English Dub Season Review: Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Throughout Japan, there are both evil secret organizations that seek to conquer the world and superheroes who rise to challenge them. One such evil organization, Agastia, operates out of a base hidden underneath a front company headquartered somewhere in Tokyo. Unfortunately, Agastia’s attempts to conquer the world are often thwarted by the superhero Divine Swordsman Blader. This story focuses on Miss Kuroitsu, an assistant in Agastia’s Monster Development Department, responsible for creating a monster powerful enough to defeat Blader once and for all. However, this organization operates like any large corporation, as Kuroitsu and her Department are forced to fight for resources and funding with other Departments in the organization, make proposals to the board to justify their costs, or deal with their leader’s whims forcing them to redo their designs at the last minute.

Our Take:

If there’s one thing that this show reminded me of, it would be the Power Rangers. You got your superheroes and villains wearing cheesy costumes and the monster-of-the-week scenarios, where the forces of justice defeat every creature they face. That’s the best way to describe this latest anime, which sees the battle between good and evil from a villainous perspective. However, considering how many superhero shows and movies I watched, this viewpoint isn’t precisely the way I would expect it to be.

The series, directed by Hisashi Saito and written by Katsuhiko Takayama, has almost everything you would expect regarding the superhero genre, especially the villains. But here’s the twist: The villains act like business people. I can’t argue with them for trying to make an honest living. The adaptation of Hiroaki Mizusaki’s manga series follows the misadventures of a villainous group known as Agastia, mainly in the Monster Development Department. Its first season sees Tōka Kuroitsu (Kristi Rothrock) and the crew attempting to create a perfect monster to annihilate their nemesis, Divine Swordsman Blader (Cody Savoie). Unfortunately, they ran into problems you would see in every business corporation that resulted in their monsters being humorously flawed. For example, Wolf Bete (Brittany Lauda) was supposed to be a ferocious wolfman but wound up with a wolf-girl’s body, thanks to Akashic’s desire for a “cute” monster”. He still has the mind of a wolfman, but that didn’t help much.

The series has an episodic feel in its formula. Almost every episode consists of two separate mini-segments centering on Agastia and the supporting characters, including the Magical Girls: Pilia Magia duo in the eighth episode. While some of the segments interconnect, the rest of them are just filler built for comedy. Despite that, the series retains its seasonal narrative of Agastia creating a product big enough to take over the business industry. Additionally, It briefly centers on Kuroitsu’s ambition to become an executive at Agastia, introduced in episode seven, and a contract worker named Karen Mizuki (Macy Anne Johnson), who becomes a low-level henchman for different villains under her supervisor Heiki Matsuyama.

This show seems to be my cup of tea for several reasons. I usually watch superhero shows during my spare time, and I grew up watching the Power Rangers. So seeing them come to fruition in Miss Kuroitsu is something I would call a genuine treat, especially since it offers a twist in its concept to maintain my interest in the formula. While it’s far from a perfect representation of its unique idea, the series packs enough enjoyable qualities in its product to satisfy the genre’s customers. At least, until the season finale, where it faltered in its endgame-like conclusion. 

As mentioned earlier, the first season is pretty episodic with its two-segment structure, which can be repetitive after a while, especially for people wanting an interconnected seasonal narrative. They’re not without some charming and humorous moments, but there are a few segments that felt unnecessary to the seasonal arc regarding the execution. One of them is in episode nine, where Kuroitsu discovers a pub filled with retired superheroes and supervillains. Even though it’s not entirely terrible, that segment was somehow dull for my taste. Thankfully, it didn’t affect my feelings towards Agastia’s beach adventure beforehand.

On the technical side, the animation provided by Studio Quad offers some decent quality in the show’s settings and Kazuya Morimae’s character designs. Even though there isn’t much action in the series, the sequences where the characters fight were also suitable regarding its style. The voice cast for the dub was also pretty decent, with the highlight being Brittany Lauda as Wolf Bete. Lauda, known for her debut role as Mirim in Queen’s Blade Rebellion, delivers a vocal performance that humorously matches her character’s personality: a wolfman in a woman’s body. She also provided some entertaining and comical moments regarding Wolf Bete’s freakouts, especially in its seventh episode. Kristi Rothrock also did a suitable job voicing the spunky and intelligent titular character. 

Overall, I would say that I was most impressed with the product, courtesy of Agastia. Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department is a charming and fresh superhero anime series that’s flawed in its formula yet delightful in its pleasantly villainous characters and scenarios. Some of its episodes range from good to enjoyable, mainly episodes seven and eleven, while the others were plagued by the predictable elements presented in other shows and defective execution. In other words, it offers just enough to keep its business from shutting down too early. I’m not sure if there will be a second season, but if so, I wouldn’t mind seeing the direction they’ll go for this show based on its season one finale.