Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan (Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan)
by Polly
Let's face it, Japanese Cartoon comedy rarely ever works if you're not part of its intended Japanese audience or aren't familiar with the vast amount of intricacies of the language. Japanese comedy never works when your show is named Lucky Star, but perhaps that's a point to make at another more suitable time. Double-speak, puns, fancy wordplay, they simply just don't translate well or at all into the English language. This would be the reason why many Japanese Comedy Cartoons either rarely ever find their way to our side of the world or when they do, they bomb harder than Nagasa...ooookay, that one's a little too dated and easy, but you get my point. Azumanga Daioh is about the only exception to this rule I've seen and even then it wasn't quite the flagship title poor ADV was hoping for back in the day when you consider the ludicrous amount of money they pumped into marketing and making the extras for those DVDs. Thankfully, I'm a dumb American and as a representitive of the intellectually-challenged American people I can safely say there are a few things that are always guaranteed to force a laugh from our lungs regardless of how they're presented to us:
-Dick jokes
-Poop
-Farts
-Dick jokes
-Nut-shots
-Dick jokes
-Random and gratuitous acts of violence
-Farts
-Random and gratuitous acts of violence
-Dick jokes
-Farts
-Explosive diarrhea
-and Dick jokes
So, if you've got a hankerin' for some of them there "weird Chinese cartoons" and happen to be American like me, you might just be interested in hearing about a little Japanese Cartoon series titled Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan. It has just the right amount of damn near everything listed up there and none of that stupid ass talking for nine minutes about which end of a chocolate cornet is the top or any semblance of a story you'll have to follow for more than three minutes tops.
It's also got dick jokes!
The setup is simple. Sakura, who would appear to be like any other normal Japanese teenage boy going through Junior High, is destined to grow up and create a technology that will bring about a pedophile's world where all girls stop developing at the age of twelve in order to appease his lolicon fetish. This kind of offends the powers that be (wherever they are), so he sends along a cute little angel named Dokuro-chan to help set Sakura on the straight and narrow using some...extreme corrective measures. Dokuro comes to live Sakura and follows him around every day, bringing with her a whole bag full of her own unique brand of "I just wanna help" and a large spiked ballbat named Excalabolg for use in daily decapitations and other fun bodily harm, all for the purpose of ensuring that the future is full of full-figured bodies with big titties and great asses.
The interactions between Sakura and Dokuro run the show and the two do a fairly good job of carrying the series, though it's clear from the outset (and the series name, durr-hurr) that Dokuro is the star here. Though her purpose for being on Earth is technically a good one, she spends most of her time turning poor Sakura's life upside-down by annoying the ever-loving fuck out of him every waking second of every day, ruining his reputation among his schoolmates, "helping" (read: interfering) with his attempts to woo the girl he has a crush on, and spends the other 75% of the time annihilating him in many grotesque and often humiliating (though often quite funny) ways that would make even the creators of Mortal Kombat a little green with envy. Poor Sakura dies a lot, but will always be resurrected by Dokuro's signature (and ridiculously catchy) resurrection chant, "Pi-piru-piru-piru-pi-piru pi!" There's rarely any sort of character development, and this is a series that doesn't need a whole lot of it. Dokuro's off-color and wildly inappropriate teasing and outbursts of violence afterward, followed by Sakura's reactions to whatever the hell she's doing and many, many blood-splattered death scenes should be more than enough to satisfy those just looking for some really dark laughs. There are some recurring characters that are also quite memorable, but with the show's small episode count and very short episode runtime, none of them, save a couple, are given more than a few minutes at a time to shine and really can't match Sakura and Dokuro's chemistry and overpowering presence.
As soon as you press PLAY on your DVD remote (or your Media Player Classic, you filthy pirate fuckhole, you!*), within about three or four minutes you'll have a pretty damn good idea of what you've gotten yourself into. In just the first episode of the show you'll get bloody decapitations and disembowelments followed by naughty sexual teasing, which is again followed by more disembowelment and some fun dancing! And that's just the god damned intro and opening theme song animation. Each small story the show tells is fairly straightforward and will ultimately only lead to more Sakura-abuse and humiliation. Whether he's getting beaten to a bloody pulp or chased by other angels that want him dead at school or a theater, being embarrassed by Dokuro at the library, or poisoned and completely forgotten on a class camping trip, Sakura's plight always remains sadistically entertaining. Dokuro-chan is almost the only character in the show to go completely unscathed throughout the entire run, save one "explosive" experience. Everyone is subject to all the random violence, humiliation, sexual lewdness, and explosive diarrhea the show can dish out. Yes, you read that right, and yes, it is funny. In the end, that's probably what makes the show's ridiculously over the top antics a bit more tolerable for most. Dokuro-chan does a lot of questionably naughty and violent things, but they're done for comedic effect, rather than outright sexual explicitness and it's hard to see the violence as anything too serious. Still a tad disturbing, but never serious.
Given the it's an OVA series, it should go without much mention that Dokuro-chan has quite a few moments of really great presentation. It never really looks bad and the character designs, though somewhat generic, still look really nice and their vivid colors fit the show perfectly. For some inexplicable reason, Dokuro's hair changes from purple to blue for the second season, but it's only a minor gripe, I suppose. The carnage in the show is almost disturbingly well-done with lots of ooey-gooey up-close detail shots and plenty of blood geysers to go around. Again, all for raunchy comedic effect. The show also does an amazing job of presenting its often humorous and sometimes completely fucked up visual and cut-away gags (Bondage Dog of Flanders...Need I say more?), which is probably for the best since that's what makes up about 90% of Dokuro-chan's content. The great presentation and slick animation are some of the main reasons the show works so well, because without it this OVA set would fall flat on its face due to its heavy reliance on rapid-fire sight gags and outrageous character expressions. Also, I fucking dare you to listen to the opening theme and not have it stuck in your head in some form. The same goes for the second OVA series' closing theme.
Being that it's a very short series composed only of two very brief OVA runs, Dokuro-chan's pacing is fairly break-neck and at times if you blink, you'll definitely miss something. Each 26-minute episode actually consists of two smaller 13-minute episodes rarely ever taking place within a close timeframe of one another. Both OVA series together consist of 12 mini-episodes, which could easily be burned through in a matter of a few hours, but it's not likely that most will want to marathon it and most will likely have their fill after just watching the first couple of mini-episodes. The series relies on a lot of the same visual gags involving sexual misbehavior, nudity, off-putting and ridiculous imagery, and random outbursts of violence, only switching up the set-ups for these gags here and there. It has a tendency to get old fast, so staying power isn't one of Dokuro-chan's strong points. The first couple of episodes are honestly the highlight of the series, providing some of the best laughs and gags the show has to offer. Sadly, none of the episodes that follow can really match up with how crazy and over the top the start of the series is. There are still lots of laughs, lots of violence, and plenty of off-the-wall jokes, but they don't occur quite as often and lack the comedic value that the start of the series may provide. This is especially noticeable in the second batch of OVAs (comprising the series' final four mini-episodes) where the whole thing kinda loses steam and the jokes and story premises just aren't as good as the first OVA's batch of wacky adventures.
dokuro-chan is just brainless good-timey, innuendo-heavy, toilet humor and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It doesn't dare to go any deeper than that, and it doesn't really have to, but the fact that there's not much substance here beyond the violence and sex jokes pretty much makes it an average novelty show. It's doubtful anyone will get too many repeated viewings out of it, but it's a great show to spring on friends who you wanna make laugh and/or shock the hell out of just for shits and giggles. For the asking price of a mere $15-20 it's hard to go wrong with adding Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan to your collection, unless you really can't find any fun or enjoyment in this sort of thing. But if you can, why not invite this cute little angel into your home if you got the spare cash laying around? It may just be the perfect little collection to turn you into an even sicker weirdfuck than you already are. Pi-piru-piru-piru-pi-piru pi!
Let's face it, Japanese Cartoon comedy rarely ever works if you're not part of its intended Japanese audience or aren't familiar with the vast amount of intricacies of the language. Japanese comedy never works when your show is named Lucky Star, but perhaps that's a point to make at another more suitable time. Double-speak, puns, fancy wordplay, they simply just don't translate well or at all into the English language. This would be the reason why many Japanese Comedy Cartoons either rarely ever find their way to our side of the world or when they do, they bomb harder than Nagasa...ooookay, that one's a little too dated and easy, but you get my point. Azumanga Daioh is about the only exception to this rule I've seen and even then it wasn't quite the flagship title poor ADV was hoping for back in the day when you consider the ludicrous amount of money they pumped into marketing and making the extras for those DVDs. Thankfully, I'm a dumb American and as a representitive of the intellectually-challenged American people I can safely say there are a few things that are always guaranteed to force a laugh from our lungs regardless of how they're presented to us: 
-Dick jokes
It's also got dick jokes!
The interactions between Sakura and Dokuro run the show and the two do a fairly good job of carrying the series, though it's clear from the outset (and the series name, durr-hurr) that Dokuro is the star here. Though her purpose for being on Earth is technically a good one, she spends most of her time turning poor Sakura's life upside-down by annoying the ever-loving fuck out of him every waking second of every day, ruining his reputation among his schoolmates, "helping" (read: interfering) with his attempts to woo the girl he has a crush on, and spends the other 75% of the time annihilating him in many grotesque and often humiliating (though often quite funny) ways that would make even the creators of Mortal Kombat a little green with envy. Poor Sakura dies a lot, but will always be resurrected by Dokuro's signature (and ridiculously catchy) resurrection chant, "Pi-piru-piru-piru-pi-piru pi!" There's rarely any sort of character development, and this is a series that doesn't need a whole lot of it. Dokuro's off-color and wildly inappropriate teasing and outbursts of violence afterward, followed by Sakura's reactions to whatever the hell she's doing and many, many blood-splattered death scenes should be more than enough to satisfy those just looking for some really dark laughs. There are some recurring characters that are also quite memorable, but with the show's small episode count and very short episode runtime, none of them, save a couple, are given more than a few minutes at a time to shine and really can't match Sakura and Dokuro's chemistry and overpowering presence.
As soon as you press PLAY on your DVD remote (or your Media Player Classic, you filthy pirate fuckhole, you!*), within about three or four minutes you'll have a pretty damn good idea of what you've gotten yourself into. In just the first episode of the show you'll get bloody decapitations and disembowelments followed by naughty sexual teasing, which is again followed by more disembowelment and some fun dancing! And that's just the god damned intro and opening theme song animation. Each small story the show tells is fairly straightforward and will ultimately only lead to more Sakura-abuse and humiliation. Whether he's getting beaten to a bloody pulp or chased by other angels that want him dead at school or a theater, being embarrassed by Dokuro at the library, or poisoned and completely forgotten on a class camping trip, Sakura's plight always remains sadistically entertaining. Dokuro-chan is almost the only character in the show to go completely unscathed throughout the entire run, save one "explosive" experience. Everyone is subject to all the random violence, humiliation, sexual lewdness, and explosive diarrhea the show can dish out. Yes, you read that right, and yes, it is funny. In the end, that's probably what makes the show's ridiculously over the top antics a bit more tolerable for most. Dokuro-chan does a lot of questionably naughty and violent things, but they're done for comedic effect, rather than outright sexual explicitness and it's hard to see the violence as anything too serious. Still a tad disturbing, but never serious.
Given the it's an OVA series, it should go without much mention that Dokuro-chan has quite a few moments of really great presentation. It never really looks bad and the character designs, though somewhat generic, still look really nice and their vivid colors fit the show perfectly. For some inexplicable reason, Dokuro's hair changes from purple to blue for the second season, but it's only a minor gripe, I suppose. The carnage in the show is almost disturbingly well-done with lots of ooey-gooey up-close detail shots and plenty of blood geysers to go around. Again, all for raunchy comedic effect. The show also does an amazing job of presenting its often humorous and sometimes completely fucked up visual and cut-away gags (Bondage Dog of Flanders...Need I say more?), which is probably for the best since that's what makes up about 90% of Dokuro-chan's content. The great presentation and slick animation are some of the main reasons the show works so well, because without it this OVA set would fall flat on its face due to its heavy reliance on rapid-fire sight gags and outrageous character expressions. Also, I fucking dare you to listen to the opening theme and not have it stuck in your head in some form. The same goes for the second OVA series' closing theme. 
Being that it's a very short series composed only of two very brief OVA runs, Dokuro-chan's pacing is fairly break-neck and at times if you blink, you'll definitely miss something. Each 26-minute episode actually consists of two smaller 13-minute episodes rarely ever taking place within a close timeframe of one another. Both OVA series together consist of 12 mini-episodes, which could easily be burned through in a matter of a few hours, but it's not likely that most will want to marathon it and most will likely have their fill after just watching the first couple of mini-episodes. The series relies on a lot of the same visual gags involving sexual misbehavior, nudity, off-putting and ridiculous imagery, and random outbursts of violence, only switching up the set-ups for these gags here and there. It has a tendency to get old fast, so staying power isn't one of Dokuro-chan's strong points. The first couple of episodes are honestly the highlight of the series, providing some of the best laughs and gags the show has to offer. Sadly, none of the episodes that follow can really match up with how crazy and over the top the start of the series is. There are still lots of laughs, lots of violence, and plenty of off-the-wall jokes, but they don't occur quite as often and lack the comedic value that the start of the series may provide. This is especially noticeable in the second batch of OVAs (comprising the series' final four mini-episodes) where the whole thing kinda loses steam and the jokes and story premises just aren't as good as the first OVA's batch of wacky adventures. 
dokuro-chan is just brainless good-timey, innuendo-heavy, toilet humor and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It doesn't dare to go any deeper than that, and it doesn't really have to, but the fact that there's not much substance here beyond the violence and sex jokes pretty much makes it an average novelty show. It's doubtful anyone will get too many repeated viewings out of it, but it's a great show to spring on friends who you wanna make laugh and/or shock the hell out of just for shits and giggles. For the asking price of a mere $15-20 it's hard to go wrong with adding Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan to your collection, unless you really can't find any fun or enjoyment in this sort of thing. But if you can, why not invite this cute little angel into your home if you got the spare cash laying around? It may just be the perfect little collection to turn you into an even sicker weirdfuck than you already are. Pi-piru-piru-piru-pi-piru pi!