Ask John: Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan

[Bradster]

What I posted last year on the series:

http://www.animenation.net/forums/showpost.php?p=5394566&postcount=6


I'd actually disqualify Dokuro-chan because it's closer to satire of the magical girl, harem, and school genres (at minimum) than the "straightforward comedy" that John said he was judging.

Dokuro-chan herself is the apotheosis (*heh*) of the "violent lead female". Forget the hot-tempered punchers and kickers like Akane Tendo and Naru Narusegawa- Dokuro decapitates or disembowels Sakura on a regular basis, most often simply out of capriciousness.

All those school anime where the class calmly accepts a rather strange (if cute) transfer student out of the blue? How about accepting an angel who transforms two classmates into a monkey and Shiba Inu ("Oh well, since he's a monkey now") and kills Sakura regularly in the hallways? Talk about Ritalin/Prozac children.

Given the fact that the series was only 8 episodes long, they seemed to go out of their way to make sure that all the conventional harem/school episodes were covered: interrupted date, school trip with couples journeying to a haunted shrine, matchmaking shy meganekko with bishie jock, and others.

The abrupt departure of his series-long (semi-mutual) love interest classmate Shizuki infuriated me until I realized that convention has it that the female lead almost always gets the male lead regardless of how compatible they are, so it's no surprise that in this satire Dokuro is able to return from the future to stay with Sakura and that the other more deserving girl gets jilted.

Comedy or satire, I agree that it moves too fast and ends too soon to be effective.

[Leader Desslock]

Comedy or satire, I agree that it moves too fast and ends too soon to be effective.
Isn't it just a low-brow chuckle series, like... Puni Puni Poemy? I haven't seen Dokuro-chan, but I didn't think it was ever billed as "a thinking man's anime". Everything I've ever read about the series leads me to expect a level of toilet humor at the level of Ren & Stimpy.

[Bradster]

I probably should've said parody instead of satire but my brain was in neutral... the expectations are lower in parody, and BTD-c is nowhere on the level of "A Modest Proposal".

Yes, it's basically going Excel Saga one further in the twisted face-fault, blood bath, and high-speed monologue department, with the addition of the explosive diarrhea that Dokuro and Sabato get when you remove their halos.

I didn't think much of it as a comedy. It was funnier as a parody, but not by much.

(Pa Kettle: Ma, this oatmeal of yours tastes terrible!
Ma Kettle: Pa, that's not oatmeal, it's grits!
Pa Kettle: Grits? I love grits! *resumes eating*)

[Leader Desslock]

I actually do want to see the series. Sometimes a good lowbrow chuckle is a good break. I find some of the early Ren & Stimpy episodes to be laugh out loud funny, and I toss in Poemy at least once a year.

[Bradster]

I wonder if it'll ever be licensed over here. It might be popular enough, but since it's only 8 15-minute episodes it might not be seen as something that can be milked for as long as other series.

(and since 'A Modest Proposal' is a printed satire, I probably should've used 'The Ruling Class' as a more appropriate comparison)