Content Warning: Contains Spoilers for Hazbin Hotel Season 1 and Mention of SA
It’s no secret that the Adult Cartoon market has been struggling in recent years. Ever since Family Guy released and blew up in popularity, every hack job comedian in Hollywood has tried making an Adult Comedy with gratuitous swearing, crude sex jokes and shoddy animation that makes Newgrounds animators look like Studio Trigger by comparison.
However with the advent of the internet, Independent creators now have the opportunity to share their animated pilots with the world and hopefully get them greenlit to become full shows.
This has resulted in an animated renaissance with many of these pilots being critically acclaimed and becoming household names. Including but not limited to: Long gone Gulch, Lackadaisy, Murder Drones, The Amazing Digital Circus, Helluva Boss and the Show we will be reviewing today Hazbin Hotel.
Hazbin Hotel is an adult Musical comedy created and directed by Vivienne Medrano, also known by her online name Vivziepop. The show recently wrapped up it’s first season on Amazon Prime and It was everything I could have hoped for. This was easily the show I’ve anticipated the most, I’ve been following this series since I saw the pilot episode all the way back in 2019.
To put that in perspective, when the Pilot came out I was still doing Rec Room video’s with Fahad. That how long ago it was. On that note it’s kind of a good thing that I saw the Pilot at such a pivotal point in my life, Hazbin Hotel was actually the first Cartoon I ever watched with LGBTQ characters in it. The Main Character Charlie being in a Lesbian relationship with her girlfriend Vaggie is the most prominent example but there are also other example’s in the main cast like Angel Dust being a Gay porn star and Alastor being Asexual.
In an era where queer representation was only relegated to background cameos that could easily be censored for overseas markets. Making the main characters gay was an inspired move on Vivzie’s part and I salute her for it.
With the show being as popular as it is, it has no shortage of detractors. A common complaint levied against Hazbin Hotel and it’s sister show Helluva Boss is the overuse of profanity and sex jokes. I’ve personally never seen this as an issue, the show is intended for Mature audiences.
I’ve always assumed that this was a by-product of having to write a show with Youtubes terms of service in mind. It’s not like writing a show for Netflix where you can show Gore, Nudity and god knows what else.
Vivzie did not get that “Luxury“ when she wrote Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, this gave her the opportunity to add quiet moments where the character’s ponder over there previous actions and become better people. This limitation ended up making the show better.
It’s certainly better than showing out right CP and expecting the viewer’s to laugh at how shocking it is like certain other show’s that have been in the spotlight recently.
*Cough* Big mouth *Cough*
So what is the show about?
Hazbin Hotel is about Charlie Morningstar, the Princess of Hell. Her goal is to fix Hell’s over population by rehabilitating sinner’s at the titular Hazbin Hotel, In hopes that they can be redeemed and sent to heaven instead of being killed by Angel’s in the yearly extermination.
She is helped by the supporting cast consisting of Staff and guests of the hotel. There’s Vaggie, Charlies girlfriend and manager of the Hotel. Angel Dust, An Adult Actor and the Hotels first guest. Alastor, the charming yet mysterious Radio Demon. Husk, the bartender and Nifty, the Psychotic Maid.
The main antagonist of Season 1 is Adam, He is the leader of the exterminators. He was the first man and because of that He is a massive jerk with a huge ego who treat everyone around him like garbage. He easily swears the most out of any character in the show, which makes sense as he’s the villain and your supposed to hate him.
If you asked me to pick my favourite episodes I would have to go with Episode 4 and Episode 6.
Episode 4 masquerade shows us Angel Dust’s relationship with his boss Valentino. This episode caused some controversy when it came out and it’s clear to see why.
Vivzie pulled no punches when portraying the atrocities that occur in the movie industry. Valentino is extremely abusive to Angel Dust. He’s is beaten in private, Almost drugged by mobsters and during the song “poison“ There are brief flashes of what appears to be Angel being SA’d by Valentino.
Episode 6 See’s Charlie and Vaggie travel to heaven to pitch the hotel to the Leader’s of heaven. Heaven is truly at it’s most evil in this episode. It’s revealed in this episode that the Extermination’s have been going on without the knowledge of anyone other than the Seraphim and the Exterminators themselves.
It’s also revealed that Vaggie was once an exterminator but she had her eye gouged out and her wings cut off by Adam’s second in command Lute after she spared a child. Adam later on uses this as blackmail during Charlies meeting, sowing distrust between the two and causing them to lose heaven’s support.
In conclusion, Hazbin Hotel is easily one of the best Cartoon’s of all time. The animation is beautiful, The characters are interesting and fun to watch, the song’s go Aposolutly hard and the Twists and turns will constantly keep you guessing.
Hazbin Hotel is a Masterpiece and Aposolutly worth watching if you have Amazon Prime.
