Helck is another in the spate of somewhat puzzling manga adaptations we’ve seen in the past few years.  The manga ended in 2017 after 12 volumes, without the appearance of having been exceptionally popular.  There is a sequel in syndication, so I suppose that could help explain it, but I struggle to see the obvious commercial hook that compelled a production committee to decide this anime had to exist.  Not that this is a bad thing, just the opposite – anime being made for something other than obvious commercial motives should always be encouraged.  It’s just an interesting puzzle is all.

As for me, when the anime was announced I checked out the manga on the various aggregator sites and was struck by how high the ratings were.  I decided to give it a shot and read 15 chapters or so, which were pretty good.  Ultimately it never quite grabbed me and I couldn’t see why it was as highly-ranked as it was, but it was entertaining enough.  The premise is a good one too, a human with mad combat skills vying for the position of the new demon lord.  The manga goes into the geopolitic of Hell a little more than the anime does (there are more than a dozen demon realms, each with their own Yuusha), but overall it’s an agreeably straightforward dynamic.

The hero in question is Helck, played with the usual aplomb by Konishi Katsuyuki.  He’s been mowing them down at the preliminaries, which the demon Hon (Ishida Akira) has no problem with as humans vying to be demon lord is not against any rule.  The demon sent to oversee the tournament, Vermillio (Komatsu Mikako) feels differently – spectacularly so, much to Hon’s horror.  She’s convinced that Helck is playing a long game here, though her theories seem to shift as the evidence does – in the main, she thinks Helck is using the tourney as a means to thin the ranks of the demon realm’s top warriors so humans can invade and conquer.

That’s rather an issue, as the old demon lord was slain by a human hero three months earlier.  The central question at work here is just what the deal is with Helck.  How is a human seemingly more powerful than any demon warrior?  Does he really hate humans, as he claims, or is Vermillio right that he has ulterior motives here?  Vermillio’s spies will eventually learn that it was in fact Helck’s brother Cless that killed the old yuusha.  Not only that, Helck is a wanted man in the human realm – for the crime of killing none other than Cless.  Yet when his brother is the topic of discussion with another combatant (Helck treats all of them with the utmost respect), he betrays nothing but admiration bordering on worship for Cless.

Most of the humor in these early chapters stems from Vermillio’s unhinged reaction to Helck’s exploits, which frequently involve foiling whatever scheme she and Hon come up with to thwart him.  These include switching the elimination rounds to stuff like building “trump towers” (what an unfortunate bit of Wasei Eigo that is), playing chess, or cooking.  Vermillio even goes undercover as a judge to cheat against Helck at the cooking competition, but his parfait is so delicious she can’t even lie about it.  Helck’s prowess is so great that he’s even impervious to having the deck (including literally) stacked against him.

All in all this works pretty well.  Satelight’s backgrounds and animation are nothing special here, but they’re solidly in the “fine” camp.  And their top director, the supremely experienced Satou Tatsuo, makes sure the ducks are all in their rows.  The casting is a strength for sure – Konishi is spot-on as Helck, Komatsu is always good in comic roles, and the supporting cast is peppered with names like Ishida and Yoshino Hiroyuki.  if anything the vibe here reminds me a bit of a more linear Isekai Ojisan (Komatsu knows her way around that one too), especially where the humor is concerned.  I’m cautiously optimistic that Helck can be watchable at the very least.