Webtoon review: Helluva Boss


 

           This independent animated series – viewable on YouTube - starts out as a slightly dark workplace comedy about demons and ends up being unexpectedly heartfelt. The main character is Blitzo (“the ‘o’ is silent”), an imp who has started a business that offers earthly revenge-murder to souls in hell. His employees are the imp couple Moxxie and Millie, and a hellhound receptionist named Loona. Despite their bickering and bloody antics, it quickly becomes clear that when Blitz does the whole “this is a family” thing, it isn’t corporate double-speak: he really does want connection and, although he has some boundaries issues, he finds it more with his co-workers than anywhere else. Loona is actually his adopted daughter, and even with Moxxie – who he butts heads with the most – Blitz is adorably protective, repeatedly throwing himself between the smaller imp and danger. For their part, Moxxie and Millie’s love for each other is the most wholesome thing in hell. Millie can’t take a hit at all, but she will gut a giant fish monster single-handed or fight a whole army of men in black (with Loona’s help that time) to get her man back1. Moxxie, for his part, will sing sappy love songs to her in what’s basically a sex club, and not even Asmodeus can make him stop!

 

The fifth important character is Stolas, a lanky owl demon and prince of hell – and his somewhat messed up relationship with Blitz is amazingly compelling. We find out in the pilot that Blitz stole the spellbook that allows IMP (“the Immediate Murder Professionals”) to access earth from Stolas after a one-night-stand. In the official first episode Stolas lets him know that he knows about that, and that he’s going to need it back once a month – but that Blitz can keep it the rest of the time if [insert bleeped out but clearly very dirty string of suggestions]. Stolas seems to be being established as just a horny creep…and then we get episode 2, that is mainly about his relationship with his daughter, Olivia. It begins with him comforting her as a little girl with this gorgeous David-Bowie-esque lullaby, and then cuts to present day, with a teenage Olivia trying to drown out the screaming and plate-throwing that is her mom’s response to finding out her husband was sleeping with an imp. It should be noted at this point that imps are hell’s underclass. Most of them are servants or farmers – entrepreneurial imps like Blitz are very rare. So Blitz falling out of a window onto a tea-table and announcing “Sorry, I fucked your husband” in front of her friends is the most humiliating thing Stella could have imagined. Stolas knows this conflict is affecting their daughter, so he tries to make it up to her by taking her to Loo-Loo Land. He immediately screws this up by hiring Blitz and company as their bodyguards but once he realizes why Olivia looks so miserable he’s able to assure her that he’s never going to leave her behind. As the episodes progress, it becomes clear that Blitz and Stolas are developing actual feelings for each other. The scene where Stolas goes full scary demon to rescue Blitz and company, only chewing them out for getting captured by humans after he checks that Blitz is OK, is amazing. But they do still have issues! In the final episode (of what will hopefully not be the last season) those issues – Blitz’s insecurity and tendency to push people away, Stolas’ cluelessness about the fucked up power dynamics of their relationship and the way he’s been rather condescending to Blitz – all come crashing down, leaving both of them miserable and alone even though they clearly want to be together. Asmodeus’ song about it, though - incredible!

 

1. She does need an episode where she does something non-Moxxie-focused for character development, though, as this video points out!

 


 

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