First Look: Gabriel DropOut
For decades, there has been a debate going on about how video games affect us. Adults argue that these games have a bad influence on kids growing up. Most of us would like to believe that the discussion has been blown out of proportion. I mean, we all turned out decent enough despite playing a lot of games since our childhood, right? But if video games have the ability to cause an angel to want all humans to die and go to hell, then maybe our parents did have a point.
*Minor spoilers ahead.
I’m not going to lie, from what we see in the first few minutes of Gabriel DropOut, I expected this show to be sweet and innocent. As it turned out, I was badly mistaken. This show is about an angel, named Tenma Gabriel White, who comes down to earth to continue her studies after graduating from angel school in heaven. But she ended up becoming a lazy, good-for-nothing, NEET. She now attends a normal school where there are only human students, with the exception of a few of her friends. Even with other great comedy shows currently airing, such as Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Interviews with Monster Girls, setting the bar high, Gabriel DropOut doesn’t disappoint.
You’ll quickly realize after the first episode that this anime doesn’t care much for stereotypes, as Gabriel is not the only character who deviates from the common perception of her role. The girl who calls herself “the future Queen of hell’’, Satanichia ‘‘Satania’’ McDowell, is a naive and dim-witted demon, whose diabolical deeds stretch from not recycling a plastic bottle, to refusing to do homework. Another demon, Vignette Tsukinose, is a responsible girl who can’t ignore someone in need. Because of that, she tries to get Gabriel to clean up her act, but she isn’t very successful. The angel, Raphiel, on the other hand, almost graduated at the top of her angel class, second only to Gabriel, and with her sadistic and manipulative nature, it’s fair to say she’s even more malicious than all of the demons in Gabriel DropOut combined.
The first episode contains plenty of well-executed jokes, both in animation and in timing, as the show is off to a strong start. The cast is certainly diverse and the contrast between the characters of Gabriel DropOut makes this comedy all the more enjoyable, as they all provide value to the show, each with their share of memorable moments. For example, Gabriel teleporting her panties to her classroom desk by mistake, Raphiel tricking Satania into imitating a dog, and even the otherwise sensible Vignette destroys an apartment in the process of killing a cockroach. Satania especially sticks out as a personal favorite of the ones introduced thus far, managing to get a laugh out of me repeatedly through her sheer stupidity whenever she gets screen time. The concept by itself — with the absurdity of sadistic angels and do-gooder demons, in the form of lolis, attending school together — should be enough for you to give this anime a chance.
Hype level: Satania’s pull-the-chair prank (4/5)
