Based on the Japanese four-panel manga parody serialized series by Izumo Itō, (Under the name Machikado Mazoku”) The story begins when a high-strung high schooler named Yuko Yoshida one day wakes up to find out she’s sprouted a demon tail and horns, learning that “oops, you’re demon/succubus person”. And according to her mother, there’s another student at her school who’s a magical girl and thus her mortal enemy that she must defeat to save her family from poverty. However, the magical girl Momo Chiyoda seems calm, and indifferent and has zero interest in becoming rivals with Yuko (who now calls herself “Shamiko” later in the story) and they instead become friends (sort of). In addition to the initial various hijinks associated with Yuko’s newfound appearance and powers, the duo tries to sort out their intertwined magical ancestries and question why their ongoing ancestral war started in the first place and along the way make new friends, face new challenges and go through dramatic magical changes individually.Both anime seasons were produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Hiroaki Sakurai, with Keiichirō Ōchi handling series composition, Mai Otsuka designing the characters, and Miki Sakurai composing the music. The Season 1 opening theme song “Machikado Tangent” was performed by Shami Momo (Konomi Kohara and Akari Kitō), while the ending theme song “Yoimachi Cantare” was performed by Coro Machikado (Kohara, Kitō, Minami Takahashi, and Tomoyo Takayanagi). As for Season 2, The main staff and cast members returned to reprise their roles. with the Season 2 opening theme song “Tokimeki Rendezvous” was performed by Shami Momo, while the ending theme song is “Yoikagen Tetragon” performed by Coro Machikado.Although Demon Girl Next Door’s strengths came from its bizarre humor and unique directional style, What’s most fascinating about the show itself is the overarching plot. While the first season featured some aspects of it as it slowly built up its lore and characters, parts of it felt like it detracted heavily from the wacky “Slice of life” aspects of the show. At the very least, it cleverly mixes comedy directly into its fantasy world-building. It’s a world where nobody questions a girl suddenly growing horns and a tail or the magical girl in the next class over. But in the second season, as story threads begin to take a center stage, there’s less and less room for that same vein of jokey fun. Instead of just having a flashback to Shamiko in the hospital, you actually get to see how it affects her and the people around her, as well as how she handles these situations. It quickly calms down though and ends up surprisingly consistent in its entertainment value. A lot of the mystery has not been unraveled yet but deciding to end the second season with Mikan’s problem being addressed was a good choice since it at least brought some sort of closure for one of the characters.The show is passable and occasionally funny. As previously stated, it’s every bit as lighthearted and wacky as Dragon Maid, but minus the sex jokes & innuendo since most of our main lead characters are under-aged teens, to begin with. What keeps me from giving this a higher rating is that while some of the jokes work, character growth feels slow, and the second half of the season kind of drags a bit in certain areas. There was a lot of ‘side quest’ sort of things in the story that seemed sort of pointless, but in the very last episode they managed to tie most of them together and it sort of culminated in an interesting and wholesome way. And if Season 3 happens, I wouldn’t mind checking it out…