Saturday, November 22, 2008

Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan



Dokuro-Chan is an insane, hilarious little series in the same vein as Excel Saga. I imagine that this style of cartoon is a little too esoteric for most people, but if you have any appreciation for complete absurdity it might be worth checking out. Ignore the cute character designs though, because the show's not for kids. The main characters are a normal kid and an angel who has been sent from the future to kill him before he can discover the key to immortality, but she comes to like him and ends up resurrecting him after every time she brutally clubs him to death. The romantic interest kicking the crap out of the protagonist is a very common device in some pretty boring anime, and Dokuro-Chan satirizes it by having the violence be completely over the top, with blood spraying everywhere and the victim writhing in pain, before she magically fixes it and they act like nothing happened. Another thing the show parodies is fan service, with the accidental encounters and titillating camera angles so unbelievable that it just becomes funny.

The show (at this point) is only six episodes, but they're packed enough with humor to be worth checking out. There's so many little touches of humor that you might have to see it twice just to take everything in. Characters talk insanely fast, with the subtitles only at a reasonable speed because Japanese words have so many syllables. The show has a breakneck pace and is enjoyable whether you're paying close attention or just catching whatever you do while relaxing. There's a lot of chaff in the anime industry and it could stand to just go nuts more often like Dokuro-Chan does.

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