Gabriel DropOut is a 12 episode anime based upon the manga series, there were also two OVAs released. Gabriel is an angel who had graduated from angel school in heaven. Along with other graduates, she is sent down to Earth to attend human high school in order to better understand humans. She was the top of her class and is expected to eventually return to heaven and become a true angel. However, she discovered the vice of gaming and is now addicted to MMO’s, turning into a slob and typical shut-in in the process.
The cast is joined by another angel, Raphiel, who is more sadistic than she has any right to be. While on the opposite side there are two demons, Vignette and Satanichia. Vignette’s personality and actions would have you confuse her as an angel at first. She is Gabriel’s good friend, looking after her and motivating her. While Satanichia is unfortunately the typical loner who has no friends that you take pity on.
To be honest, Gabriel and Raphiel are both too mean-spirited to like, which his the point given the contrast to their angel identities. It’s just that they keep playing pranks or being mean (i.e. bully) Satanichia so much that you can’t help but feel pity for the latter. It’s always played for laughs and it’s usually funny, but the characters will go too far at times. Then again, Satanichia doesn’t help herself when she has such an inflated ego.
Each episode is split into several sections, although each section is not completely distinct or standalone as they do flow on from each other. The anime is pretty much just daily school lives, with a twist of angelic or demonic powers. Given everyone’s inexperience with the human world, this is taken advantaged of by others in many instances. Usually this leads to the humor but the anime feels flat overall as there’s not too much excitement. The characters are overly cute, and there’s the fan service, but that’s pretty much it. Sometimes the events don’t even flow together that well, making for some clumsy pacing when it continues to barge on.
The characters act more like elementary or middle schoolers rather than high schoolers, as most of their antics are immature things. There isn’t enough to spice up the anime so episodes can be boring and dragged out. when the characters return to heaven or hell, it’s a little bit more interesting due to the change in setting. We learn about their families and the customs in heaven and hell. Although it still feels very much the same so it doesn’t stand out much at all.
It doesn’t help that the anime falls back on many familiar beats. A character may get drunk on a drink that normally doesn’t make you drunk., or Gabriel deludes herself with the games that she plays, or superiors not understanding Gabriel’s rubbish and lets it slide. Running gags that are repeated far too often, the beach episode, and the Christmas / New Year episodes, it’s all too predictable. That said, some of the things can be clever, such as the excuse for the rays of light censoring the characters as a natural angelic ability. The ending held some promise as there appeared to be a big change to the way things would be, but then it reverts back to normal, so it was a false alarm.
Overall, Gabriel DropOut is one of those anime that had an interesting premise but doesn’t capitalise on it much. While there is plenty of mentions of angels and demons, as well as their powers, at its core, it’s still very much a generic high school slice-of-life comedy. It doesn’t have enough interesting quirks of its own to make it stand out, so the episodes can be boring and flat.
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