まおゆう 魔王勇者 (Maoyuu Mao Yuusha)

[Crossfire]

Somebody had to do it.


Fantasy/romance series with a little comedy and economics thrown in. If you've seen Spice & Wolf you know fairly well what to expect, considering Takeo Takahashi is/was the director for both projects. Originally based on a light novel and its manga adaptions. Anyways, here's the abridged summery:

In a world dominated by war-profiteering, an unlikely alliance is made between Yuusha, the hero of humanity, and Mao- the Demon "King". Both seek a peaceful resolution to the human-demon conflict, but they must first improve the technologically-inapt kingdoms via the introduction of more effective farming practices. While Mao oversees the project, Yuusha must quell a demon rebellion and search for a former friend...


As someone who liked Spice & Wolf (and seriously doubted the winter 2013 lineup), I have mixed feelings about this series. I love the music and setting of the story, but there's some minor quirks I have issues with... such as "Hero" signing the contract within the first episode. It seemed rather rushed for someone who was hell-bent on killing the Demon King 10 minutes before.

[blkmage]

Might want to add some introductory material there.

Didn't really like this week's episode. It rushed through a non-trivial number of chapters and didn't quite get the motivations behind everyone involved down. Maybe it's just some clever rearrangement, but idk. I think the adaptation hasn't been too good about getting the characters right, even if they are 75% archetype. Also not really liking the character designs for some of the characters that got introduced in this episode, but that's not a huge issue.

[Crossfire]

While I never read the manga or novel, I agree that it's been feeling a little rushed thus far. I wish they delved more into Yuusha's exploits instead of sticking with the agriculture plot, but maybe they'll expand on the former in upcoming episodes.

[Crossfire]

So, episode 11. Some dude got impaled by about 50 arrows. I thought that was pretty awesome. I'm glad the "good guys" aren't hesitant to kill when they need to, aside from Yuusha.

[blkmage]

I don't think Yuusha ever needs to kill anyone since he can probably Kira Yamato everyone and/or is basically so OP that they can't touch him anyway or something.

[Crossfire]

Well, here we are at the last episode. I was hoping for more of a climatic battle, but eh... I think it ended up alright. Has season 2 been announced yet?

[blkmage]

Aside from a few moments, I feel safe in saying the anime was a bad adaptation. Second season is unlikely in the near future because it looks like they've tried to catch up with the manga serialization in Comp Ace, which just reached around where the anime ended. I could be wrong, but then, I don't know why they decided to cut so much from the early sections just to have it end there. Second season is unlikely at all because the sales kinda flopped (2.7k).