Anime Review: The Demon Girl Next Door Episode 1

The Demon Girl Next Door Episode 1

Studio: J.C.Staff

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy

Streaming: HiDive

Yuuko is a really ordinary girl – she’s clumsy, likes eating, enjoys spending time with her friends at school… oh, and she’s just sprouted horns and a tail thanks to her demonic heritage. To top it off, her mother explains that it’s her role to find and defeat the town’s magical girl, to lift the curse of “poverty” from their family. The small hitch to that plan? Yuuko really is still quite ordinary with no increase in strength, bravery or intelligence despite her transformation.  Oh, and the town’s local magical girl is so powerful she can stop trucks with her bare hands.

The Demon Girl Next Door is at its heart a parody of the magical girl genre – but it does it in such a way as to still be lovable in its own right. The characters are likable, the art is bright and colorful and the jokes are well-timed. Momo, the magical girl in the series, is the perfect foil to Yuuko’s airheadedness – she’s stoic, ridiculously strong and apt to show pity on those weaker than her.  Which in this case, includes Yuuko.

The series looks to follow Yuuko’s attempts at overcoming Momo, with inevitably hilarious results. Rather than seeing Yuuko as any real kind of threat, it’s more likely that Momo will end up befriending her, and the opening of the anime definitely hints at this development. She makes it very clear early on that she doesn’t see Yuuko as a threat at all, and this attitude makes for some amusing scenes.

There’s certainly nothing groundbreaking about the series, but it’s the perfect antidote to a stressful day and the humour is self-aware enough of the genre it’s parodying to remain sharp. Whether it’s making fun of magical girl’s typically long transformation or just watching Yuuko mess up in various amusing ways, The Demon Girl Next Door is a lot of fun – and for a slice of life comedic series with an all-female cast, surprisingly light on fanservice.

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