Anime Profile: Demon Prince Enma

It was bound to happen sometime. Yep, the prince of the underworld has finally returned to Earth. Man, I was really enjoying life too. But wait... what's this? He isn't here to destroy us all? Sweet! Apparently he's here to seek out and capture (or destroy) rogue demons. Who would have figured the demon prince for a good guy? Well... maybe calling him a good guy is going a bit to far. After all, he is willing take human life in order to kill the demons that inhabit the innocent human hosts. Not like he has a lot of choice in the matter, though.

Anyway, so Enma arrives on Earth and meets up with Kapaeru, a weird mutant-looking creature who has embraced the 20th century and all it has to offer, such as cell phones and night clubs with pretty girls (he tells everyone that he is wearing a costume so they don't get freaked out by his appearance. Enma brings with him a rather unusual creature that looks like some kind of witch's hat. Called Chapeauji, this guy seems to sleep a lot. Enma often wears him like a hat. Filling out our main cast is Yukihime, an ice maiden demon princess that won't hesitate to encase Enma in a block of ice should he "accidentally" spy her in the nude.

In order to help track down this demons, the group has set up a detective agency that specializes in supernatural or unexplainable mysteries. Of course, just being passive and waiting for others to seek them out just won't do! Luckily, Kapaeru also has a source that lets him know whenever she hears any kind of strange stories so they can go check it out.

The first story focus on a sexy blonde who... how can I say this... men give her money and she gives them pleasure... in private. Her father is German, which is where she gets her stand-out looks... which makes her popular. Of course, she keeps this life hidden from her father. But then she starts getting these visions of horrible deaths, which she is totally freaked out by since the deaths actually seem to be happening. So while the police look for a serial killer, our demon hunters look for the demon.

The second story involves a young, naive girl working in a night club where the men all tend to be of the touchy-feely variety. She does not like this, not one bit. Why she doesn't just quit, I still haven't been able to figure out. But no, she doesn't quit, she goes ahead and puts on the short-skirted sailor school uniform and perform her waitressing duties. After a bad night at work, she comes home early to find her "boyfriend" (or the guy she thought was her boyfriend, even though all the other girls tried to tell her what he really was) in bed with a hot number.

So she freaked, and wished he would die. Then later that night, the doll that he had given her earlier in the day and that she had thrown out the window after her discovery... killed him. When more bodies start showing up, the group investigates, though at first Enma doesn't take it seriously and instead gets distracted by the talent at the night club. Actually, the only one who seems to think this threat to be real is Kapaeru. Of course, Enma will see the eventually see the light as well, just too bad it takes his life being in eminent danger from this demon in order to get him there.

This series really seems to be more about atmosphere than anything else. The characters aren't very deep, nor are the mysteries or how they go about solving them. There is some occasional humor, but not nearly enough to classify this as a comedy. Really, it seems like a mojority of the stories focus on not on our main characters, but on the characters involved with whatever weirdness is going on. To me, this just makes the show seem kind of bland.