characters are introduced that make the story more exciting. So it's worth sticking with it and not dropping it too quickly after 4 - 5 episodes. The characters all have something interesting that makes them more relatable. Akutsu comes straight from hell and in the first episode initially mocks the simplicity of people, but you quickly get to know his "human" and much more lovable side. Lily initially appears to be a hardened exorcist, but she, too, with all her doubts and mistakes, quickly grows on you. In general, the relationship between Akutsu and Lily, which always oscillates a bit between competition, fight and friendship, is well developed. The supporting characters also come across well, like Yuuka, who gets some laughs with her love-hate relationship with Lily. My secret star of the series is Shiromura-sensei, the group's homeroom teacher, who is described as a "mixture of bizarre masculinity and middle-aged sadness". With his strict appearance, which contradicted his complex about his lack of hair, he is a nice change from the usual stereotypical standard teacher that you see in many series. Humor genereally playes a large role in the series. There are boxing kittens, talking demon dogs - and for some reason I can no longer understand - a lot of jokes about hair loss. The voice actors deliver, especially Ayane Sakura, who portrays these two sides of Lily, between cute in the classroom and strict towards demons, very well. The OP is a real banger and the reason why Taiyou to Odore, Tsukiyo ni Utae has been playing in a loop on my MP3 player for weeks. In my opinion, the strongest opening of the entire winter season. The ED then shows the quieter, more romantic side of the series again. So if you're looking for an anime with a pinch of demons, a pinch of humor, a pinch of action, a pinch of love and all of that together - then "Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru" is exactly the right place for you. I strongly recommend reading the manga, especially if you liked the last three episodes. The story is really getting going from now on - everything that was shown in the anime is more of a prelude to future, more in-depth story arcs. If there is no second season, we will still have the adventures of Akutsu and Lily in manga form - and the memory of 12 extremely entertaining anime-mondays

I swear, the first few episodes were like trying to get a cat to take a bath - it was a struggle, and I was this close to giving up. But, I'd heard great things about it, so I persisted. And boy, am I glad I did. Around the midpoint, things started to pick up, and I mean, really pick up. The plot got twisty, the characters got more complex, and I found myself actually caring about what happened next. And then, the final fight scene happened... Akatsu and Zwei going head-to-head? Mind. Blown. I was screaming at my screen like a lunatic, and my roommatethought I'd lost it. What really stood out to me, though, was the way the show balanced the darkness and the humor. I mean, some of the themes they tackled were heavy, but they managed to sneak in some genuinely funny moments that had me laughing out loud. And the animation? Smooth as silk. That final battle was so well-choreographed, I felt like I was right there in the thick of it. All in all, I'd give it 7/10. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a wild ride worth taking. Just, you know, grab a snack or something for the slow bits at the start. Trust me, it's worth it.