Originally airing in Japan from July 2019 to September of the same year the anime The Demon Girl-Next-Door has finally gotten an American release.
This 12 episode series is a light-hearted comical new take on the classic magical girl genre. The story follows Yoko Yoshida who is known by almost everyone in the series as Shamiko (English voice actor: Monica Rial) wakes up to discover that she now has horns and a very expressive demon tail. Her mother explained to her that their family are descendants of the dark clan (demons) and their family has been suffering under an agent curse placed on them by the light clan. The only way to remove this curse is for Shamiko to sacrifice the blood of the light clan's priestesses (magical girls) to their ancestor Lilith who is sealed within a total.
Unfortunately for the Yoshida family, as soon as Shamiko finds a magical girl she is forced to face one inescapable undeniable tragic truth. She is hilariously inept in her role as a demon girl. So much so that the magical girl, Momo, (English voice actor: Genevieve Simmons) can't help but take pity on the poor Shamiko. A lot of the series comedy comes from poking fun at the magical girl genre. There are visual gags. Such as a timer showing how long it really takes magical girls to transform in relationship to the world around them and their jokes based purely off of wordplay. The translation team at Sentai did a wonderful job of finding English variations of these jokes. A feat that is often hard to achieve, since a word in Japanese which has a double meaning might not have an English equivalent with the same double meaning.
The Demon Girl-Next-Door isn't all just comedy. It does have a nice balance of world-building and taking itself just seriously enough that it doesn't cross the line into absurdity. A lot of the shows that parodies the magical girl genre can easily fall prey to being filled with nothing but random nonsense. This anime does not suffer from that fault. Each of the characters does have their own logical reasons for doing what they do. There are limitations on what the characters can and cannot do in regards to magic and for the most part, it is consistent. Izumo It? who is the author of the four-panel manga which the anime is an adaptation of had to put a lot of thought into the writing process.
The entire production team put a lot of effort into this show. They went the extra mile to add subtitles to all the onomatopoeia, book covers, and signs on buildings that appear within the show. The only real critiques I have for this show are all minor ones. It’s sometimes hard to tell how reliable the information is when characters provide exposition. For example, a character will claim they are not very powerful when compared to others yet at the same time is shown to be the most powerful character in the show. Of course, that could've been intended to be a joke. If so I feel that it missed the mark.
The Demon Girl-Next-Door may not have a high-stakes fight, tear field drama, or even a deep philosophical meaning but nor does it need it. It is a relaxing comedy with genuine laughs, a well-written script, and a cute protagonist you'll want to root for as she tries her best to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.
Review Copy Courtesy of Sentai Filmworks