GABRIEL DROPOUT

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyGabriel Dropout
SPECIAL ComedyGabriel Dropout Specials

REVIEWS

• 

  LunaKoi

  70/100
  A good example of why you shouldn't count out the moe skit comedy genre.

  I wanted to write a review on GabOut in the eve of it's finale episode, I don't really expect the last episode to change my opinion that much.

  Gabriel Dropout is a show that caught my attention early on in the season when I decided to try it. It had somewhat of a bad reputation coming into this season because of it's relationship with Himouto! Umaru-chan since the same studio and a lot of the same staff worked both on Umaru-chan and GabOut. I was disappointed to see that, while I didn't finish watching the entire season of Umaru-chan, there wasn't anything wrong with the adaptation itself. The presentation was good, it had a colorful artstyle and it was well-animated otherwise. The problem was the material, if you give the staff of Umaru-chan something good to work with for an adaptation, well, you get Gabriel Dropout.

  GabOut was a breath of fresh air for me, because I actually like skit comedy anime, or at least I like it when it works. A particular anime from a recent season that I had watched made me almost give up on skit comedy for a while, being This Art Club has a Problem!, or Konobi for short. The problem with Konobi as well as other skit comedies that I've seen recently, while in this case it's a bit different since it's a romcom and GabOut isn't, is that the author doesn't write the individual skits well. In every ten or so Konobi skits, two out of ten might have been good. Some were boring and some were so stupid that it was frustrating. For the material in GabOut, the mangaka is particularly good at writing skits, that is putting pen to paper and taking funny characters and putting them in interesting scenarios.

  Part of the wit in GabOut is the way it plays around with the concepts of morality, in a similar vein to Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, though not as tongue-in-cheek. When I say "concepts of morality", I don't mean it is "deep" but that it simply takes some traditional imagery between angels and demons and does funny things with it. The writer mixes the aspects of good and evil between angels and demons in the main four characters.

  Gabriel, the main character, I believe is particularly written for a large number of people to identify with, possibly including a lot of otaku. She is a teenage angel from heaven (literally, not making a creepy metaphor) who comes to Earth in aspirations of doing a lot of good in the world. Over time she eventually becomes defeated by her inability to change the world, even for a powerful angel as herself. So she becomes obsessed with online gaming, a fantasy away from the reality she couldn't change. Although the way I describe this might seem "edgy" without context, the way it's presented is very light-hearted which makes it actually seem down to earth.

  The other characters have the same fundamental dynamics. Vignette is a demon who is kind-hearted and is quick to help others. Raphiel is an angel who has a mischievous side and she likes to concoct events for the other characters in order to laugh at their expense. Last, but certainly not least, you have Satania who is hilariously chasing the aesthetic that is a demon, but she is so naive to the point where she couldn't hurt a fly if she wanted. You bounce any two to all four of these characters from plot ideas on paper scraps from a hat and you have hundreds of funny skits that almost write themselves. The characters also have a lot of charm to them, like Gabriel who from time to time shows her kindness in subtle ways even though she is thought as someone selfish.

  GabOut is not for everyone I suppose, for people who aren't fans of the all-moe characterized cast types of genres, you might not see what it does right in comparison to it's contemporaries. People always bounce around the phrase that comedy is subjective and that you can't really compare it to content that is meant to be taken "seriously". Although I would combat that statement with this: skit writing is a form of writing that you can appreciate, even if you don't think the genre or delivery is funny for you.

  With all the charm, likeable characters and various moments that made me laugh, I give GabOut a

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• 

  LucyAmethyst

  50/100
  A decent slice of life comedy a few really good laughs, but nothing to write home about.

  Gabriel DropOut
  -subbed

  Story:
  Gabriel DropOut is the about the daily life of a lazy angel, a friendly demon, a sadistic angel, and a megalomaniacal/incompetent demon going to high school in Japan. Honestly it's not that original as far as character personalities and activities go. That's not to say it isn't entertaining, just that it's nothing I haven't seen before with minor variations. The real standout episodes are 9 and 10 where they actually use the premise for something original, the Christmas party and the scenes in Heaven & Hell being pretty entertaining and making me wish more time was spent in those locations. I do like the idea that Heaven is super boring compared to Earth, due to its excessive wholesomeness. One thing the show gets right on numerous occasions are visual gags that it doesn't draw much attention to which makes them hilarious. Anyway, there isn't really much else to say, so I'll move onto characters.

  Characters:

  Gabriel-
  The show's titular character, she's the star student at her school in heaven, but quickly devolves into a messy and lazy shut in obsessed with MMOs once she starts living on Earth. Her deadpan attitude is pretty entertaining she's kinda like a combination of Tomoko (Watamote) and Umaru (Himouto Umaru-Chan). As an aside I really appreciate the lack of upskirt shots despite her wearing a red jacket with no pants a lot of the time, it shows that her design was done for character purposes and not fan service.

  Vignette-
  A character named Vignette in a show focused on comedic vignettes, hmmmm. . . Anyway Vigne as she's most often called is Gabriel's best friend and a demon who acts like an angel to directly contrast Gabriel. She's a pretty likeable character, although I question how she made it to high school when she constantly fails to act like a demon. She's probably my favorite of the cast.

  Satania-
  A, stupid, megalomaniacal, wannabe archdemon whose repetitive gags get so old that you want to slam your head against the wall repeatedly by the end of the 3rd episode. She's obnoxious, which she's supposed to be, but it's also supposed to be funny which to be fair she does have a number of good scenes, but the running gag with her shouting out her name and the dog stealing her bread get really really old.

  Raphiel-
  A sadist who puts on the air of being a role model of an angel. She constantly laughs at others misfortunes. Also boobs.

  There's a couple side characters as well, but for the sake of brevity and not boring you I'll leave it there.

  Animation:
  I'm going to start out talking about something I've never really discussed before and that's character design. I immediately noticed that Gabriel and Vignette looked a lot like Umaru and Ebina (Himouto Umaru-Chan) respectively and Satanica was pretty reminiscent of Riko (Love Lab) well a quick check of MAL showed that this was done by the same animation studio, Doga Kobo. So what's my point? Well it's just kinda distracting, not enough for me to detract points from the final score, just distracting. I wrote that when I first started watching, for most of the show Gabriel looks damn near identical to Taiga from ToraDora which ,again, is distracting but certainly not worth docking a point.
  The animation just generally looks like a Doga Kobo show, jumpy, comedic animation. It's colorful and lends itself decently well to comedy, but certainly isn't on par with Kyoani, which yes, I do have a massive hard on for them.

  Music:
  The OP is decently, and the chorus is relatively catchy, but nothing too special. The ED is downright forgettable. The music in the show is nothing to write home about either.

  Overall:
  I may have come across like I didn't like this show very much, and while I certainly don't love it, it's still a decent show that held my attention and made me laugh a few times. Now mileage always varies on humor and some people may absolutely love this show, but I'm not one of them.

  5/10

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• 

  OVERPOWERED99

  78/100
  Gabriel DropOutism should become its own religion. You know, just so we can worship all these funny angels and demons.

  

  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Then he created the sky and the land and all these other things we have now. And God saw that we became creatures of sheer laziness who get bored easily so he said, Let there be Gabriel DropOut: and there was Gabriel DropOut. And all's right in the world.

  Oh, but during the process, clumsy God accidentally reversed the biblical archetype when the angels turned demonic and the demons turned angelic. Yes, you heard that right. He somehow stuffed up! The angels are now in need of some heavenly rehabilitation while the demons are, well... they need to learn how to be hellish again I guess. But if you're wondering, I think this change is pretty nice. In fact, it actually succeeds in bestowing divine fun upon us!

  The thing is, this show is not spectacular storywise. It's simply about these cute angels and demons who have arrived to Earth to learn and live among humans. Where it really shines the most lies in the great comedic value, which comes from the role reversal I've stated above. It might be a small change, but it certainly is effective. The result is that the character dynamic is funny as hell to watch. And if you want to know how entertaining that is, then let's go meet them!

  

  Bringing all kinds of shenanigans to Earth, we have the lazy Gab and the sadistic Raphi as the angels while the sweet Vigne and the idiotic Satania are the demons. Now... what do you think will happen when you put these antithetical characters together in one place? Armageddon? Another Noah's Ark? Maybe even the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?! Hell naw. Hilarity will ensue on a scale big enough to tremble even God himself! I know right. God must be facepalming so hard after seeing what happened to them. Gab, the "Faillen Angel", just wants to lounge around when she became addicted to games, much to her friend's dismay. That friend, Vigne, is too much of a kind sweetheart considering she's supposed to be an evil being from the fiery realm. At least Satania tries to live up to her self-proclaimed "Future Queen of Hell" title, but her stupidity erases most of her wicked acts, so she's what you can call a harmless failure. Then there's Raphi, who pretty much loves to troll Satania with sadistic intentions—a huge no-no for an angel. Their interactions and comedic gags are the heart of the show. Sure, some jokes do get repetitive at times, but plenty of refreshing ones are here to liven up your day.

  And even better, the comedy is not all this show has to offer! Bits of heartwarming moments are sprinkled here and there to make me smile warmly. Side characters also make their appearances to give even more charm to the character chemistry, in particular with an angel named Tap. So even though Gabriel DropOut is mainly comedic, there are other elements in this show that are miraculously enjoyable to revel in.

  

  To complement the cheery atmosphere, God the creator and Doga Kobo did a collaboration together to bring out the life in the word lively. Exaggerations, caricatures, simple brightness, and cute expressions are all you need to perform a ritual to summon comical moe. You could definitely make a religion out of this! I mean, it's called CGDCT anyways. Never mind that, I also loved the quirks given to the characters with the angels having hair colors of purity while the demons get the nether colors. Wings, horns, pitchforks, and halos are the decorative pieces that adorn this show with its own identity.

  But don't expect to hear the harps and ethereal chorus from heaven or the raging sounds of fire burning in hell here. Though there are some churchly tunes, the majority of the soundtracks are just your standard, run-of-the-mill ones that play softly in the background. The voice-acting, on the other hand, personifies the characters really well. This, along with the opening and ending song, is certainly the essence of fun entertainment.

  If you have come this far through this holy review, then I praise thee, O great Saint! For now you know my positive thoughts on the creation we call Gabriel DropOut. Perhaps, you could spread this gospel over to other potential followers as well if you find the show enjoyable. After all, this is what God has made for us lazy humans!

  
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