The Quest for Melon Bread
(This
review contains minor spoilers!)
One of my biggest guilty pleasures is
slice of life anime. I know they’re basically all the same thing over and over
again, but I can’t help it. I love watching cutesy characters get involved in
wacky shenanigans. But the sad truth is that there’s a lot more bad slice of
life anime than there is good. Every once in a while you’ll find a diamond in
the rough that gives us a unique take on the genre by creating fun characters
or an unusual setting, but more often than not you’ll end up watching a show
panhandling for cash by being little more than a K-On ripoff.
But when you do find that one special
show that makes you laugh more than it makes you cringe, it can make for a fun
twelve weeks seeing what jokes it has next. Gabriel
DropOut is a very fun take on the tried and true slice of life format, and
it left me wanting a lot more.
The show centers on two angels from
heaven and two demons from hell as they graduate the schools from their
respective divine worlds and prepare to spend some time in (what else?) a high
school in Japan to study how mortals live.
One of the angels, the titular
Gabriel, graduated from heaven school with top marks, arriving on Earth wishing
to turn it into a place of everlasting love where everyone will help each
other. This mission lasts a grand total of one day as Gabriel discovers the
joys of video games and decides to just spend her time on Earth lazing about in
her apartment.
Gabriel’s character is not dissimilar
to the lead from Umaru-chan, an anime
by the same studio. However, while Umaru got
boring after three episodes, Gabriel uses
the angel/demon angle to its advantage, creating several hilarious situations
of the characters learning about what normal everyday human life is like. Also
unlike Umaru, Gabriel keeps things interesting by giving the lead three friends
to accompany her on her daily adventures, and they are all charming and fun to
spend time with, even if they can be a bit one-note.
Ironically for a show named after an
angel, the two demons prove to be the overall highlight of the show. The first
is Vigne, who acts more angelic than the angels do, always being there for her
friends and keeping everything in order. She spends most of her time acting as
the straight-man character reacting to all the insanity around her, but she
gets several funny moments and even an entire episode dedicated to her. While
they are rare, the moments where she goes full-on demon are hilarious.
Even better is Satania, the supposed
heir to hell’s throne and the most powerful arch-demon in the universe. This is
quickly proven wrong after she has melon bread stolen out of her hands by a
stray dog (one of many fantastic recurring jokes), but that doesn’t stop her
from completely stealing the show with every scene she’s in. It’s rare you find
a character where both the animation and voice actor work in perfect union with
each other to create a fantastic bit of comedy, but Satania’s character excels
in both physical and spoken humour. She gets her fair share of screentime, but
she’s just so funny that you really want to see more.
Over on the angel side, Gabriel’s lazy
personality is a lot of fun, and she has an entertaining overarching plot of
trying to hide the fact that she’s become a fallen angel from her friends and
family. She’s also able to avoid what made Umaru so annoying, having more snide
reactions to what Satania and others are doing instead of whining and
complaining constantly.
The last of the main characters is
Raphi, who’s essentially a mirror flip of Vigne’s character, being an angel
that acts more like a demon. Unfortunately, she is easily the weakest link of
the bunch, as her character doesn’t really mesh with the other three. She acts
more as an observer to all the chaos going on than a participant, leaving me
scratching my head as to what her purpose in the show overall is. That’s not to
say she’s a full-on bad character, because she isn’t. She gets a laugh here and
there. But when compared to the others, she just isn’t as funny.
The writing is absolutely the best
part of the show. Unlike most high-school comedies, Gabriel exchanges the traditional over-the-top reactions and cutesy
moments for a brutally dry sense of humour. While there are plenty of crazy expressions
to go around, a lot of the jokes are far more subtle than your average comedy
anime would have. Similar to how Non Non
Biyori used more simplistic humour to compliment the countryside atmosphere
the show was set in, Gabriel sees the
characters snark their way through each episode, reflecting the devil-may-care
attitude of the titular lead.
The show isn’t without its weak points
though, however. It does rely on fanservicey moments more than I think it
should, considering how good the humour is on its own. Some of the stuff feels
like just pandering to those who only watch anime for the cute girls and not
for the story and writing. It never gets to a level where it really gets in the
way of the show’s progression, but it’s a little disappointing the director
felt the need to stuff them in. There’s also a lot of fun side characters I
would’ve liked to see more of that I feel don’t quite get the screentime they
deserved. There’s a fun bit where Gabriel goes to the cooking club for the
first time and meets two girls who cook her loads of food just because she
visited them. They were really fun characters, and I was really disappointed we
only saw them once.
Overall, if you aren’t a slice of life
fan, I doubt Gabriel DropOut will do
anything for you. But if you’re willing to just sit back and enjoy their
craziness like me, this is one I’d highly recommend. The angels/demons spin is
really entertaining, the leads are all unique and fun in their own special way,
and the humour is fantastically dry. I left every episode of Gabriel with a smile on my face, and I’ll
certainly miss it if it doesn’t return for Season 2.
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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