On Nov. 25th, 2019, YouTube animator Vivziepop (Vivienne Medrano) released her second mature animated pilot, Helluva Boss. The series featured the small company IMP (Immediate Murder Professionals) owned by three imps, Blitzo, Moxxie, his wife Millie, and Blitzo’s adopted hellhound daughter, Loona. They are a four-person assassin team who take out their client’s target on Earth’s surface or in Hell. After gaining massive attention, Vivziepop formed her small indie animation studio, Spindle Horse to develop the series. After almost 5 years of Helluva Boss’ show run, is it worth watching now?
Helluva Boss Pilot
In 2019, Vivziepop was developing two shows about people, or in this case, demons who lived in the Nine Rings of Hell. The first show, Hazbin Hotel would feature the princess of Hell, Charlie who creates a rehabilitation facility called the Hazbin Hotel. Despite its high view count and praise, Vivziepop chose her second pilot, Helluva Boss for its theme concept on relationships including family connections and romance. Spindle Horse crammed plenty of information on IMP’s members in 11 minutes.
The pilot showed Blitzo coming up with various ways to advertise their hitman business for any imp or human sent into Hell in the Wrath Ring. During the conversation, the reason Blitzo offers assassinations to damned humans is because of the Grimoire, a spellbook of the Goetia (bird demons) allowing the user to create portals to Earth. He got it by having sex with the Wrath’s prince, Stolas who will play a key role in the series. Helluva Boss released its first episode on Oct. 31st, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Conveying Relationships
Relationships are represented in numerous ways in Helluva Boss through the main cast and the people they will encounter throughout the season. This is what captivated the show’s audience exploring different relationships. Most of them will revolve around Blitzo and Stolas due to Hell’s hierarchy system with imps being the lowest and Goetia as a part of Hell’s royalty. Their romantic or how Blitzo sees it, a business transaction relationship, affects their social life.
Blitzo’s Aggressive Behavior
Through the pilot and Season 1, Blitzo is shown to be selfish, arrogant, and crude to people around him. When he’s not around others or around people who know about his past, Blitzo becomes very anxious about himself. In Episode 6: Truth Seekers, he and Moxxie breathe in truth gas in DHORKS’ negotiation room. The song “Moxxie’s Bad Trip” begins to play where Moxxie sings with a hallucination of Blitzo. Meanwhile, Blitzo experiences a nasty mirage of being taunted by Moxxie, Verosika, and Fizzaroli.
Then a vision of Stolas appears on a flight of stairs, tugging the vulgar imp on a gold chain leash. It represents how much Blitzo sees himself below Stolas because of being born royal. They continually taunt him saying he will die alone. Blitzo’s anxiety shows again in Episode 7: Ozzie when Fizzaroli and Verosika tell the story about his disgraceful past in song at the nightclub under the same name. When Stolas offers for Blitzo to stay for the night at his mansion, he violently rejects it as he convinces himself the prince only wants sex to comfort him. Due to Blitzo’s past behavior, he hides his anxiety by trying to act tough and mean.
Stolas’ Love and Naivety
Previously, the audience learned Stolas slept with Blitzo in exchange for the Grimoire. His naive decision does not sit well with his abusive wife, Stella in Episode 2: Loo Loo Land. However, Stolas did not think how badly it would affect his 17-year-old daughter, Octavia. In her mind, she believed Stolas would not care for her any more with his new lover. Stolas reassures her during their trip to the rundown Loo Loo Land, saying he will love and be there for her no matter what.
However, Octavia knew for the longest time how troubled her father was throughout their entire lives as she built a habit of listening to music to drown out her parents’ arguments. Stolas shows how much he cares for Blitzo when he rescues IMP from Earth’s demon-hunting organization, DHORKS in Truth Seekers. Yet, his love was denied because he didn’t know how badly Blitzo felt from the harassment back at Ozzie’s.
Moxxie Plagued Season 1
A common complaint about Season 1 revolves around one character of the main cast, Moxxie. In Season 1, he has 3 episodes that revolve around him thinking about how he’s not the greatest or feels mistreated by Blitzo. While his episodes overstayed their welcome, at least two of them served a purpose. In Episode 4: The Harvest Moon Festival, Moxxie competes against a cowboy named Striker who Millie’s father adores compared to Moxxie. This left Moxxie losing his self-confidence after losing in every festival game Striker competed in. After discovering Striker is a hired assassin to murder Stolas, he is stowed away in the basement with Millie following after.
She reassures her husband that she loves him for who he is and what he isn’t. In Truth Seekers, he hallucinates how he always felt rejected by Blitzo no matter what he did during their hit jobs. Blitzo reassures him after the truth gas clears saying he appreciates Moxxie’s work effort but doesn’t want him to build an ego. Both episodes play an important role in Blitzo and Stolas’ relationship about how people should trust and comfort one another.
Episode 8 Added in 2023
Season 1 originally ended with Blitzo crying at home after looking through his photos of his family, Stolas, and Verosika in 2021. Then in the original trailer for Season 2, there was an episode preview that was supposed to air with Loona heading into a party with him. This preview later became Episode 8: Queen Bee in 2023. In Ozzie’s, Loona left a message for her father that she went out to party. This party is at the Hive where many demons and hellhounds gathered in one spot to party hard.
Loona soon discovers her crush, Tex is taken by Queen Bee Beelzebub. She grows uncomfortable even though Beelzebub positively compliments her attitude. When Blitzo picks her up, an imp recognizes him and invites him to join the party. Loona decides to give it a second chance as long as Blitzo is there. He gets caught up in a drinking competition and makes out with random imps concerning Tex and Beelzebub. It completes Season 1’s tale to show Loona isn’t fully aware of Blitzo’s mental health which can drive him into regrettable decisions.
Helluva Boss Season 1’s Verdict
Helluva Boss may not be for every adult with its dark humor and innuendos. Yet the show’s concept of relationships, whether it’s romantic or friendly, is in full display. Vivziepop did an incredible for her first webtoon series to be a hit. The musical numbers are solid to help express a character’s inner feelings or for a catchy introduction. And the voice cast is amazing, nailing every single line. If you are interested in watching Helluva Boss, you can find the show on YouTube through Vivziepop’s channel.
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