Maoujou de Oyasumi – 07

「もっと眠れぬ城の姫」 (Motto Nemurenu Shiro no Hime)
“Even More Sleepless Princess of the Castle”

This week’s Maoujou de Oyasumi flips the script as Princess Syalis has to make do with the shoddy arrangements in her new cell when she gets abducted by former demon king Hades. But as she wreaks havoc across the new castle, the differences between Twilight and Hades make for some great comedy with Hades lacking any sense of awareness for what’s in store for him.

I’m hoping that we get to see more of Hades if he retains his ignorance towards the ordeal Twilight has with Syalis. The funniest moments of the episode were focused on Hades being completely out-of-place in the Maoujou de Oyasumi narrative as the other characters have to navigate around him to keep him in the dark about Syalis’ true nature. He runs the castle and approaches Twilight as if he’s a formidable rival, making it a personal goal of his to be a more menacing demon king than him.

But his Achilles heel of being too caught up in his own hype that he doesn’t notice when the situation starts to become farcical is what makes Hades click as a character in the show. He ignores Syalis entirely as she quickly rips off all of his royal garb as the inner circle at Twilight’s castle are all internally screaming. I’m not sure if anything can top the scene when Twilight’s team is cheering on Syalis as she rips off the final piece of his cape, celebrating as if they’re watching a successful space shuttle launch.

It also adds to the last scenes of the episode where Hades is only mildly confused about why Twilight’s rescue party is equipped with items that can appeal to Syalis’ desire to sleep in a comfy bedroom. And for all of the theatrics that Syalis and Twilight make, their humorous demeanor clashes with the ultra-serious tone that Hades gives himself, so you just have these moments where Hades thinks he’s about to have a legendary battle with an admirable foe while Twilight just wants to have his crazy houseguest back.

The ending plays into this too when Twilight has to contemplate what he’d do if the Hero were to show up to take her back since he’s grown so attached to her. She sees Twilight’s castle as a home away from home since the furnishings in her bedroom are to her liking, but it will be interesting to explore what Syalis thinks of Twilight’s castle in comparison to her actual kingdom once we get to those crossroads.

Outside of the hilarity that came from Hades having the rug pulled out from under him, it was funny to see how Syalis responds to the differences in her surroundings. Because her cell is in disarray, she spends most of the episode as far away from it as possible. Her time to shine came prominently when she met Hypnos, a Professional Sleeper who becomes enamored by the ingenuity she has to create new solutions for getting the sleep she needs. Syalis always ends up being the oddball who is unable to relate to any of the demons or heroes around her, so it’s nice to see her interact with a character who shares common ground with her as another avid sleeper. With Hades’ castle as a new location on her map, it should be exciting to see if him and Hypnos end up having more screen time in the future.