Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

Title:Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
Archenemy and Hero
Maoyuu
まおゆう魔王勇者 (Japanese)
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: FUKUYAMA Jun
KOSHIMIZU Ami
During the 'war between humans and demons' a human hero meets the demon king and gets a surprising proposal (literally).
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 9 9 8 6 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:2661#1552]
If there's a show comparable to what Maoyu offers up, it would have to be Spice and Wolf. Like Spice and Wolf, Maoyu delves into complicated affairs on aspects to a medieval world and explores the chemistry between the male and female leads of the series. In the case of Hero and Demon King, both are trying to resolve the conflict between both demon and human kingdoms to prevent all-out war from breaking out and setting up a scenario where both sides would resolve their issues and benefit from it. While this premise would seem to spin on the idealistic side with what our two leads are attempting to do, the show adds a refreshing twist to it in the fact that both characters know that their goal is a very difficult one to achieve thanks to how elements within the societies of both humans and demons play out thus they will have to carefully plan things out to make their ideal scenario a reality. This results in the two accomplishing differing goals to lay the foundation for their reality: Demon King becomes an adviser to the ruler of a kingdom and offers up various areas of knowledge such as educating commoners and cultivating methods while Hero tries minimizing conflict between the two races with his powerful abilities in magic and combat. The series also does fairly good in establishing its world as it explores the imperfections to both human and demon society with slavery, oppression and corruption among those in the wealthy and religious. Only issue on the plotting end is the lack of proper resolution for the series.

Beyond the plot and world building, characterization is a bit of a mixed bag in Maoyu. Unlike the chemistry between Holo and Lawrence, there isn't as much prominent focus on building up Hero and Demon Lord's relationship as the plot gets more of the focus here thus the chemistry isn't anywhere as dynamic or interesting. The anime even tosses in a half-assed attempt at making humor off a love triangle with our leads and Female Knight at points within the show which is just as underwhelming as the show's efforts to convince you in buying Demon King and Hero's bond. Because the show spins their bond as being "destined" and we get no fleshing out of Female Knight's bond with Hero, the romantic implications aren't too convincing here. On the plus side, some of the supporting characters in the series get their fleshing out to show how the current society affected them and what eventually drives them to oppose their faction's way of doing things.

Visually, the series is a high quality one with vivid scenery, detailed character designs and having nicely animated sequences with battles and showing off supernatural elements like magic and spirits. The music does its part to complement key scenes mixing light and tense tracks, but nothing in particular stuck out with it.

Overall, Maoyu offers up an engaging plot and solid world-building in exploring the challenges Hero and Demon King face in trying to accomplish their goal to unify their sides. The so-so characterization and lack of a proper ending are minor bumps in what is otherwise a decent fantasy/ education/ action title.

Last updated Monday, June 16 2014. Created Monday, June 16 2014.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:2661#628]
(Four episodes watched):

This is a frustrating show, because it seems to have the germ of a good idea--a conspiracy between two leaders to bring an end to a pointless war--and the potential to become an entertaining series, yet it doesn't grab much of my interest at all. The notion that this war is in fact being perpetuated by special interests for their own benefit sounds familiar nowadays. But it's also simplistic and hard to take seriously. It's also confusing in that the argument seems to be made that in many ways ending the war would do more harm than continuing it. Perhaps a serious problem is that the two principal characters never develop much personality. The King attempts to convince the Hero why this plan is a good idea, but they don't talk much about themselves and each other. They seem more likeable than unlikeable, but I really don't care much about them. Keep in mind that in Japanese culture 'Demons' aren't necessarily pure evil, and might easily be better than evil humans. They are more of a parallel to humans than an opposite of them. The Hero suddenly agreeing to the plan seemed to come out of the blue without any convincing reason to trust the King. What are they going to attempt to accomplish? Overthrow corruption? I don't really care. The jokes were mediocre (I got one serious laugh near the end), the premise seems implausible, and there wasn't any sense of 'coolness' either. I wish this show had gone better, because there was nothing really offensive about it (other than some bouncing boobs); there just wasn't much entertaining about it either. Perhaps I will watch another episode, perhaps not.

I did watch episode two, and it piqued my interest more than episode one had done. It seems that this series will be more sophisticated and interesting than number one had led me to believe; this plan to end the war isn't just a joke to jumpstart a romance between a guy and a girl. The blatant fanservice seemed to have disappeared, which was a relief. Still, it seemed kind of unfocused and confusing (like, what is the head maid's true opinion of serfs? Does she hate them unless they become maids?). Also, was it really necessary that one side in this conflict be 'demons' at all? They seems like ordinary humans who have been given a strange title. Will magic play a part eventually?

This show kind of reminds me of Spice and Wolf, what with all the info about economics and trading and whatnot, and (so far) a lack of action and violence. I thought that the 'Alliance' (or whatever) deciding that it must assasinate 'Red Trader' just because she gave them a neat compass didn't make much sense. You would think that they would ask questions like 'why did she give it to us for free?', or 'has she given these things to others already?' or 'what does she want from us?', but they didn't. I think the unspoken message was 'we are the (simplistic) bad guys, since we do stuff like this, just in case that isn't obvious to viewers'. That seems to be the message of the series as a whole: every organization is corrupt and evil, while King and Hero are about the only good people willing to lift a finger to change things. That is simplistic and uninteresting. Whatever King's plan is, it is getting off to a slow start and I don't really care where it will go. I found that I couldn't resist skipping episode five and watching something else instead.

Last updated Sunday, November 04 2018. Created Sunday, January 06 2013.

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