First Impressions / Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou / Series Introduction

「魔王が誕生しちゃった！」 (Maou ga Tanjou Shichatta!)
“A Demon King is Born!”

Ecchi high school comedy with a magical twist makes its way into the lineup this season with “The Farthest Back Demon King”. Oddly enough, the title of the series seems to stem from the fact that male protagonist Sai Akuto’s (Worst Evil) seat in class is in the very last row. The story on the other hand takes place in far into the future in 31st century, where magic is as common as technology. Akuto (Kondou Takashi), who was abandoned as a baby by his mother and left at a church, grows up aspiring to be a high priest. To that end, he transfers to Constant Magic Academy and runs into one of its students, Hattori Junko (Hikasa Youko), on his first day there. She initially mistakes Akuto for a thug trying to mug her grandmother, but once that’s all cleared up and she hears of his righteous aspirations, she makes a vow of friendship with him in accordance to her Suhara family traditions.

Aside from a kick to the face, things couldn’t have gone better for Akuto for his first day. He befriends a beautiful fundoshi-wearing girl, meets the attractive yet slightly creepy school physician/teacher Torii Mitsuko (Takahashi Chiaki), and receives a clean bill of health from the artificial chain-smoking spirit Yata Garasu. However, everything goes south shortly afterward, with Yata Garasu’ aptitude test declaring that Akuto’s future occupation is that of a Demon King. Seeing as this test has never been wrong, a school-wide uproar results, with the one feeling most betrayed being his new classmate Junko. Akuto tries to calm the commotion, but the students soon realize that his declaration downplaying the test is similar to how the demon king declared war on mankind a hundred of years ago. What can go wrong, continues to go wrong (akin to Murphy’s law).

Surprisingly, Akuto draws the support of one Miwa Hiroshi (Yonaga Tsubasa), who compounds his problems by nominating him as class representative over Junko. As further damage control, Akuto declines the nomination and offers to do something meager like being part on cleaning committee instead, only to find out that the “cleaning committee” at Constant is responsible for silencing those who discover the school’s secrets—with force. This results in Junko challenging him to a duel for “playing with” her emotions, which results in Akuto’s hidden powers inadvertently causing an explosion. He tries to apologize to Junko later that night, but climbing up to her window and tapping on it three times for a booty call doesn’t go so well. Before round two is all said and done with another explosion, Akuto runs into a beautiful redhead (Toyosaki Aki) who tries to protect him and a green-haired girl named Korone (Yuuki Aoi) who introduces herself as an observer.

 

As you can see from the screenshots, there’s a fair bit of cleavage and fundoshi (panty) shots in this series, but no full exposure. I was actually hoping that this is all there would be, as I like what I read in the manga and didn’t want to see this series pigeonholed as a “trashy hentai show”. As I mentioned in the Spring 2010 Preview, I found the whole high school magic premise entertaining and compared it to Kampfer. Kampfer wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a fun series to follow due to the attractive character designs and the unique personalities that went with them. There was a good level of fan-service too, but nothing overly excessive. So far, it looks like Artland (producers of Mushishi) has provided just that in this adaptation, so with the possibility that Akuto’s back-story may amount to something meaningful, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this one.

Those aren’t my only reasons for following this series however, as I really enjoyed the new anime cast that replaced the drama CD’s. Kondou Takashi is really fun to watch, as his portrayal of Akuto is reminiscent of the logical side of Sugisaki Ken in last year’s Seitokai no Ichizon. Bringing all the tsundere goodness in Junko on the other hand is Hikasa Youko, whose roles I’ve been keeping an eye out the most lately. (She’s my latest seiyuu of interest.) Alongside her is fellow K-ON co-star Toyosaki Aki playing the red-head dojikko Soga Keena and kurenai star Yuuki Aoi as the green-haired android Korone. Plus there are Itou Shizuka, Tomatsu Haruka, Hirohashi Ryou, and other K-ON co-stars Kotobuki Minako and Taketatsu Ayana‘s characters whom we haven’t seen a lot of yet. In short, this is ecchi comedic fun with an awesome cast which probably won’t turn out to be anything special in the end, but I plan to enjoy the ride all the way through. I’m not going to make recommendations one way or another, but is anyone with me?

Notes:
* This post is later than I would’ve liked because a local storm knocked out my Internet access for half a day.
* The opening sequence featuring sphere‘s new song REALOVE;REALIFE was shown as an ending sequence for this first episode.
* In addition to HEROMAN, this series is another one of Crunchyroll‘s new simulcasts for the season.
* Full-length shots of the lovely Junko can be seen here and here. Mmm…

 

OP Sequence

OP: 「REALOVE;REALIFE」 by sphere
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

53 Comments

  1. Whenever there’s a good story with characters that I know I’ll like, a setting that I will also like, and the genre is what I’m looking for, it always turns out to be an Ecchi. Can we for once not objectify females in an anime series? Jesus christ….

    Eh, I’m still waiting for Hakuouki though. Can’t wait to see what that one is like. I’ve been waiting for a good samurai series.

    Katya
    Reply

    1. Perhaps it’s because women and the female body are things of beauty that should be admired and even gawked over. As long as it’s somewhat tasteful and leaves something to the imagination, I generally don’t mind when it comes to anime.

      That said, I do like Junko’s tsundere personality, so I’m not only interested in her character because she shows a lot of skin. I know that doesn’t sound very convincing, but that’s my personal take on this series.

      divine
      Reply

    2. I feel exactly the same way. I’m kinda sick and tired of all this ecchi crap that studios keep putting out. There’s been a few series that I would’ve enjoyed and stuck with if they had less boobs and more actual storyline.

      Toasty
      Reply

  2. I’m all up for magical series, so I’m interested to see where it goes.

    And I agree, I hope this doesn’t end up getting tossed away as being another silly ecchi series.

    Phosphatide
    Reply

  4. This shows confused me not in story but quality. At times there are 30 fps and the aesthetic gimmick they used (like hiding the panties shots) well done. I’ve seen bad anime and good anime but this season I felt is has good and bad. the good is definitely the battle. The bad I don’t really like the character design and some of the color schemes. Still I hope the show will take a serious turn since the novel is portrayed excellently.

    b0mb3r
    Reply

  6. thanks for doing this after OMNI left 🙂
    so from the ending sequence, seems like the demon lord later on awaken with his full potential? …
    nonetheless, it is still interesting one 🙂

    jrj
    Reply

  7. This looks like it’s going to be exactly the kind of fun, silly, trashy-but-not-too-trashy show I like to watch sometimes. Remember, high culture needs low culture to be higher than!

    I’m also looking forward to the running joke of “Sai Akuto”, the nicest Evil Overlord history records – like how he tries to deliver an after-school-special lecture on the dangers of prejudice, only to have it taken as a desk-pounding terrorist manifesto.

    The series almost certainly won’t be memorable. I suspect whether it’s enjoyable will depend on the comedic chemistry between Akuto and Junko (who is clearly the lead haremette). My vote for best plot development in that direction: He rapidly clears things up with Junko, and she becomes the right-hand henchwoman to get the rest of the school on his side. Akuto, Junko, and Hiroshi as the Three Stooges of Well-Meaning(?) Evil(??) sounds like it has more comedic potential than Junko going Narusegawa on Akuto every 5 minutes.

    Evan
    Reply

  13. Can anyone say inconsistent censorship? Sometimes they covered fundoshi girls ass with shadow and sometimes they showed it almost completely. Then there’s that really bad job of retouching her boobs in screenshot no. 30 where you can totally see how they screwed up at covering up her breast. Seriously it’s like they didn’t even bother to use a semi-professional graphic tool, they just used the standard MSpaint and just drew over it with the closest colour they found in the default colour palette. And then again two seconds later they pretty much show everything but her nipple.

    While it may not be one of those softporn shows like most recently Ladies Butlers it’s still a show based on fanservice so these kinds of details are important. And in that regard they failed big time. I hope this is a mere fluke and they have the one responsible crucified before the next broadcast.

    b3arz3rg3r
    Reply

  14. Besides Ikkitousen this is the best opener for the season so far me. However I did see some sensor; so maybe the DVD version will show more skin. With that saaid if this go south “Kampher” style it will be a waste. I hope it doesn’t; havent recovered from it yet.

    Island Esper
    Reply

  15. I had no expectations for this, so when it started with an interesting introduction it caught my attention. I thought it was fun, the animation was good and the voices were pretty good, too. But then came the fundoshi, and from there it was too much fanservice for me to handle, so I don’t think I’ll be following this…

    You’re doing a great job taking after omni (I found this site a few days ago, so it didn’t feel right for me to say goodbye… I wish I would’ve got here earlier).

    Kiki
    Reply

  19. good thing pikasha gets to land on major roles though idk how well this anime would fare off in the long run. as a pikasha follower, it’s quite nice to see that she’s getting a bit of the spotlight and it’s about time if i may say so, considering how k-on was able to boost aki and minako’s popularity back then yet left the rest of the newbie seiyus under wraps. then again, it might be due to SPHERE’s influence. on a side note, i guess pikasha establishes herself well in the tsundere department though i do hope she doesn’t follow kugirie’s footsteps in being a typecast (her voice acting potential could do so much).

    baka~
    Reply

  29. Yeah, there was some censorship for the TV broadcast, but it wasn’t as excessively annoying as in other shows, since there were still a lot of panty shots.
    Good first episode, but it’s just too sad that the novel is still ongoing, which means that we’ll have another series without proper (or at least not the novel) ending. Wish they waited some more before making those anime adaptations.

    bobara
    Reply

  31. Nobody’s saying anything about the was Sai was able to defend himself and (inadvertantly, but still) defeat the woman who was attacking him. This is one of my main gripes with the lot of the animu Japan creates; the reason why I can’t enjoy the lot of the titles like the idiot I’m suppose to be.

    My hope is that Sai, instead of being the typical animu punching bag, defends himself more often. Like, you know, Senta from Juuden-chan.

    Tyrenol
    Reply

  32. The seiyuu cast is awesome, the character design is nice, but I don’t know if I will really watch this :S I didn’t really find the comedy parts funny, there’s too much ecchi and I’m not sure if I’ll like neither Hikasa Youko nor Kondou Takashi in their roles. I guess I’ll stick with it for a few more episodes to see where is this going.

    Jurkasz
    Reply

  33. In case nobody noticed, that “Yatagarasu” didn’t have a 3rd leg. Ergo, a fake, possibly put there by the real Demon King to set our poor protagonist up.

    Then again, anime students never were the brightest bunch. I mean, bullying the dragon??? They’re just too dumb to live.

    Phuong
    Reply

  34. I’ll watch this for 2 main reasons: Tsundere characters get me going ^^ and the cast looks awesome. The bits with skin don’t bother me…just like a cherry on top of a sundae.

    Shinjiro
    Reply

  37. “Worst Evil”? Why not just name your kid “Adolf”, mother? I’m surprised nobody has ever bullied him before. Guess 31st century kids only get stupid (like Phuong said, bullying someone prophesied to be a demon king? Nobody has ever heard of self fulfilling prophecies, do they?) after entering high school. Puberty, perhaps?

    Still, guy works quite fast, I mean there’s at least 3 girls involved in the first episode and apparently more will come. I hope there won’t be to much of the whole misunderstanding plot though, the Zettai Ryouiki girl is starting to feel too tsun for me and needs more dere.

    I guess this is gonna be this seasons Kampfer for me, now I only need K-On!! and a decent war series(“Senko Raid” something i guess?)

    Nestor
    Reply

  38. Hmmm, this sounds interesting, I may give it a shot. Ecchi series that don’t do anything more than tease usually annoy me … after Queen’s Blade, SnQ, LvB and now XX, cleavage and pantyshots are pretty ‘meh’ by this point. I don’t really care if other people think a show I’m watching is a crappy hentai show, as long as I like it. *shrugs* The futuristic setting could be fun tho.

    Out of curiosity, divine, did you watch the rest of Ladies v Butlers? WHat’d you think of it? I loved it up until that god-awful ending to episode 12. :/

    Guardian
    Reply

    1. I actually did watch Ladies versus Butlers to completion and enjoyed it a lot because of Kawasumi Ayako and Nakahara Mai. Saikyou in particular was a lot of fun to watch because of her sadistic ways, and Hino was a pretty “good” male protagonist for a harem series given how indifferent and dense he is. And then you have Drill to poke fun at.

      Seeing as it was a harem series, I wasn’t expecting much from the ending so it didn’t disappoint me at all. Overall, I think it could have done without all the nudity though, as there was enough material to make it entertaining in its own right.

      divine
      Reply

  41. Make sure you watch the uncensored version xD

    For some reason Hattori’s eyes didn’t go @@ when she fainted during the school and forest explosions…and btw, u get to see nipples in the uncensored version xD

    Delon
    Reply

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