Maoujou de Oyasumi – 08

「姫と魔族の恐るべき悪夢」 (Hime to Mazoku no Osorubeki Akumu)
“The Princess and the Frightful Demon Nightmare”

Episode 08 of Maoujou de Oyasumi frames a bulk of its plot around the Flame Poison Dragon’s fight against the Hero. But while they prepare to duke it out, Princess Syalis has a dream that sheds more light on the Hero’s childhood, we learn about the complex she has about her tongue being too short, and we see how Syalis’ behavior around the denizens of the castle cause them to mistakenly sabotage the fight.

The cavity section wasn’t too special, but it was fun to have the first segment involve the kind of relationship she had with the Hero as a kid. While the comedic effect of the Hero’s visage being flashed whenever she forgot his name was priceless, it also helped to explain why it is taking him forever to get to the Demon King’s Castle.

Although launching the flowers he gave to Syalis was purely accidental, he definitely went ahead and chewed on a bee, complimenting its flavor right after he finished. You can’t help but feel guilty for him for getting lost after Syalis abandoned him, but the Hero kept at it and was still cheery and enthusiastic when he made it back.

The best part of the episode, though, was easily when the rest of the castle had to explain why all of the items that the Flame Poison Dragon brought to battle were tampered with. Pointing fingers at the Princess’ behavior had become so commonplace that it was hilarious to see how the demons at the castle ended up doing the most damage.

It was funny to see how much the situation ended up escalating based on which demon was involved. The honest mistake that Alraune made by not removing the avocados she added to the Flame Poison Dragon’s bag was passed off as an embarrassing slip-up that had to have been Syalis. Red Siberian’s slip-up was being callous enough to think a book crucial in his battle was worthless enough to be decent sleeping material for Syalis, making his mistake even more damning by comparison. Then, the head honcho himself ended up trying to bury his mistake by blaming the princess for urging him to continue modifying his princess robot until it’s completely useless. The Cleric’s jealousy was the most damning of them all by outright adding in a bomb intended to take out both the Flame Poison Dragon and Syalis’ fiance at the same time.

To me, the latter segment shows off one of the anime’s biggest strengths in having comedy that involves having an entire segment be the joke itself. Rather than trying to pepper in rapid-fire joke after joke, it eases you into the funny scenarios that are built-up within the story before you realize where the payoff is going. As the demons’ mistakes with the Flame Poison Dragon’s item bag become more and more questionable, it all pays off to them trying to dissuade him from confronting the Princess about it since the ones who want to stop him are all to blame. Meanwhile, with the Hero’s story, it all comes to fruition with the Cleric connecting the dots that the Hero was her childhood friend and fiance, causing him to drop the bomb in his item bag on purpose. It’s impressive how the anime combined the material to make both of those segments two pieces of a puzzle that add up right when the payoff for each joke starts to connect.

And while I was lukewarm about the build-up towards removing Syalis’ cavity, the story was very stealthy in making sure that we didn’t realize that another the reason it took over 8 hours for her to comply with her cavities being removed was that the long time it took was just another way for her to fall asleep. It was a lot less obvious that her storming the castle for sleeping aids, but that’s what made it amusing. It was a relief to see a segment that ends with her slumber framed around a problem that upsets her beside her desire to sleep. It adds variety and spice alongside the segments focused on the demons living within the castle and helps to make Maoujou de Oyasumi far more exciting than just being a show where each segment has the same modus operandi for Syalis.