Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Title:Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera
Dororonえん魔くん メ~ラめら (Japanese)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Artland
Animation - Brains Base
NOTO Mamiko
Original Concept - NAGAI Go
R1 License - NIS America
YAMAGUCHI Kappei
It's Tokyo in the 1970s, and evil youkai (goblins) are attacking the human world. The "Youkai Patrol" - Enma, Princess Yukiko, Kapaeru, and Grandpa Shappo - are sent from hell to exterminate them.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


A remake of Go Nagai's 1973 animated series, Dororon Enma-kun.
Started airing on April 7, 2011.
Airing for 12 episodes.
Episode Details 
1893
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 6 6 6 6 6 Ggultra2764 [series:1977#1552]
Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera is a mostly nonsensical and perverted romp involving Enma-kun and the Youkai Patrol dealing with random demons dealing silly and sometimes perverted hijinks on humanity. The plot is pretty bare-bones where throughout much of the first half, Enma and his group deal with a random demon each episode and the second half explores the group discovering who is behind the string of demons being let loose from hell. If you are expecting consistent plot and character development throughout this series, then you will be quite disappointed as Dororon Enma-kun is more focused on its crazy and perverse comedy than giving you a serious plot to stick with.

However if you are looking for a comedy title, Enma-kun does more than enough to deliver on its laughs for the most part. The show is quite manic in its pacing with the over-the-top behavior delivered from main character Enma-kun and various other characters that the demon kid encounters. Enma doesn't come off as your typical hero as he is impulsive, dense, perverted to the point where he attempts to molest fellow Youkai Patrol member Yukiko any chance he gets and has no qualms at inflicting overkill on his foes. And rather than inflict fear and pain upon the human populace, the demons encountered by the Youkai Patrol in most instances are more focused on having the populace be in various embarrassing predicaments such as making them brainless or fat. The show was also not afraid to make nods to aspects of popular culture and breaking the fourth wall as there are parodies of creator Go Nagai's earlier works like Cutey Honey and Mazinger Z. However, the comedy does miss its mark on some occasions as some episodes have the annoying habit of focusing on a running gag throughout in response to whichever threat the Youkai Patrol faces in an episode.

The major aspect of the series that will make or break your enjoyment for it if you dig comedy would be the heavy emphasis on perverted humor. From what I understand, a number of Go Nagai's works are quite infamous for pushing the envelope when it comes to violent and sexual content. In the case of Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, it has a great amount of the latter. The perversion of the series appears to be a blatant "take that" in response to Tokyo Prefecture's recent passing of its controversial Bill 156. Examples of what you can expect out of the show's perversion include Yukiko regularly being just about nude as her clothes are shredded apart from demon attacks, Enma-kun trying to sneak in opportunities to molest Yukiko and a demon in the first episode who attacks the Youkai Patrol literally with um... a certain body part that will remain nameless. If you can't dig rampant sexual humor in your anime, then this isn't a show you will be willing to see.

In terms of presentation, Dororon Enma-kun does come across as rather average. The show's animation style takes on an older look as a number of character designs look simple and have ridiculously-proportioned body parts (Enma's father being of great example) seeming to be a clear homage to older Go Nagai works. It appears the animation budget to this series wasn't too big judging from the number of reused animation frames and shortcuts used within action scenes, a low point compared to better-looking titles of the Spring 2011 anime season like Hanasaku Iroha and C. In terms of the show's soundtrack, only the show's intense rock OP stuck out for me with other musical tracks serving their part in accompanying the show's manic and perverse humor yet not being too memorable.

Overall, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera's manic and perverse humor was surprisingly effective at most points of getting laughs out of me thanks to the antics of its characters, parodies of Go Nagai early works and other crazy elements. The perverse humor won't be for everyone and it does have its moments of its humor losing effect thanks to relying on running gags. But this did well as my comedy title of choice for the Spring 2011 anime season despite its shortcomings.

Last updated Thursday, September 15 2011. Created Wednesday, June 29 2011.
Watch Stretch [series:1977#628]
(Watch+ or Rent-)

(All episodes watched):

'Shamelessly risque' are the words which came to mind during episode one to describe this show--in other words, a faithful re-rendition of a work by Go Nagai. The character designs have his name written all over them--when Princess Yukiko first appeared, I thought for a moment that it was Cutey Honey. This show had an immediate WTF effect on me, as the craziness takes off running; but it has style and pizazz, so I like it. I may be imagining things here, but I thought Dororon exudes confidence--weird stuff happens, but you get the feeling that Go Nagai and the makers are not pandering to you in the least, rather they are making the sort of show that they want to make, whether the viewer likes it or not. And, perhaps because they don't try too hard too please us, they do. I liked keeping the setting in the 'seventies rather than updating it to the present (though in most episodes it doesn’t matter). The show was fairly funny, too; the essence is laughable supernatural beings. Sometimes the show displayed scandalous humor (it wasn't until near the end that I realized what the old woman had been twirling). Lines like "My d--k broke off!" may give you an idea of what to expect. I couldn't help laughing. In general Dororon was crazy yet not too confusing, which is nice. Not everything clicks smoothly, but my first impression is that this show is headed for Rent status, if the bizarre content can keep itself fresh.

Unfortunately, with time the impression I got was that while the first episode sets a high standard, not all subsequent ones live up to it. Some jokes, like Enma’s lecherous attitude towards Princess Yuki, are replayed time after time after time. There are a couple of embarassing incidents in which a modestly funny joke is told, then the show makes a futile attempt to expand on it, as if the viewer could be kept laughing indefinitely at a joke that wasn't all that great to begin with. This is so inexplicable in comparison to the first few episodes that I wonder if different crews worked on different episodes. Sometimes the raunchy humor is clever (I liked the demon known as 'headbutt'), and sometimes it makes me cringe. I was thinking at one point that it's almost as if 3/4 of the show's effort was put into making the first 1/4 of the episodes, and the rest would have to make do with whatever was left. Since the show wasn't all that funny anymore, I realized that the plot didn't really interest me either. It got to the point where I would tell myself that if I watched Dororon first, I’d reward myself by watching one of my favorite shows afterwards.

Fortunately, it turned out that a decent supply of effort and talent had wisely been saved for the final episode. The quality of this one was like the first one again, with a host of parodies of all sorts of animated series from the 70’s era (what was that Hanna-Barbera one about the wacky race car drivers? It must have been shown in Japan as well as here). Still, the plot itself and the way it reached a crisis were nothing to write home about. I kind of feel sorry for Harumi at the end—after all she endured, she seemed to wind up being shortchanged. To sum up, the quality of Dororon as a whole is not what the first episode or two seemed to promise, which is disappointing. As I think back about the series, the image that comes to mind is of a loosely organized mix of bits and pieces of every level of quality, from first class to mediocre.

Last updated Thursday, September 15 2011. Created Tuesday, May 17 2011.

Other Sites
NameURL
Dodoron Enma-kun Meeramera Official Japanese Site http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/dororon-enmakun/

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