I Finally got to watch episode 5 of Helluva Boss. How great of an episode was it? Did we get more lore about the universe Vivziepop has constructed with Hazbin Hotel, and its tangentially related Helluva Boss series?

Disclaimer: All assets and art used or discussed are owned by Vivziepop and their respective teams and creators. Also I am going to try and keep this a spoiler free review of the latest episode. With that said, the content and writing of this review will be different from a spoiler version and I will try to talk more in general about the episode itself. Specifically I want to look at the animation, story/overarching lore, and voice actors. With that out of the way let’s jump in!

My Experience with the series.

My experience with the series is first hand, yet tangential. What I mean is that I have watched every episode of the Helluva boss series and the pilot for Hazbin Hotel. That is about as far as my knowledge for the series goes. I was introduced to the series from my friend, and she was introduced to it from an animation highlight from Saberspark over on Youtube. My friend follows them closely and usually gives me rundowns of information she learns from twitter, live art streams that happened, etc. With all that said let’s check out episode 5!

Animation.

I do have to say that I love the animation that is used in the series. This episode was no exception to the rule at all. Now, I am no expert or even practiced in animation myself, but I checked out the twelve basic principles of animation. based on those I can gleam that the animation team has always been very masterful with their use of these techniques. This obviously bleeds into this episode as well. For example, there is a scene where a character is falling, and on impact with the ground, their face squishes. It emphasizes the strength of the fall and impact using the squash and stretch principle, to name one example of the twelve.

One difference in the animation in this episode from the others that me and my friend noticed was the framerate. Now I am first and foremost a gamer, but I know that gamers can put too much emphasis on framerate. This is shown from those a.i enhanced 60 fps Disney movie clips that circulated a while back. Now I do not mind a smaller or even variable framerate for artistic effect. I understand that quick and short framerates can emphasis impact, and there are many other uses of it. With that said this episode had a couple sequences that had smaller framerates than what you would see in other episodes or even in the same episode that appear were not used particularly for artistic effect. Now I do not think this is bad, they are noticeable and in smaller chunks and can save money when a budget is tight or time is constrained. With that said the intended animation and story all still come through perfectly, but I know there are some who are more picky about these sorts of things and may notice.

Spoiler free story and lore.

Next I want to try and talk about the story in the episode in a spoiler free way. Bear a bit with me as I try to avoid these but I want to talk specifically about overarching lore this episode contributed to the series itself. This episode answered some questions that even I as a more casual viewer had about the series as a whole. I love the way they implemented these, having them integrate organically without needing to take a chunk of time out of the current episode or even series plot to explain this. As an example against this would be when an anime creates flashbacks for characters or world building. In that example the viewer is ripped from the current events and is taken to another time, where the events that were currently unfolding take a pause. Not here, in this episode I had questions that related to the entire world that Vivzie had created in her two series that were quickly answered, integrated so beautifully into her episode. She did not have to stop the current plot or take the viewers at home on an unwanted trip to explore lore, and she tied it in to the episode itself. This I find to be top tier story telling and super creative and clever writing!

Voice actors.

Now normally I know that voice actors don’t often change much from episode to episode, maybe a new voice here and there for a side character, but I was very impressed with the voice talent they got for a new character introduced in this episode I just had to talk about it. As someone who has watched a little bit of the walking dead, and as well as someone who watched a lets play of death stranding I felt that the new character Striker, had a familiar voice. Upon looking it up I was pleasantly surprised that it was Norman Reedus, and I had to immediately tell my friend. She is a massive Norman fan and was mildly upset she couldn’t tell right off the bat. When I watched the first episode of this series I was taken aback when I heard the voice of Zim, Richard Steven Horvitz, as well as some other great voice acting and actors. When looking at her voice talent for this show you see that she was able to recruit some really great voice talent for this show, and I can’t wait to see who she is able to nab for future episodes!

What really makes a great show?

Lastly I would love to hit home one final point. There is a quote from the Late president of Nintendo I would like to share. Iwaata says that “above all, video games are meant to just be one thing: Fun for everyone.” (IGN). I believe we can tweak this to say the same for any show really. Animation is simply a medium of entertainment much like games, writing, plays, stories, etc. Therefore I think they are above all, meant to be a source of enjoyment. This can mean a myriad of things, in the sense that someone can enjoy a comedy, others can glean enjoyment from something that makes them think and feel uncomfortable about a certain topic, etc. Meaning that a great show can indeed be incredibly subjective and down to the consumer of the show. One person might not think a show is great if it has certain themes, or they may think a show with poor animation or no use of the animation principles is great. I sure have seen bad animations that I think are great, because they become funny and are self aware. So to answer my question, what is a great show? It is something that you as a consumer can find entertaining and it is clear that Vivzie really wants that to come through with her projects.

Closing.

Now then, did I personally think this episode was a great one? Yes I did. If I had to rate it I would personally give it a 9.5/10. Why? For all the reasons listed above as well as because I enjoyed it. I watched the episode totally captivated from end to end and once it was over, I was left wanting the next one. I hope that my review can give any of my readers insight to an episode or simply just start a discussion. To add more data to other reviews that may be out there to help you make an educated guess on whether you will enjoy it or not. Regardless, it is always up to you to check it out if you haven’t and see what you think as well. Which I highly recommend you do, as it is free and really great!

Thank you all for reading today’s review post. I hope you found it insightful and I hope to see you tomorrow for my next post. If you liked it please let me know here or on my twitter that is linked and I hope you all have a great day! till next time.