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The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2
Episode 10

by James Beckett,

How would you rate episode 10 of
The Demon Girl Next Door (TV 2) ?
Community score: 4.5

"The Ancestor's Dojo?! Demonkind's Ultimate Weapon!" is the kind of episode that reminds of tasting a bite of the lightest cotton candy fluff imaginable (in a good way!). It's sweet, colorful, and it doesn't even bother pretending to be a work of great substance or story importance. The little fragments of plot we do get are the barest frames upon which to hang a staggering amount of goofy ass jokes. Within any given five seconds of the episode, there are maybe two or three different gags to contend with, whether its one of the girls making an absurd noise with their mouths, something goofy happening in the background, or the show dredging up a callback to any number of other jokes from past episodes or seasons.

Again, this isn't a bad thing at all! The episode is very funny, no question. It's just a little hard to write about in a traditional review format, since there aren't many enticing bits of lore or character interaction that last long enough to warrant long form examination. Pretty much every point I have to make would fit better as a bullet point in the Odds and Ends section, since the episode bounces from one joke to another at such lightning speed…

Actually, you know what? Let's just do that! I don't think any of you need two thousand words of analysis to get why this episode is pretty darned cute.

In brief: The first sketch gave us the most Mikan we've seen in a while, which is always a delight, and she's settling in to transfer to the girls' school once the summer is over, a development that I think will pay off much more next week. The second story at last allows Ryoko to join Shamiko in Lilith's dreamscape for some Whatchamacallit Rod Practice. It's just as cute as it sounds, and it ends with one of my favorite gags of the season.

Welp, that about wraps it up! It's another good episode of The Demon Girl Next Door, and with only a couple of weeks left in the season, it's looking like the show is set to end it's second cour with exemplary marks all around. Don't give up, girls! Keep on shenanigans-ing until July, so we can begin the Summer Season with a smile in our hearts and some pep in our step!

Rating:

Odds and Ends

• First up, in the pre-credits, we have Shamiko desperately trying to think of a special move, which leads to the wonderful reveal that Ogura is almost certainly capable of making and distributing meth, should the needs arise. I never thought TDGND would be the most “Legalize it!” Anime of 2022, but here we are!

• Hashtag Relatable Shamiko Moment #1: “It did nothing wrong. All it did was exist and it gets attacked.”

• A lot of the Mikan-adjacent puns are probably the kind of wordplay that I would better appreciate as a native Japanese speaker, but I bust a gut at Shamiko's perfectly straightlaced recitation of “mikan can, mikan can, mikan, can, mikan”.

• Hashtag Relatable Mikan Moment #1: Figuring out the pains of moving to a new neighborhood, including the ever changing city trash collection schedule. Adulting is hard, especially when you're a cursed, underaged magical girl living in a sketchy apartment surrounded by nincompoops.

• Hashtag Relatable Mikan Moment #2: “Dag gummit! We ain't scooping nothin' with yer consarned tissues!” Country Gal!Mikan is absolutely correct. Never scoop the bugs. Kill the little bastards where they stand, and post their little insect heads on a pike outside of your door, as a warning.

• Hashtag Relatable Momo-ment #1: “Don't ask questions, because if you press me on that, I'm going to slip to the dark side again.” Don't let anyone stop you from living your best trash gremlin life, Momo.

• Hashtag Relatable Momo-ment #2: “Since we live in an apartment designed to exude an ‘abandoned ruins’ vibe, it's inevitable that bugs will come in.” As pretty much any millennial that is trying to find a halfway decent place to rent in the United States these days can probably attest, this hit pretty close to home.

• Hashtag Relatable Mom-moment #1: Seiko's “A Good Day to Dry the Futons” dance. Since I'm on summer break, that's been, like, every day this week for me!

• Outside of the ending gag, the funniest bit of the episode might have been the bamboo salesman barking his “Dirt Cheap for the Last 30 Years” laundry pole prices just outside as the Shami-clan basks in the glory of their free magical laundry pole.

• Hashtag Relatable Momo-ment #2: “Aw crap. That means it would have been better to let you stay dumb.”

• Hashtag Relatable Lilith Moment #1: “This army is a manifestation of all my lonely feelings from being left behind so much lately.”

• Hashtag Relatable Lilith Moment #2: “I guess the real cure for loneliness is eating tasty sweets.”

• In general, I will never get tired of the running joke where Ryoko demonstrates a demonic lust for bloodshed and nation conquering that goes beyond anything her sister would ever aspire to. You'll get that W someday, kid, don't you worry.

• And finally, three cheers for poor Lilith not even being able to take one little selfie without it turning out like a haunted-as-hell photograph from a trashy J-Horror flick. That's the most Hashtag Relatable Moment of them all, right there.

The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 is currently streaming on HIDIVE. James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.


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