Miss Devil

It's been a long time I've written a review here. But this title was unexpectedly so great that I couldn't stop myself from doing that.

Unlike how the title and trailers would suggest, this series actually has a serious tone with light comedy touch, which works greatly due to the chemistry and good acting by both leading actor/actress. Nanao is great looking, and her showing off legs in specific scenes are very enticing. And the role suites here well.

Well, not all the episodes fall in the category of great. Some have the stories below the par indeed. But overall the series is great. I hope they continue it into next scene, and focus better on the positives of all the better episodes.

Sadly, there are shows out there which, despite a promising central concept, are totally lacking when it comes to quality writing or acting. Luckily, this is not one of them. But, there are also a lot of shows which have an interesting central concept yet manage to only be watchable rather than compelling. Miss Devil is entertaining yet could have been better. I was initially sucked in by the thought of a tough, ball-busting young woman invading a big company and shaking things up. Ms Tsubaki ( Nanao ) is hired by a large Japanese insurance company to blow away the corporate cobwebs. The early signs are good : the beautiful interloper with VERY long legs who wears VERY short skirts doesn't take any nonsense from the men around the place, and her martial arts skills are handy when a kick to the head of a miscreant is needed. She acquires a shy young new employee Hiroshi Saito as her sidekick ( Shori Sato ) and he gets to explore the various areas of the company. And he has to fire a few people too. It's good to see the script tackling contemporary Japanese issues such as sexual harassment and working mothers, while the main players are all enmeshed to some extent in a nefarious and skilfully related event from the corporate past. All of this is quite interesting and a surprise or two crops up, though there isn't much humour on offer and Team Tsubaki ( she has four other minions ) is a little on the bland side when it comes to personality. The cast are good, yet the two main players have been instructed to irritate me. Nanao certainly has plenty of presence but the performance is too one-note; too much glowering and minimal fun. I'd have loved to see her, for example, strut into a room full of cocky young men and order them to do twenty push-ups for no particular reason. As to her timid off-sider, again a severely limited emotional palette where he seems frightened by just about anyone and anything. At times, he's so intimidated I was waiting for him to wet his pants ! Why not have him fantasise about standing up to his scary boss or bossing other situations ? Hey, why not have him wet the trousers as a running gag ? ( "Oh Mr Saito, time for the adult diapers !" ) I do think this type of story would lend itself perfectly to animations and the sort of zany approach that Japanese media is renowned for, without compromising any emotional impact.

Actually, a script with more creativity might've seen Ms Tsubaki playfully exploit the D word by hinting at a genuine connection to The Prince Of Darkness. Oh well...........