Studio: Arms (main), Genco, Animax, Sentai Filmworks, Kadokawa Shoten, flying DOG, Movic, Pony Canyon (Jesus this went through a lot of studios…)
Aired: January 2013, 12 episodes
Rating: 5.5/10
A relationship between a hero and a demon lord, that sounds pretty sweet, right? I’m sure they’d have their differences and spend a lot of time together, learning that they’re more alike than they first thought. There’ll be a little ecchiness here and there and a splash of intimacy, as well as the typical annoying best friend and other supporting side characters that add volume to the series. That sounds like a romance you’d watch, amiright?
Sorry I got a little sidetracked, I was just thinking how it’s been a while since I watched a decent romance, because Maoyu: Archenemy & Hero isn’t one of them.
*Drops the mic*
What I expected was a romance. What I got was an in-depth documentary on the industrial revolution and agricultural growth, basically Civilization – the anime. Oh and there’s a redhead demon king/queen and some overpowered hero that hook up.
They get together, the demon Maou and hero Yuusha because… unification of the human and demon kingdoms? Alright I get the politics in that, but there’s hardly any romance between them. Just a busty chest that seduces the hero into not killing her, instead becoming her tool.
This is hardly a romance. It isn’t.
Fight me if I’m wrong.
Do it. Please.
I wasted my time watching this sh*t. I deserve to be punched.
And here’s why. A romance (a ‘good’ romance) typically involves the two characters getting to know each other (their interests and quirks) and spending quality time together (at least enough time to really form a valid judgment about one another).
The main (‘main’) characters barely spend any time together aside from the first couple episodes and maybe the middle and last episode. Most of the time the hero is away on some political journey while the demon ‘king’ is at home doing some political paperwork or meeting with an important figure.
The rest is spent with other unmemorable characters like the tradesman Kizoku Shitei (sh*t is literally in his name!) and Seinen and some maids Ane and Imouto who literally have more story and development than the characters we’re supposed to focus on.
The bulk of the anime is the characters trying to expand and develop their territories. There’s literally an episode that focuses on the creation of the printing press I kid you not. How it grants the ability for the masses to read and how different territories may want it and horde the technology for themselves.
I guess I’ll talk about some of the parts I did sorta enjoy about it… there’s one point where the hero Yuusha goes to the demon territory and it actually has some pretty neat looking demons, except for Nanpyou, he’s literally a warlord with a walrus head, yet his appearance in the anime is still more memorable than most the characters.
There’s like 4 or 5 heros, each one representing some skill, dexterity, strength, magic, etc, and they’re somewhat interesting, but not really. We hardly spend time with any of them, and it seems like the timeline of the anime is based after the hero’s split up.
There’s one hilarious scene where Maou the demon king is trying to blend in with the humans during and important meeting, and the super perverted old hero Rou senses something suspicious about her, so he approaches her and she gets nervous that her cover is blown, but it turns out he just wanted to get a good look at her chest *ba dum tss*, to which the other hero bashes him on the head.
There’s so many characters in this anime and yet hardly any of them stand out to me. One character I did like though is the hero Onna, who’s a badass swordswoman and, of course is in love with Yuusha… who hardly reciprocates her feelings. She goes so far as proclaiming her love to him, even ‘giving him the sword’ as to swear her upmost loyalty to him.
At one point Maou is reluctantly convinced to let Onna look after Yuusha while she’s gone on a business trip. When Maou comes back, Onna tells her “While you were gone, I gave it to him.” which she meant she gave Yuusha her sword, but of course this sentence sounds dirty as f*ck.
There’s one ecchi scene where she washes up and faces him after, with only a towel around her neck, in the hopes of seducing him. But he’s loyal to the demon king Maou, and besides… her chest is too small *face-palm*. I really do hate how anime portrays flat-chested females as basically being disabled and downright unattractive compared to balloon-chested girls (especially lolis) who get all the attention. And the anime brings it up multiple times and really drives the point forward.
I’m just complaining again aren’t I? Geez… there’s one other character who really develops in the story and it’s the maid Ane, who starts out homeless and works her way up to taking on huge roles for Maou, like disguising herself as her with a special ring.
Spoilers inbound. But really can this anime be spoiled?
So the church is portrayed as being pretty evil, like in almost every form of media ever, as they want to horde all the power and control over the capital and world. So Ane gets captured by them and basically publically humiliated in front of everyone (of course she’s disguised as Maou) because she’s the demon king and ‘clearly’ evil. Well Ane has a very powerful heartfelt speech about starting with nothing and being no different than the humans and just wanting to coexist, all the while being beaten and chained up. And the people end up being moved by her words and the church kinda loses power and she’s free to go.
The speech itself was just really touching and unexpected and I admit it made me a little emotional, but this was a one time thing. The rest just isn’t that interesting. There’s a scene where the hero has to save Maou while she basically tries to reapply as king, and another where the two dance, but there’s really no other connection they have or that I felt was important or meaningful between them.
If you’re unsure and want to check it out, I highly encourage watching the first and maybe the second episode, because they’re actually pretty damn good. It’s the rest of the episodes that feel so different and unrelated that I can’t recommend watching anymore.
If the anime advertised world-building and the growth of civilization/war and conflict, which it delves in politics heavily… and did away with the romance, I probably would’ve liked it a lot more. But the entire time I was expecting the two on the front cover to have more screen-time, especially together, but at times they hardly feel like the main characters.
Oh and the season ends on a weird cliffhanger which is never resolved because… there’s only one season. It’s annoying as f*ck when an anime ends with the plot unresolved and viewers expecting more. But perhaps the studios didn’t expect the series to be canceled or end there. I heard Spice and Wolf did it better, but I haven’t seen that so I can’t judge. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
That’s enough ranting *sigh*. Will there be a second season? It’s been several years and there hasn’t been any news about it. Fans on reddit have been begging for more, but there just isn’t enough content in the manga to fill an entire new anime season, unfortunately.
So that’s that. Thanks so much for reading, and don’t forget to check out new content every week!
By: The Shy Otaku