Helluva Boss is an adult animated series about a group of imps and a hellhound from Hell who work at a place called I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals), where they get paid by clients to go up to earth and kill those who they blame the most for being the reason they died, or just simply want revenge on them.
Video Game High School (or VGHS for short and most commonly used term), is a live action series about an alternate reality where video games are considered to be the new sports, being even more important than news about the president, and how a young teen gets the golden ticket opportunity to go to VGHS, a school that transforms their students into the pros and go on to make millions.
So, what possibly could these two completely different sounding shows have in common despite having majorly different sounding story plots?
Not only are these comedies, not only are they tv shows (which was already implied, in case you weren’t viewing), but the crucial and most important connection that connects them in a very big way is that they’re both shows that were made exclusively for YouTube, and that ultimately led to their success.
Now, I’m not saying these two shows were like every other YouTube original show out there, because there’s a significant difference in that comparison. The majority of already produced high budget shows that were well funded without worries were made for YouTube as YouTube Red originals on a premium service.
Of course, this was back when streaming services weren’t everywhere just yet, but Helluva Boss and VGHS don’t play like that. They are shows you can watch on YouTube, for free. Video Game High School was created by Freddie Wong from RocketJump, and the first season was only doable because of how Kickstarter was able to fund the first season, even to the point they could hire Zachary Levi for a few episodes.
Vivienne Medrano is an independent animator who created Helluva Boss (a spinoff to another great animated pilot that’s becoming a full series by A24 in 2024 January, Hazbin Hotel), only worked on the pilot with a much smaller team of people, and it took around a few years for that 11 minute video to be produced. It’s only thanks to merchandise and viewership count that they gained enough finances to produce a short first season.
Then again, both VGHS and Helluva Boss initially started out as short seasons, either for runtime or for the quantity of episodes produced.
VGHS needed seventy-five thousand dollars to be produced, but actually over achieved that goal, reaching into the $800,000 mark even. Not only would this guarantee that a second season will and did get produce shortly after the first season, but would also promise that many people would be around to watch and generate views for the show.
And as for Helluva Boss, the viewership count into the first season was insanely high, counting that and sales recorded from the merchandise sold for the show (which is another important element to producing the show), it was revealed that a second season was in development by the time the second episode of the first season premiered.
Not only were people watching the shows, they were loving them too. VGHS was comedic focused prior in the beginning of the first season, and with every passing season, the story did tend to get a bit more story focused with some actual character development and longer episodes produced every season too, and was able to incorporate some good use of drama, because that’s what positive recognition and a dedicated fanbase can get you.
Helluva Boss was comedic focused prior in the beginning of the first season, and with every passing season, the story did tend to get a bit more story focused with some actual character development and longer episodes produced every season too, and was able to incorporate some good use of drama, because that’s what positive recognition and a dedicated fanbase can get you.
Again, their popularity and quality of episodes and story improves with every season, for good reason. Unlike paying for a service every month or year, you have unlimited access to these great shows for free at any time on YouTube. And there are some pretty unique things about the shows too.
The cool thing about VGHS is the realistic visuals. I mean sure, there’s, and I do mean this literally, a little bit of CGI, but everything else that needs an action scene or fast paced movement is all done with actual people filming the scenes.
It’s like the live action portrayal of Sword Art Online, as you’re seeing yourself playing in a video game with your real world graphics there with you as well. The fact that the first season is able to pull this off practically flawlessly with a smaller than usual budget for a show is beyond amazing.
As an adult animated series, Helluva Boss breaks more significant barriers than shows like Big Mouth or Velma or anything on Fox Animation Domination nowadays could ever accomplish. The animation looks ridiculously high quality, like somewhere between professional show quality and just almost reaching towards movie animated quality. The violence and slapstick certainly prove that’s the case.
Another noticeable and very popular element of the show is the LGBTQ representation. Burkely Herman says in an article that “part of the show’s appeal is its LGBTQ characters and interpersonal relationships. Helluva Boss promises to elevate queer narratives and stories”, and that’s certainly true from my perspective. The hype levels for whenever I see this done in the show are pushing past the limit for wholesome and well respected given how it’s portrayed as.
So, if you’re looking for a show that offers premium looking content and increased quality of storytelling given to people to free as if it was given by a generous Robin Hood, might I suggest not one, but two shows in mind?
Independent projects are usually expected to not draw as much of an audience as opposed to big budget mass produced content. However, these two shows not only show that’s not the case, but independent workers can make massive success in the media, whether for live action or animation.
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