Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru

Losing their war against Heaven's angel army, the demons of Hell are on the cusp of collapse. As a last ditch attempt to turn the tides of the war, the demons send Akutsu Masatora to the mortal plane on Earth to save their homeland from the angels. Disguising himself as a high school student, Akutsu seeks to recruit someone with the capability to lead the demons to victory.

Akutsu does not have to look far: among his classmates is the magnificent Lily Amane, a transfer student who seems like the perfect candidate for Akutsu's plans. But as luck would have it, Lily is one of the very angels that Akutsu is meant to be fighting against, and his attempt to recruit her might end up being the biggest blunder in the failing war. Worse yet, Akutsu may fall in love with his own worst enemy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Amane, Lily Main

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Akutsu, Masatora Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Amane, Lilia Supporting

Ishihara, Kaori Japanese

Tanahashi, Yuuka Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Liz Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Joe Supporting

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Chum Supporting

Tanaka, Mayumi Japanese

Shiromura-sensei Supporting

Yamaji, Kazuhiro Japanese

Koyamatsu Supporting

Takahashi, Hinako Japanese

Karney Supporting

Soyama, Momoko Japanese

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Yago, Ken Producer

Yoshida, Keisuke Producer

Reviews

Mar 25, 2024

Subarctic-Forest

Recommended

Kanaten on the surface seems like it might be just another generic romcom. After all, it is obviously based on the centuries old template of Romeo and Juliet, with the forbidden love of enemies, an Angel and Demon, falling for one another, and with the initial reaction to this anime I was concerned the adaptation had been massively screwed up. Having been following the manga this is based on for nearly five years, I can safely say that isn't the case. This adaptation kicks ass and greatly exceeds my expectations.

The most simple description of Kanaten would be a romantic comedy with action elements. The romance ... aspect is great; Akutsu and Lily have fantastic on screen chemistry that grows very naturally feeling. No step of their relationship feels forced. The comedy is top notch, think Cromartie High School with a mix of the competitiveness between the leads like in Kaguya: Love is War. The fight scenes, which are Angels vs Demons in nature, are much better than any RomCom has any business being.

As for the adaptation aspect, all the characters look and sound great. The studio did an amazing job bringing the manga to life. The jokes translated so much better from the manga than I thought they would. Animation wise it's REALLY good for a RomCom, I was actually surprised and impressed with a lot of the scenes. All of the voice actors really nailed their roles; everyone sounded great for the characters they were playing.

All in all, Kanaten is in my opinion, the best romantic comedy anime to come out in years, and judging by the current score is extremely underrated. If you like romance, anime humor, some action scenes, this will give you the fix you're looking for. I hope you'll give it a shot. My personal score as a longtime fan is a 9/10, but even someone new to the series will find plenty to enjoy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 25, 2024

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil - It's "Kaguya-sama: Love is War", if you found it on Wish.com (or just about any cheap knock-off site) and purchased it for a bargain discount.

The battle of good and evil transcends time as early as angels and demons can be, and this is no exception used as the basis of so many works in AniManga. It's also the bane and boon if the romance aspect is wedged in, but used so prevalently that it makes you wonder if the union of good and evil can result in a consensus and creation of a new being. That is ... where I'll introduce you into this show: mangaka Sawayoshi Azuma's Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru a.k.a The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil, a cheap knock-off of the sum of a few shows: the romance aspect of Kaguya-sama and the vibes of the likes of Gabriel DropOut and Hataraku Maou-sama! a.k.a The Devil is a Part-Timer! to name a few.

What started off as the stereotypical war between Heaven and Hell, the latter finds themselves at a disadvantage both in numbers and morale. And so, its hired spokesperson, fellow demon Masatora Akutsu, infiltrates down to Earth as a student to find charismatic humans who can serve Hell well and help them win the war against Heaven. The thing is, the one who captures his attention is a beautiful girl named Lily Amane, whom he thinks will be the perfect recruit/candidate for the role. However, she is anything but that, as it's uncovered that she is an angel, a rather sadistic one at that who hunts demons like Akutsu. Needless to say, she triumphs over Akutsu and intends to secure him as a slave, though he got the spare and ended up as such for her own mission to reform Heaven. What happens thereafter...you get the gist of enemies turned lovers.

How I can describe the rather "dangerous" back-and-forth frenemy relationship of Akutsu and Lily, it's pretty much like the characters in Gabriel DropOut, especially of Satanichia "Satania" McDowell Kurumizawa and Raphiel "Raphi" Ainsworth Shiraha. Akutsu may be a demon, but his consciousness always lies at the other spectrum where second thoughts are primarily his concern when it comes to Lily, and thwarting her every move against him so that he can fulfill his mission. On the other hand, Lily is preying on Akutsu at his most vulnerable like an annoying gadfly, choosing to take delight on her sadistic approach towards him. But like none the wiser, if there's a glimpse of consciousness like Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane, both Akutsu and Lily are leaning heavily on each other as while a co-dependence on their various factions, but also the feelings for each other that grows stronger with a close retention, which frustrate the Angel, forcing her to submit to embarrassment of liking her enemy. It's an interesting approach to a rom-com, though certainly it has its fans for a reason.

Sadly, both the Angel and Demon's classmates of Yuuya Tanigawa, Kensaku Hirota and Yuuka Tanahashi are not used as much since the story pretty much focuses on both Akutsu and Lily's relationship, though they do get a hand on pushing the romance trope on the both of them, especially for Tanahashi who views the attempts as bold claims of romantic love interests. It's there, and it's noticeable, but the execution for a school setting is kinda a miss.

The studio of Children's Playground Entertainment doesn't exactly have the best reputation when it comes to animation, so this show being picked up along with studio Gaina (formerly Fukushima Gainax) for production cooperation helps out in the overall production somewhat. And while certain scenes do not give the look of the show being as average as it does, it definitely gives the impression that it is flex-worthy as it wants to be. Sure, director and series composer Itsuro Kawasaki may not have the most consistent AniManga biography like many noteworthy directors do, but he did his very best alongside his staff team to flesh out much of the source material as possible, as antagonizing as it can be.

The music is pretty decent as well but not memorable at all, it just...fits the show, that's all. That being said, I do like Taiyo to Odore, Tsukiyo ni Utae's OP song which serves as their debut Anisong, and "Otowa" fits for a Kaguya-sama rom-com sort of feels that just sounds as good as it does of the girl group's performance. Even more thankfully, Kaori Ishikawa's ED song is plenty fine for what it is, considering that her songs have always not gelled with me in being so bad it's legitimately bad.

When it all comes down to it, my thoughts are unchanged that Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru a.k.a The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil is literally a cheap knock-off of Kaguya-sama, there's no question about it. Instead, by it having a story that as bad as it sounds, gotten better overtime, its characters are ultimately the limit of how far the story can go, especially between both Akutsu and Lily as the main couple in question. Ultimately, this show is one thing and one thing only: it never tries to reinvent the wheel on the stereotypical rom-com tropes, but execution-wise, I would say that this is a decent effort from mangaka Sawayoshi Azuma.

One can only hope that the supernatural Romeo-and-Juliet-esque source material has been good (and manga readers beyond the anime have testified it so), so if you're keen on some rom-com that will not be as bad as you think, try this show out, then head to the manga for the continuation, you will not be disappointed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 18, 2024

XanWasting

Not Recommended

This show is bad.
It's a love story between an angel that is being persecuted by her family and a nosebleed harem protagonist demon (who literally gets collared and forced to obey the angel in starting from episode 1). However, putting aside how love correlates to stockholm syndrome, romance isn't really done well. It's 8 episodes of dumb posturing and one-upping each other at acting cool and cute, very, VERY stretched out shots of every scene, and occasional "e-eeeeEEeh?! I... I AM in love with a demooon?!??" and "G-gh! she's actually very kind for an angel!".
And it would be fine. It's a challenge to write a ... good story, and writing a good story about interpersonal relationships in a way that feels believable and relatable is even harder. Nevermind about translating such a story into a series of 20 minute long episodes.

But starting from episode 9 it turns into a lowest tier shounen fight, with disgusting villains, incredible powers sleeping in MC's right arm, unbeatable odds and an MC who beats those odds anyway because he gets too agitated to remember he's only an actor in this fake-ass story and not a real person.

There is a slew of worse shows, and by their grace this anime could be called "good", but I can't recommend it to anyone because it's hard for me to imagine someone watching this show to the end and not feeling disappointed with how this story progresses.
If you want to watch some anime and there's nothing you haven't seen yet... then just go and re-watch your favorite show, honestly.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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