Akuma Kun (2023), on Netflix, drew my interest because of its excellent animation, all soggy, decaying opulence, and because of its blatant buddy bond between the wo paranormal investigators. Most of the anime we see on streaming services expect you to have known and loved the characters throughout your life, after buying the hundreds of manga, video games, comic strips, and tie-in toys and going to fan conventions to meet the stars of the live-action movies, but I'm going in fresh, with no research. Episode 1.1: "Demons."
Scene 1: A shabby office full of old furniture, books, papers, and weird bricabrac. A big-headed boy named Mephisto complains that a lanky, gray-haired boy summoned him to deal with a toilet clog, and then ate all of his ramen!
"It would have gotten soggy just sitting there, so I ate it," the boy responds, his nose stuck in a book.
"If you want me to come over, why don't you call me on the telephone instead using a summoniing spell?"
"You come faster this way."
"But I'm half human, half demon, so I never cross over properly." So Mephisto has been roped into becoming the Boy's servant, like a genie in a bottle?
Scene 2: Night. A young college student walks down a dark, deserted street. Suddenly a shadowy monster with glowing red eyes attacks!
Cut to a young woman named Hina walking toward the Millenarianism Research Institute. So a cult? Up a flight of wooden stairs to a courtyard with scary, ornate doors beyond. She enters a drawing room cluttered with creeoy skeletons and skull candleholders. Mephisto enters from the kitchen, exclaims "We have a client! We can pay the rent!", and changes into a purple suit with a top hat and magician's cane.
So they live together? Then why does the Boy need to summon Mephisto?
Hina's case: Two of her college classmates died two nights ago, at exactly 2:23 am. And she discovered that three other people in the Kamichoufu Sector also died at the same moment. Also, she's been plagued by nightmares.
Scene 3: They arrive at Hina's house to conduct some research. The Boy immediately goes to her bedroom, angering her mother: "You can't just barge into a lady's room! It's rude!"
"Is this how your partner usually behaves?" Hina asks.
"He is a once-in-10,000 years genius, but he's sort of lacking in social skills." I'd put him on the autism spectrum. The English, French, and Spanish voice actors speak in a monotone.
Mom recovers from her shock and brings them tea, but the Boy demands hotcakes ( hottokēki), not pancakes (pankēki). He needs the sugar to get his brain cells active. "Ok...um...I'll make you some hotcakes, I guess." Ok, a little research. Hotcakes are thicker than Western pancakes, with a custard-like texture.
Scene 4: The Boy rates the hotcakes the 18th best that he's had. We finally get his name: Ichiro Umoregi, also known as Akuma Kun.
Mom is a professor of European history. The Boy has read her book, Lives and Sins of Kings, and found her interpretation of the Medieval monarchy "banal." Way to insult your hostess, kid.
Hina tells them that the murdered people were all college students, but some went to other universities, and one had just graduated.
While Mephisto tries to discuss payment with Hina, the Boy looks under the bed and sees one of the red-eyed monsters. No one else can see it. He draws a mysterious Eye in the Pyramid on a scrap of paper and tells her to keep it close. They'll be back tomorrow.
Scene 5: That night, while Hina is asleep, a red-eyed monster sneaks out from under the bed, but she holds up the Eye, and it vanishes.
Scene 6: Kamichoufou Odeon Cinema, a run-down theater near the Boy's office. Hina tells him about the monster. He suggests that someone is trying to keep them from investigating the case.When he pinppoints the locations of the deaths on a map, it creates a pentagram. So someone is trying to protect the person or thing in the center. Hina recognizes the building: it's the home o fher friend Ichika.
As they approach the house, Hina reveals that her friend didn't know any of the murder victims, except as faces in the cafeteria. She belonged to a club with a "seedy" reputation. And she hasn't come to class in weeks.
The Boy suddenly decides not to go in. "Come by the Research Institute tomorrow."
That night the red-eyed monster appears again, but she has laminated the Eye and tied it to her wrist, so it can't attack. She doesn't even wake up.
More after the break
Scene 7: Mephisto has researched the murder victims. All of them came "normal" families.
The Boy challenges him: "How do you define a normal family?"
"Mom, dad, kids."
"So single parents and couples without children are not families?" You forgot to mention gay couples
Caught, Mephisto tries to back track: "I didn't mean that..." He changes the subject to a discussion of the Boy's estranged Dad, but he doesn't want to discuss it.
Scene 8: Hina arrives at the Agency, and encounters the landlady's daughter, who calls the Boy "dingleberry." He overhears and begins thinking about the etymology of the term. Mom Sanae, the landlady, arrives and asks for the rent.
In the office, they reveal that two of the murder victims belonged to a "scumbag" club. Another was a close friend of a member. One had the job of "getting the target to let their guard down." So, were they assaulting people, robbing them, or what? "If your friend fell victim to their predations, she might well want them dead, or thought about dying..."
Mephisto cuts him off before he offends the young lady.
Scene 9: Hina and the guys go to visit her friend. Her mom says that she has been hiding in her room for awhile.
The door opens by itself. Ichika is floating about the bed with red eyes. She turns into a monster and follows them into the hallway, where the Boy has inscribed a sigil in chalk, and uses a spell to give Mephisto the Power of the Devil. It doesn't help.
Next Mephisto tries an Absolute Zero blast. It doesn't work. The Boy points out that nothing can reach absolute zero; it's a theoretical limit where entropy ceases.
They retreat into another room. Just as the monster prepares to eat them, an androgynous figure appears to defeat it and criticize the guys for being inept monster fighters. "Hi, Dad," the Boy says. The end.
Akuma-kun began as a manga in 1963, and continued through several iterations into the 1990s. There have been two previous tv series, three movies, and a video game, with different iterations of Akuma, some overtly Christ-like, some kickass action heroes. This series features new characters.
"If you don't want to be the Akuma, that's fine," Dad says. "What would make you happy?" The Boy doesn't know, but over the course of the season, he figures out what he wants. Guess what -- it's not a girlfriend.
In fact, the guys display no heterosexual interest, not even when one of their demon adversaries pops into their home in the form of a naked lady.
Mephisto III, the son of the demon Mephisto II and his human wife, was pushed into becoming the Boy's companion and eventually business partner. They live together, but Mephisto often returns to his parents' house after an argument. They advise him on how to make the relationship work, using their romance as an example.
The relationship is strongly gay-coded, and some fans state that it's canonical. There are a number of other queer characters, including the Boy's Dad and his companion.
My Grade: A
See also:Eddie Ramos: Teen chimera with a boyfriend, gay cage fighter, probably gay artist, DMV short guy.
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