So-Bad Sunday! Dororon Enma-Kun (Anime Series)

The title of Dororon Enma-Kun has been handily translated into the following Engrish equivalent--BAMF, It's Enma! Admittedly in electing to watch episode one of this series, I half knew what I was getting into...some fairly bad crap. Little did I know, Dear Reader, how deep the crap was. So deep. Such deep crap. Mind-boggling depths of crap!

Some of this depth can be seen in the trailer. Unfortunately the trailer has not been subbed into English, but I'd like to think you don't need to understand the language when the stupidity is wordlessly obvious.

The series begins in a bathhouse where shirtless elderly "Granny Gossip," sporting strange face paint and a beret that says "God" on it, begins swinging her pendulous boobs like propellers in order to warn main character Harumi that there are demons at the appropriately named Youkai Elementary school (youkai are demons). These demons, it turns out, will steal your face. Okay, the propeller boobs was a bit much, but face stealing demons are part of Japanese folklore tradition, so I start to think, maybe this is just a bit weird and spastic, and not bad at all. I am wrong. I am often wrong.

Expectedly, Harumi fails to heed the warning of geriatric tit-augerer Granny Gossip, and enters the school with a few exceptionally irritating friends. Their faces are stolen. I'm shocked. Harumi nearly drowns in the school pool while running from the now-faceless bodies of her friends and is rescued by a kappa (a kappa is a turtley, frogish, monk-haired, pervert demon and is a very traditional presence in Japanese demon stories). The kappa, named Kappa (inventive!) leads Harumi to the school basement where the nephew of the Great King Enma (also named Enma) has built the Hell House, doorway to hell. The magically naked Princess Yukiko invites them in and a talking hat named Grandpa Chappeau leads the "stray human" to Enma.

Then, things get weirdly pervy for a minute or two during a weirdly random discussion of panties that makes no sense. I am at a loss. I have no idea what is going on, and the small amount of knowledge of Japanese folklore that I have is only making it more difficult to understand. King Enma IS the king of hell, right? So, wtf is going on? I don't know. And every character in this anime is on a level of annoyingly hyper that has destroyed any reference point I have for such things. SO ANNOYING! Argh!

The group decides to round up the bad demons as part of a Demon Patrol. Hooray, a plot? They decide to use Harumi as bait, but (get this!) everyone falls asleep while waiting for the Face Stealer to attack. And our heroine almost pees herself when the demon comes for her. Really. There's a huge monologue about having to pee, during which her face is stolen. I shake my head at this.

Finally Enma wakes up and there's a battle with the monster, one involving, of all things, Dick SWORDS! Hooray, Enma breaks the monster's dick off. How do I know this happens? Well, they show it, AND the monster says, and I quote, "Oh, No! My dick broke!"

This, Dear Readers, is the moment I turned the anime off. Sometimes, as the great Kenny Rogers (another face stealing demon? Perhaps! You decide!)said, you have to know when to walk away (silently shaking your head in confusion).

Blue Exorcist -- Episode 18

Hi Everyone! I'm Konekomaru, and I'm featured in this episode!

And, Welcome to my Blue Exorcist Blog. Actually, Squeefinity is an all things anime, manga and otherwise blog, but I'm currently just feeling super squee about this show!

The last few episodes have focused a bit on Rin's place in the academy and has been all "big picture" stuff, you know, Holy Sh*tballs, Mina-san! Rin's a Demon! Can we reforge the Kurikara Sword?, Should the Vatican execute Rin? kind of stuff.

Anyhoo, this week's episode brought the show back to its heart; it focused on Rin's relationship with his friends. And, it even made me a little teary.

When last we saw Rin, his friends learned he was the son of Satan, and they saw him kick the crap out of the King of the Earth, another big time demon kin. Needless to say, this was a bit of a shock, considering a number of their family members were killed during Blue Night, when Satan murdered a ton of righteous people with his blue flames. Rin's buddies are a bit non-plussed by his own blue flames.

Konekomaru, the little, raised by monks looking Ex-wire, is downright terrified. His parents were slaughtered on Blue Night, and he was brought up on tales of death by demon. A mid-level Demon known as a Hurricane or Tornado or something sneaks into the academy and starts taunting him, basically playing on his weakness, fear and doubt; it tries to get Konekomaru to allow it to possess him.

Everyone knows there is a demon on the loose, but no one realizes it is attached to Konekomaru. All of the Ex-wires, except for Rin, are given the task of searching for it. Rin is supposed to stick to his studies and learn to control his blue flames. Konekomaru shows up; Rin does see the demon attached to him, but no one else does. When Rin tries to attack the demon, everyone thinks he is after Konekomaru, and they get super-pissy about his flames and being the son of Satan, and it pretty much sucks for him. Poor Rin!

Konekomaru gets sent to the infirmary and Bon hangs out with him. While mentally struggling with his demon buddy predicament, Konekomaru asks Bon about Rin. Bon is a gruff guy. As the audience, we understand he's just really motivated by friendship. Even though he talks a lot of trash about Rin, and lays the law down on him, he doesn't hate him. Bon just doesn't want to see anyone hurt. Konekomaru takes Bon's trash talking at face value, and he let's the demon in.

Transformed into a super powerful bird looking thing with Konekomaru's cute little face protruding from its beak, the demon immediately goes after Rin, but Rin works his My Little Demon Friendship is Magic Awesomeness, and he convinces Konekomaru he can believe in him. This breaks the possession. Konekomaru jumps into Rin's arms, while Rin simultaneously slays the demon. Everybody Wins! Hurrah!

Of course, there is some more cute friendship stuff, and then some ties to the bigger story. Questions remain, like, how did the Demon get in to True Cross Academy to begin with? Why is there a secret bombed out artificial life lab in some snowy woods that can be gotten to through a magical opening in an abandoned kidnapper van? Who is that man? Why do I get the feeling that Rin's brother, Yukio, is hiding some kind of demon power / sickness something-thing?

Until Next Week...

***

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but somewhere around episode 13, the show got a new beginning and ending song. I liked the old ones a lot, but I like the new ones, too. Here's the ending theme:

Best Yandere Character? Gunter -- Kyo Kara Moah

Your Majesty, I love you!

So a Yandere character is generally considered a little more violent than I would categorize Gunter to be. The long haired bishounen is definitely a little crazy about Yuri, the Demon King, but I don't think he would hurt anyone in pursuit of his obsession.

I just kind of like how his reality is so different than every other person's because it is so colored by his idealized vision of Yuri.

Kyo Kara Maoh (Anime) The End!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEE! Well, that is how I feel right now. Have you ever finished an anime and gotten little jabs of happiness? Kyo Kara Maoh is that show for me.

From beginning to end, this has been a dorky, cute thrill ride. I loved all of the characters, and there were a ton of characters. The writers/animators made it predictable enough that I didn't feel high anxiety, but exciting enough that I found myself yelling at the screen:

"Yuri! Fight back! Fight back! Don't let the bad guys win!!!!" Do they win? Well, it's Kyo Kara Maoh, what do you think? It's kind of like asking half-way through a Jane Austen novel if it will have a happy ending.

Of course, silly.

Now this show is about 78 Eps long, and it is a 78 Ep story arc. The episodes are not self contained, so if you choose to work your way through this one, you'll want to be committed.

I really should talk about plot here. I believe I wrote before that this anime is weak on storyline. I still believe that. I mean, it did take about approximately 26 hours of running time to tell a very simple story.

One kid from earth falls through a toilet into the demon realm where he is really king. There are a lot of bishonen around. He accidently gets engaged to a boy. He finds out there used to be a great Demon King who fought some superbad guys/things but was able to seal them away in four boxes. The four boxes start showing up and the superbad guys/things start getting strong again. The new Demon King has to go on some adventures, gather the boxes, learn about himself and his friends, fight a lot and have some life lessons. There is a final standoff. The new Demon King wins and all is well.

Pretty simple. Pretty darn simple, but the show does sustain its momentum all along.

Kyo Kara Maoh! - God(?) Save Our King! (Anime & Manga Vol 1.)

Kyo Kara Maoh!: The Male Harem, a guilty pleasure.

I'm something like a billion episodes into the anime version of Kyo Kara Maoh! -- a show that should be just this side of crappy, but somehow manages to hold my attention none-the-less.

It's basically a "Male Harem" story, which I've come to learn means that most of the characters are good looking dudes, something the manga points out right away when Yuri Shibuya, the story's main protagonist, is flushed down a toilet by some bullies into another dimension.

There is something for every one here. All the squee-worthy masculine archetypes are present and done well (and maybe that's why this show/manga captures my attention so much better than Weiss Kreuss could even dare).

You have some main players: There's Yuri, your (a)typical 15 yr old Japanese high school student with average grades and a love for baseball. There's Wolfram, a blonde haired, blue eyed, high strung, nearly feminine bishonen; Contrart/Conrad a gentle warrior-swordsman with good looks, the very embodiment of honor and loyalty, with a mildly angtsy past that gives him a little bit of an air of mystery and allows for some really dark moments (girls just love guys like him); Gunter who is an ethereal long haired, modelesque type beauty, not openly gay but not shy about his "love" for Yuri; And, Gwendal, a big fellow with a dark demeanor, who also likes to knit cute little animals.

Then there are any number of minor/major characters. And, there are women, too, who play main roles, like the Cecile, the former demon queen and Annisiah and Sussanah Julia (Yuri's former incarnation) to name a few. I like this kind of a balance in a Male Harem anime, because it allows for the fact tht women do exist. The central male characters are often sexually ambiguous, but there are relationships of all types around them. This, I think, lends some balance to the story.

The plot of this anime/manga is pretty much paper thin, which is why I'm so amazed that I am as charmed by it as I am. Basically, Yuri is flushed down the toilet into another dimension full of warring demons and humans. It turns out, he is the Demon King there, and he has a lot of work to do. So, there is some tension with some guy named Adalbert, but he is snatched away to his castle where he gets to know his retainers and staff. He accidentally gets engaged to Wolfram, who isn't absolutely unwilling, and also accidentally challenges him to a duel. Wolfram who kind of hates Yuri at first, plays dirty and uses magic and an innocent person gets hurt. Here we see the Demon King come out full force. He hates injustice. It really pisses him off. His magic uses water, and it's on a large scale. Everyone is amazed. Whoo, hoo. This applies to both anime and manga.

Later in the anime, we see Yuri's power's develop and the "storyline" emerge. There are some boxes that have some bad forces in them that are hidden around the kingdom and the guys need to get to them and reseal them so that everything will be peaceful. Also, Yuri wants peace between demons and humans. This "plot" is basically a vehicle for any number of adventures, flashbacks, comedic, action filled and angsty episodes. I know I keep knocking on the plot, but really, it's a long arc with a lot of detours and it seems less important than the relationships between the characters and the little things that happen along the way -- as in, as a viewer, I'm invested in the characters and that feels like enough. There are some cute and funny moments, but it is basically a dorkish endeavour. Anyhoo, my main issue with the show is that whenever something really terrible is about to occur, Yuri just goes into his super Demon King trance, kicks ass and saves the day.

This, unfortunately, is what tears down any semblance of storytelling because there is always, always, always and easy out. Big scary monster attacks town? Yuri goes into demon form. A box is about to be activated, and it will destroy the world? Yuri goes into demon form. Stuff's on fire? Yuri goes into demon form. Wolfram's life is in danger? Yuri goes into demon form. So, you get the picture.

That said. It's a cute anime. I have about 10 more episodes or so to go. We'll see what happens.