Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan 2 Anime Review
Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan 2
/ TV Series / Comedy / 18-up
Bottom Line
More even than the first series, and even more horrifying.
It’s Like...
...Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan with the safety off. Yes, seriously.
Vital Stats
Original Title
撲殺天使ドクロちゃん2
Romanized Title
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan Second
Literal Translation
Death-by-club Angel Skull-chan Second
Animation Studio
HAL
US Release By
Genre
Extreme Love Comedy Parody
Series Type
TV Series
Length
2 25-minute double episodes
Production Date
2007-08-24 - 2007-11-21
What's In It
Categories
Look For
- Angelic Assassins
- Baka-hammer violence made real
- Innuendo so blunt it's not innuendo any more
- Mohawked Bondage Angels
- S&M Jokes
Objectionable Content
- Violence: 4 (heavy)
- Nudity: 3 (significant)
- Sex: 5 (extreme)
- Language: 2 (moderate)
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. Bath time 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
Switch to Full ReviewIf 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are of the same quality, though the opening theme has gotten peppier and even more disturbing, and the end theme has been replaced by a mesmerizing Japanese festival song and dance line.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.
Full Review
Switch to Quick ReviewIf the first Dokruo-chan series is the endgame of the love-comedy-parody arms race, this sequel is all-out global thermonuclear war. It's definitely funnier than the original, even more extreme, and possibly even more offensive.
I was having trouble imagining what Dokuro-chan 2 could do to try and top the first series; turns out I just didn't have enough imagination. This sequel is probably a little more restrained with the violence, but e-gad is it dirty. No, not just dirty, filthy. Most of the jokes and way-past-innuendo are so explicit I can't even describe them and still maintain any pretense of this site being family-friendly. In fact, you might not even get some of the throw-away references if you're not familiar with the seediest side of Japanese culture. One example I will give is the most horrifying wrapping paper ever, by a wide margin, prominently featuring bondage rope.
That's just one of the many ways in which the series offhandedly tosses off things that make you wonder what the heck the various angels did before ending up on modern-day Earth. Wonder, but hope very much you'll never find out. Really, "questions you don't want answered" is kind of an ongoing theme of the whole affair. That and a terminal case of TMI.
Then there's the general sense of "Wait, these are junior high students--that's just not right!" carrying over and brought farther to the front by Dokuro's "nine-year-old" sister Zakuro. I put that in quotes because they tell us she's nine, but she looks like a 25-year-old porn star. This leaves you in the somewhat bizarre situation of having the only acceptably mature-looking character being technically the most pedophilic. You know, come to think of it, I'll feel much better about the whole thing if I don't think about that. Let's move on.
The good news is that, when you're not cringing in horror, 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. The whole thing feels tighter and has more sense of where it's going. Not that it's going anywhere specific--there's still little-to-no plot, continuity, or conclusion. I should probably say more sense of where it should be going.
Even the pasted-on animal head gag works better--the menagerie of polymorphed students now includes a giraffe and some kind of elk, with no explanation given (or needed). In fact, the dwindling number of classmates is one of several comparatively subtle, and effective, jokes--it's actually quite funny with the offhanded and background humor when it tries. Along with several symbolic sequences of military forces and tiny, naked, lust-crazed Sakuras representing what's going on in the protagonist's head (or, rather, less logical regions of his anatomy), it's almost enough to make you forgive the numerous things you'll wish you could unsee. Like what happens to Sakura when Dokuro pulls a lever thoughtfully labeled with a picture of tentacles.
Art-wise, there are no significant changes from the first series other than the reduction in grotesque character exaggeration. The same goes for the small returning Japanese voice cast--they're all doing their jobs admirably, which is to say high-energy and generally annoying.
The opening, however, has gotten a slightly peppier re-recording and significantly more disturbing visuals. (Plus one of the better moments, when Saeko Chiba-as-Dokuro goes somewhat berserk while describing the new types of "affectionate" abuse she heaps on Sakura.) Speaking of Dokuro going berserk, the new end theme is mesmerizing: A traditionally styled Japanese festival song accompanied by every character in the series (yes, including Kim Jong Il) dancing past dressed in theme-appropriate yukata. The lyrics are different both times and full of vaguely unsettling nonsense, then toward the end of the second version Dokuro cuts in with an insane rant about hamsters... or at least something she thinks is a hamster. Anyway, it had me laughing pretty hard.
In all, while Dokuro-chan 2 may be drastically dirtier than the first series and possibly even more disturbing on top of it, it's much more focused on its strong points--deranged humor and offhanded-yet-filthy references. A definite step up 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.
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Related Recommendations
Exactly like the first series, except slightly less violent and way dirtier; the closest thing in theme and style is definitely the 26th episode of Excel Saga.
Notes and Trivia
Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan is based on a series of light novels by Masaki Okayu, with illustrations by Torishimo. In addition to the two short anime adaptations, there are also a couple of short manga versions, and a visual-novel-style game for the PS2.
The "2" in the Japanese title of this sequel is, incidentally, intended to be read as the English word "Second" for whatever reason.
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.
Sakura is voiced by Reiko Takagi, who amusingly also supplies the voice of Minami, the dark-haired, quiet classmate who has a much bigger part in this series than the first one.
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 he's given a box that, when he opens it, turns him into a crane.
In one of the more random references in that same sequence, you might notice Zansu (and Sakura) reenacting a classic Burt Reynolds nude pin-up. You might immediately afterward wish you hadn't noticed that.
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 (and elsewhere in the series) include Doraemon, Kim Jong Il, Gregor Samsa, and Prince William.
Part of the outro dance line, including Dokuro, two random classmates, and the class rep.
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 (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 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. That reference 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.
On the topic of dirty jokes, the scary story that Zakuro and Dokuro get freaked out by, Wareme-hime ("Crevice Princess"), is (of course) a very dirty pun.
US DVD Review
AnimeWorks' 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. The video on both is acceptably clean, and interestingly this series is encoded without any interlacing visible at all, while the first disc is noticeably interlaced; as a result, on most modern TVs this second series will look somewhat better.
Each series has Japanese stereo audio and a soft English subtitle track. Speaking of which, the subtitles are rather shoddy; 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 option, 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.
There is also a more recent "Special Edition" version, which adds an English dub and nothing else that I can discern.
Parental 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.
Availability
Available in North America from AnimeWorks on a subtitled-only DVD set or a bilingual "Special Edition" DVD set, both of which include the first series as well.
At last check RightStuf carried both, at the same price (a pretty steep discount): Sub-only, Hybrid Special Edition. As usual Amazon lists it new and used as well, though it was more expensive than RightStuf at last check: Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan (sub-only)
Looking to buy? Try these stores:
RightStuf (search) |
AnimeNation |
Amazon