Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「サーシャの真意」 (Saasha no Shin’i)
“Sasha’s True Intentions”
While I’m honestly a little surprised at how quickly Maou Gakuin has settled into the godly Gary Stu routine, I cannot say I’m disappointed with how things are turning out so far. Between absurd power level, nonchalant MC personality, and demonic secrecy it’s all coming up wish fulfillment Milhouse, and although the great risk of repetition and blandness remains, that taste of mystery ensures we at least have a bit of fun to eke out this story.
As mentioned last week the main concern with Maou Gakuin is not providing any challenge to offset Anoth’s starting point. Any wish fulfillment worth its salt will provide some semblance of difficulty to at least give reason to see all those crazy powers in action, and here the solution it seems will be mystery solving. It’s not a bad idea in practice really; Anoth might have all the power in the world, but that power cannot fix matters of the mind (at least easily) or convince the rightfully doubtful that their eyes aren’t deceiving them. The hilarious scene with the Demon Emperor Ivis Necron and Anoth’s actions proved to me there’s some measure of coherent plot at work, as Anoth’s history being so thoroughly twisted and his need to discern the truth effectively precludes the usual (and far too common) slice-of-life harem building shenanigans which infect these types of stories. Not to say we won’t see that going forward, but Anoth is likely to be a little too busy putting two and two together to worry about hot tubs and pool parties.
Proving this in particular is the immediate uncertainty surrounding Sasha and Misha. I must admit Sasha flipping between extremes that quickly was pretty surprising after all the talking—and kissing—last week and the start of this episode, but I still think the girl is more good than bad as it’s very likely her actions are designed to stave off whatever fate awaits Misha at the end of the day. It’s not improbable for example that Misha was probably intended to help Sasha obtain whatever goal is in mind for the Necron family, and that Sasha probably detests this and is seeking a way to keep her sister around. Obviously more to it of course (how does taking robe and staff both immediately help? No damn idea), but we’ll just have to wait for our resident tsundere to properly reveal all.
Considering it wouldn’t take Anoth more than a few seconds to put twin tails in her place, I suspect finding out the truth (and probably a bit more of post-death Anoth history as well) won’t take too long.
This is the sort of world-level realistic challenge to a Gary Stu like him. Instead of some really lame set of challengers like the “all-powerful student council” or the “elite teachers against the dark arts” or “the former world hero school principle”
This is a distortion of history that stacks the deck against the reincarnated Demon Lord from simply reclaiming his heritage, and is a challenge he cannot just magically blast things away. He’s gotta re-earn his status back by figuring the mystery out.
So yeah, this is fun, we get the guilty pleasure of a Gary Stu with a decent worthy challenge running throughout the arc.
Oh yeah it’s definitely guilty pleasure level. It’s always nice when we get such a show which understands exactly what it is and wastes little time trying to gloss over that fact with nonsensical terms and info. I don’t expect this at all to be a chart topping masterpiece, but you can easily do worse for a bit of Saturday entertainment.
Reminds me a little of A. E. van Vogt’s The Book of Ptath, where a god of the far future reincarnates after a long absence only to find that things have changed a lot in a bad way while he was gone and so he has to figure out how to reclaim his former status and who was behind it all.
At first, Sasha’s (apparent) betrayal was shocking, but Anos read the mood
(i.e., her eyes) quite well IMHO. I loved how he instantly healed Misha when he
saw her injury. Thinking about episode 2, you can see a foreshadowing of sorts
with the talk about “if your fate was already sealed?” So my money’s on the
idea that Sasha is somehow coerced into doing what she did and this is her
way of asking Anos for help.
I wonder how far the series will be able to explore the source material since
there seems to be much more depth than a simple demon school comedy.
The breaking of the Zecht was clever too since it was originally cast by Misha
and somehow that made it really weak or non-binding.
Yeah, it’s a Gary Stu type of hero, but it’s done so well you couldn’t see the
character being any other way.
Misha’s clapping at Anos’s sturdiness was just the perfect touch of cuteness!
I laughed hard at Misha’s clapping, I thought it was a perfect fit for her deadpan personality.
As for adapted material I wouldn’t expect much IMO. There’s seven novels out so we’ll likely get 3-4 max unless the chopping and rushing becomes extreme.
After seeing who gave Sasha the coat, the real question is who will give Misha the ring? She’s wearing it on her ring finger in the ending.
I get the feeling Sasha’s trying to save Misha. Have to ask why the theatrics and why does she need the staff. She’s clearly trying to do something before midnight, safe to assume it has something to do with Misha being in that world.
It’s also nice that the protagonists actually gave advice befitting of a demon king. That how to get rid of people tip was rather interesting. Still don’t see the difference between his actual personality and the legendary personality. He’s mostly in detective mode so far.
Firmly expect Anoth to give her the ring, it’s technically his after all 😛
Also yeah Sasha is trying to save her sister, it’s just a question why she needs saving and how her abrasive actions help in that regard. We’ll know soon enough though considering Misha supposedly only has hours left to live.
I’m kinda gonna have to disagree about the MC being a “Mary Sue” character. Just because he’s OP at the beginning of the show doesn’t make him a “Mary Sue”, particularly since its clear that he had already proven capable in his previous life due to the fact that he was the frickin’ Demon Lord. That he knows he’s OP and doesn’t seem to give a darn, also doesn’t mean he’s a “Mary Sue” character. There’s clearly some shenanigans happening and simply being OP won’t solve that, so we will end up seeing why his being OP is justified.
IMO it’s grey territory categorization-wise. I fully agree Anoth doesn’t meet the technical definition, but his abilities, effective invincibility, and the harem in the making set him up to go that route if that’s what the story turns into. For better or worse the layman associates this type of character with colloquial Mary Sues/Gary Stus so it becomes easier to broadly label them as such rather than spend time digging into the differences.
It’s not improbable for example that Misha was probably intended to help Sasha obtain whatever goal is in mind for the Necron family,
I get the feeling that Misha is a creation of whatever that crystal is Sasha was shown inside and Sasha’s raw power. There’s a mention that Sasha would randomly destroy everything with her eyes until Misha helped her control it. Anos said something about her eyes not being fully awakened, so It’s possible the crystal was used to split some of Sasha’s power into another “person” to make it manageable. But the effect was only intended to last until she was old enough to take the power back.
Problem: Sasha doesn’t want to lose the first person who was kind to her. At the same time, she’s incredibly angry that they’re resigned to vanishing and don’t seem upset that they’re leaving her. Sooooo Tsundere mode activated.
Something tells me you’re more right than wrong, but we’ll have to leave that for next episode 😉
The storyline is actually interesting with the history being rewritten but the delivery of the show is so cringe. Everything from people thinking he’s nuts even tho he’s abnormally powerful and the way all the main characters act…
Maybe I just grew too old
An anituber described this show wonderfully as either a self-aware comedic power fantasy or a great so-bad-its-good anime
Which anituber, if you don’t mind me asking?
Though I could rule out the Trash Taste podcast trio (The Anime Man, Gigguk, CDawgVA) since their most recent videos aren’t about this show. (Unless they have a mention of it in a Summer 2020 season preview video I missed.)
Mother’s Basement.
As a person who fell in the trap of the dreaded Mahouka and the worst MC ever known as the True One Tatsuya because I got recommended and legions of teens who don’t know better promised this was the best and most profound anime ever made, I can say this is what I would prefer to watch instead, it lacks the self seriousness and can reach the it’s so bad is good peak. Mahouka on the other hand… is just bad and I can still laugh the creators laughing at me in my sleep for believing in it when I started to watch it.
I’m sorely tempted to cover Mahouka’s second season when it airs just for the comparisons it will elicit between itself and shows like this, especially considering Mahouka is set to really go off the rails story-wise lol.
This is to Mahouka like Hundread is to Infinite Stratos.
It kinda feels like someone looked at the first series and basicly kept some parts while improving the stupid parts.
Wait, are you saying that Hundred is better than IS? I have never seen Hundred but quite enjoyed IS back then….
Hate watched Mahouka though and will probably do the same for the sequel, so I’ll definitely check out Maou Gakuin now.
Please do cover Mahouka´s second season. But I doubt it can top the self fullfillment and absolutely ridiculous and insulting to the audience’s intelligence ending. It is the only anime where I felt outrage watching it.
As dumb as Mahouka is, I find it a guilty pleasure. I agree with the criticisms that others have mentioned, especially regarding its ending. I scored the last three episodes a 1, which offhand, I haven’t done with any other show. I’ll add that the whole premise is a lie but for whatever reason, it doesn’t bother me as much as say Full Metal Alchemist’s BS did. Maybe it’s because this is so silly I can’t take it seriously (even as it takes itself very seriously).
In its favour — technobabble minutes aside — it moves along quickly (although I don’t recommend watching it weekly). I find some of the female characters fun (Honoka, Mayumi, Kanon and sometimes Mizuki), their designs attractive and voice acting good. Tatsuya does actually have a sense of humour but he spends so much time lecturing, moralizing and being superior that there isn’t much time left for it. So sort of like Infinite Stratos, I find it to be dumb fun.
Thanks for that. Gave the video a watch, too. (The “Anime Pope”, eh?)
Well, already got turned off on Mahouka thanks to the brocon tendencies of the otherwise pretty Miyuki Shiba (“Onii-sama… Onii-sama…“) and the fact that I’ve had enough of little sister characters with brocon tendencies. (OreImo, Yosuga no Sora… Eromanga-sensei would probably be the last of those shows I’d watch, but I was already cringing at episode 2. Loved Kuroneko’s cameo in one episode, though.)
That said, had I fully watched Mahouka earlier, that would have soured my thoughts on Maou Gakuin and wanting to give the show a chance. Still kinda tainted from watching Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou some time ago, however–and I dunno if the source material for that series already ended (and how the source material ended, for that matter). Most anime adaptations of LNs rarely reach the ultimate end point of the LNs and it’d be disappointing (but not surprising) if Maou Gakuin suffers a similar fate.
I got problems with Mahouka mainly being so self serious. If I hold my breath I can stomach the stupid technomagical blabber that goes nowhere, the extreme self insertion of the good guy, the plots from arc to arc being essentially the same just with different base problems and characters, the stupid sicon thing plus all female ever walking past Tatsuya suddenly wanting to throw their panties at him, being the sole intelligent magic user on planet earth who could beat any mage in resolving single hadedly the most complicated magic, hell, even the ending. But come on, make it funny.
Keima from Kaminomi worked because even he always had everything under control he was a fun character to watch and the story was funny. Here we have some so over the top stupidty is amusing to watch much like how extremely exagerated was the first season of One Punch Man’s animation. Tatsuya and how the story is told are as interesting as watching drying paint from a wall.
It’s pretty awful so maybe you’re younger than you think. Actually, it’s such a juvenile show that any adult who watches it would feel old. As you point out, there’s the thread of something interesting in there but it’s buried in a mound of manure. At least it’s mostly painless.
It certainly takes a specific mindset to get the most out of this. I also think it’s meant for younger viewers, but I personally don’t mind self-aware series like this because I find it easy to find the comedy in them. A little like Konosuba, just less satirical and more unintentional 😛
This is night and day with Konosuba. That show is (actually) funny, with interesting characters (who actually have character). The characters in this show are stick figures. This show is wooden, that show is anything but. Self-aware shows (especially when badly-written and juvenile) shouldn’t take themselves seriously like this one does. I could go on for a while but I’ll spare everyone and just say that this is chuunibyou in a nutshell.
Yes definitely agreed, that’s why I never directly linked them outside of passing reference. Normally I’d hate this sort of thing because of its setup and serious nature (Isekai wa Smartphone and Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria come to mind as related examples), but IMO it has enough self-awareness to understand the fault of playing its pieces too hard and offsets the weaknesses with a decent (personality-wise) main character. For me that offset and any subjective humour arising from it just clicks and keeps things interesting which is why I’m enjoying it more than I originally expected.
This show will never be spectacular or groundbreaking, but it does enough to keep encouraging watching. Pretty much the definition of so bad it’s good IMO.
I see your point. I think that this show does have an interesting story idea —unknown actor changes reality — which I’d like to see told. As someone else mentioned, they really fail at the other stuff though and for me at least, it’s so bad it’s damaging to the whole. I think the main character would shine more if they could dispense with the garbage, but yeah, it’s not likely to happen. It’s an easy watch at least.
*slow clap*
That sudden twist with Sasha stabbing Misha surprised me, but in a good way. Especially with how that subverted last episode’s apparent “defeat means friendship” moment. (Though yes, an argument can be made that she probably didn’t want to[?], but only did so under orders from the Necron family elders.)
And I haven’t mentioned this before, but whenever I hear or read the word “Necron”, my mind gravitates towards those ancient alien killer robots** from Warhammer 40,000. So hearing Ivis Necron speak in a similar machine monotone to Dawn of War: Dark Crusade‘s Thomas Macabee (or male Eldar/Dark Eldar units, for that matter) made me chuckle. (Props to the sound/voice production team. To this day, I still wonder how they add that “mechanical echo enhancement” to regular human voices.)
Strange segue aside, it was satisfying to see some reveals (the Seven Elder Demon Emperors) and additional worldbuilding (I’m hoping Anoth re-seals that hidden treasure room within his castle, however). But the mystery regarding those responsible for erasing Anoth’s name and accomplishments these past 2,000 years still remains. For now, I’m basically chomping at the bit to know more about the Necron family’s situation in the hope that it will help Anoth’s investigation.
(** – Yes, I know the fluff’s much deeper than that, that’s how I’d describe them on short notice.)
I would love to read your blog posts. This is really what I was looking for and I am very happy to come here!