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「魔王学院の不適合者」 (Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha)
“The Misfit of Demon King Academy”
Ah summer, we can all rest easy knowing it’s finally arrived—summer anime is now here after all! While concern may persist about the strength of this season or how many of those spring restarts will actually restart (because Corono-chan), at least we have one of our first in Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha, and I dare say it’s a good fit for the times at hand. Sure, this one isn’t particularly special, but at least it’s got some fire in its belly. Well, at least its hands.
As the always handy RC Preview indicates, Maou Gakuin is your paint-by-numbers light novel battle academy story. Our lead MC Anoth (Suzuki Tatsuhisa) is the OP machine who winds up being the ugly duckling for certain reasons, and through moxie, ability, or just sheer badass-ery (repeatedly killing a guy and resurrecting him to get him to surrender certainly is a hot take) gets to work his way to the top and prove everyone wrong. We have the usual cookie cutter enemies thrown in to prove essential roadblocks, and (as always) the array of girls with dartboard-determined personalities whom ensure Anoth is never left wanting in waifu options.
The defining feature of Maou Gakuin, however, is its premise. Effectively taking a page from Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2 while giggling at those thinking this is an isekai (it’s not) and revelling in its Harry Potter aesthetics, Anoth is literally the king of demons resurrected, a guy who decided to time skip two millennia into the future for reasons currently unknown. Thus rather than a largely neutered MC who must rely on smarts and one dangerous ability (e.g. Rakudai’s Ikki), we get the effective opposite in a kid (literally, he’s only a month old!) who starts with all the powers and no conceivable opponent capable of matching him. Yes, those are definitely Gary Stu sirens you hear in the background. To be fair to Maou Gakuin though, there’s a lot of unknowns regarding its plot and characters right now, as this episode rushed hard through its opening material and cut a lot of the source material’s initial exposition. Wish fulfillment, while rightfully frowned upon, can be done right with proper writing, and considering Anoth already has a leg up personality-wise compared to the likes of Jesus-kun Tatsuya, there’s some decent hope this one will (if truly going the Gary Stu route) nail narratively what its fellow genre mates struggle with.
Overall while Maou Gakuin is highly unlikely to change collective opinions on battle academy series or find itself topping ranking charts, there’s enough here which if built on successfully stands a good chance at turning this into a fun bit of summer weekend entertainment. We’ll know more once the rest of the cast is introduced and motives are revealed, but don’t believe for a moment this one has fully revealed all its cards. After all, this demon king is in the mood for some educating.
OP Sequence
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OP: 「正解不正解」 (Seikai Fuseikai) by CIVILIAN
Preview
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They may give more details on why Anoth reincarnated in upcoming episodes,but for those curious;
Show Spoiler ▼
Source readers also say the worldbuilding and its mysteries are a rather slow moving plot element.
Pancakes edit: spoiler tags
Can you put stuff like this behind a spooler tag please?
I must’ve put in the spoiler tags incorrectly. My apologies.
This is at the least a Gary Stu that is comfortable in his skin.
That’s probably the best way to describe him actually, the combination of personality and power makes him a good deal more entertaining than other Stus which try half heartedly to pretend they aren’t glorified self-inserts lol
I mean, the show is pretty self aware. It’s kinda like Arifureta in that way; they know full well how cliche this is and are just reveling in it
I don’t like how they didn’t start with the events 2000 years ago, or even when he was born, that part was pretty funny, it would have take no more than minute and a half or two, but well, they have a second episode to do it, I hope.
I expect the backstory will be covered later on because it’s important for understanding just what the hell is going on. This episode was largely a hook given the focus on the first two fights.to the exclusion of everything else.
While I can see their reaosning, in hindsight I think the original order of the events would have worked better. The demon lord’s past followed by the hilarity of his outlandish birth and growth (one month old!) not only provided the background, but also the general tone for the series, a mix of edginess with comedy.
Here, I feel the anime tried to play the events for dramatic surprise rather than humorous suspense. Don’t know if it’s a one-episode choice or a sign of things to come.
(It probably helps that I’m not a fan of the magical academy settings, so using their usual tropes as the hook rather than Anoth’s unique circumstances feels like a missed opportunity)
Probably a one episode thing, at least in terms of the heavy tilt towards shock and awe. I wouldn’t expect the violence to disappear considering what the source material is like, but things should better balance out once the story’s main conflict and its key characters are properly revealed.
This show was interesting for me. I mean, it’s nothing groundbreaking; it’s certainly not going to win any awards or anything, but it wasn’t exactly awful either. There’s something to be said for honesty in concept, and this shows knows it’s not doing anything incredible here, but clearly just wants to have fun with what it is, and I can appreciate that.
I can enjoy poorly written shows in certain situations (I actually enjoyed Arifureta quite a bit, guilty pleasure of mine, same for Hagure Yuusha), so as long as it keeps up this pace and doesn’t try to be more than it should, it could make for a relaxing watch.
The key will be in how it handles its more serious aspects and overarching story. If Anoth keeps his anachronistic humour and utter lack of sh*ts given while going full Gary Stu in terms of plot, this will definitely prove to be fun, especially if the female side of the coin is equally entertaining personality- and chemistry-wise. We’ll just have to see what next week brings.
Oh, the female sideS will be just fine in this show 😉 … I’d even argue that Misha isn’t necessarily the _real_ lead.
This is certainly no terribly original show, but I expect it to be a nice guilty pleasure. And if you like seeing haughty braggarts slapped down, a really big guilty pleasure.
Like the MC so far. Strange sense of humour and a real appreciation of family. Would love to know what he answered in that sister & brother question.
Can’t tell if family is the theme of the show, but I really like his mum and dad. As strange as they are, they’re probably the only pair that can accept their one month (!?) old son enrolling into an academy. Hoping he’d invite that other girl home just to see their reactions. XD
I swore he must’ve influenced them with magic when the skit was playing out, but nope, just two parents very happy knowing their kid will grow up to be the best XD
I’ve grown to be a sucker for these types of shows — I can’t really say
what the appeal is, maybe a wish-fulfillment or escapism from the crazy
times we’re in (like the last decade); but they’re great fantasy fun!
I like how the comedy is not in joke telling but in the mechanics of the
story. I laughed at the wash-rinse-repeat, oops, I meant kill-revive-repeat-
until-the-dude-gives-up shenanigans! Anoth seems to enjoy giving his
adversary enough rope to hang themself – hopefully that won’t get too
old too fast… I liked the interaction between Anoth and Misha (nothing
better than head pats and she apparently is a kuudere) is charming.
I can’t wait to see how her role actually plays out!
Of course the only down side is the 2-dimensionalish bad guys. Really,
you’re one of the best in the school and you don’t stop to think about
how OP the protagonist is after being smitten and resurrected several
times and nobody in current history has done something like that?!
Unless he did tell his brother and his brother blew it off — whatever…
Looking forward to following this series to see what’s next!
Unfortunately, people like those bad guys do exist in real life. They have a grandiose sense of self-important & superiority. They are often blinded by their delusion.
Kind of gave off Mahouka Koukou vibes.
OP MC who is out of touch with a quiet sidekick who is pretty smart, fighting people that grossly underestimate them because of their status/personality. Also he has already crossed the line of magic jesus.
First episode was definitely entertaining, but I’m hoping there is more depth than “Watch this OP guy barrel through life and all of the world’s complex problems with his overwhelming power!”
Well. No my cup of tea. it could have an interesting future plot development; but the MC is too OP for my taste.
Had a chuckle hearing Jouji Nakata’s narration. (“Yorokobe, shounen!” He also voiced the dragon Peterhausen in Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, a light novel/anime with a similar premise.)
Killing his (starter) opponent to revive him again? (And again, and again…?) Power levels that can’t be measured by (current-gen?) magitek? Man, with how OP he is, I’m almost certain Anoth at full power can take on Re:Zero‘s Satella–in her prime.
Well, guess Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha counts as one of those LN series that revels in the guilty pleasure of male power fantasy tropes (a bold, if somewhat controversial, choice in the times we live in). Anoth could use a few more girls in his battle harem, though (with a dash of ecchi as a bonus). Luckily, Misha’s sister Sasha is on her way–and based on the preview poster, there’s gonna be more. That said, looking forward to the Necron sisters’ backstories. I’ll be satisfied if the MC’s hax-ness doesn’t get boring quick, the story turns out to be better than initial impressions and it gives a convincing sequel hook.
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Man this ep felt so rushed and cringe. Lame mc edgelord teen fantasy. So hard to find good isekai nowadays.
I know this is out of the blue but Royal Road website has some few gems unless that’s what it looks like to me.
I guess RR is the worldwide version of Shōsetsuka ni Narō but don’t give up on the genre and if you are, how about reading “Summoned To Have Tea with Demon Lord”? It kind of makes fun of isekai genre.
Though it’s a light reading that’s not dark and states Satire labelled by the author.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/31007/i-was-summoned-to-have-tea-with-the-demon-lord
Unless you click my name below.
All I can say is
“That escalated quickly”