I would honestly like to meet the guy who made this show and bow down to him. I would shake his hand until mine got tired. Then, after I praise this man, I'll pull out my club, smash it over his head, spray his brains over whatever innocent bystanders who happen to be in the gore's line-of-fire, and then shout the famous words: "Pipiru piru pipu pirupipi!" in hopes of bringing him back to life and doing it over again, because, according to Club-To-Death Angel, that's the way you express love to somebody. Isn't Japan wonderful?
To recap what this very small series has taught me, I will say that it offers two of the most inherently contradictory concepts in an interesting, deeply-and-disturbingly humorous, and enjoyable way: love and explicit violence. And I don't mean explicit by "A bonk on the head a few times," no. I mean explicit in the most extreme ways. Let me give you a basic synopsis:
The story begins with a middle-school boy named Sakura, who has a crush on the class president, Mizuki-Chan. He is one day visited by an angel, the one and only Dokuro-Chan. What occurs next is where things get good. The motive behind Dokuro visiting Sakura is to prevent him from creating a machine that, in the future, turns women into children, thus making them immortal. Apparently, in the future, Sakura will create this machine for his pedophile-ish needs. Unfortunately for Dokuro-Chan, instead of killing him like the other angels ordered her to do, she ends up falling for him. So, in order to make sure Sakura doesn't create this machine, she decides to keep him occupied with wild shenanigans and conflicts, which end up killing him.
No, I didn't just pull a “Snape kills Dumbledore” on you; in fact, most of the time, Dokuro-Chan is the one who kills him. I say most of the time because after Dokuro dramatically and brutally kills Sakura with her weapon of choice, Excliborg, she has the power to bring him back to live with her magical-schoolgirl anime chant: "Pipiru piru pipu pirupipi!"
This process of repeated death is the main concept of Dokuro-Chan. Sakura is endlessly, ruthlessly, and meaninglessly killed off so often. And yet, that's the charm of Dokuro-Chan. You soon ask yourself, "Surely he can't die a more horrible death than that!", and yet he does. And his death is so inevitable, that the suspense to see an amazing display of blood and gore is well rewarded. This may sound a bit grim and dark, but the show's charm sets a very silly tone, so that the death is more of a funny shock than a serious visual. Still, that doesn't mean that some of the deaths aren't over-the-top; actually, far from it. The series is known for its large display of blood, and honestly, it was funny to watch Sakura's brains turn a river pink. Of course, the show would be lame if it were only about killing Sakura. Thankfully, the show has original plot-lines, good voice acting, great animation, and a wonderful sense of humor. The dialogue is actually smart and funny, and while it features a lot of fan service, it adds a nice story element towards the end of the first season. But still, the deaths take the cake. My favorite death must have been in episode 4. If you plan on watching it (or you already have), expect to see a grand finale towards the end of the Cinema scene. Oh boy, it makes me grin with glee just thinking about it!
Speaking about episodes, I'm sad to say that there isn't very much. There are two seasons, but all together, there are only 12 episodes, and that's not even the worst part! Each episode is only 15 minutes long, making only about 3 hours worth of content! The first season, in all of its glory, had eight (2 hours), while the second had a measly four (only one hour). Although the second season is by no means a failure, it does lack behind the first. One reason obviously being the lack of episodes, but the second reason, which I can't understand, is that some of the more graphic deaths are edited, and blocked by an image of a beach or a nice sunset. What the hell! How can I see the inside of a decapitated human head five times in an episode of the first season, yet not a simple disembowelment in the second?! At first I wondered if this was put in the episodes because of Japanese censoring, but after some research, I found out that, surprisingly, the makers of the show intentionally put these blocks in the episodes. While they had the right to put nasty executions on the show, the writers decided that it might be better if they filtered these deaths out. I'll admit, on some occasions, it's a lot funnier to imagine what's occurring in the background with the sounds and screams going on. Still, other than this, each episode is nearly empty of boredom, or lack of humor, all uniquely hand-made to please anyone who watches.
The voice of Dokuro is unfathomably cute and likable... contrasting her homicidal personality. Sakura's is also great, as the whiny desire not to be murdered is hilarious in itself. The animation is top-notch and pleasingly colorful, and it seems that each part of the series had the same care and effort throughout. Facial expressions are as funny and expressed as well as brains and organs in a massive heap of blood.
Dokuro-Chan was a great saga that ended too soon. The source manga the anime originated from having ended in October of 2008 after running for six years. However, we can enjoy what has been already made of the Dokuro-Chan series and learn to love it with the violent, bloody passion we all would like to have with the ones we care about. "Pipiru piru pipu pirupipi."
- Marcus Speer
To recap what this very small series has taught me, I will say that it offers two of the most inherently contradictory concepts in an interesting, deeply-and-disturbingly humorous, and enjoyable way: love and explicit violence. And I don't mean explicit by "A bonk on the head a few times," no. I mean explicit in the most extreme ways. Let me give you a basic synopsis:
The story begins with a middle-school boy named Sakura, who has a crush on the class president, Mizuki-Chan. He is one day visited by an angel, the one and only Dokuro-Chan. What occurs next is where things get good. The motive behind Dokuro visiting Sakura is to prevent him from creating a machine that, in the future, turns women into children, thus making them immortal. Apparently, in the future, Sakura will create this machine for his pedophile-ish needs. Unfortunately for Dokuro-Chan, instead of killing him like the other angels ordered her to do, she ends up falling for him. So, in order to make sure Sakura doesn't create this machine, she decides to keep him occupied with wild shenanigans and conflicts, which end up killing him.
No, I didn't just pull a “Snape kills Dumbledore” on you; in fact, most of the time, Dokuro-Chan is the one who kills him. I say most of the time because after Dokuro dramatically and brutally kills Sakura with her weapon of choice, Excliborg, she has the power to bring him back to live with her magical-schoolgirl anime chant: "Pipiru piru pipu pirupipi!"
This process of repeated death is the main concept of Dokuro-Chan. Sakura is endlessly, ruthlessly, and meaninglessly killed off so often. And yet, that's the charm of Dokuro-Chan. You soon ask yourself, "Surely he can't die a more horrible death than that!", and yet he does. And his death is so inevitable, that the suspense to see an amazing display of blood and gore is well rewarded. This may sound a bit grim and dark, but the show's charm sets a very silly tone, so that the death is more of a funny shock than a serious visual. Still, that doesn't mean that some of the deaths aren't over-the-top; actually, far from it. The series is known for its large display of blood, and honestly, it was funny to watch Sakura's brains turn a river pink. Of course, the show would be lame if it were only about killing Sakura. Thankfully, the show has original plot-lines, good voice acting, great animation, and a wonderful sense of humor. The dialogue is actually smart and funny, and while it features a lot of fan service, it adds a nice story element towards the end of the first season. But still, the deaths take the cake. My favorite death must have been in episode 4. If you plan on watching it (or you already have), expect to see a grand finale towards the end of the Cinema scene. Oh boy, it makes me grin with glee just thinking about it!
Speaking about episodes, I'm sad to say that there isn't very much. There are two seasons, but all together, there are only 12 episodes, and that's not even the worst part! Each episode is only 15 minutes long, making only about 3 hours worth of content! The first season, in all of its glory, had eight (2 hours), while the second had a measly four (only one hour). Although the second season is by no means a failure, it does lack behind the first. One reason obviously being the lack of episodes, but the second reason, which I can't understand, is that some of the more graphic deaths are edited, and blocked by an image of a beach or a nice sunset. What the hell! How can I see the inside of a decapitated human head five times in an episode of the first season, yet not a simple disembowelment in the second?! At first I wondered if this was put in the episodes because of Japanese censoring, but after some research, I found out that, surprisingly, the makers of the show intentionally put these blocks in the episodes. While they had the right to put nasty executions on the show, the writers decided that it might be better if they filtered these deaths out. I'll admit, on some occasions, it's a lot funnier to imagine what's occurring in the background with the sounds and screams going on. Still, other than this, each episode is nearly empty of boredom, or lack of humor, all uniquely hand-made to please anyone who watches.
The voice of Dokuro is unfathomably cute and likable... contrasting her homicidal personality. Sakura's is also great, as the whiny desire not to be murdered is hilarious in itself. The animation is top-notch and pleasingly colorful, and it seems that each part of the series had the same care and effort throughout. Facial expressions are as funny and expressed as well as brains and organs in a massive heap of blood.
Dokuro-Chan was a great saga that ended too soon. The source manga the anime originated from having ended in October of 2008 after running for six years. However, we can enjoy what has been already made of the Dokuro-Chan series and learn to love it with the violent, bloody passion we all would like to have with the ones we care about. "Pipiru piru pipu pirupipi."
- Marcus Speer
