The story revolves around the young demon Masatora Akutsu, who is sent from hell to earth to find a new leader (a so-called "idol") who will motivate the demons to confront the angels from heaven, because although while the angels seem to be exorcising demon creatures every day, no one there really seems to be getting their asses up.
He disguises himself as a typical high school student and meets the young Lily Amane on the same day. With her cute and charming nature, her classmate seems to be exactly the right person for Akutsu's job. When he reveals his plan to her, she unexpectedly turns out to be one of the angels who has the mission to wipe out demons on earth. But instead of fighting Akutsu, she decides to use the situation to her advantage. From now on, Akutsu will be her "slave" and his ability to track down fellow demons will make her job as a demon hunter much easier. To do this, she puts chains on him - literally, by putting a magical collar on him, with chains that she can make appear and disappear at will.
In his desperation about betraying his comrades to the enemy in this involuntary cooperation, Akutsu comes up with a supposedly saving idea while watching a love TV-show. Since, in his impression, couples in love are willing to do anything for their partner's happiness, Lily should fall in love with him and thus fulfill his original wish to go to hell with him and motivate the demons there. Too bad Lily saw exactly the same show on TV - and so a bitter battle of love begins. Who will be able to seduce whom first and win them over for their own purposes?
But in addition to their love battle, Akutsu and Lily also have their hands full. So demon creatures continue to run around freely through the city, Akutsu's supervisor Liz is breathing down his neck - without knowing that he is hunting with an angel against his own kind - and then there is the curious classmate Yuuka Tanahashi, who sees Lily as a potential love rival for her crush Kensuke, because of her sweetness and who is clearly interested in why Akutsu has been spending so much time with her lately.
It takes a while to warm up to “Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru”. Especially at the beginning, the title oscillates somewhere between different scenarios, and you're not sure whether you're watching a demon-, comedy-, shōnen- or romance-anime or a watered-down version of "Kaguya-sama". Maybe it's also because it's Sawayoshi Azuma's first "real" story and he probably wanted to try out a lot of things at the beginning. While the first two episodes focusses more on the conflict between the demon and the angel, in the rest of the first half of the season the emphasis is on the love battle between the two - so one could get the impression that it is purely a comedy/love anime. It is more in the second half that the background to heaven and hell comes to the fore again and new characters are introduced that make the story more exciting. So it's worth sticking with it and not dropping it too quickly after 4 - 5 episodes.
The characters all have something interesting that makes them more relatable. Akutsu comes straight from hell and in the first episode initially mocks the simplicity of people, but you quickly get to know his "human" and much more lovable side. Lily initially appears to be a hardened exorcist, but she, too, with all her doubts and mistakes, quickly grows on you. In general, the relationship between Akutsu and Lily, which always oscillates a bit between competition, fight and friendship, is well developed. The supporting characters also come across well, like Yuuka, who gets some laughs with her love-hate relationship with Lily. My secret star of the series is Shiromura-sensei, the group's homeroom teacher, who is described as a "mixture of bizarre masculinity and middle-aged sadness". With his strict appearance, which contradicted his complex about his lack of hair, he is a nice change from the usual stereotypical standard teacher that you see in many series.
Humor genereally playes a large role in the series. There are boxing kittens, talking demon dogs - and for some reason I can no longer understand - a lot of jokes about hair loss. The voice actors deliver, especially Ayane Sakura, who portrays these two sides of Lily, between cute in the classroom and strict towards demons, very well.
The OP is a real banger and the reason why Taiyou to Odore, Tsukiyo ni Utae has been playing in a loop on my MP3 player for weeks. In my opinion, the strongest opening of the entire winter season. The ED then shows the quieter, more romantic side of the series again.
So if you're looking for an anime with a pinch of demons, a pinch of humor, a pinch of action, a pinch of love and all of that together - then "Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru" is exactly the right place for you. I strongly recommend reading the manga, especially if you liked the last three episodes. The story is really getting going from now on - everything that was shown in the anime is more of a prelude to future, more in-depth story arcs. If there is no second season, we will still have the adventures of Akutsu and Lily in manga form - and the memory of 12 extremely entertaining anime-mondays
