Review: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

So with all the lack of blogging from mostly everyone, I thought I’d describe why. It doesn’t take a genius to explain to everyone that the quality of shows were lackluster this season – MMY is a great example of that, though at least it tried.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha Episodes 3-7

I apologize for the delay on these posts. I should have episode 8 up by tomorrow. As far as MMY, I can’t really decide if I like it or not. You can get a good idea of my opinion by my tags I guess. It has been pretty inconsistent. I’m struggling to talk about everything chronologically, so I’ll be putting down some random thoughts about the show overall. This will also be a little short for 4 episodes.

Mahoyuu Maou Yuusha Episode 2

Please Make Us Human

I’m always puzzled why anime usually goes down the route of harems. It’s much more enjoyable to see an established couple go through the learning process of a relationship rather than down the harem road… I can’t decide if I like the romance aspect of this show yet.

First Impressions: Mahoyuu Maou Yuusha

–You Will Be Mine, Hero!
–I refuse!

Sometimes I wonder why I pick the shows I do, but then I get some boobs and it all makes sense.

Maoyuu Maoi Yuusha(MMY) has an interesting premise, so when I saw the size of the heroines boobs, I was a little worried it would be wasted. Luckily most of the episode was riddled with exposition in the economics of war with some boobs sprinkled in rather than vice versa. Although the boobs were given an animation of their own they weren’t too distracting. The plot of the story seems to be a demon’s vs. human’s war. I’ve always liked this concept, so I can’t say I’m complaining when they try to portray the humans as the villians… Though I’m hoping they’ll elaborate on there being no clear-cut good and evil in the show, if that’s what they’re going for.

The episode itself seemed like everything came out of nowhere. They kinda just threw in the characters without developing them and explained the plot. It honestly seemed more like a second episode than a first… But whatever, I can forgive it since it managed to do more in a first episode than most of the shows this season. I was actually somewhat engaged in the explanations of war and why it benefits the humans, since in reality, it has done the same. WW2 is largely responsible for the economic boom in America and other countries, so applying this to an anime seems like a great plot-point. Now I don’t want to get too optimistic, since we all know how boobs that have their own animation can screw everything up… And I guess they KIND OF elaborated on who the male lead was, but still, he had no development despite acting like he did.

I liked how the show took itself seriously at the beginning, but as soon as boobs showed up, the male lead struggled to keep up his ‘heroic’ demeanor. Even as the plot tried to keep up its ‘serious’ tone, I can’t help but feel the subtle humour helped to move the plot along. Though it was interesting in itself, it realized the episode would have been similar to reading a Wikipedia page without this humour. For that, I had a positive impression after watching.

One of the things I didn’t like about the episode was the ham-like performance of Jun Fukuyama… Yeah I know, coming from a Code Geass fan that’s surprising but it just felt sooooooo forced and out of place. I don’t know if it was supposed to be that way, but hopefully the voice acting improves because I am not impressed Mr. Fukuyama. I’ve never heard you be bad in anything so please don’t let me down.

The OP was pretty boring but the ED was excellent. The musical choices in the show haven’t been overly impressive but they get the job done. All-in-all, I enjoyed the first episode… Though I’m not sure if it was because they decided to give the female leads boobs a mind of their own or the plot was interesting… Maybe a little bit of both. I don’t remember the characters names, which I never do, since I couldn’t stop comparing this show to Spice and Wolf… We’ll see if it manages to stand out this season.

 

As this season is looking anything but good, I decided to pick up this little intriguing title as well. Justin will be the one covering it from now, but I’ll just leave my little (yes, this time they really are little) two cents on the this first episode here.

This premiere started off with a narrated explanation of the setting. The existence of demons, the ongoing war between demons and humans and its main happenings and consequences. All ok thus far, since it was a pretty short and understandable briefing. What did rub me off the wrong way is how after the OP, the plot starts running at a rushed pace, as if we were already in the middle of something. It’s with such a feeling that I see the main character annoyingly running towards the Demon King’s castle (was it so easy to get there?) and yet again annoyingly shouting and preaching, even after learning that the Demon King was in fact a girl. And quite a voluptuous on, if I may mention. Exaggerated character designs aren’t my cup of tea, but I can surely ignore such a distasteful present if either the plot or the character itself (or both) are good. And in fact, despite ARMS’s much expected focus on the body parts, the Demon King displayed a nice personality and seems to hold  potential for some good character development. What I can say I didn’t like was… The main character. His naive and rash attitude and his annoying shouting really put me off. (And I’m not going to repeat Justin’s words about Fukuyama-san, but I do agree with him.)

As for the story… I have to say it it interested me quite a bit more than I expected. The whole scene with the Demon King and the Hero, especially the part about going on a journey, really gave off Spice & Wolf vibes, and I did enjoy that one quite a bit. That said, while the Demon King does seem to have a quirky and peculiar personality, not one characteristic stood out regarding the Hero – a hotblooded idealist could describe him plainly and perfectly with what we’ve seen of him in this episode. However, this is only a first episode, after all. He did seem to display a much better attitude towards the end, when he builds the resolution to stick with the Demon King and her ideas. I do hope he gets better later on, or it’ll seriously hamper my enjoyment.

The best part though, was the political schemes that seem to be going on in the kingdoms of both races. The war is needed, and the arguments raised by the Demon King to support such a thesis were not only well structured and believable, but also reminiscent of our own world. Fitting politics in a fantasy setting isn’t the easiest thing to do, but when it’s done well, it’s one of the most appealing points of a series to me (i.g. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon and its amazing debate episodes). Whether or not its execution reach the aforementioned good level, it will obviously depend on later episodes, but for now I’d say it’s in a good way. The use of memories (watchable through a strange but beautiful lantern) to explain the behavior of the society at times of war as opposed to times of peace, was quite a nice touch, even if the protagonist seemed somewhat clueless and naive, yet again. He really has to undergo some change, for I’d love to see clever debates between both main characters, as opposed to one person  building a an interesting point to see it answered with useless misconceptions such as that the demons are evil, people are possessed by demons and etc… Less chest shots would also be a huge plus in my book! (Sorry Jusin, I know you’ll object).

At any rate, I did find this opening episode quite a solid start for the series, and the OP imagery (despite my dislike for the song) foreshadows some things that could really be interesting developments. My expectations for this raised from low to moderate with this first episode. I’ll now be looking forward to watch the rest of it.