AKA: ジャヒー様はくじけない！

Genre: Fantasy/Comedy

Length: Television series, 20 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently licensed by crunchyroll for video stream (Crunchy gives publisher as ABC Asahi)

Content Rating: PG-13 (Mild fanservice, mild violence.)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: The Devil Is A Part-Timer

Notes: Based on manga by Wakame Konbu, published in Monthly Gangan Joker Copyright: 2021 Wakame Konbu/SQUARE ENIX/The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! Production Committee

Rating:

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!

Synopsis

Jahy was Second-In-Command in the Dark Realm, but a Magical Girl intruded and shattered the mana crystals that maintained her world. (They cause misfortune to ordinary human beings, though.) Jahy wants to collect the crystals and restore the Realm, but the Magical Girl, AND the distractions of the human world, may stand in her way.

Review

Despite the fluffiness of this series, there's a basic premise in there that's quite charming: despite her nominal desire to restore the Dark Realm, and despite the extremely modest accommodations she now has, the human world is nevertheless softening Jahy and making her more compassionate.

Her main human support is a character known only as Boss, who runs the pub where Jahy works, and whose maternal attitude toward Jahy, along with her ingenuousness and big boobs, recalled Mamako from Do You Love Your Mom...

Rather different is Boss's sister, named Ryou. Much more cynical and pragmatic than her sister, Ryou manages the apartment that Jahy now lives in, and is forever struggling to extract the rent from our former Dark Realm Second-In-Command.

I should mention that Jahy takes several forms. Due to her mana depletion, she's usually in her lower-energy "chibi" form, where she looks like a child, usually dressed in a long nightshirt, with questionable footwear. (Matter of personal opinion, but I always thought those things were ugly.) When she's chibi AND in her more selfish mode, she kind of reminds one of "at-home" Umaru (though more belligerent), but she does establish, while in chibi form, a friendship with a little girl named Kokoro. Ryou later expresses what some in the audience may be thinking, questioning the propriety of an adult woman playing with a little girl as if she was one herself (Ryou expresses this in more vulgar terms.) I dunno. While Jahy's original intent was exploitative (as part of their "play", she recruited Kokoro to search for the crystals), that seems to change over time (as so much with Jahy's personality does), and since Jahy never had a human childhood, I was inclined to give her a pass on that, since there are NO sexual overtones to it at all. When Jahy is in her "grownup" form, her default getup is her Dark Realm outfit, which consists of thigh-high boots, hot pants, and a couple of straps over her breasts, attire which (rather realistically) gets some adverse attention from the police. She dresses a bit more modestly for her pub job.

There are some other refugees from the Dark Realm on hand as well. A woman named Druj was her masochistic sycophant in the Realm, and STILL wants to be her masochistic sycophant, in spite of the fact that Druj has become a successful businesswoman in the human world, while Jahy, as noted, is living a much more spartan existence. One of Jahy's problems becomes maintaining Druj's respect in spite of this.

There's also Saurva, a character I could have done without. She considered herself a rival to Jahy while in the Dark Realm (though Jahy doesn't seem to know her well at all), and still wants to "defeat" Jahy (whatever that still means, for, despite the show's title, Jahy has ALREADY been defeated.) But Saurva's track record here is about as successful as Wile E. Coyote's pursuit of the Roadrunner. At best, that's because Saurva, like Jahy herself, succumbs to the distractions/simple pleasures of the human world. At worst, her plots are simply embarrassing- and not a bit amusing. (The whole business with the steel traps clearly suggests that she's buying her equipment from Wile E. Coyote's Acme Products as well.)

And the Magical Girl? Her real name is Kyouko Jingu, and she's certainly very dedicated and passionate about whatever she currently believes in, but things take a very bizarre turn when Jahy finally confronts her.

The eventual appearance of the Demon Lord (Jahy's Dark Realm boss) confirms one's suspicions that the Dark Realm was actually inhabited by mushball demons that weren't very bloodthirsty or malicious. The main thing that Jahy REALLY seems to miss from her stint there was simply having her ego stroked. Jahy may NEVER completely lose her quarrelsome edge, but there are times when she's the most sensible person on the show.

As I said, Jahy's humanization compensates for much of the show's silliness (and its weaker creations, like Saurva and the Demon Lord), and its slow spots. And some of the gags work fine. My favorites were when Ryou points out to her sister that Jahy is scamming her, and also Boss's comments when she herself briefly gets turned into a Magical Girl (!).

Unbridled silliness abounds; the whole Dark Realm crew (except Jahy herself) were either weak, annoying, or both (and the show's "crisis" at the end was the same); and there are slow spots. The character art's no great shakes either. But Jahy's transformation fascinated me, and kept MY interest, anyway. — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Jahy in Dark Realm attire provides mild fanservice, and there's some mild violence. We'll say PG-13