Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan 2

Original Title: 撲殺天使ドクロちゃん2
Romanized: Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan Second
Literal: Death-by-club Angel Skull-chan Second

Plot Synopsis

Sakura continues his average-anime-guy life with Dokuro: Trying to steal a moment with Shizuka, getting brutally killed by Dokuro and brought back to life, and being shunned by the increasingly less human ranks of his classmates. Bathtime with Dokuro's little sister, imprisonment with Sabato's mom, and reenacting Zansu's version of classic fairytales--every day is a new, horrifying adventure.

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2009-09-25

If the first Dokruo-chan series is the endgame of the love comedy parody arms race, this sequel is all-out global thermonuclear war. It may be drastically dirtier than the first series and possibly even more disturbing on top of it, but it's much more focused on its strong points--deranged humor and offhanded-yet-filthy references. The jokes are noticeably better-timed and marginally more clever, not to mention less diluted by sections of low-energy pseudo-drama. There's also a significant reduction in the unpleasant-looking caricature art and even the pasted-on animal head gag works better with the ever-increasing menagerie of polymorphed students. Otherwise the production and cast are of the same quality, though the opening theme has gotten peppier and even more disturbing, and the end theme has been replaced by a mesmerizing Japanese festival song and dance line.

Dokuro-chan 2 is a definite step up from its predecessor and recommended if you liked the first one, but don't expect to be able to get some of the things you'll see out of your head for a while.

US DVD Review

Anime Works' 2-disc DVD set is cheap, functional, and that's about it. It includes this series in its entirety on the second disc and its prequel (reviewed separately) on the first. Each has Japanese stereo audio, acceptable if unimpressive video, and a soft English subtitle track. Speaking of which, the subtitles are rather weak; there are a few translation errors, some cultural stuff goes unexplained, and they're marred by typos. Worse, they're all in one color which can get very confusing when there are two people talking over each other, which happens frequently. There's no dub (the amusingly minimal Setup screen consists of a single button, for the subtitles--"on"), and the only extra is clean opening and ending animations (they play after those for the first series). On the plus side, the case is single-sized so it's easy on shelf space (the printing on the discs themselves is also unusually nice-looking--very cel-like).

The box's claim of "12 episodes total" based on the sub-episode count of four in this series and eight in the first; in terms of "chunks with opening and end credits" there are only six.

Content Guide

AnimeWorks calls it 16-up, and it's so dirty and otherwise offensive I'd call that lenient.

Violence: 4 - The violence continues to be cartoony but incredibly gory.

Nudity: 3 - While you never technically "see" much, Sakura spends an entire episode naked save a small towel, among other similar situations.

Sex/Mature Themes: 5 - There's never any sex onscreen in the strictest sense, but the quantity and level of dirty jokes and lewd behavior is through the roof--bondage, tentacles, you name it, it goes there.

Language: 2 - Little if any swearing, but some relatively graphic descriptions of what's happening to Sakura offscreen.

Notes and Trivia

The series was, somewhat surprisingly, shown on TV, with some of the most offensive material (both violent and sexual) replaced by a censor screen, including the entirety of several rather long sequences. Said screen has text apologizing for the improper visuals, and is amusingly signed "The Wood Bonding Club." The US DVD release is the same as the Japanese one, which is to say sans-censorship. This may or may not be a good thing.

The series' copyright line also includes the Wood Bonding Club.

Zansu's stage production is based on a warped interpretation of the classic fairy tale Urashima Taro, about a fisherman who gets taken to visit an undersea kingdom in return for helping a sea turtle. When he gets back a hundred years have passed and's given a box that, when he opens it, turns him into a crane.

In one of the more random references in the series, you might also notice Zansu reenacting a classic Burt Reynolds nude pin-up in the same sequence. You might immediately afterward wish you hadn't noticed it.

The arm of the final "person" you can see at the end of the dance line during the closing credits belongs to one of the curry monsters from the camping trip in the first series. Other random characters making an appearance there include Doraemon, Kim Jong Il, Gregor Samsa, and Prince William.

If you're wondering what's up with the Binkan Salaryman intro that pops up a couple of times, the clock in the corner of the show-within-a-show is a standard feature of early-morning Japanese TV, so that people don't need to look away to see whether they're late for school or work. Given that the show apparently starts at 8:15 and has ridiculously large episode numbers, it's probably one of the many (non-anime) "quickie" shows that have popped up in this time slot, running daily for 15 or even just 5 minutes an episode.

The last two mistreatments listed in the opening theme--kidnapping and denying it--are almost certainly a reference to the abduction of several Japanese citizens (as well as people from a number of other countries) by the North Korean government around 1980. North Korea denied that the kidnappings took place for over 20 years until finally admitting to the scheme and allowing some of the abductees to return to Japan a few years before this series was produced. As evidence it's more than a coincidence I note both the image of a boat (the abductees were ferried across the Japan sea) and the ongoing Kim Jong Il prods in the rest of the series. It also drives home just how offensive, on many levels, the series goes out of its way to be.

Speaking of offensive, the bath-time prep sequence is a reference to quasi-legal "massage parlors" in Japan known as soaplands, more specifically the preparation method of the body massage goo used at them. Which again makes you wonder what kind of upbringing the angels had. Note that even the shot of mixing up the soap was considered bad enough to censor for Japanese TV.

Availability

Available in North America with the previous series on a subtitled-only DVD set from Anime Works.

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