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.
