Helck

Although there are hints of a potentially serious story at the beginning, I almost disregarded 'Helck' as a pointless comedy because let's be real, many anime waste their potential, such as Spy x Family who could be so much better just by ACTUALLY EXPLORING ITS PREMISE and having the characters work together. Disregarding 'Helck' would have been a big mistake! A mistake a lot of people apparently made, but I'm glad I stuck with it - very much so - because the story does get real! First, let's get the concise stuff out of the way. Art: 6/10, fine. Not much wrong with it, if any. Subjectively,I disliked the design of quite a few side characters. Fortunately, I like the design of the main ones. Sound: 10/10 both good and immersive, which is a rarity these days, when we have things like season 4 of 'Attack on Titan' with its hip hop tracks. Here, we're in a fantasy and we have traditional, fitting songs played on chronologically fitting instruments! Fantastic! The voice actress of Vermilio quickly became one of my 6 favorites of all time. Characters: 10/10 our crew is lovely, funny, and Helck has some badass moments! As for the enemies, they are mysterious and diverse in personalities! I can think of one even being non-Manichaean so far. Story: 9/10 it's an anime where it's right to give it credit at the start. The development isn't immediately in your face, at first it's subtle in parts and it's not known for a fact that the story will be developed, but I'm here to assure you it is. And it's a touching story at that. There are two reasons I'm not giving the maximum rating: the first is that the conclusion wasn't climactic enough and I don't know if things will be wrapped up well enough for a perfect rating. The second reason is so far, some stories are even better written, and giving 'Helck' the same rating would be unfair to those superior ones, like 'Death Note', 'Steins;Gate' or 'Full Metal Alchemist'. I'm not one of those people who thinks "I liked it, therefore 10/10", no, the full scale exists for a reason and that matters in my opinion, so, 9/10 and that's a very good rating. Enjoyment: 10/10 I came for the comedy, it was good but I feared it would get stale, old. Fortunately, the comedy did not overstay its welcome and right before getting old (at least for me), the comedy decided to step back and let the story shine! And at that point, I stayed for the story and boy, was it fully worth it! Although the story has not been completed in season 1, it's the start of a potential masterpiece so far. The stopping point wasn't too shabby either! Overall: 9/10 so far, I really hope the anime gets completed at some point and that season 2 lives up to my expectations. It'll be harder because concluding a story nicely and climactically is hard. My 9/10 rating only concerns season 1 so far, but for a start, it's worth that rating to me so that's what I give.

I'm making this review mainly to tell you that the anime doesn't finish the plot, it ends in a cliffhanger. I don't think it's worth it to watch the 24 episodes while there's not a continuation out there to watch. All in all, Helck has a vibe similar to the old 2000's animes, which is really refreshing. You can see that in the art style and also in the type of comedy that is scattered here and there and softens the plot, which is actually surprisingly dark. Art style: amazing. Animation: really good, well-balanced fighting scenes. Plot: the main plot is surprisingly good, but it doesn't finish, and it'sinterrupted countless times by side quests that make the pacing of the anime kinda boring. Basically if you survive all the fillers you will still be disappointed because the anime doesn't finish the main plot and there will be a lot of unanswered questions. Characters: Helck himself doesn't have a lot of character development, it's more like "you get to know who he is throughout the anime", while Vermillion/Anne has quite a lot of development as she changes her views on life due to her experiences with Helck. This is definitely a strong point of the anime. Overall: Mixed feelings because it feel pointless to watch an anime without an actual end, but if they launch a season 2 then it should be worth it to watch the whole thing.

Helck is a fantasy anime with a rich world building and character development. I went in blind and I thought Helck was just another generic overpowered fantasy MC, but his entire character is slowly revealed throughout the story which makes it interesting and avoids him becoming a stale overpowered generic MC. Helck can be funny, mysterious, and many many more, which we get to watch and unravel his relationship to the world the more it progresses. Really enjoyed how they didn’t shy away from really having good funny moments, to even revealing much darker moments whenever needed all throughout the story. I say it was balancedall around and had a decently-paced story. Good for binge watching a 24 episode anime if you got a lot of time. Most of the characters are not one-sided and actually have some thought put into them when writing. Everything they do has a purpose to help the story and I think the events and reactions of the characters were mostly very reasonable and believable which got me hooked to the story a lot. Even if some of the characters are there for just comedic relief, I was entertained. For now, the story was “complete”. Most of the things I expected in a fantasy genre anime is well made here. Will definitely continue to read it in the manga now.

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