Anime: Helck

I was initially interested in this anime because its premise made me think it would be a medieval fantasy alternative of Hoshi no Samidare but with a retro protagonist, but the recommendations and comparisons to it mentioned Berserk, which made me even more interested in it, but aside from a few characters dying, I found no similarity whatsoever between the two titles. More people said it’s similar to I’m Quitting Heroing, so I guess I’m gonna watch that at some point for the sake of comparison or something.

Another comparison that was made was with One Punch Man, and initially Helck does play out like a comical take, though not necessarily a straight parody, of the typical fantasy and fighting shounen tournament arc. The plot revolves around a strong human dude that sides with demons and is suspected to be an infiltrator, in the silliest way possible, at least in the beginning.

With one exception, every character acts stupidly, which combined with the superiority of the main character, allows the latter to go up his way in becoming the next demon lord quickly and easily.

If you are a fan of the early episodes and the two, later on three, main characters interacting in silly ways and getting to know each other while interchanging little catchphrases between them, you might get bored or disappointed with the following events, which are an invasion from forcefully mutated humans, while for plot reasons the main characters are either stranded on an island, or go into flashback mode for a quarter of the season.

If, like me, you prefer character exploration, and more or less serious stories, perhaps you might prefer that second half, as the backdrop and mysteries of the main and titular character are revealed and answered, along with the reasons for various characteristics of his, such as his smile, broken weapon, objective, dark power and stuff. Also, the dynamics between the two protagonists evolve as they open to one another and come to understand and trust each other.

While the two main characters are taken away from the plot, and while the series is not in flashback mode, you also get to see other characters doing things, and showing more of their serious side, which they didn’t during the early episodes because comedy equals everyone acting like idiots. One of them plans and strategize, others take down enemies, one infiltrates, and in general is cool to see characters waging war with some sort of strategy and tactic instead of just brawn, at least until the powerful main characters can get back and wipe out every enemy with ease.

The problem is that all of the above comes with the cost of sacrificing plot progression, as about a third or perhaps even half the series is spent on that, main characters introspecting while travelling, allowing the author to explore the setting, and supporting ones and antagonists fighting seemingly with no end.

Speaking about the fighting, since the main characters are so powerful, the enemies are remarkably weaker for plot reasons, and the visuals are rather low budget, this is not really a series that you watch for the action, which is usually short, simple, one sided, low on stakes, and well, not very good looking, as Helck is a series that despite coming out in 2023, looks like it aired back in 2008. The artwork and the coloring, even though they don’t have very noticeable quality drops, look simple, outdated and lacking detail, the character designs are very simple, the backgrounds are ok, the motions are ok in the beginning but become worse later on as the artwork becomes better for some reason, and the special effects look even older and more outdated than everything else.

The music is ok, generic but serviceable, the endings are two cute ballads, and I skipped each of the two openings every time because of how upbeat and unfitting they sounded to me. The sound effects and voice acting are ok as well, though I did not expect a second serious role from Tomokazu Sugita on a single season.

What I didn’t expect from Helck was it being another one of those “humans are the real monsters” type of stories were we are the real bad guys even though actual monsters or in this case demons live in the same world. Regarding this point, the anime does a good job at times, showing more races than just humans or demons, and having some good and bad ones amongst them, or show some completely bad ones being like that because of the setting, which does a good job in exploring the world the story takes place in and builds up more mysteries.

On the other hand there is a serious issue in its theme exploration, since even though several characters say that there are good and bad people everywhere, and humans wanting revenge on the demons for all the killings they did in the past, not a single bad demon is actually shown in the plot, while there are almost no good humans anywhere, while the ones that are shown go as far as killing their own kind for the sake of wiping out their enemies, with over the top, illogical and unbelievable actions, thus the message and theme come off as simple and one sided, as one side of the conflict is completely demonized while the other is completely victimized.

Similar things happen with the other theme of conflict between classes, as the nobles are complete assholes and the real main villains behind everything, while the lower class are all good people and poor victims of the rich.

There are no grays whatsoever in the themes, they are explored in a naïve, simpleminded, one sided and superficial way, so I guess they at least go well with the equally presented protagonist, but it would’ve been better for the show to remain a lighthearted comical adventure if its serious side would turn out like that.

As for the characters as a whole, they are fine, definitely stronger than the simple, kind of weak, and slow moving plot, they become more memorable and are more fleshed out through flashbacks, which show how interconnected most of them are, while others show more of their characteristics, capabilities and come to accept others in a way as the series goes on.

At the end of the day, I feel like you watch this for either the comedy, or the adventure, or the drama, definitely not the action, but not all the elements all together as one single whole, as it feels half-baked. The comedy gets replaced heavily by the drama, which doesn’t come in until half the series, and only after some really silly humor, so those who might prefer the second might not go through the early half to watch the latter. And the adventure is fine for showing the setting, it’s just that at the end of the day said setting it’s quite simple and generic, so it’s not like there is much nor very strong world building thanks to it anyways. The weakest aspect is for sure the plot, which is simple, illogical, slow moving, constantly stalled in one way or another, bad at exploring its themes, and remains incomplete.

If you don’t like any of the above, you might still enjoy the show for its characters, but you’d have to power through the first half of it for that. Or well, you might not like anything in it because of the half-baked way every element is combined with the rest, so you just wasted your time with a 24 episodes series.

Or maybe you are the definitely more rare type to enjoy the whole package. Good for you for enjoying this show as a whole, while everyone else gets bored or disappointed by it in some way or another thanks to one or another element in it.