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EP. REVIEW: The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2


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casenumber00



Joined: 05 Feb 2011
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:57 pm Reply with quote
Watching S1, I realized this anime had a pretty deep story and even deeper lore. Even being up to date on the manga, and it has gotten deeper. It's very surprising since the author puts the comedy moments before the story, so much so that you can zone out for 2 seconds and miss a plot point delivered off handedly that will come up later. For that, the author is very deliberate where is seemed like something said was made out to be a joke or a character's actions and behaviors seem comedic, those things have meaning in the story. Also the manga and franchise seems to be popular in Japan, a quick look on 2ch and all the fan art on pixiv can attest to that.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2022 12:52 am Reply with quote
Glad that you were able to binge the first two volumes of the manga. Yes, one of my favorite things about Demon Girl Next Door is its ability to coat its not-so-bright character backstories and certain situations with a perfect mix of banter, naivety, and youthful exuberance that it never really weighs too heavily on the show. It reminds me of Mahoraba ~Heartful~ Days which also had a similar ability. I'm kind of miffed a little that the OP has spoiled some pretty memorable moments, but I guess there's sometimes no getting around that. Otherwise, I've been super happy with 2nd season thus far.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18137
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2022 8:46 am Reply with quote
Very happy to have this one back, and episode-reviewed this time, too. (This is one of the very rare cases where a first season didn't get episode reviews but a second or later season is, which I see as a testament to the first season's unexpected quality.) Definitely agree that there's a lot more story to this one than is apparent up front. You also have to pay attention even to backgrounds to catch all of the jokes, as occasionally some of them aren't in the foreground.
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave



Joined: 14 Jan 2019
Posts: 482
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2022 9:07 am Reply with quote
I'm glad you enjoyed this great, gay, dumb, wonderful comedy!. I hope we can get some TWIA or something for the first season to interest people who missed it into catching up on it and continuing the second, like some people decided to try Estab-Life after it was featured.
I wrote it in review schedule thread, but another former reviewer beside Key also found this show very good, so together with James' very enthusiastic reaction, it should be clear this is a show that can quickly charm everyone.
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casenumber00



Joined: 05 Feb 2011
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2022 7:07 pm Reply with quote
EP. 3
Quote:
Before we get to that, though, we have a pretty funny sketch that showcases just how terrible Shamiko is at fairly standard things, such as using the internet. It's getting increasingly more difficult these days for me to believe that any Zoomer living in a tech-savvy society would be so utterly baffled by the most basic of technological concepts, especially when it comes to social media, no matter how cosmically impoverished they may be. Is Shamiko's cluelessness a character cliché that might not totally work here in the 2020s, or is it a clue that has larger implications about the differences between our world and this magic-infused alternate universe???


There is actually a reason why she is clueless about standard things and not simply her being cute and funny for the sake of it.

spoiler[As you may recall from the last 2 episodes from S1, it was revealed that Shamiko was hospitalized, like coma level bad, for a long time so she never got to experience a lot of life events and education one her age would go through. It's actually one of the more believable reasons why she is clueless in this day and age along with her family being impoverished. Again, its one of those subtle ways that the author masks and hides vital plot points in seemingly stand alone jokes. Shamiko's hospitalization is a big deal in the story and did set the motion for a lot of things in the past and further future events in the story. ]


Last edited by casenumber00 on Sun Apr 24, 2022 2:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2022 8:20 pm Reply with quote
casenumber00 wrote:
EP. 3
Quote:
Before we get to that, though, we have a pretty funny sketch that showcases just how terrible Shamiko is at fairly standard things, such as using the internet. It's getting increasingly more difficult these days for me to believe that any Zoomer living in a tech-savvy society would be so utterly baffled by the most basic of technological concepts, especially when it comes to social media, no matter how cosmically impoverished they may be. Is Shamiko's cluelessness a character cliché that might not totally work here in the 2020s, or is it a clue that has larger implications about the differences between our world and this magic-infused alternate universe???


There is actually a reason why she is clueless about standard things and not simply her being cute and funny for the sake of it.

spoiler[As you may recall from the last 2 episodes from S1, it was revealed that Shamiko was hospitalized, like coma level bad, for a long time so she never got to experience a lot of life events one would go through. It's actually one of the more believable reasons why she is clueless in this day and age along with her family being impoverished. Again, its one of those subtle ways that the author masks and hides vital plot points in seemingly stand alone jokes. Shamiko's hospitalization is a big deal in the story and did set the motion for a lot of things in the past and further future events in the story. ]


True, but spoiler[She wasn't constantly in a coma from what we've seen. Just in and out of the hospital and potentially lethally so around Christmas at age 6. After that incident (Which I won't even mention more about here in a spoiler tag just in case) by all accounts she essentially became that trope of "girl in class who only shows up half the time and is sick in bed the other half." ] Personally I'm content with the "extremely poor family" explanation, but spoiler[being so focused on just staying alive] is also a factor.

With that out of the way, really glad more people are being made aware of this gem. It's legitimately the best series to come out of a Kirara magazine since Yuru-camp (Which the author has made comparisons to in interviews about Yuru-camp showing people remaining connected over distances and in remote places through technology and wanting to somewhat flip that with MahiMazo being about very geographically close people having no communication or openness and having them slowly open up to each other as they connect) and this comes from a massive fan of SoL series.

Having bought all of the volumes in JP (Up to vol. 6 so 1 behind English) spoiler[Seeing Momo's scars hits WAY differently when you know what caused them. And yes, the series directly addresses those specific scars and the "battles with ether bodies" offhand comment a full 45 chapters later in great detail.]
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2022 11:49 am Reply with quote
Very happy with the voices chosen for Shirosawa and Lico as it basically echoed the exact feeling that I got from those two when reading the manga. Also it was very cute that despite being completely drugged into a stupor that Shamiko could still proclaim her primary objective.
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Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2022 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Lico was always my least favorite character in the series and I felt her mini-arc later in the series was one of the weaker ones. But I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the voice sold me on her. I don't think she'll get on my nerves quite as much in the anime.

Meanwhile Shirosawa's voice being smooth as butter was expected but still hit like a truck. Love it.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2022 7:19 am Reply with quote
Episode 5: That was good. How on Earth did a fantasy where a demon girl is told about a magical cat girl by a talking tapir sell magical realism? I would expect the story about the cat who visited a sick girl from something like ARIA but Demon Girl Next Door being so earnest about a cat who walks through walls... there's no way that this show should be able to tell such a story without making it into a joke but the show kept it light and ethereal.

And then it got weird. Yet the further the show goes, the more sense the opener makes. But the more I learn about the world, the more likely... look, one tenet of magical realism is that a person ascribes to the shape that take so if Sakura was a cat ten years ago... and Momo is learning to make little traveling bodies for wayward souls...

I don't think this show will get dark but I am thinking it will go deep.
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave



Joined: 14 Jan 2019
Posts: 482
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2022 10:58 am Reply with quote
I like the implication that Lico was quite a powerful enemy against Magical Girls/Preistesses, when you remember her threat of dropping priestess into latrine last episode, which she implied she used to do a few time before, some Light Clan members had very much Not A Good Time after battling her.
And what a great reveal, basically as big as the Daddy Box reveal from the end of the last season! Older Sakura sister seems to be quite a intriguing character.
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Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2022 6:23 pm Reply with quote
I remember from when season 1 was airing that this arc was where the author wanted S1 to have it's finale, but they ended up not doing that for pacing reasons. So that should say a lot about the importance both narratively and emotionally for this episode and the next.

This was indeed a great episode, and as these little breadcrumbs are helping us find our way to the bigger plot I had forgotten (and LOVE) that more crumbs from a different loaf are still being dropped along the way.
What is this "Plague" from 10 years ago? (Though more likely a disaster and a small mistranslation)
Lico has interacted with other magical girls... I wonder if that will come back to bite her?
And the one I forgot about spoiler[Momo has seen a core before... but it was different from the cores Lico describes and from Sakura's apparent core] which very much does become relevant later.

I love this series so darn much, just as much for the strong storytelling as for Momo/Shamiko's married couple dynamic
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18137
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2022 6:50 pm Reply with quote
Review wrote:
You might understandably be too distracted by the literally perfect joke that is Shamiko sneaking past her dream monsters by using Daddy Box like Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid to notice how much heavy lifting the scene is doing. . .

I might have called out to Scooby-Doo there (which I'm pretty sure did the same gimmick decades earlier), but to each his own.

Yeah, the steady, sometimes-innocuous way the series throws out revelations has always been one of its greatest strengths. For as crazy as the series commonly acts, it's all plotted with remarkable precision, and episode 5 is a prime example of the impact of that. Highly looking forward to next week to see what the writing does now that Sakura has finally appeared.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2022 11:05 pm Reply with quote
I have to admit that while I like a lot of what the series has to offer, I've been mentally tapping out for a while (counting the 1st season as well), but this episode really pulled me back in.
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Electric Wooloo



Joined: 19 Aug 2020
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2022 4:45 pm Reply with quote
TOKI WA KITA!

I had a smile on my face the entire episode Very Happy
We found Sakura's core, got to see Darkness Peach, Shamiko achoeved her goal of making Momo smile, and both of our main girls made vows for the future. Even Sakura knows that the priority is looking over Momo rather than the town itself, and Momo's world has opened up so much more thanks to Shamiko

And if you're sharp, you'll notice that Momo's previously pink head ornament is now permanently black. She's fallen just a little bit more to darkness even if it's just another hair accessory!

One note I'll make on the translation cause it's actually pretty important, in the flashback when Sakura is talking about "My Little sister's curse you've taken on" it should actually be "Your little sister's curse". I.E. Shamiko's condition deteriorated because she ended up taking on Ryouko's portion of the family curse in addition to her own. That's also why Ryouko is basically a normal 4th(ish) grader. Shamiko isn't (currently at least) carrying any curse of Momo's like the translation implies.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2022 11:13 am Reply with quote
Love that they brought back the first season's ending theme for the final segment of the episode as Shamiko is bawling her eyes out once Momo states with a big smile that her new goal will be focusing on making Shamiko happy. Really made a big impact on that scene. Seeing Darkness Peach animated was one of the big scenes I was looking forward to with this season and I think they did a great job. Ponytail Momo with her cape is just too amazing. Also as a Nanoha fan I love the whole "hit them with a healthy dose of friendship to stop them from going fully dark" plan of Ogura. Nothing says friendship like a magical girl arrow from point blank range.
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