Three months have passed since the Demon King was defeated by a hero. Mankind rejoices over their victory, but dwellers of the demon world do not share the same sentiment. With the loss of their king, they must now hold a tournament to decide who will become his successor.
Monitoring the competition is the hot-headed yet powerful Vamirio—one of the Four Heavenly Kings. Among all the participants, she is extremely distrustful of one: Helck, a human hero who claims to hate humanity. As much as she wants to get rid of him, it is impossible due to Helck's incredible strength and popularity.
Amidst the competition, Vamirio discovers that humans have vanished from various towns. As a result of this puzzling turn of events, Vamirio grows desperate to reveal Helck's true intentions by carefully crafting a plan to make Helck lose. If she proves to be successful, she might uncover where his loyalty truly lies before the demon world is endangered.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
gigikomo
Although there are hints of a potentially serious story at the beginning, I almost disregarded 'Helck' as a pointless comedy because let's be real, many anime waste their potential, such as Spy x Family who could be so much better just by ACTUALLY EXPLORING ITS PREMISE and having the characters work together. Disregarding 'Helck' would have been a big mistake! A mistake a lot of people apparently made, but I'm glad I stuck with it - very much so - because the story does get real! First, let's get the concise stuff out of the way. Art: 6/10, fine. Not much wrong with it, if any. Subjectively,I disliked the design of quite a few side characters. Fortunately, I like the design of the main ones.
Sound: 10/10 both good and immersive, which is a rarity these days, when we have things like season 4 of 'Attack on Titan' with its hip hop tracks. Here, we're in a fantasy and we have traditional, fitting songs played on chronologically fitting instruments! Fantastic!
The voice actress of Vermilio quickly became one of my 6 favorites of all time.
Characters: 10/10 our crew is lovely, funny, and Helck has some badass moments! As for the enemies, they are mysterious and diverse in personalities! I can think of one even being non-Manichaean so far.
Story: 9/10 it's an anime where it's right to give it credit at the start. The development isn't immediately in your face, at first it's subtle in parts and it's not known for a fact that the story will be developed, but I'm here to assure you it is. And it's a touching story at that. There are two reasons I'm not giving the maximum rating: the first is that the conclusion wasn't climactic enough and I don't know if things will be wrapped up well enough for a perfect rating. The second reason is so far, some stories are even better written, and giving 'Helck' the same rating would be unfair to those superior ones, like 'Death Note', 'Steins;Gate' or 'Full Metal Alchemist'. I'm not one of those people who thinks "I liked it, therefore 10/10", no, the full scale exists for a reason and that matters in my opinion, so, 9/10 and that's a very good rating.
Enjoyment: 10/10 I came for the comedy, it was good but I feared it would get stale, old. Fortunately, the comedy did not overstay its welcome and right before getting old (at least for me), the comedy decided to step back and let the story shine! And at that point, I stayed for the story and boy, was it fully worth it! Although the story has not been completed in season 1, it's the start of a potential masterpiece so far. The stopping point wasn't too shabby either!
Overall: 9/10 so far, I really hope the anime gets completed at some point and that season 2 lives up to my expectations. It'll be harder because concluding a story nicely and climactically is hard. My 9/10 rating only concerns season 1 so far, but for a start, it's worth that rating to me so that's what I give.
Ellenya
I'm making this review mainly to tell you that the anime doesn't finish the plot, it ends in a cliffhanger. I don't think it's worth it to watch the 24 episodes while there's not a continuation out there to watch. All in all, Helck has a vibe similar to the old 2000's animes, which is really refreshing. You can see that in the art style and also in the type of comedy that is scattered here and there and softens the plot, which is actually surprisingly dark. Art style: amazing. Animation: really good, well-balanced fighting scenes. Plot: the main plot is surprisingly good, but it doesn't finish, and it'sinterrupted countless times by side quests that make the pacing of the anime kinda boring. Basically if you survive all the fillers you will still be disappointed because the anime doesn't finish the main plot and there will be a lot of unanswered questions.
Characters: Helck himself doesn't have a lot of character development, it's more like "you get to know who he is throughout the anime", while Vermillion/Anne has quite a lot of development as she changes her views on life due to her experiences with Helck. This is definitely a strong point of the anime.
Overall: Mixed feelings because it feel pointless to watch an anime without an actual end, but if they launch a season 2 then it should be worth it to watch the whole thing.
PartyGod007
Helck is a fantasy anime with a rich world building and character development. I went in blind and I thought Helck was just another generic overpowered fantasy MC, but his entire character is slowly revealed throughout the story which makes it interesting and avoids him becoming a stale overpowered generic MC. Helck can be funny, mysterious, and many many more, which we get to watch and unravel his relationship to the world the more it progresses. Really enjoyed how they didn’t shy away from really having good funny moments, to even revealing much darker moments whenever needed all throughout the story. I say it was balancedall around and had a decently-paced story. Good for binge watching a 24 episode anime if you got a lot of time.
Most of the characters are not one-sided and actually have some thought put into them when writing. Everything they do has a purpose to help the story and I think the events and reactions of the characters were mostly very reasonable and believable which got me hooked to the story a lot. Even if some of the characters are there for just comedic relief, I was entertained.
For now, the story was “complete”. Most of the things I expected in a fantasy genre anime is well made here. Will definitely continue to read it in the manga now.
blueskie2
in the beginning i thought i will be skipping this title, but after seeing random clips of it on tt, ig, etc. i was convinced and oh boy! i'm glad i picked up this show because it turned out better than i really thought. don't let the animation to fool you (you've been spoiled by jjk, ds and more...) IT IS FANTASTIC SHOW. the characters, the gags and comedic elements, the drama and the despair, all of it is in this show. i love our main duo, they're the best. and the final episode? i was sobbing. you thought it's gonna be about superpowered mc?yeah you're right but it's more than just. i'm hoping for the second season, the characters made me laugh so much, but also filled me with hope and idk man it's a good show give it a go, ig? this is my review. the end
Flacion
A classic fantasy anime that explores a large world and delves into how people from two different worlds can learn to understand each other. This show follows the hero Helck, who has decided to leave humanity and instead try to become a demon lord. You then follow his adventure and see how his life and relations has brought him to this point, and pushes him to face the reality of where the world is now. All this is done through a fantasy action packed story that has some comedy splashed into it. The plot is generally very linear with some few episodes/scenes showing other people's perspective. Throughthe whole show there is a great deal of development, while also telling the characters and world background. This really helps bring the characters and the world to life, which in turn makes the story that much more interesting.
When it comes to the character, is it clear that some of them have specific roles in the group, where for some it is stagnant and changes for others throughout the show. This doesn’t really hamper the character development, but more helps supporting the other characters. Though for some characters there is very little development.
The animation is generally very smooth, though there is often a clear switch between some scenes, where it can go from more simple animation, to a more detailed style. This is mostly used to give different moods throughout the show, and generally works great.
Overall would i say this is a good action fantasy anime that seems very classic in a sense, so if you like these genres would i definitely recommend you watch Helck.
FlashwhAt
Honestly this went completely different than what I was expecting. I think from episode 12 when Helck is talking about his past this became a much better anime and the next 6 episodes literally flew by. Idk what some people’s deal is, did they really want to see more of episode 1 and 2? Of Helck competing to be a demon lord? This plot adds sooo many more elements to the anime. It’s actually makes this a much deeper anime. It makes you feel the rage inside of Helck and it makes you understand why Anne was warned about what’s deep inside of Helck. Atfirst it makes you think oh it’s just because he tries to be such a positive guy who has to go through shitty situations and when you watch his past you really understand and feel it. I love isekai anime’s more than anything, but I love isekai anime’s that have make you feel deep emotions whether you want to or not. Like Rising of the Shield Hero season 1. But Naofumi wasn’t as strong as Helck who could fight against everything, which i understand why people liked it more. But this anime deserves more than a 7 rating. I was more lenient with giving it a 9 cause I want others to know there’s people that really enjoyed this anime. But in my honest opinion it’s a solid 8. Kinda upset the manga is only up to 12 volumes cause I wanted to read it after finishing the anime but I feel like there won’t be a lot of meat left and probably better off waiting a few months or maybe a year to allow the manga to continue to grow its storyline. I’m so glad that they decided to make this a 24 episode season, I’m sure this is prob the end and they won’t make another season but I’m content.
Domefort
In a world of isekai shows, it is refreshing to get an unapologetically fantasy world. It has light hearted humor, likeable characters, and reasonably high stakes. Even the world building is okay. So, where's the catch? Unfortunately, Helck has trouble committing to it's approach to comedy and tragedy. It lacks a greater theme, which would not be an issue if only the entertainment value was high enough. It is a little disappointing, how the animation never really reached exceptional heights, but there is also enough care to avoid any blatant issues. It all truly comes across as a bog standard production. Yet, a lot of enjoyment washad. If someone without any media literacy watched this, then they would likely enjoy it as well.
This contradiction makes the show hard to recommend off-the-cuff, but I appreciate what it has accomplished for other audiences.
StarDust_01
Helck is an awesome anime, and I mean really awesome. At first, you might think it's just a comedy, but it's so much deeper than that. The story is super well-written, with twists and emotions that will hit you hard. It's not something you'd expect, and trust me, you'll need tissues for all the tears—it's that emotional. One of the coolest things about this anime is how smart the characters are. They don’t make dumb decisions like in a lot of other shows. Every character has common sense, and their actions actually make sense in the story. That alone makes it stand out. The animation is reallygood too, though not perfect. But honestly, the story is so good that you won't even care. It’s also not PG-rated at all, so be ready for some dark and intense moments.
I feel like some reviewers on MyAnimeList didn’t really watch the whole show, maybe just the first couple of episodes. Because Helck is way more than what it looks like at the start. If you're into complex, emotional, and dark anime, this one is a must-watch.
Livxies
Seriously underrated When I started the show I had no idea how amazing it would be (based on other reviews). Helck's story begins as a light-hearted comedy with a sprinkle of action. As the show progresses, the storyline develops beautifully in many ways. Have tissues prepared... the plot is likely very different than what you would expect. The series is named after Helck, who is the protagonist, but it is told from the perspective of other characters for the most part. Because of this, his character development is a little slow considering he's the main character. I enjoyed this aspect personally, it makes the plotline a lot less predictable. The visuals aren't particularly stunning, actually, for a modern anime it's on the lower end of quality in that department. But to me, the show looks fine even though there's definite room for improvement in that aspect. The character design makes up for the animation quality and there is a large variety of characters.
Overall, Helck is a hidden gem... hoping for a season 2.
Nilsou
A surprising anime that is quite original with a highly evolving storyline. It is a 24-episode adventure anime which begin in the demon empire : where the demon king of one of the demon castles is defeated in an attack by humans, specifically by a human hero. The demons organize a tournament to determine the new demon king, but surprisingly, a human named Helck participates in the tournament. Who is Helck, given his power? Is he not the hero in question? Why is he participating in the tournament to become the demon king? I won't spoil the plot because it is the interesting point of theanime: despite the lightness at the beginning, it actually has a well-written, rather dramatic, deep, and quite surprising storyline. The characters are also noteworthy, as they are solid, well-written, each with a well-developed backstory revealed bit by bit at the most opportune moments.
Moreover, with 24 episodes, there is a lot to offer, so not only is there quality, but also quantity. (There is a big but to this, which I will come back to later).
However, it's not a success on all fronts: one of the biggest weaknesses of the anime is undoubtedly its form, the direction, the animation. It oozes from every pore that all this was done with a minimalist budget and it's hard to watch: even for me, who is used to average anime, watches anime mainly for their storyline, and is generally not much affected by these aspects.
That's saying ... However, they manage honorably with the soundtrack considering the budget.
Finally, do I recommend the anime? If you are not allergic to a low budget, I would have tended to say 1000 times yes, but in reality... the anime has a second big flaw: it is not finished at all, and worse: it leaves us a bit hanging in its storyline, which is quite frustrating. And since the main strength of the anime is its storyline and universe, this last point is unfortunately a major handicap...
So, as it stands, I do not recommend the anime for the moment (unless you want to read the manga after the S1) and I hope it will be concluded with a season 2 that will allow the adventure to be finished.
?/10
Without season 2 and considering the execution, it probably doesn't deserve more than a 7, but the storyline is really very good, and with a successful season 2, it could serve as an introduction to an exceptional anime and end up with a solid 9. It all depends on season 2 for me. I rate it 9/10 on MAL for encouragement.
Jasperge
(Mostly Spoiler Free)(Described in Broad Strokes) Extremely mixed bag. So a fair warning, you need to be a fan of both dark fantasy and light fantasy. Cause the season begins as a light fantasy with hints of dark lore and at the end of the series it is the dark lore, with a few comic relief characters. So heres the story in very broad strokes(Stop for 100% Blind): First there is a tournament for Demon king with a hero running in it which is a very light hearted tournament storyline. Then a few characters get teleported and a mostly light hearted journey back ensues. Near the end of thatjourney the hero drops a lore bomb and the entire series shifts in tone to be very dark. There were small sprinkles of dark lore and hints at his backstory beforehand though, so it's not entirely out of the blue (but it's still a pretty dramatic shift) Anyway, from this point forward it just goes full dark, with very few jokes (a few from the comic relief character acquired on the journey )
So in conclusion, I liked it. I have a high tolerance for both, but I don't know if I would recommend it to everyone. The light fantasy part would be pretty insufferable for a dark fantasy fan and vice versa. If I would have to choose between one pf the to recommend it to to, it would be the dark fantasy one. The light one is mostly misadventures with some lore attached, so if needed could be skipped. (Most of the journey could be cut out and have it make perfect sense) And the dark part contains pretty heavy themes. Not that it did it the best possible but it's at least worth checking out if you are willing to sit through the light part or find a sufficient skip guide.
Miiisha
Missing comedy genre tag? Vamirio, Piwi and Hon provide lot of comedy moments! Hon by the situations he is put in, Piwi by existence and Vamirio by great voice acting. Good story, flashbacks weren't boring and kept me engaged. Good artstyle, acceptable fights, environment wasn't stale. First 3/4 of the anime are great but the last +- 5 episodes were disappointing, can't decide between bad writing or if it was just rushed. Also you don't get ending and don't expect s2. MAL summaries are usually good but Helck's synopsis doesn't do it justice, this is not tournament arc. Overall good anime that "didn't stuck the landing".
quitethejoe
So... Helck turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me. Fantasy is kinda dead nowadays since pretty much 95% of the fantasy genre are isekais. That said, Helck was actually a pretty good experience for a fantasy lover like me. They slowly worked the story up, making it serious and more serious along the way and i really enjoyed that. They managed to world build a little bit, which i always appreciate, have solid character development and fun moments all along the way. Helck is sold as a comedy but it actually is a tragedy. Was not expecting the series to get such ashift in moods when i started watching it.
The characters are fun and iinteresting and you feel the impact on the plot that each one has on the story.
It lacks a little bit on the animation department, since in some eps it looks like a powerpoint presentation ngl but it is still able to have some solid scenes. Overall it was pretty good experience for me and if you are a fan of "old" fantasy genre you might enjoy this one. Even if you are not give it a try since the drama on the show is suprisingly good.
fh1478
Helck And Firewoman An anime for real Men and demon lovers, we have helck the hero a man who looks like an 80s character and is here to save the demon race. comedy anime slowly begins to become a good adventure and fantasy show it's weird, but it works and the main characters dynamic with the firewoman is so fun to see. The anime is one of those where we have insane tone shift, where it feels like we're totally different show when it comes to the horror torture blood comedy. It's it is weird. Her uptight personalities slowly getting destroyed by helck personality, you can feelthe fragments of her panties is slowly getting destroyed by helck.
Show looks fine. There is not anything bad to say about it. It's just very competent.
The demons are so charming friendly and just nice people and seeing the fire ladies contrast with helck. Just makes it all the more funnier.
Entertainment wise I kind of binge watched it in two days because I could not stop, it was addicting to watch and was interesting, so that says how I feel about the show.
I enjoyed the show but ended on a cliffhanger so really hope there's a season too so I can put my rating up.
Ramun_Flame
A breath of fresh air after watching so much unoriginal/generic anime. Helck finds a way to have charming, believable characters while delivering an interesting/compelling plot leaving you wanting more. It's not perfect though, and can drag at times, while the animation suffers a bit toward the end. At the start the anime is more of a gag show with Helck trying to become the next demon lord, depite being a human. The jokes were quite funny, and I would have been fine if the whole show was just that. I'm not complaining though, since what came next was good as well. We open up to alarge world full of different people and an interesting plot to hold it all together.
There were times it was a bit too slow, especially during some flashbacks, but overall I was quite interested. The animation was mostly passable, but nothing too impressive. Toward the end you can really see the budget running out. Side note, I was really impressed at the complete lack of fanservice in this show. Like not even one scene. There's usually at least a bit in any anime I watch.
I gotta address the ending though. This is only the first half of the series, and there's no signs of the second half getting an anime. If you aren't a manga reader, you may not want to start a series that won't finish. If you don't mind an unfinished story though, I do recommend it.
denkisoda
I heard that the manga was great; to be fair, the storyline was quite interesting. But the production of this anime was so bad that I considered dropping it multiple times. The anime can be roughly divided into two parts based on progression of the story. The first half is a (relatively) light-hearted and comedic isekai adventure, contributing most jokes to the show. However, most humor felt "forced", and the overall pacing was slow. It seemed that the creators wanted the viewers to be patient, but the quality of the production simply couldn't sustain such a leisurely pace for the story to unfold. A substantial portionof the first half turned out to be quite boring for me.
When the story finally delves into the more exciting part, the other flaws became evident, unfortunately. Emerging characters were formulaic, the dialogue often gave me cringe, and the plot felt fragmented due to the slow pacing. The animation was even worse - I'd be better off just reading a vomic. I didn't abandon the show out of curiosity, but the weekly 24 minutes was a torture for me.
Despite all the hate, as a viewer who hadn't read the manga, I'd still give it a 4 out of 10 (rather than an even lower rating) purely for the storyline. If there will be a second season, I probably won't watch it.
whiteflame55
This show started off well enough. It presented itself as a comedy series with an OP protagonist, which has been done before, but had a few interesting facets including a lot of “why” to answer, particularly when it came to worldbuilding an character motivations. Especially considering how manga fans were singing its praises, I was expecting to see something interesting in at least one of these. To put it simply, the worldbuilding is basic with only a few glimmers of something more, and the character motivations range from extremely basic to enigmatic with only a couple of characters breaking the mould. That being said, it didn’t haveto be complex to be good. I’ve loved simple stories. But this story tries to have its cake and eat it, too, bearing the hallmarks of a simple series and trying to turn complex late in. I’ve seen other series manage this well (see: Scissor Seven), but Helck just can’t do it. Its styles clash, and motivations come too late for me to buy into the journey of the lead. Other series could also coast on strong sakuga, but that’s only rarely present here and almost all relegated to backstory.
There’s some good humor here, more than a few homages to other, better anime, and some of the elements are emotionally resonant, but none of it is enough to make this series stand out. It has some elements that hint at a much better series somewhere in here, but it’s lost in so much else here that just felt like it was there to pad things out that it’s hard to appreciate. It’s largely just the fine, only occasionally doing something that makes it stand out and leaving things nebulous and kind of toothless in the middle end after what looked like a consequential lead-up. If those few big moments grab you hard enough and you’re willing to wait to see them through, this may be worth your time. They were barely enough to keep me going and, with those tonal clashes, I could only see the result as muddled and wanting.
Anime_Cthulhu
Honestly, Helck is disappointing. The show starts off really well as a strong comedy, however as the show progresses almost all the comedic elements disappear and we are left with a stereotypical shounen action show. It includes all the tropes that I hate in shounen action, such as the MC being strong enough to stop everything that happens but standing by and watching all his friends be defeated because he's sad, or being able to stop pretty much any attack but not being around when attacks occur due to random details from the plot or just standing around waiting to join the fight for somereason.
After about 20 tedious episodes (the first two were good) the season ends without resolving the central plot, leaving an already tedious show hanging, possibly in the hopes of a second season. Even if there is a second season, I won't be watching.
KANLen09
Helck - The simple story of a man seeking solace...towards the demons, just because he hates his own humanity? It's more complex and convoluted than you think. On the outset, mangaka Nanaki Nanao's first amateur series, which was serialised through Shogakukan's Ura Sunday and spans 12 volumes from May 2014 to December 2017, certainly looked like a promising series about its central MC in the typical fantasy world of finding successors to continue the never-ending war between humanity and demons. Even if the manga felt almost as dated as it is with Satelight's anime adaptation under director Tatsuo Sato, in which this show ironically falls underthe wheelhouse of the veteran's 30+ year-long history with AniManga, who does things all wrong, there is just no saving grace for Helck, both on an authoritative and directorial level. Not if the anime decides to do a radical change, which is rather late now.
The story of Helck is right in the name. But first, a little plot-driven backstory. You know your usual fantasy world humans vs. demons war, in which, in the typical case, the humans won and celebrated their victory, while the demons went all frenetic to hurriedly choose their next Demon Lord to face the human hero. How they did it was to organise a tournament between demons to pick out the most suitable candidate, and from the many candidates, there is one quickly rising up the ranks: Helck, a human hero who claims to hate his own humankind. Of all the higher-up demons present, one of the Four Elite Lords of Vermilio the Red senses something sus about said human and tries to rig the tournament to make sure that he does not become the new Demon Lord. But Helck just continues to dominate the tournament to her chagrin, though with one radical shift of a rather sinister plan, he brings both said humanity-hating human hero and the Elite Lord together (who parades under an alias), learning of his true origins and understanding that who Helck really is and where he came from under his "human hero" moniker is more than meets the eye.
Nanaki Nanao's rather long (and incomplete) adaptation has three parts: the Beginning, the Story, and the End...which is what I'd say, if not for the fact that this should not be just seen as a mere simpleton story (which it does on paper), but it's best described this way: the Recourse, the Reasoning and the Retaliation. I'll try to keep spoilers as minimal as possible, because this is one of, if not, the only strength of the source material.
The (Present) Recourse: Helck comes to the Demon Realm to pick up the challenge to become the next Demon Lord. He mentions that he's a radical enemy of humankind, which, as expected, the demons of Vermilio and yet another fellow Elite Lord (or Heavenly Kings, as the anime puts it) Azudra the Blue are not stupid enough to take Helck at his word that he wants to destroy the humans. But as it turns out, there is reason enough to justify giving Helck a chance when the tournament suddenly is thwarted by winged knights that the demons did not perchance onto, but that Helck did have an inkling that he knew why the Human Realm would continue to attack the demons, even though the war between both entities has recently ended.
The (Past) Reasoning: Both Helck and Vermilio get transported out of the Demon Realm, and their way home is a rather cumbersome journey that crosses both land and sea. The story of Helck, in general, goes like this: orphaned brothers, whose parents got killed by monsters, then seek work against a life of harsh poverty. which, one of them got so ill that the other had to seek help, and they both got saved by compassionate people and raised under them. And as the brothers grow up, they are seen fit to lead the Human Realm's army, becoming heroes in the making, unaware that the humans have trickeries of sorcery behind the scenes that will change the fate of the entire world, which involve the brothers and take a turn for the worse, cementing the reason why he wants to join (or, in the correct term, defect) to the other side to help them take down the humans. I'm pretty sure you can guess where Helck fits into this description.
The (Future) Retaliation: Helck vs. the rest of the world, it's a duel to the death to save what has already been lost — his brother, who fought valiantly as a hero, only to be used as a tool for the Human Realm's sinister plan, and eventually dealing with the demons on their agreed terms as per the tournament.
Par for the course of the anime, we've only reached both the Recourse and Reasoning portions, so I'll just say this much: I truly adore Helck as a character; he's selfless and puts others before himself. As much as the huge and muscular external physique that he looks that can give people sights of intimidation, he's quite literally the opposite internally: the softhearted and naïve person who trusts others too easily, he'll go to extreme lengths for the people he loves and cares about, though it puts him in the danger of being manipulated or taken advantage of by people, becoming a person who bears grudges due to regrets and anger, which can possibly turn him into a living nightmare. Being the older brother of the human hero who has gone before him, his relationship with Cless is so beloved that this is where he cultivates his strength, which is built up over time with a power that can even rival the best of the Human Realm.
Likewise, Helck and Vermilio's relationship is somewhat of an oddity, being in loggerheads with each other as you would expect of a human and a demon. Though as usually hotheaded as the latter is, being one of the Heavenly Kings that take care of the Demon Realm well, as well as unnecessarily being picked on by Azudra always by him always calling her in a loving and teasing way that is the verge of respite, Vermilio stands for what's right in her eyes, even as she's slowly changed after meeting Helck and learning of his bizarre proposition of having humanity decimated before the demons do. The short, petite, vermillion-haired woman is absolutely one not to be trifled with, unless that's the subject of their following attendant, the not-so-kiwi-looking bird of Piwi, who is just a hilarious menace of a messenger of plot pointers and a robust follower throughout the series.
While you can argue that the demons' side of Azudra the Blue stands out as one of the original Heavenly Kings (before Vermilio would take a similar stand being trained by him) who is always the subject of torture from said woman, they're at least an interesting bunch of people, from Hon the attendant to sisters Asta and Ista being spies for the Demon Realm, and even the possible Demon Lord candidates of Kenros, Hyura, and Dorshe who would get entangled by Helck's big business. It's the same with humanity being once a vibrant realm to live in, but with people like the brothers' saviour of swordsman Rafaed (having his daughter Sharuami), working for the Human King and its doctor-cum-tactican Mikaros, the latter who once feared death facing demons from wars long before the present day, it's complete mayhem to turn the world upside down by employing sorcery that the demons will not surmise of humans having this "extraordinary" power to completely overthrow them. It's even sadder that the former heroes whom Helck worked with in the past, like Edil, the young man being in the same monster subjugation unit as him, and the mercenary Alicia, form the admirable friendship between the two, as well as people whom he cares a lot for. It's just so messed up, but it makes you feel compassion for Helck, who has juggled his life through high hell and back, seeing these people through to realise his goals and objectives for the foreseeable future.
The anime's aesthetics, however, are not the show's strong suit. Satelight may have the pristine Symphogear franchise on their hands, but outside of that, all of the studio's works of the past years were mostly a miss, especially when related to its closest sibling, Spring 2018's Juushinki Pandora a.k.a Last Hope, where continuous 2-cour productions take a massive toll on the production team. This is clearly what happened to director Tatsuo Sato and his staff team, and for the six months that they spent on Helck, it looked like they're already going to give up at any time. If not for Nanaki Nanao's story, which did go topsy-turvy quite a fair few times, the source material that tries to be one thing and another the next, it can give quite the jarring treatment for anyone watching this show, which will potentially be a rather bad time. And sadly, this is also what happened to this faltering production cycle — that everything just ended up being awfully average at best. The music is pretty much the same, though with both the 1st and 2nd Cour OSTs together, they are unmemorable at best (well, at least a bit tangible with the 1st Cour's OP/ED songs).
Helck has the potential to be a story for the ages, but the subpar production and/or even the author's writing skills really weigh it down. It's just such a shame for such a larger-than-life story where the circumstances carried don't quite have the same weight as how Nanaki Nanao intends it to be, as in the manga, that the anime basically translated less weight than desired no thanks to someone who doesn't quite know his craft.
It is such a disappointment that the anime could be improved on quite a lot, but what do I know? Just read the manga and carry on.
