Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan

Genre: Comedy

Format: 8 OVA

Allegiance: Geneon

Director: Mizushima Tsutomu

Vintage: 2005

Intelligence Agency Report by: Loner

Kusakabe Sakura might be your average middle school student now, but in the future he will create the technology that will endanger the female population in order to satisfy his own evil desires! God sends Dokuro-chan, one of His angels, to kill him, but she decides to save him instead. Unfortunately for Sakura, this means living with a temperamental angel and being whacked to death repeatedly by her giant spiked club, Excaliborg. Luckily, she can also wish him back to life.

Field Agent Report by: Loner

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

3.00
5.50
7.75
7.00
7.50

Overall

6.50

(not an average)

One of the most famous economic theories is the Law of Diminishing Returns, which implies that the more of the same thing you get, the less enjoyment you will derive from it. This law applies in the case of this anime as well. Even though this OVA is only 8-episodes, what started as an outrageously funny comedy soon loses its charm and becomes very mediocre.

The gory and random humor is certainly not for everyone. A lot of people will find repeated scenes of Sakura bloodily bludgeoned to death by Dokuro-chan gruesome and sickening. Some will also find the ecchi gags tasteless and even disturbing, considering how young these characters are. However, all these jokes have a primitive appeal that makes me howling with laughter at first. The audacity of some of the gags, including some poking fun at issues like lolicon and even world politics (George W. Bush and Kim Jong-Il both make guest appearances), simply make my jaw drop. From first appearance of the outrageous opening theme to the end of the fourth episode, there is not a moment when I am not laughing. However offensive the humor is, it is also so shocking, creative, and so original that you cannot help but laugh uproariously.

Then comes episode 5, and suddenly I find myself laughing less and less. Sure, there are still moments which managed to make me chuckle a bit, but overall, the second half of this short series is a letdown. Part of the reason for this disappointing turn is that the directors and writers seem to have lost their creative edge. The same jokes are rehashed in an increasingly random manner, causing their comedic value to decrease. The writers also suddenly decide to introduce dramatic elements to a show which to that point has been completely devoid of any actual plot or characterization. The melodrama feels completely out of place in an anime that repeatedly makes fun of its own ridiculous premise. In the end, the gags are just not as funny the tenth time around and quantitatively, they are fewer in number. As such, the entertainment value of this anime takes a nosedive.

Dokuro-chan may lack any substance and its comedy is not for everyone, but during the first half of this short series I was thoroughly entertained. If it had managed to keep the comedy fresh and original, however repulsive and inane others may have found it, I for one would have been entertained. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan starts with a bang, but simply leaves a bad taste in my mouth in the end.

Field Agent Report by: Drake

Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio

3.00
4.00
3.00
8.25
6.50

Overall

4.75

(not an average)

I have never seen such a gory, twisted, innuendo-filled parody as Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. The sheer brilliance of the political parodies, explosive diarrhea, and utter randomness of Dokuro-chan’s Excaliborg-wielding abilities was enough to captivate my sick, twisted side. After the first three or so episodes, however, I began to realize just how uninventive the series really is.

The plot of the anime sadly lacked any development. It started out nicely, explaining Sakura’s role as the one to put an early stop to the physical aging of women in the future. After this was established, though, the entire plot went into the background, with only the occasional return of Sabato-chan (the one sent from the future to kill Sakura) to do her thing. The characters aren’t much better than the plot; they start out pretty generic and are highly reminiscent of the characters in Love Hina. You have the timid guy who finds a girl in very awkward and seemingly perverted situations, and she in turn attacks the guy in some unimaginable way—in this case, smacking him with a large, spiked club. Unlike Love Hina, though, the characters stay the same throughout the series and never develop much, if at all.

The art is one of the few redeeming points with which Dokuro-chan walks away. It has some really good animation and uses interesting techniques when transforming people into animals. The opening song, “Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan” by Saeko Chiba, is very fitting to the series and carries the tone of the anime well. However, it gets boring over time and I soon found myself skipping the opening altogether.

Overall, I would only recommend the first three episodes or so to anyone curious about the show. Keep in mind that if you do choose to watch Dokuro-chan, you should be prepared for an overdose of perverted humor and parody. After the fourth episode, there is no guarantee of anyone’s lasting interest in the show, much less sanity.