Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan

Well I thought long and hard before deciding to sit down and actually write a review on this anime. As you can see I am not a fan. When I sat down to view this series it was partially because I had seen references to it in other shows I had watched and a friend had recommended it telling me how funny he thought it was. I looked it up and thought the characters looked cute and was intrigued by the alt title "Club to Death Angel" ... hmm what was that about? God, how I wish I that Icould have that moment back now. So let’s give you the premise of Dokuro-chan. Basically she is an angel from the future who is here to protect Sakura from other angels from the future who want him dead for something he will do in the future... making all future women loli's. Ooooooooook. There have been far sillier anime plots so I can go with that. But that isn’t all of course, because Dokuro really loves Sakura and naturally is a jealous tsundere and in her fits of rage and jealousy kills Sakura...a lot. She beats him to death, she turns him into bloody soup, she impales, she decapitates, and dismembers in every way you can. But she’s always really sorry and being an angel buy saying her really cute "Pi-piru-piru-piru-pi-piru-pi!" she can bring him back to life. Of course Sakura is always quite upset (you think!?) and needs to remind Dokuro to stop beating him to death. Aww. Now I imagine this is supposed to be funny. Well maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed before I watched this or I was PMSing, but I thought this blatant cruelty was about as funny as, well being bludgeoned to death. Oh and you think it can’t get much worse than that? Add that an angel having his or her halo removes causes them to immediately have uncontrollable explosive diarrhea. Nice. You’re probably thinking... aren’t you being a little harsh? Its only cartoon violence! I've seen shows that have been pretty raw before, Inukami! comes to mind, but many other shows that involve similar character types often have some pretty crude and sometimes cruel behavior. Such as Louise horse whipping Saito from ZnT, etc. This is different though the amount of spraying blood and gore is just so over the top that it is hard to top. Even some of the most violent anime out there like an Elfen Lied or Claymore were not bloodier than this one. And those weren’t comedies. Now that I have gotten of my soapbox lets discuss the other parts of this series. Like I said at the start the art was one of the things that initially interested me in the show. It doesn’t disappoint there, Dokuro and all her friends are very cute and adorable, which in a way makes the way they behave so hard to accept. The music and voice acting is pretty good too. The OP song is pretty cute and cuddly sounding, well unless you read the translation. I made it through this anime, because it was short 12 min episodes... and I really wanted to like it. I thought if I kept watching that eventually I would get some entertainment from it? I even watched the even shorter second part, honestly because I had already gotten it and I figured I might as well watch it too. This show truly disturbed me and I don’t think I have ever been more offended by something in my life. If it was possible to give it a "0" in enjoyment I would have. Reading the other reviews for this I see that I am probably in the minority on my thinking here. I don’t know what to say to you if you liked this show. Personally I think you need to see a shrink. If you’re reading this and wondering if you should watch it, I recognize that we all have different tastes, if you’re a fan of dark comedy shows like South Park (I am not) then you would probably enjoy this. Otherwise I would stay very very far away.

Bizarre, violent, mostly nonsensical...but incredibly funny. I liked this for the same reason I liked FLCL and Azumanga Daioh. FLCL had a deeper story (yes, there was one...watch it again) and Azumanga Daioh had greater character development, but Dokuro-chan has a charm all it's own...not to mention lots of blood. The parody of the "magical girl" element really adds something. I never cared for those types (Sailor Moon annoys me, no matter what language it's in), but here, it's funny. The visuals and sound were really well done considering how short the series is, but then, that's just how series like this work. Short, but high-quality(well, the good ones, anyway). The premise alone is what got me to watch it and I wasn't disappointed. You have to take this series for what it is: brainless fun. Look, I really enjoy stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Kanon (2006), and Gundam Wing...but sometimes you just gotta let off some steam. You can't always be serious and this really hit the spot for me. Especially since my last 3 series were Air, Black Lagoon, and Kanon (2006). Talk about heavy...I really needed this! The first episode alone was almost too much...the appearance of the "monkey" left me almost in tears, I was laughing so hard. I'm sure my neighbors were wondering if I'd cracked! It wasn't some cerebral joke, it was just so completely unexpected, it really caught me off-guard. That, and I happen to find monkeys funny in general. Nothing afterwards hit my funnybone THAT hard, but it was still worthwhile. Kick back, let go of your rational mind for a bit, and enjoy this blood-soaked comedy for what it is and don't try to analyze it too deeply. It's just plain fun. "Pipiru piru piru pipiru pi!!!!!!!!" -Dokuro-chan

I'll start by stating my opinion of the anime directly. It sucks. No, I'm not just a flamer, or a crude one-line-reviewer, but it’s true. My first advice to all of the people who read this review: do not watch this anime unless you... 1) Are absolutely *desperate* for a brainless comedy, 2) Do not care one whit about storyline, or 3) Are a brave person who wants to plunge into the unknown despite my fervent warnings to the contrary. First, and quite possibly most importantly, the storyline. A quote from MyAnimeList.net's description: "Problem is, Dokuro is very temperamental, and is constantly killing Sakura (andlots of other people too) in incredibly bloody ways with her giant spiked club." This *is* the storyline. The whole anime revolves around Dokuro walking around, swinging her club around in a giant grand melee, and then gasping in shock (or not) and singing her little song to bring back the person she just killed. There are other sub-plotlines describing relationships, competitions between angels, and so on, but they seem rough and thrown in to make up for the astounding lack of any other content. The main body of the anime, as stated before, is nothing but a huge bloodbath of random violence and destruction. On a slightly happier note; if, somehow, you manage to avoid being led off by the absence of a storyline, you will probably enjoy simply looking at the action on the screen. While there are animes that are undeniably drawn far better, Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan does an excellent job of matching very random animations with the action. A wide variety of styles of drawing are used for emphasis in certain scenes, although one main style dominates. Similarly, a wide variety of sound is used effectively throughout the show, drawing to mind the old radio stations of the 50's that often used their arsenal of bells and whistles for the entertainment of their listeners. While watching the anime, you may find that the little tune that Dokuro uses to revive people (pipiru pi!) begins to annoy you by sheer repetition. Character, however, is another weak point. All of the characters have firmly established personas, but none of them have the least bit of depth. As a story progresses, you might expect characters to acquire some bits of personality, but instead they remain almost entirely set in the personas given to them in the introduction. This anime, as stated earlier, is something you watch in the wee hours of night as a way to get a quick laugh without immersing yourself in a good story. I would not recommend anyone looking for a high quality, strong anime show to watch this. As a note to the supporters of this anime: I understand that some people will not agree with my assessment of this show. Please, instead of flaming my or posting detrimental comments, post your own review to challenge my opinion. Rating: 4/10

Overview: Dokuro-chan is one of the most infamously stupid anime of the last decade. It came out in 2005 and raised eyebrows with its heavy use of gore, painfully unfunny attempts at humor, insanely obnoxious characters, and sheer failure at being a "magical girl" genre parody. Dokuro-chan is like the poor man's version of Excel Saga or FLCL. Actually, the show it reminds me of most of all is Panty and Stocking, but Gainax had nothing to do with Dokuro believe it or not. Story and characters: 1/10 Oh dear GOD! The plot is that a pathetic, squirming male protagonist is on the brink of discovering atechnology that will make mankind immortal. He wishes to make all women permanently 12 years old and be the only mature human so he can live as a pedophile God. The plot thickens when the real God is upset by this plan and sends angels down to Earth in order to kill the pedophile mad scientist. One of these angels is the annoying beyond all belief Dokuro Chan. Dokuro chan is so rage inducing it can't really be described by my meager English skills. Imagine a character that makes Jar Jar Binks look as cool as Miles Davis! Dokuro falls in love with the pedo scientist named Sakura (unusual name for a man), and the series is about their romance. What makes this series suck besides being VERY pro-loli and having the most obnoxious characters ever, is that it was created to spoof the magic girl genre and it fails miserably as a parody. It never demonstrates anything beyond a very shallow understanding of magical girl anime and therefore isn't able to parody the style very effectively. Imagine a version of Young Frankenstein if firstly, Mel Brooks had never actually seen a Universal Monster film before and had only heard of those films, and secondly this alternate Mel Brooks has a brain the size of a jelly bean. That is what watching Dokuro is like! Art: 5/10 The art isn't THAT bad for 2005, but this was drawn by Genion, who did Ergo Proxy the same year! They are capable of doing a LOT better! Sound: 2/10 The music sucks, but at least you have the choice of listening in English or Japanese. In the English dub, the pedophile scientist is voiced by Johnny Young Bosch in probably the single worst role of his distinguished career. WHY!?? In Japanese, the pedo is voiced by a fairly obscure actress, but she is good at voicing young male characters that piss off the audience. She also voiced that little shit that beat the puppy to death in Elfen Lied. Seriously! Enjoyment: 2/10 Remember that segment of the movie Idiocracy called "Ow my Balls!". Really crude physical humor can be funny the first time, but if you reuse the joke where the same character gets hit in the nuts OVER and OVER, it stops being funny to all but the stupidest of audiences. This is the anime version of "Ow my Balls!" Overall: 2/10 The mediocre art that came with being backed by a major animation studio managed to save Dokuro from the unholy 1/10 rating. Everything else in this anime is feces. Oh yeah, before I forget: PIPIRU PIRU PIRU PIPIURU PIIII! God DAMN is that shit annoying!

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes