Caution, spoilers for Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss ahead.

I watched the pilot for the Hazbin Hotel years ago. I don’t recall exactly when, but I believe it was some time after the release. And I loved it. I’m not sure what exactly draws me towards hell-themed things, but it’s happened twice now.¹

The pilot was charming, quirky, funny, and presented a really interesting and unique plotline. I love Charlie and Alastor, and the showcase of the various Overlords was really interesting. I formed a bit of an obsession with it, but my interest quickly faded due to a lack of any follow-ups.

Helluva Boss

When Helluva Boss first premiered on Vivziepop’s channel, I was honestly disappointed. I loved Hazbin and I wanted to see the series continue. I wasn’t all that interested in Helluva; sure, it took place in the same universe, but the story and characters didn’t intrigue me as much as Hazbin did.

A lot more episodes have been released since, and I’ve watched them all. I’ve warmed to the series more, but I still wanted to see Hazbin turned into an actual thing. So it got me very excited when, four months ago, it was announced that Hazbin would be coming out with a full series.

Thoughts on Hazbin

First, the negative:

A few things came quickly up while watching, but my biggest complaint was that the voice actors were different, and the characters sounding slightly different threw me off very quickly. Every character I checked (which wasn’t all of them, but a good handful) had different voice actors, and the change bothered me. I do wish they kept the originals. Charlie’s voice actor for the singing portion, Elsie Lovelock, did an amazing job in the pilot.

More minor complains include feeling like some of the first episodes―the one where Vaggie and the Hotel crew try to make an advertisement―felt like they leaned heavily into generic tropes common in animated shows. Sometimes, characters felt a bit off from the trailer, and the animation also felt a bit weak at times. I wish there was more focus on the lore.

However, despite this, I loved it. The humor was on-point, character development satisfying, and some of the musicals were especially great. The latter half was especially enthralling, and I’d like to point to episodes 5 & 8 as my favorites from the whole season. I’m not entirely sure why, but it might have to do with Alastor being in them. Speaking of, he’s still my favorite character, but―much to my chagrin―still remains a big mystery.

I loved any bits of lore about Alastor, as well as the song and animation in Hell’s Greatest Dad and the part with the Vs in Finale. I kept rewatching parts of the 5th for those two reasons.

Also, Gooseworx & Evan Alderete did the music! From what I understand, Evan typically does the mastering for Goose’s things. I’ve loved Goose’s stuff for a long time now, and she did the music for the pilot, so it was super cool to see that she ended up doing the music for the actual show too. Also, apparently Parry Gripp did the theme song??? Yes, the mastermind behind It’s Raining Tacos.

I cannot wait for the second season, and will skin Bezos alive if it somehow gets canceled.

However, I’m still curious about a few things:

• Why does Nifty freeze whenever she looks into a camera?
• What deal is Alastor a part of?
• What’s the role of the one-eyed cat key thing?

9.5 stars out of 10 :)