The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! Review

In recent years, demons have graced TV screens, from Vivienne Medrano’s two interrelated web series, Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, to Castlevania on Netflix, and are set to premiere in the upcoming series Satina and Far-Fetched. One such series brings this to the fore: a funny slice-of-life Japanese anime series named The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, which is airing on Japanese television networks and airing on the streaming service Crunchyroll.

This anime series is based on a manga by Wakame Konbu, seven volumes of which have been published, three of which have been released in English. As a big fan of Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, RWBY (with its elements of horror), the space fantasy Final Space, or Disenchantment, which has a demon named Luci, this series, with some mature themes, drew me in from the time I watched a clip on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel. While I watched many anime before, this one seemed unique in its own way and pulled me in with its situational comedy,  which has a key role in the plot, whether from the actions taken by the protagonist or the funny situations she comes across every day.

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! begins with Jahy, a beautiful and powerful brown-skinned demon, voiced by Naomi Ōzora, who has been thrown into the human world, stripped of her power and privilege, after the Magical Girl smashes a huge mana crystal, source of her power into thousands of pieces. Unlike in her previous world, where she was the second-in-command of the Dark Realm, with everyone at her beck and call, in the human world she is destitute. She is living in a run-down apartment, for which she refuses to pay rent, and works at a local pub, run by her the sister of her landlord, Ryou, as a waitress, as a literal wage slave. Due to her loss of power, she can only remain in her “true” adult form, wearing an outfit that makes her less than half-clothed but shows off her physical features, for a short period of time. As such, she spends most of her time in the body of a young elementary-school-age kid, only wearing a ratty white shirt. But she is not sexualized, and neither is any other character on the show’s cast unlike other anime.

The 20-episode first season of The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! began on August 1, and it is currently more than halfway through its order. It starts with Jahy beginning her search for mana crystals, is helped by humans like the manager of the pub where she works or a young girl named Kokoro, and comes across a bigger mana crystal. Saurva, a tomboyish girl who wants to push Jahy from her role, but ends up improving her reputation instead, Jahy catches a cold, with her manager looking after her, and Ryou calls the police on the real Magical Girl, not the man who had been cosplaying as one. In following episodes, the Magical Girl snatches Jahy’s huge mana crystal resulting in Jahy getting drunk that night. Following this, Jahy gets into an exercise routine, goes to a public bath with her manager and Ryou, accidentally traps herself inside her apartment by setting traps for the Magical Girl, and Jahy learns that the Magical Girl wishes to destroy all the mana crystals so people can be saved from misfortune, a goal which horrifies Jahy.

The show excels at subverting anime tropes, like a master-servant relationship, or themes within the magical girl genre. In terms of the former, Jahy’s former lieutenant, Druj, is very successful at exploiting humans through her role as a corporate executive and lives in a high-end apartment. Embarrassed that her former subordinate is now doing better than her, she is jealous, attempting to hide her true living situation, where she is living poor and destitute. In the case of the latter, the Magical Girl appears to be a jerk at first and is shown in a negative light so the audience empathizes with Jahy, despite the terrible acts she had committed in the past. The show, similar to Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, and Villainous/Villanos, encourages the audience to root for the “villain” rather than the “hero.”

Although the magical girl genre has been lampooned in series like Magical Girl Friendship Squad in the past, this is the first anime series I have seen that does the same to the genre, although not the same as the surrealist 2001 original video animation titled Puni Puni Poemy. In the case of The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, the Magical Girl and Jahy both have their own transformation sequences of sorts, with Jahy able to transform from her childlike form into an adult form, and the Magical Girl going from her form as a high school girl named Kyouko Jingu to a magical girl, making the series, in this sense, resemble the magical girl genre.

If The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! is renewed for a second season, it will hopefully encourage more to lampoon the magical girl genre. For one, the series could confirm that there are LGBTQ characters in the series which are in the main cast, rather than having those who appear in only one episode like Theoda and Pothina in one episode of Cleopatra in Space or the recurring character, Xochi Jalapeno, in a number of episodes of Victor and Valentino. Even if this doesn’t happen in a second season, the show still shines through with its animation, voice acting, writing, and hilarity, unlike others that are airing, especially when it comes to animation. It also shares characteristics with other series in that Jahy herself has an identity crisis, trying to discover who she is as a demon in the human world.

In the end, the series is exciting and fun to watch, especially with Jahy’s vigor and ambition. It is something that everyone should watch, despite its mature themes and very rare fan service.

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! is available on Crunchyroll for streaming.