English Dub Review: Helck “Helck the Hero”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Demon World is ablaze during a major tournament to pick a new Demon Lord. But one contestant stands out, one who…isn’t even a demon at all! The human hero Helck is amongst the fighters, and he seems to be a favorite to win. Vermilio the Red, on one of the top demons, suspects Helck of planning to kill them all, but after many attempts to sabotage his efforts, he remains in the running. However, she does find some odd clues about his background, including that he killed his brother, the one who killed the previous Demon Lord.

OUR TAKE

Wow, a fantasy anime that’s NOT an Isekai? It’s more likely than you think! But what’s more interesting is that this whole show has already aired its full twenty four episodes season from July to December, so it’s kind of odd that it’s only now getting a dub released, but there you go. Also worth pointing out is that despite the show being titled after the character Helck, this first episode isn’t really about him. Well, that is to say he’s definitely a focus, but the real center is Vermilio being caught up on details about him and trying to stop him from winning. Certainly an unorthodox way to start the story about the guy, and I’m guessing he’ll properly take the driver’s seat of the plot soon enough, but this point is definitely more about this one demon lady plotting against him. She’s got fair reason to expect him of being up to no good, but the twist here seems to be that he is very openly hateful of humans and loves demons, so much so that he’d like to be the new Demon Lord. This further wrinkles things when it’s revealed that his brother killed the previous Demon Lord, and then was killed…by Helck himself.

Already there are some points of data that paint an odd picture about the guy, but don’t fill in all the details quite yet. DID he kill his own brother FOR killing the previous Demon Lord? Why has he so openly forsaken all humans and wish to rule over demons? What does he plan to do once he has obtained the title of Demon Lord? All of these are interesting questions that I am intrigued to get the answers to…but this is severely diminished by the fact that Vermilio is SO GODDAMN ANNOYING. Her Looney Tunes style antics end up being more annoying than funny or cute, she keeps jumping to conclusions instead of waiting for more information, and maybe it’s just the dub, but her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. Like, holy shit, I am genuinely dreading hearing more of her if she doesn’t cool off by the next episode. Add to that a kinda sloppy looking animation style, and this a less than stellar opening episode to the show. But there’s still TWENTY THREE EPISODES left to go, so there’s plenty of time for things to improve…or just remain painfully mediocre for another six months, so I guess we’ll see where that coin flip lands.