Chibi Devi! is a series of TV shorts counting 75 episodes in total. Its story follows Honoka Sawada, who unexpectedly becomes a teenage mom. And not just to any child, but to the literal spawn of Satan. Don’t worry though; he’s cute!
So yes, Honoka is your everyday middle schooler who one day wakes up to find an unknown kid in her bed. A kid that also happens to have little wings, a tail, and magical powers. She and a friend decide to take care off the baby—who is called Mao—but this presents some problems. How do you take care off a baby hellspawn? Or how do you take care off any baby at all and still go to school at the same time?
Fortunately, that is when they discover the Devil Nursery. A fun daycare with all the knowledge and expertise needed to help young parents raise their demons.
Every episodes revolves around the random, fun activities that unfold both at the nursery and at home. Mao soon befriends the other chibi devils and they just play together a bunch. There’s not much substance here, honestly. It’s adorable fun, but the episodes only rarely form something of a coherent storyline. I don’t recommend binge-watching the series for that very reason. It’s hours of the same flavor of comedy, fed to you in such small doses that it never quite feels satisfying.
It’s better if you drip-feed the show to yourself whenever you have a few minutes to kill. Watch a quick 2-3 episodes, then move on to something else.
What I did like was the feeling of progression, which may sound contradictory. While Chibi Devi lacks story arcs, it does have the characters gradually grow up. Mao and his friends start out as silly little babies that make incoherent noises and can’t do anything. Over the course of the series you see their personalities flourish; they begin to get more vocal and independent. That’s very cute to follow and it the reactions from their “parents” are often heartwarming.
The comedy, while samey, is also very good. I had a great time with Chibi Devi, in spite of my critical tone earlier. Jokes frequently had me snickering and I loved the antics of its cast of babies. I was particularly fond off Rai. He is usually the most mature and social of the devil kids, but loves to unexpectedly pull the most annoying (though innocent) pranks on everyone.
A final point of concern is that the series just kind of ends at some point. The last few episodes do form something of a storyline together, but don’t feel like much of a conclusion to the series. It just suddenly stops like that, which felt pretty lame. Some fanfare or ceremony would’ve been welcome for a series finale.
It’s difficult to recommend a series like Chibi Devi. Both because you have to go out of your way to watch it in a way that mimics how it originally aired, lest you get very bored of it. And also because its target audience can’t really read this website. Or read in general, for that matter. Chibi Devi is listed as a shoujo anime, but ends up feeling more like a kids series. The story is very focused on the baby characters, in such a way that will feel childish even to pre-teen girls.
Most people won’t get enough out of Chibi Devi to watch more than a few episodes. It’s remarkably good for a mere curiosity, but that’s about it.
