Dororon Enma-kun



Dororon Enma-kun (ドロロンえん魔くん), also known as Satanikus!, is a Japanese horror-comedy anime and manga series created by Go Nagai. It's one of Nagai's most famous works in Japan, although not very well known in the rest of the world. Enma is the nephew of the king of hell (also named Enma). Due to him being somewhat of a handful, Enma is sent to the human world to capture youkai that have escaped hell and are causing problems. Following him is Chapeau-jii, a sentient witch's hat with an encyclopedic knowledge of youkai, Yukiko-Hime, a snow-woman princess and Enma's love interest, and Kappaeru, a kappa and Enma's best friend.

Joining them on their quest is Tsutomu-kun and Harumi-chan, two humans from the school Enma makes his base under (which one joins first depends on which version of the story you're reading/watching). Together, they make up the Demon Patrol, and work at protecting the town from youkai, sexually harassing Yukiko, and... well, that's about it, really.

The series is particularly notable because it was Go Nagai's first attempt at a children's manga after almost single-handedly bootstrapping the Ecchi subgenre of comedy manga in Japan with Harenchi Gakuen -- having said that, it is also a bit of Values Dissonance to western sensibilities: the nudity and sexuality in the series is blatant, especially in the more modern remakes, and Enma is a very unrepentant, perverted Anti-Hero. (except the original 1973 anime which was an attempt by Toei to make a true series for kids.)

Over the 40 years that Enma-kun has existed there have been a number of remakes, spin offs, and parodies. For example, in 2000, Go Nagai did a parody spinoff, Dororon Enpi-Chan (どろろん艶靡ちゃん), with a gender-bent cast and the sexuality turned up to 11 -- notable because the main female lead, Enpi-chan (a sort of cross between Nagai's "Kekko Kamen" and Enma) is a reoccurring character in the most recent animated version.

In 2006, it would get a sequel/remake in Demon Prince Enma, which dropped the comedy and became a full-fledged suspense-horror series. After the OVA was released, another manga version was released called Satanikus ENMA Kerberos by Eiji Toriyama, as well as a new series, Enma Vs Dororon Enma Kun Gaiden, which was a surprise crossover with Honey Kisaragi.

This is just touching the surface of the various versions of Enma, however -- the Go Nagai Fans group on Deviant ART has an excellent summary here.

Most recently, an animated remake by Yoshitomo Yonetani entitled Dororon Enma-kun Meera Mera began airing in Japan in April 2011, and returns to the manga's comedic (and Ecchi) roots.

The 2011 series has been licenced by NIS America.

Tropes appearing in the original anime and manga:

 * Five-Man Band:
 * Enma-kun: The Hero, naturally; can also be thought to be The Big Guy in the account of having the most destructive attacks and the least consideration in attacking.
 * Yukiko-Hime: The Chick, although she does play The Lancer too.
 * Kappaeru: More of a Team Pet if anything.
 * Chapeau-jii: The Smart Guy.
 * Tsutomu-kun: Tagalong Human.
 * Gender Flip: Dororon Enpi-Chan, a parody manga by Go Nagai with a gender-flipped cast -- Enma was replaced by Enpi, who was just as sex crazed as Enma but also a nudist and exhibitionist to boot, Yukiko-Hige , a male transsexual version of Yukiko-Hime, and Kabako, a female version of Kapperu. Playing the trope a little more straight, the male Tsutomu was replaced with Harumi (the other being demoted to extra) in the remake.
 * Youkai: Most the members of the main cast, plus all the monsters.

Tropes appearing in the 2011 remake:

 * A-Cup Angst: Harumi, and she uses her lack of breasts to get out of being used as a decoy in Episode 3.
 * Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: Yukiko tends to punish Enma quite harshly when he upsets her, though he usually deserves it.
 * Action Girl: Yukiko, when she's not getting captured, that is.
 * All Men Are Perverts: Yes, all of them. Even the talking hat.
 * All-Star Cast: Kappei Yamaguchi, Mamiko Noto, Takehito Koyasu, Ayako Kawasumi, Kikuko Inoue, Norio Wakamoto and, Hochu Otsuka all lend their voices.
 * An Ice Person: Yukiko-hime has power over ice, enjoys taking freezing baths, and likes to hang out by open freezers. Since she's a Yuki-Onna, it's only natural.
 * Animate Inanimate Object: Chapeau-jii is a floating, talking hat with a face.
 * Anticlimax: A particularly amusing one in Episode Three.
 * Anti-Villain: Enpi, who just wants the world to be a more fun and sexy place, and frequently has to turn on her own minions when they start going too far.
 * Ascended Extra / Demoted to Extra: Harumi and Tsutomu, respectively.
 * Ass Kicks You: Chiiko-sensei does a good show of this.
 * Ass Shove: Yukiko experiences this in Episode Six after Enma's rescue attempt results in his head going up her backside.
 * And in episode 7 Enma Facefaults into Harumi's backside.
 * Badass Princess: Yukiko.
 * Balloon Belly: Fukurashiko The Monster of the Week of episode six inflates people via touch, and those who are inflated also inflate those THEY touch. The entire cast winds up ballooned, and much Hilarity ensues.
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space: Everyone who isn't Harumi.
 * Bee-Bee Gun: Hachinosu-Nyudo (Beehive-Baldy), the Monster of the Week for episode five, uses his head as one.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: Demons (and presumably Gods and Angels) can't be destroyed, as killing them merely sends them back to their respective planes of existence. As a result, they're very casual about death, and can't understand why humans make such a big fuss over it.
 * Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Harumi has a tendency to do this with herself.
 * Boobs of Steel: Chiiko-sensei. She manages to hold her own against Enma and even uses her boobs to smack him around.
 * Also Enpi does this (literally) to Hachinosu-Nyudo when he increases her boobs
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Frequently.
 * Breast Expansion: And the rarer Butt Expansion too. All in episode five.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Both Enma and Yukiko do this.
 * Camp Gay: Renkonman, one of Harumi's classmates, and Enma's uncle, the King of Hell.
 * Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: SUBVERTED with Enma towards Yukiko.
 * Casanova Wannabe: Kappaeru considers himself a handsome ladies' man. Nobody else does.
 * The Chew Toy: Tobachiri-sensei. He's been hilariously beat up in every episode so far.
 * Childhood Marriage Promise:
 * Color Failure: Yukiko and Harumi in Episode 3.
 * Combat Commentator: Kappaeru in Episode 6, due to everyone else being in deep space at the time and thus unable to make any sound.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Renegade demons fight dirty, and Enma has had to pick up a fair few sneaky tricks of his own in his time on the Demon Patrol, ever since his first attempt to battle honourably resulted in Yukiko having to bail him out.
 * Cool Teacher: Harumi describes Chiiko-sensei this way.
 * Couch Gag: The cast's ever-changing outfits during each episode's Opening Narration.
 * Creepy Uncle: Enma the Great, the mighty lord of Hell. Feared not for his terrible, infernal power, but for his flamboyant, overbearing, overly-affectionate attitude that sends even the sternest soul fleeing for the hills in minutes.
 * Cute and Psycho: Enpi after her hat comes off.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Demons in general. It's just the minority who head up to the surface to torment humans who make them look bad, and who the Demon Patrol are assigned to hunt down.
 * Demon Slaying: Technically Enma isn't supposed to slay the demons he fights, but he doesn't seem to care.
 * Drop the Hammer: Enma's Finishing Move.
 * Once Yukiko and Enpi joins him.
 * Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: When Harumi and Yukiko fall into a deep sleep in Episode 4, Chapeau-jii kisses them to break the spell. When it doesn't work, Enma takes advantage of Yukiko's state all too eagerly.
 * Ecchi: Very much so.
 * Enemy Mine: Frequent between Enpi and the Demon Patrol when her latest scheme backfires.
 * Expressive Accessory: Yukiko's skull-shaped hairpin and Enpi's skull-shape kneepads change their expressions expressions to match their moods.
 * Expy: Yukiko looks very much the heroine of Cutey Honey, which was also by Go Nagai and a lot more famous in the west.
 * Meanwhile, Enpi, the Mysterious Watcher of Episode 3, strongly resembles Kekko Kamen. Kekko herself makes an appearance in the final episode as an angel named Kekkou Honey, only she's wears Honey's outfit from the 90s OVA.
 * Face Fault: Slipsqueak's power.
 * Face Stealer: Episode 1's villain Face Eater, who turns his victims into The Blank.
 * Fire and Brimstone Hell: The world the Youkai all come from looks like this.
 * Five-Man Band: The cast's position is pretty much unchanged, save for Yukiko-hime being a full-time Lancer. Tsutomu-kun's role, meanwhile, got taken over by Harumi (his girlfriend in the original series) who also has shades of being The Chick.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend: Slipsqueak
 * Gag Boobs: Chiiko-sensei
 * Gag Penis: Taken to typical Refuge in Audacity levels in Episode 1, where Enma duels a foe who wields his gigantic metal schlong like a BFS.
 * Also, one of the demons in the opening.
 * Game Face: When Enpi's Hat mask comes off.
 * Possessed Chiiko-sensei in episode 3
 * Going Commando: Yukiko-hime, according to Enma (and her reaction pretty much confirms it).
 * Enpi, the Mysterious Watcher of Episode 3, is flying around dressed in little more than a hat and a cape!
 * Yukiko confirms it herself in episode 6.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Enma. The rest of the Patrol is pretty nice, though.
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: Taken to a ridiculous extent by both Enma and a possessed Chiiko-sensei in episode 3.
 * The Grim Reaper: Dokuro, the villain of Episode 3, is a pretty obvious spoof of this.
 * Groin Attack: Frequent. Yukiko does this to Enma TWICE in Episode 3, and that's not even getting into the business with Face Eater.
 * Enpi defeats one of the villain of the week this way.
 * One of the demons in episode 8 subverts this on Harumi and Enpi (and painfully).
 * Harmless Freezing: Inflicted on Enma by Yukiko with frankly alarming frequency. It probably helps that he's a powerful fire demon.
 * Haunted Headquarters: The Youkai Patrol has their secret base underneath Harumi's school, complete with an icthyosaur guarding the moat that no one seems to mention.
 * Heroic Sociopath: Enma, who is less merciful to renegade demons than even the King of Hell wanted him to be. As he puts it, dead demons and banished demons end up in the same place either way, so it's no big deal which option he picks.
 * Hot Teacher: Chiiko-sensei.
 * How We Got Here: Episode 2 explains how and why Enma and the gang wound up on in the human world.
 * Ho Yay: Between Slipsqueak and Enma in 7 when Slipsqueak tries to get the circlet off Enmas head.
 * In episode 8 between Enma and two of the Villains Of The Week when they tries to remove the circlet.
 * Hunter of His Own Kind: The Youkai Patrol hunt down and often kill other Youkai. So far none of them are angsting about it, mostly because killing a youkai is just a messier and more painful way of sending them back to Hell.
 * Hurricane of Puns
 * Information Broker: Kappaeru. He's not that great at his job, but with this bunch of idiots, he's practically invaluable.
 * Kappa: Kappaeru. Definitely of the cuddly, harmless variety.
 * Kimono Fanservice: Yukiko wears an extremely short kimono.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Harumi has a tendency to do this, like in Episode 2 she was the only one to wonder out loud why a naked Yukiko had suddenly appeared in the squid monster's tentacles.
 * Large Ham: Enma the Great. Naturally, it comes with being voiced by Norio Wakamoto.
 * Also Hachinosu-Nyudo.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Yukiko-hime usually spends battles getting disabled in ridiculously fanservicey ways... but only when Enma is around to save her. When the team's actually in genuine trouble, she shows her true colours as an exceptionally powerful ice mage.
 * Les Yay: Harumi & Yukiko in episodes 3 and again in 4.
 * Got some between Yukiko and Enpi in episode 7.
 * Lovable Coward: Kappaeru.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: Enma-kun and Kappaeru.
 * Mad Artist: Hyakute.
 * Magic Skirt: Yukiko's short kimono always covers her girl parts from the audience. Harumi's skirt seems to work the same way. Enpi's cape tends to fly up in just the right position to block herself from the camera.
 * Magic Wand: Enma's staff.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Considering the improbably high odds of Yukiko-hime ending up naked and assaulted by tentacles in any given fight scene, she could almost be considered a parody of this archetype if Go Nagai hadn't invented it in the first place.
 * And let's not forget Enpi, who is constantly in the nude.
 * Mister Exposition: Chapeau-ji in episode 2.
 * Monster of the Week: The series seems to be following this trend so far.
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Hyakute, the villain of Episode 4.
 * Multicolored Hair: Yukiko-hime is light blue on top and purple on the bottom.
 * Mushroom Samba: Episode 4 has the characters trapped in a highly bizarre dream world by a demon.
 * Mysterious Watcher: At the very end of Episode 3, a mysterious woman dressed very much like Enma appears to be watching the heroes.
 * Naughty Tentacles: Common, and guaranteed to immediately gravitate towards Yukiko-hime.
 * Nice Hat: Chapeau-ji is a living example of this trope and part of Enma's costume.
 * Non-Action Guy: Kappa-eru and Chapeau-ji both qualify, leaving the actual fighting of monsters to Enma and Yukiko.
 * No Ontological Inertia: Whatever evil was perpetrated by the Monster of the Week is undone by reducing him to a grease spot. Damage done by the heroes, being of a more physical variety, sticks around until the end of the episode. We're talking damage on par with The Nerima Wrecking Crew.
 * Occult Detective: The Youkai Patrol have this as their job description. Try getting them to actually DO it.
 * Only Sane Woman: Harumi, who often seems more motivated to go demon-hunting than the folks who have it as their actual job description.
 * Panty Shot: Strangely subverted with Harumi in episode 1 and the beginning of episode 2. Enma-kun got a glimpse but the audience did not.
 * And subverted again in episode 6 because she was wearing her school swimsuit under her clothes.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Enma.
 * Playing with Fire: Enma's powers all seem to be fire-based.
 * Power of Love:  has it sealed. And it is powerful enough to destroy everything.
 * The Reveal: Enpi is Enmas sister and the circlet on his head used to be worn by her.
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: Enma's outfit. Enpi, meanwhile, only wears this.
 * The Seventies: The remake keeps the setting in its original time period.
 * Ship Tease: Between Enma and Yukiko-hime.
 * Shout-Out: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters makes an appearance in episode 4.
 * From the same episode, we also have Enmazinger, Kappaeru having his face resculpted to resemble Golgo 13, people turned into machines such as Mechagodzilla, Doublas M2, and Boss Borot, and various Devilman demons such as Mizun, Lacock, and the finally  becomes the OVA version of Sirene.
 * The period and setting of the series (lower Tokyo in the early 70's) are practically identical to those of Brigadoon Marin and Melan, which is also by Yoshitomo Yonetani, and much of the scenery and locations are the same with the bathhouse in Episode 1 and the amusement park in Episode 2 as two notable examples.
 * Kappaeru floats past the Monolith from 2001 in Episode Six.
 * Episode 10 references multiple Super Robot shows including Fire Goblin and Ice Goblin morphing into a robot that resembles Baron Ashura and ChoRyuJin, Enpi piloting a clone of Big Shooter, and three goblins based on food obviously forming (and completely failing at being) the Getter Team.
 * Many things in episode 12 including Wacky Races of all things. Ryo from Demon Lord Dante can be seen among the extras. Ultraman is briefly referenced in Enma's fight with Plume as her bra has a secret mirror in it, much like Baltan Seijin 2. Angel Mark possesses the Thunder Break from Great Mazinger. Finally one can find Gyaos hidden among the many individuals briefly when the power of love is activated.
 * Slapstick Knows No Gender: Harumi. Poor, poor Harumi.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The show's ending theme at first sounds like a peaceful lullaby until you figure out that the lyrics are really about death.
 * Spiritual Successor: This series cleary aims to be to the original manga what Shin Mazinger is to Mazinger Z - remake that takes some freedom with original's plot, introduces new characters (including at last one Canon Immigrant) and gives main stars new, Crazy Awesome attacks, all to reintroduce the franchiche to modern audience and renew it's popularity.
 * Stripperiffic: Chiiko-sensei's taste in sleepwear is pretty skimpy.
 * And then there Enpi.
 * Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The M.O. of Hachinosu-Nyudo, the villain of Episode 5.
 * Stylish Protection Gear: Enma's cape doubles as a shield. Enpi's version doubles as a bra and Scenery Censor material.
 * Takahashi Couple: Enma-kun and Yukiko-hime.
 * Take That: A strange example -- Go Nagai has went on record as stating he pushed for/greenlit the Dororon Enma-Kun remake as a direct reaction to the 2010/2011 Anti-Anime laws being pushed through by Ishihara (the Governor of Tokyo), and that he specifically sees it as a repeat of the censorship he fought against in the early 70s (when his fighting against said censorship created the Ecchi subgenre).
 * The Virus: The Roly-Poly Plague of Episode Six serves as an exceptionally unserious example.
 * Token Human: Harumi. At first she didn't even believe Youkai existed and was freaked when she found out they did, but she adjusted quickly after meeting the Patrol.
 * Tsundere: Yukiko-hime is a Type B towards Enma.
 * Unusual Eyebrows: Enma's long, skinny brows go WAY off of his face and double as demon-sensing antennae.
 * Vapor Wear: Yukiko-hime and it's a Running Gag. Meanwhile, Enpi takes this to it's illogical conclusion.
 * And they're very proud of it.
 * Justified for Yukiko-Hime. As a Yuki-Onna she's very sensitive to heat. To her wearing any underwear is like putting on a pair of long-johns in the middle of summer.
 * What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: The manga was apparently Go Nagai's shot at writing a story for children. The various remakes, including the animated version, either play up the horror aspects or play up the sexuality.
 * What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?
 * Widget Series: AND HOW!
 * Would Not Hit a Girl: Hachinosu-Nyudo considers himself a 'gentleman', and so prefers not to use his more dangerous abilities against women. Humiliating abilities, on the other hand, are A-OK.
 * Wrecked Weapon: The first Monster of the Week's colossal armoured penis-club, much to his (understandable) horror.
 * Youkai
 * X-Ray Vision: One of Enma's powers. He puts it to exactly the sort of uses that one would expect of him.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: So far this only applies to Yukiko.