From the OP of Machikado Mazoku (or The Demon Girl Next Door, as streaming platforms have monikered it), perfect evidence that I’ve been somewhat slacking on this recent given that, in taking the above screenshot, I discovered that I’d already grabbed the exact same picture from when the opening was used as the ending in the first episode over a month ago. Whoops.

Still, aside from being busy recently (where, admittedly, part of being busy has involved playing an unhealthy amount of Fire Emblem Three Houses), it’s been a kind of depressing time in the anime industry recently and I’ve kind of not particularly felt the need or want to write about it in any particular fashion.

Anyway, Machikado Mazoku. Kind of one of the more low-key entertaining shows this season. Yuko (or Shamiko, as everyone quickly dubs her) wakes up one day only to discover she’s actually demon kin, having suddenly grown horns and a tail, and is informed that the only way to save her family from a curse of perpetual bankruptcy is to find and beat a magical girl into bloody pulp. Unfortunately, Shamiko is so pathetic (or at least lacking in athletic ability) that the nearest magical girl, Momo, can’t help but be more concerned about Shamiko’s well-being than she is about being horrifically murdered (or maybe she’s just more infatuated – it is a Manga Time Kirara Charat title after all).

Whilst it doesn’t really persist with some of the weirder background gags that the first episode throws out, the show does persist with a fairly low-key, gentle and generally pure-minded sense of somewhat off-kilter humour. It’s largely just overwhelmingly pleasant and inoffensive in the non-derogatory sense of the word.

Also it appears that there’s some kind of Orange-based magical girl appearing in this weeks episode, so really, nothing to complain about on this one.