Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Great Jahy Will Not be Defeated

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 20

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The Great Demon Jahy was once the demon lord’s second-in-command, but when a magical girl entered the demon realm and shattered its mana crystal, Jahy suddenly found herself banished to Earth. Even worse, without her powers she takes the form of a child, so she lacks the presence she needs to order folks around. With a tiny shard of the mana crystal left, she’s able to retain her adult form long enough to hold down a service job, but even so she has difficulty making ends meet. Jahy’s come up with ever manner of excuse to keep from paying rent; unfortunately her landlord is also her boss’s sister, so she can’t keep up her ruses for long.

But perhaps living among humans might not be such a bad thing, even though Jahy can’t quite see things that way. At the very least, her boss cares about her and wants to see her healthy and happy. It’s just that, when you’re used to wielding nearly unlimited power, having to deal with human rules and customs is a huge burden. Hopefully she can find the other shards of the mana crystal soon and return to her rightful position!

Impressions: Life’s tough when you’re knocked off your high horse, or so I imagine. While I can’t say I’ve ever been in the position to really lord power over anyone, I have spent time believing in the superiority of my own knowledge (I think it’s a phase many people who consider themselves critics go through – or maybe I’m just a special kind of disaster). The thing is, after going through a hot-headed period of thinking you know everything about your chosen niche, you suddenly begin to realize that there all all sorts of people around you who know much more, or who are better researchers or writers. It’s humbling and I still struggle to deal with the fallout from learning about all the gaps in my anime knowledge.

The titular Jahy hasn’t quite gotten to the point of humility yet, and that’s the main well from which this episode draws its humor. There’s an illicit joy we sometimes feel when watching the mighty get pulled down to earth, repeatedly and due to their own lack of awareness. I’m… a little bit hesitant to laugh too hard, though, because having felt those feelings myself I suspect we’re all a little bit closer to getting the wind knocked out of our sails than we might think. One bad day, one shitty take, and the force of the internet’s collective ire is knocking at your door. That said, it’s still funny to see humans, who’d normally be cowering in fear from her demonic presence, treat Jahy like the petulant little kid that she’s transformed into.

And that’s it; that’s the story. This series definitely isn’t rocket science and isn’t trying to sell anyone on anything truly objectionable, in my opinion. It feels like the opener to a series that kind of belongs in this season – pretty good, nothing unique, and kind of fun without a ton of long-term staying power. I just hope Jahy can save up for a better outfit at some point, because the oversized T-shirt look isn’t cutting it.

Pros: This seems like an essentially good-natured series, and with so many stories poking and prodding at the low parts of human nature, it’s nice sometimes to have something cute and fun to turn to. I especially like the relationship between Jahy and her boss, because the boss seems like a truly caring person and I suspect that motherly nature might rub off on Jahy.

The humor also strikes a good balance between being too toothless or too mean-spirited. I like some amount of competent slapstick, can enjoy a little insult humor, and even some anime-style yelling (although that’s probably my least favorite type), but the one thing I can’t really tolerate is when characters are just overly mean to one another. Even though the relationship between Jahy and her landlord is adversarial, to say the least, it hasn’t yet devolved into outright meanness.

Cons: This feels like a single gag series to me, and it’s not an especially creative one. So I’m a little bit wary that the show is listed as 2-cours. Even with the addition of more characters later on, it doesn’t seem like the sort of comedy series that would be very narrative-based, so that many episodes feels like a stretch to me.

Content Warnings: Mild Fanservice. Mild non-sexual nudity. Slapstick humor/roughhousing. Food insecurity played for humor.

Would I Watch More? – I think I would if I heard there was more to it than its central gag. I enjoyed the first episode but I’m not sure I’d be interested in two seasons worth of the same content.