Anime Review: Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department
Wherever there are evil organizations trying to take over the world, brave heroes will rise to oppose them. And wherever brave heroes oppose evil organizations, there will be monsters created by those organizations to battle those heroes. Evil Organization Agastia, opposed by Divine Swordsman Blader, is no exception. But let’s look behind the scenes at hard-working monster designer, Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department!
This anime, based on a manga of the same name, is a parody of the tokusatsu subgenre of Japanese television shows, wherein a costumed hero or team of heroes battles monsters of the week, like Power Rangers or Kamen Rider. It’s depicted as being similar to working for a normal Japanese corporation. Miss Kuroitsu and Dr. Sadamaki come up with brilliant (or half-assed if they’re crunched for time) ideas for monsters to create with mad science, and have to get them approved by the executives, and complete them with a limited budget. (Since the only evil thing Agastia does is create monsters to fight Blader, their legitimate front companies can only divert so much cash.)
There’s executive meddling, inter-department rivalry, dealing with business competitors, employee parties–you know, the usual work shenanigans. Early on, we see two blatant examples of how this affects the monsters. Wolf Bête was supposed to be a ferocious wolfman monster, and his very male brain was developed first, but at the last moment, supreme leader Lady Akashic decided she wanted a cute wolfgirl monster instead; and there wasn’t money or time to go back and change Wolf Bête’s personality to match. Thunderbird Cannon was supposed to be a massive bird god machine with multiple cannons, but after various departments made their own demands for safety or ease of manufacture, he became a large chicken with a revolver.
Agastia’s high ethical standards for a villainous organization have other effects too. Miss Kuroitsu designs her monsters so that they’re not just one-shot hero fodder, but can go on to other company jobs like lab assistant or amusement park worker. This reaches a high moment in one episode where a monster decides fighting sucks and she’d rather be a singing idol star (despite not having vocal cords!) This is in contrast to rival organization Black Lore, which operates like a “black company”, overworking and abusing their employees.
Good: This is a funny show, and most of the jokes land. The characters are mostly likable, except for the ones we are not supposed to like. The work comedy is relatable. There are cameos by “real life” tokusatsu heroes, and even Astro Hero Sunred, another superhero parody, puts in an appearance. A running gag about a day worker who gets roped into being one of the faceless minions that fight the hero before the main monster pays off well.
Less good: Because this show is divorced from any over-arching plot, there’s no sense of stakes. Agastia and Blader fight each other because, apparently, he was the first hero one of their monsters encountered. Actual fight scenes tend to be underwhelming. There’s an actual bad guy in the final episode, but just for the sake of having everyone team up to deal with him.
Some of the humor around Wolf Bête may be offputting to certain viewers. While Miss Kuroitsu and Dr. Sadamaki do not misgender him, most other people are not so considerate. His being a macho boy trapped in an attractive girl’s body is played for laughs, and he frequently has to do male-oriented fanservice.
Content note: The afore-mentioned male oriented fanservice. Also, Long Range Uncle is a creeper who would dearly love to sexually harass his female co-workers, but holds back a bit to avoid being killed by them.
Overall: I found this series to be a funny piece of fluff, even if it doesn’t have much below the surface. Recommended to tokusatsu fans.
