The Writer's Journey and The Demon Girl Next Door Vol. 3 (Season 2)

Let’s try analyzing The Demon Girl Next Door Vol. 3 (= anime Season 2, episodes 1–6) using the structure of The Writer’s Journey.

This article contains spoilers for The Demon Girl Next Door Vol. 3 and up through Episode 6 of The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2.

References#

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers

By Christopher Vogler, translated by Yumie Fukawa

Film Art Inc., 2022

The Hero’s Journey in The Writer’s Journey#

A super-condensed summary of the Hero’s Journey in The Writer’s Journey looks like the table below.

The straightforward mapping works out as follows. For reference, I have also included the correspondence with stages in The Wizard of Oz, which is frequently cited in The Writer’s Journey, along with my own personal take on how Kemono Friends corresponds to them (tentative).

Act	#	Stage	Summary	The Wizard of Oz	Kemono Friends
1	1	The Ordinary World	Shows the heroes’ everyday life. Establishes the stakes.	Dorothy feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere. She doesn’t feel “at home.” As a miniature model of the adventure, she falls from the railing of the pig pen and is rescued by the farmhands.	Kaban wanders through the Savanna Area.
1	2	Call to Adventure	Hints at problems with the status quo and raises the adventure’s stakes.	Miss Gulch takes Toto away. Dorothy is scolded by Auntie Em and runs away from home.	Kaban possesses no knowledge of this world or herself. Her physical abilities are also poor.
1	3	Refusal of the Call	Demonstrates the danger of the adventure to the reader.	Professor Marvel’s persuasion succeeds, and Dorothy gives up on running away and heads home. But the journey has already begun, and she cannot enter the storm cellar where Auntie Em is.	She gets depressed, thinking she must be a thoroughly hopeless animal.
1	4	Meeting with the Mentor	Prepares for the adventure. Offers advice and bestows magical gifts.	The Mentors are Professor Marvel and Glinda (along with the three companions and the Wizard of Oz). Glinda teaches her the rules of the unknown land and bestows the Ruby Slippers.	Serval encourages Kaban and continues guiding her through the savanna. Hippopotamus provides information on the Ceruleans.
1	5	Crossing the First Threshold	The adventure actually begins. Passes the point of no return from the ordinary world.	A tornado blows Dorothy away along with her house.	Battle with a Cerulean at the area boundary. Kaban parts ways with Serval and walks toward the Jungle Area.
2	6	Tests, Allies, Enemies	Learns the rules of the Special World.	She meets three companions on the Yellow Brick Road. Along the way, she faces interference from the Witch.	Encounters with Serval and many other Friends. Solving problems using wisdom and ingenuity.
2	7	Approach to the Inmost Cave	Prepares and plans to enter the deepest cave.	The Emerald City guards refuse entry to Dorothy and her friends, but they are admitted after claiming it was on Glinda’s orders. To enter the Witch’s castle, they disguise themselves in enemy uniforms and slip into the enemy ranks.	Episodes 10 to 11. Learning about the Park’s past from Mirai’s audio recordings. Planning the operation to defeat the giant Cerulean.
2	8	The Ordeal	Confronts the greatest fear. Death and rebirth of the hero. Transcendence of ego. Initiation.	The Witch corners Dorothy and declares she will kill them one by one. Dorothy throws water to save the burning Scarecrow, which turns out to be the Witch’s weakness.	Kaban saves Serval through self-sacrifice.
2	9	Reward	Claims the sought-after elixir, the missing person, knowledge, etc.	Dorothy claims the Witch’s broomstick. Her companions receive fatherly validation from the Wizard.	Arai-san explains the circumstances of her birth, and Kaban learns her own origin.
3	10	The Road Back	Attempts to return to the ordinary world. May be pursued by the reward’s owner.	Dorothy misses her chance to board the hot-air balloon.	She prepares to embark on a journey to find the territory of humans.
3	11	Resurrection	A reenactment of death and rebirth. Must be purified and reborn as a new being before returning.	She realizes that “there’s no place like home.”	Kaban sets out on her journey, leaving Serval and the others behind.
3	12	Return with the Elixir	Brings the reward back to the ordinary world to serve the community.	She brings a new concept of “home” and a new concept of self back to Kansas.	Kaban sets out on her journey together with Serval.

So, what happens when we apply this structure to The Demon Girl Next Door?

Analyzing The Demon Girl Next Door#

It looks like the events of The Demon Girl Next Door Vol. 3 (The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2, Episodes 1 to 6) can be mapped onto each stage of the Hero’s Journey as follows.

#	Stage	The Demon Girl Next Door
1	The Ordinary World	Visiting other demons (mazoku) to track down Sakura Chiyoda is the immediate objective.
2	Call to Adventure	Shamiko resolves to make Momo smile.
3	Refusal of the Call	The cavity-causing bacteria party trick ends in complete failure.
4	Meeting with the Mentor	Shamiko obtains the Whatever Staff (Whatchamacallit Rod).
5	Crossing the First Threshold	She heads to Café Asura.
6	Tests, Allies, Enemies	After raiding the café, through interactions with the Manager and Lico, she obtains new clues.
7	Approach to the Inmost Cave	Shamiko infiltrates her own deep subconscious.
8	The Ordeal	Shamiko is cornered by traumatic childhood memories. Momo resolves to fall to darkness.
9	Reward	Encountering Sakura Chiyoda. Learning that the Core has been embedded within Shamiko herself.
10	The Road Back	Escaping from the deep subconscious.
11	Resurrection	Momo recovers from her fall to darkness.
12	Return with the Elixir	Conveying the truth about Sakura Chiyoda, Shamiko succeeds in making Momo smile.

I feel like this mapped out pretty cleanly.

Additional Notes#

Of course, I don’t think the sheer brilliance of The Demon Girl Next Door Vol. 3 can be explained merely by saying “it structurally follows the Hero’s Journey.”

In particular, it is worth highlighting that this journey also doubles as a (mythological) sacred marriage (hieros gamos) ritual between ShamiMomo, and that it receives the blessing and approval of both Sakura Chiyoda and Ancestor Lilith. I’d like to explore that in more detail next time, while rereading The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Setting All That Aside#

After blazing through at such a breakneck pace all this time, the way they lavishly took their sweet time on the scene where Shamiko bursts into tears upon finally seeing Momo smile was truly magnificent—and when they dropped the Season 1 OP “Machikado Tangent,” I nearly lost it and bawled my eyes out too.

It was one of those moments that made me so glad I’ve stuck with this series.