One of the very few images from this series that actually is safe for work.
Ghastly Prince Enma: Burning Up (JP: Dororon Enma-kun Meera Mera) is a 2011 animated adaptation of Go Nagai's Dororon Enma-kun.
The core concept of the series remains the same as its predecessors: Enma the demon prince, Yukiko-Hime the yuki-onna, Kappaeru the kappa, and Chapeau-jii the...er, sentient hat walk the Earth, hunting down and capturing (or killing) various youkai that have escaped hell. However, unlike its predecessor — 2006's Demon Prince Enma — Burning Up tones down the former's horror and suspense elements in favor of returning to the manga's comedic (and ecchi) roots.
The series was licenced by NIS America, and can be streamed legally on Crunchyroll.
Tropes appearing in Ghastly Prince Enma: Burning Up:
- A-Cup Angst: Harumi, and she uses her lack of breasts to get out of being used as a decoy in Episode 3.
- All Men Are Perverts: Yes, all of them. Even the talking hat won't miss out on a chance to see a naked Yukiko.
- An Ice Person: Yukiko-hime has power over ice, enjoys taking freezing baths, and likes to hang out by open freezers. Since she's a Yuki-onna, it's only natural.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Chapeau-jii is a floating, talking hat with a face.
- Anti-Climax: A particularly amusing one in Episode Three. Dokuro, the Monster of the Week, has been set up as the most powerful foe that team has yet faced, and a potential Big Bad candidate. However, the entire episode ends up focusing on the Patrol's preparations for his arrival, and he only shows up after the credits... to be rapidly dispatched by Enma, since he'd spent so much time waiting around offstage that his legs had fallen asleep.
- Anti-Villain: Enpi, who just wants the world to be a more fun and sexy place, and frequently has to turn on her own minions when they start going too far. And considering she's the only one who opposes the Global Genocide in the final two episodes on its own merits, she's arguably more heroic than the main characters.
- Ascended Extra / Demoted to Extra: Harumi takes Tsutomu's place as the team's human buddy, leaving Tsutomu in her place as a side character.
- Ass Kicks You: Chiiko-sensei does a good show of this during her and Enma's bathhouse fight in episode 3.
- Ass Shove: Yukiko experiences this in Episode Six after Enma's rescue attempt results in his head going up her backside.
- And in episode 7 Enma Facefaults into Harumi's backside.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Everyone who isn't Harumi, as showcased in episode 6, where they do in fact go to space.
- Bee-Bee Gun: Hachinosu-Nyudo (Beehive-Baldy), the Monster of the Week for episode five, uses his head as one.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Enma-kun and Yukiko-hime get into squabbles and teasing quite often, but they clearly love each other.
- Be the Ball: In episode 3, during a fight between Enma-kun and Chiiko in the female bathhouse, Enma attacks by throwing other girls as balls at Chiiko.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Demons (and presumably Gods and Angels) can't be destroyed, as killing them merely sends them back to their respective planes of existence. As a result, they're very casual about death, and can't understand why humans make such a big fuss over it. This is actually important to the plot, as in the final two episodes, Heaven and Hell agree to kill off billions of humans in order to harvest their souls for "soulperglue". When Harumi points out how horriffic this is, Enma tells her not to worry... She should just do enough bad things to get sent to Hell when she dies, get the soulperglue painfully extracted from her for a measly hundred years or so, and then she'll be free to hang out with the rest of the gang!
- Enpi's attitude towards clothes are entirely the wrong way around.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Harumi has a tendency to do this with herself, and sometimes has nested Tsukkomis objecting to the previous Tsukkomi.
- Also Enpi does this (literally) to Hachinosu-Nyudo when he increases her boobs
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Frequently.
- Breast Expansion: And the rarer Butt Expansion too. All in episode five.
- Calling Your Attacks: Both Enma and Yukiko do this.
- Camp Gay: Renkonman, one of Harumi's classmates, and Enma's uncle, the King of Hell.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Subverted with Enma towards Yukiko.
- Casanova Wannabe: Kappaeru considers himself a handsome ladies' man. Nobody else does.
- The Chew Toy: Tobachiri-sensei. He's been hilariously beat up in every episode so far.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: Made between Slipsqueak and Enpi according to Slipsqueak.
- Color Failure: Yukiko and Harumi in Episode 3.
- Combat Commentator: Kappaeru in Episode 6, due to everyone else being in deep space at the time and thus unable to make any sound.
- Combat Pragmatist: Renegade demons fight dirty, and Enma has had to pick up a fair few sneaky tricks of his own in his time on the Demon Patrol, ever since his first attempt to battle honourably resulted in Yukiko having to bail him out.
- Comically Oversized Butt: Episode 5 involves a curse that inflates Harumi's posterior by at least tenfold, to the point she resembles (and is capable of defying gravity like) a hot-air balloon.
- Cool Teacher: Harumi describes Chiiko-sensei this way.
- Couch Gag: The cast's ever-changing outfits during each episode's Opening Narration.
- Creepy Uncle: Enma the Great, the mighty lord of Hell. Feared not for his terrible, infernal power, but for his flamboyant, overbearing, overly-affectionate attitude that sends even the sternest soul fleeing for the hills in minutes.
- Cute and Psycho: Enpi after her hat comes off.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Demons in general. It's just the minority who head up to the surface to torment humans who make them look bad, and who the Demon Patrol are assigned to hunt down.
- Demon Slaying: Technically Enma isn't supposed to slay the demons he fights, but he doesn't seem to care.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: When Harumi and Yukiko fall into a deep sleep in Episode 4, Chapeau-jii kisses them to break the spell. When it doesn't work, Enma takes advantage of Yukiko's state all too eagerly.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Yukiko tends to punish Enma quite harshly when he upsets her, though he usually deserves it.
- Ecchi: Very much so.
- Enemy Mine: Frequent between Enpi and the Demon Patrol when her latest scheme backfires.
- Expressive Accessory: Yukiko's skull-shaped hairpin and Enpi's skull-shape kneepads change their expressions expressions to match their moods.
- Expy:
- Yukiko looks very much the heroine of Cutey Honey, which was also by Go Nagai and a lot more famous in the west.
- Meanwhile, Enpi, the Mysterious Watcher of Episode 3, strongly resembles Kekko Kamen. Kekko herself makes an appearance in the final episode as an angel named Kekkou Honey, only she's wears Honey's outfit from the 90s OVA.
- And Susa no Jou is an obvious genderbent one of Shingo from Susanoo
- Facefault: Slipsqueak's power.
- Face Stealer: Episode 1's villain Face Eater, who turns his victims into The Blank.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The world the Youkai all come from looks like this.
- Forgotten Childhood Friend: Slipsqueak
- Gag Penis: Taken to typical Refuge in Audacity levels in Episode 1, where Enma duels a foe who wields his gigantic metal schlong like a BFS.
- Also, one of the demons in the opening.
- Game Face: When Enpi's Hat mask comes off.
- Possessed Chiiko-sensei in episode 3
- Going Commando: Yukiko-hime, according to Enma (and her reaction pretty much confirms it).
- Enpi, the Mysterious Watcher of Episode 3, is flying around dressed in little more than a hat and a cape!
- Yukiko confirms it herself in episode 6.
- Good Is Not Nice: Enma. The rest of the Patrol is pretty nice, though.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Taken to a ridiculous extent by both Enma and a possessed Chiiko-sensei in episode 3.
- The Grim Reaper: Dokuro, the villain of Episode 3, is a pretty obvious spoof of this.
- Groin Attack: Frequent. Yukiko does this to Enma TWICE in Episode 3, and that's not even getting into the business with Face Eater.
- Enpi defeats one of the villain of the week this way.
- One of the demons in episode 8 subverts this on Harumi and Enpi (and painfully).
- Harmless Freezing: Inflicted on Enma by Yukiko with frankly alarming frequency. It probably helps that he's a powerful fire demon.
- Haunted Headquarters: The Youkai Patrol has their secret base underneath Harumi's school, complete with an icthyosaur guarding the moat that no one seems to mention.
- Hot Teacher: Chiiko-sensei.
- How We Got Here: Episode 2 explains how and why Enma and the gang wound up on in the human world.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: The Youkai Patrol hunt down and often kill other Youkai. So far none of them are angsting about it, mostly because killing a youkai is just a messier and more painful way of sending them back to Hell.
- Hurricane of Puns
- Inflating Body Gag: Fukurashiko, the Monster of the Week of Episode Six, inflates people via touch, and those who are inflated also inflate those they touch. Everyone, and we mean everyone, winds up ballooned, with hilarity ensuing. Inflated people also become Big Eaters, resulting in cases of Balloon Belly even after Fukurashiko is defeated— most notably with Harumi.
- Information Broker: Kappaeru. He's not that great at his job, but with this bunch of idiots, he's practically invaluable.
- Jerkass: Enma, in the 2011 anime.
- Kappa: Kappaeru. Definitely of the cuddly, harmless variety.
- Kimono Fanservice: Yukiko wears an extremely short kimono, and nothing else at that.
- Lampshade Hanging: Harumi has a tendency to do this, like in Episode 2 she was the only one to wonder out loud why a naked Yukiko had suddenly appeared in the squid monster's tentacles.
- Large Ham: Enma the Great. Naturally, it comes with being voiced by Norio Wakamoto.
- Also Hachinosu-Nyudo.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Yukiko-hime usually spends battles getting disabled in ridiculously fanservicey ways... but only when Enma is around to save her. When the team's actually in genuine trouble, she shows her true colours as an exceptionally powerful ice mage.
- Lovable Coward: Kappaeru.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Enma-kun and Kappaeru.
- Mad Artist: Hyakute.
- Magic Skirt: Yukiko's short kimono always covers her girl parts from the audience. Harumi's skirt seems to work the same way. Enpi's cape tends to fly up in just the right position to block herself from the camera.
- Magic Wand: Enma's staff.
- Ms. Fanservice: Considering the improbably high odds of Yukiko-hime ending up naked and assaulted by tentacles in any given fight scene, she could almost be considered a parody of this archetype if Go Nagai hadn't invented it in the first place.
- And let's not forget Enpi, who is constantly in the nude.
- Mister Exposition: Chapeau-ji proceeds to explain all of the lore on how Enma and the others got to Earth in episode 2.
- Monster of the Week: The series seems to be following this trend so far.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Hyakute, the villain of Episode 4.
- Mushroom Samba: Episode 4 has the characters trapped in a highly bizarre dream world by a demon.
- Mysterious Watcher: At the very end of Episode 3, a mysterious woman dressed very much like Enma appears to be watching the heroes. Later revealed to be Enpi-chan, who's Enma's sister in this version
- Naughty Tentacles: Common, and guaranteed to immediately gravitate towards Yukiko-hime. The second episode demonstrates this with the pot-of-snakes Yokai.
- Non-Action Guy: Kappa-eru and Chapeau-ji both qualify, leaving the actual fighting of monsters to Enma and Yukiko.
- No Ontological Inertia: Whatever evil was perpetrated by the Monster of the Week is undone by reducing him to a grease spot. Damage done by the heroes, being of a more physical variety, sticks around until the end of the episode. We're talking damage on par with The Nerima Wrecking Crew.
- Occult Detective: The Youkai Patrol have this as their job description. Try getting them to actually DO it.
- Only Sane Woman: Harumi, who often seems more motivated to go demon-hunting than the folks who have it as their actual job description.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Enma is the size of an average pre-teen, but still capable of kicking serious Yokai ass.
- Playing with Fire: Enma's powers all seem to be fire-based.
- Potty Emergency: Harumi has one that's delayed in the very first episode. It comes back to her in the form of a Brick Joke.
- Power of Love: Enma has it sealed. And it is powerful enough to destroy everything.
- Related in the Adaptation: Enma and Enpi are siblings in this version
- Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Yukiko. She ends up getting entangled, stripped, or sexually harassed at least once an episode, completely against her will. She's seen naked more times than the nudist.
- Remake Cameo: In the final episode, we have Enma's parents voiced by Masako Nozawa and Sumie Sakai, the original voices of Enma and Yukiko-hime respectively
- The Reveal: Enpi is Enmas sister and the circlet on his head used to be worn by her.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Enma's outfit. Enpi, meanwhile, only wears this.
- Running Gag:
- As mentioned above, Yukiko's given the Reluctant Fanservice Girl treatment at least once per episode.
- News reporting that whatever is happening thanks to the meddling of the Monster of the Week is making the world a better place. A Running Gag within that Running Gag is every time that "zones of conflict" are mentioned, it always shows American soldiers fighting the Vietcong.
- The '70s: The remake keeps the setting in its original time period.
- Ship Tease: Between Enma and Yukiko-hime. And to a lesser extent, Harumi as she seems to have a crush on Enma But by the final episode Yukiko-hime being Enma's long standing love interest ultimately won out if them gettin' it on during the massive sex orgy says anything.
- Shout-Out: See here.
- Sociopathic Hero: Enma, who is less merciful to renegade demons than even the King of Hell wanted him to be. As he puts it, dead demons and banished demons end up in the same place either way, so it's no big deal which option he picks.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The show's ending theme at first sounds like a peaceful lullaby until you figure out that the lyrics are really about death.
-
Spiritual Successor: This series cleary aims to be to the original manga what Shin Mazinger is to Mazinger Z - a remake that takes some freedom with original's plot, introduces new characters (including at last one Canon Immigrant) and gives main stars new and awesome attacks, all to reintroduce the franchise to modern audience and renew its popularity. - Stripperiffic: Chiiko-sensei's taste in sleepwear is pretty skimpy.
- And then there Enpi.
- Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The M.O. of Hachinosu-Nyudo, the villain of Episode 5.
- Stylish Protection Gear: Enma's cape doubles as a shield. Enpi's version doubles as a bra and Scenery Censor material.
- Take That!: A strange example — Go Nagai has
went on record as stating he pushed for/greenlit the Dororon Enma-Kun remake as a direct reaction to the 2010/2011 Anti-Anime laws being pushed through by Ishihara (the Governor of Tokyo at the time), and that he specifically sees it as a repeat of the censorship he fought against in the early 70s (when his fighting against said censorship created the Ecchi subgenre). - Tentacle Rope: An amusement park is attacked by a squid demon, leading to this. Yukiko Hime, in addition to being tied up by the demon, was also stripped naked by it.
- The Virus: The Roly-Poly Plague of Episode Six serves as an exceptionally unserious example.
- Token Human: Harumi. At first she didn't even believe Youkai existed and was freaked when she found out they did, but she adjusted quickly after meeting the Patrol.
- Tsundere: Yukiko-hime is a Type B towards Enma.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Enma's long, skinny brows go WAY off of his face and double as demon-sensing antennae.
- Vapor Wear: Yukiko-hime and it's a Running Gag. Meanwhile, Enpi takes this to it's illogical conclusion.
- Would Not Hit a Girl: Hachinosu-Nyudo considers himself a 'gentleman', and so prefers not to use his more dangerous abilities against women. Humiliating abilities, on the other hand, are A-OK.
- Wrecked Weapon: The first Monster of the Week's colossal armoured penis-club, much to his (understandable) horror.
- Youkai
- X-Ray Vision: One of Enma's powers. He puts it to exactly the sort of uses that one would expect of him.
