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「｢待たせたな、わたしの勇者｣｢寝坊しすぎだ、おれの魔王｣」 (｢Mata Seta na, Watashi no Yuusha｣｢Nebou Shi Sugida, Ore no Maou｣)
“I’m back, my Hero. You sleep too much, my Demon King.”
My my, that was…rushed. Erh, so it’s over? That didn’t feel like a finale to me.
Maou vs Yuusha–erh, that’s it?
Well, that was fast. This whole battle lacked punch. I thought this was going to be the climax of the show, but they blew their load in the first 5 minutes in a seriously underwhelming confrontation. It was neat seeing Yuusha bend the scythe, but they didn’t get into it enough for me to think Yuusha could possibly lose to possessed Maou. It was just thoroughly underwhelming. Not much else to say on that. I give it a D-, correct your work and see me after all.
Mistaken Identity
On the flip side, the fight between Katame Shirei-kan and Gunjin Shitei was pretty great. Here, there was actually risk of the good guys losing – Katame Shirei-kan was clearly the more experienced swordsman, which showed in how he carved up Gujin Shitei without taking a scratch himself. Gunjin Shitei was more clever though, be it with his wrist armor (I still wonder if that would interfere with wielding a sword, but a damn great moment) or going for the mutual KO to beat a stronger foe. My only qualm was that he saved his life by jamming a sword into the wall while he was grappling with a strong foe, and despite the fact that the sword dropped down the hole before them. Add in the logistics of jamming it into the wall and it not only staying in place, but it first stopping and then holding all of his weight…ugh, I shouldn’t think about it so I can still remember that fight fondly.
General Winter
I quite enjoyed how Onna Kishi and her troops triumphed over the mercenaries with better discipline and surprise attacks. Them separating them up by enticing them to follow their own dividing forces (despite the fact that the enemy didn’t know the land as well and their horses were already tired) was a smart tactic. Though, since ‘ol General Winter came right after that, it all basically amounted to not a whole helluva lot. A neat fight though.
Maou vs Onna Kishi – I Don’t Buy It
Now, I’m as much of a fan of a good harem plot as the next red-blooded pervert. There’s nothing wrong with the occasional story indulging in the fantasy of one lucky bastard getting all the girls, especially if there is some comedy and ecchi bits thrown in for shits and giggles. My problem is when a harem or love triangle is shoehorned into a story halfheartedly. Maou and Yuusha are clearly a OTP (trope!), and acting like anything else is true is just wasting our time. I was fine with Onna Kishi contesting Yuusha for a while, just as I was fine with Seinen Shounin doing the same with Maou, but the latter only worked because he realized he had no shot and buggered off. Onna Kishi is a great character, but she has overstayed her welcome on the I-want-to-bone-Yuusha train. Yes, I laughed a few times this episode, from the teacup and blushing (seriously, how did she manage to drop the teacup on her head?) to the two of them getting within kissing distance as they argued over Yuusha, but that doesn’t mean it aided the story by being included. I would have much preferred Onna Kishi get over Yuusha and be open to finding love with some other awesome character that could come along later. It’s a thought.
Looking Ahead
This is the first finale where keeping this section in has been appropriate, because it doesn’t feel like a finale at all!! There’s still so much ahead in the story, and they weren’t shy about making that obvious. A few items:
- Apparently the humans and demons are already working together just fine, even if it’s for ill purposes. It is said that the best way to unite people is to give them something to unite against. It appears that the church is intent on doing this, even if they have to manufacture the enemy. Also, it’s time for guns to enter the fray? That can’t be good for anyone who likes living.
- Though Maou is looking for peace via this Quriltai thing, it doesn’t sound like the demon people are quite as interested in that. She really needs to start changing the culture there if they’re ever going to have a lasting peace. Though of course, that’s easier said than done.
- Nothing was really resolved. Seinen Shounin is still pushing for trade with the demon world, they’re trying to make a smallpox vaccine (for world peace!), everyone’s plans are still in motion…we didn’t even get a kiss between Maou and Yuusha!! Nothing was resolved at all, GAH!
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – A finale that didn’t feel like it. This story has clearly only just begun. Time to pick up the manga #Maoyuu
Random thoughts:
- I still have no idea what Onna Mahoutsukai was doing, talking about, or…anything else about her, really.
- Meido Chou no ecchi!
Full-length images: 06, 08, 18, 28.
Epilogue:
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Final Impressions
In writing my final impressions for Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, I described it as a work of flawed genius. If I were to describe Maoyuu Maou Yuusha in a similarly pithy way, it would be as a textbook example of adaptation decay (trope!). While the underlying characters and story struck me as very good, the implementation here was decidedly sub par. This was 2-cours (or more!) worth of material squeezed into one, and it suffered greatly for it.
Not all was bad, of course. Some episodes were quite good – episode 1 did a great job of slowly pulling us into the story and getting us interested in the characters, and episode 9 was so fantastic it was damn near worth watching the entire series just to appreciate that one episode alone. You may notice a similarity between these two episodes – they took their time. Very little material was covered, but what was covered was done with attention and care. When Maoyuu luxuriated over the little details, it was wonderful – that is exemplified by the disguised Meido Ane’s stirring speech in episode 9, but it was seen other times as well, especially when Seinen Shounin got in there and started negotiating the fuck out of someone.
The characters were great too. This was especially true of the side character, though not because the main characters were bad – it was just that they were the ones who most got short-changed by the rapid pace of the adaptation, so only certain secondary characters had anything like their full story told. Basically, there was so little of their story that they had to tell the whole thing for it to make sense! Special props go to Gunjin Shitei, Shounin Shitei, Toujaku Ou, and above all else, Meido Ane. Of anyone else, she was the character that grew the most. From a scared peasant to the one who ignited liberalism in the human world…stirring, simply stirring. I may go watch episode 9 again when I’m done with this post.
In the end, I’m forced to conclude that this adaptation was a failure. They rushed while trying to cover all this material, only for us to get to a finale that didn’t feel like a finale at all. If you are to rush, you need to at least give us a payoff to justify the pacing problems, and this anime lacked even that! I will say this though – after watching this, I badly want to read the what I understand is far superior “Kotowaru!” manga adaptation. If success can be counted in getting people interested in the source material (or another adaptation, in this case), then this was a successful anime. Unfortunately, I would have preferred they satisfy me with this adaptation so I didn’t have to seek out another medium to get the proper story. Strength in the source, weakness in the adaptation – for a tale with such interesting underpinnings, sadly that’s a story I’ve heard many times before.
I FEEL YOU STILTS, BUT ITS OK. still was good and there’s new shows to look forward to next week!
Yeah the same here. The Anime wanted to pack so many Things into it. And at the End.. Well beside the fight 1 vs 1 and the Merchants. There was not much. We know now that the “pope” is evil (perhaps a 2nd Overlord in disguise!!) But i think, that we get a 2nd Season. The “invention” of Gunpowder Weapons, the Secret Alliance with the Blue Demons, the “i want stuff” speech from the pope.. I was about to see a cliffhanger, where someone shoot Demon Lord with the New Gun. But nothing happed…
Well, perhaps we get a S2 or they really wanted to catch the Anime Spectators to read their Manga. But sadly i dont know it. So, Anime only View are “unpleased” with the End so far
and for Episode 9. It was all thanks to Head Maido. Her seed, planed into them grown into a Flower. As we shaw it in Episode 9. “Stand up if you are Human” (Episode 2)
I agree with all your points. This show had a lot of potential and if it had been two cour it would have been great. It just ended up being mediocre with a few great spots in it.
Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
Figures they wouldn’t have the budget (or time) to give the posessed Maou fight the effect it had on the manga. But seeing what this continuity’s Yusha is actually capable of, I think it was for the best.
“In the end, I’m forced to conclude that this adaptation was a failure.”
Why, of course~~~. It takes some this long to realize seeing a crappy show while others can smell it ages ago of its foul stench and stay clear off of it, figuratively speaking, ta-da! So here goes: I told you so! ah ha ha ha! ….Ok, ok, ok I kid. Couldn’t resist the temptation to release some cheap shots, folks. Sue me~~! 😛
All right, in all earnest, I don’t share the same general enthusiasm and love for almost all shapes and forms in japanese anime like Stilts and some other genuine anime lovers here seem to have; I am very picky and highly discriminative on things I do watch, so it’s only natural I called outcome this way back episode 2 or something.
Ahem, so now that it’s over and why not give it a good firm bashing for the last time before it sinks down, way way down to the sewage oblivion, folks? if you were silent before to avoid offending good folks, now it’s time to come out of the bathrooms and say what you “really” want to say on this sorry-looking generic crap-ton bore, LOL! (gasp, was it too much?? ….nah, this show deserved such treatments, ha ha).
I mean, it’s now fashionable to trash this show, right? The blogger himself sort of gave the blessing and opening to pounce upon, eh he he~. I am known to almost never turn down such offer to give a good trashing on much deserved shows. And this one, in particular deserved it as much as any other shows (cough, Sakurasou, cough), although there were so many.
I’m guessing you were raised improperly….because that would explain your crappy attitude.
Yet another one who is so serious that can’t distinguish what is important and what is not.
Why on earth anyone is so enraged at somebody else trashing a freaking anime show (or movie or TV series or book, etc, etc) that is not even the result of his or her own endeavor OR has literally NOTHING to do with it except for spending some time watching it, so much so that this guy or countless many others past, present, and future compelled to and will continue to go after others personally, I will never know. This is quite fascinating human behavior, really. Showing nasty personal pushback for trashing your favorite celebrity or sport athletic, I’d understand, since they are humans. But a freaking anime show? Quite fascinating indeed. I don’t get offended enough by this sort of pushback to think in any other terms, LOL!
Anybody who thinks I am actually angry at some generic anime show or any form of entertainment visual need to take a freaking chill pill. But I have no sympathy for those who decided to have a go with some personal attacks just ‘cos I happened to offend them by trashing some anime shows they happened to watch -now had I insulted by calling so-and-so were stupid since they watched this and that or their taste sucked, that’s different since I would be having a go at them personally. Couldn’t care less what you watch on your own time in your own house. I only comment on the anime shows and their creators, aka studios/writers.
I’m not even going to bother saying whether or not I agree with him because I’m too lazy, but what is up with RandomC readers and their inability to accept different opinions? Sure, deathtogeneric is an asshole, but at least his views are interesting to read. No point in repeating the same thing in 50 different comments.
Don’t feed the troll.
Please go back to 4chan you damn hipster…
what a sad excuse for a human you are. please, go ahead and boast of your own superiority while standing atop your imaginary throne of shit.
I’m seeing this more and more lately; is this really how you want to be remembered?
——
Yes, this season had it share of weird endings: Tamako Market was another where the build-up was going well,
then wham! I kinda got the feeling that we’ll see another instalment of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, perhaps?
Stilts, you really make me laugh —
I’d avoid the
Vividred Operationfinale if I were you if you’re tied to realistic physics portrayal in Anime —just kidding with you, of course!
I strongly agree with your impression of how the series went and the potential lost. One thing that
qualmed me was where she learned about all of the discoveries – it was not explained if the demon
world already had those technologies; were they derived from magic; or she figured them out herself.
It would have provided a little more credibility and depth to her character and the overall story, IMHO.
@Stilts – thank you for your coverage of the shows this season and I look forward to reading more
of you work with the upcoming spring season!
@ mac: his fetishes triumphs over any physics argument, so I believe your argument is invalid…
I haven’t gotten to watch the Vividred finale yet (though I probably will after my hangover goes away), but the difference there is that its never been a terribly realistic show, whereas Maoyuu has at least tended to be internally consistent. I don’t expect the same thing for all shows, and if they have never worried much about realism, neither will I. This did though, so any affronts to it become grating.
Well, with this Anime, it proofs that the Best “Key” is still Wisdom and Education. But it saddens me that in our Current time and Future. We are about to lose it. Because the “Containers” of Wisdom clanged. In the Past it was Books or Writing Letters. And today? It are 0 1 Electrical Currents in some Work-tool, that will not overcome Time. What will happen, if the Future will lost the Ability to read our “Letters”? All this Wisdom will be lost. That saddens me. Our current “Containers” are not build for Future. Because we dont know how Future evolve and are still enable to read the “Past” Wisdom. Because with Time, Wisdom get lost…
Um, sorry. This comment its a bit to deep. But Wisdom is Humanity greater “weapon”
Example? Making Books its to expensive. Now we get PDF thanks to Internet. Wikipedia is somewhere in Internet, and Libraries must close because of Low Budget. If we dont take care, our Grand children’s want have any “stories” of our current now or Past. Think about the Inca. What we know about them? Well, the same oblivion can happen to us
Yeah yeah. I should stop taking my Serious Pills
While watching this I nearly forgot about the umpteen chapters they skipped, rewrote, decimated, or outright trolled – until they got to the end, if you can call it an end. Then it ALL came back to me like some epic epiphany. So I can’t even call this an companion to it’s source. It was closer to being a summary, if you ignore all the rearranged scenes & slide shows. It had 2-3 GOOD episodes if you add up all the good stuff from the series.
This anime just dug it’s own grave by biting chunks out of it but it still managed to tell the story, some how. So it’s still much better than nothing.
This series had its flaws but was still enjoyable. Especially for someone that never got to see the source material. I hope we get another season and the makers learn from their mistakes here and do a better job.
I really loved all the characters and this series has just left me with a craving for more and a anime hasn’t done that to me in a long time.
Funny enough with all it’s faults this is by far the series I enjoyed the most this season, although thats not really hard considering the rest of this winter anime have been trash to medioce at best.
This series was my most liked of this winter season followed by Koutora-san, Boku wa Tomodachi Next, and Minami-ke. Tamaka Market was ok, and 2 guilty pleasures for me were Love Live and Vivedred Operations.
The absolute worst one was Amnesia. I hung in there til the end (because I am stubborn and wanted to see how it ended) but god that series was bloody awful on so many levels.
God damn it I want a real ending, I deserve a real ending T-T
I also deserve a gif of Meido Imouto’s dance!
Asymmetrical docking. Or not.
https://randomc.net/image/Maoyuu%20Maou%20Yuusha/Maoyuu%20Maou%20Yuusha%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2043.jpg
Maoyu, the anime in one pic.
https://randomc.net/image/Maoyuu%20Maou%20Yuusha/Maoyuu%20Maou%20Yuusha%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
New DBZ movie soon.
https://randomc.net/image/Maoyuu%20Maou%20Yuusha/Maoyuu%20Maou%20Yuusha%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
I want to know what Meido Chou said…
Considering it made Yuusha, Maou, and Meido Ane blush my guess is that it’s a suggestion involving using the illusion ring for a freaky three way?
I don’t think it was that ecchi! You’ve got a frightening mind, my friend… 😀
I can’t even say that was a proper ending for this adaptation…
(here’s to hoping for another season.)
Probably means we’ll have a season 2 or an OVA.
2nd season probably. It’s because the anime ended near the “Be mine hero – I refuse!” manga adaptation.
I was disappointed at the rush of things and lack of Yuusha and Maou kissing ;__; I really thought they would give us that much..
Guess I’ll just have to settle for the manga.
I was HOPING they would at least get Hero vs DQ fight right, but they failed even that =0(. There was ZERO tension in that whole scene; no former demon lord shadows, no attack magic, no swordplay, just a teleport and a hug =02. Strangely, the fight between the 1-eyed merc and Soldier(DQ’s former student) was better than the Hero/DQ one, though that’s not saying much since it wasn’t that good either. I have NO idea how Soldier managed to grab the merc’s sword, when it fell before them, not to mention having to fight the merc on the way down AND being injured. I’m going to completely ignore the fact that only a small amount of the sword is in the wall perpendicularly, yet managed to stop a heavy guy falling without being pulled out. I guess grabbing the rope would be too realistic (>.>)…
This show has failed in delivering a cohesive watching experience; the way they ignored the minor details for the entire cast really killed this show. Those minor details fleshed out the cast so nicely, despite being relatively unimportant to the storyline. They tried to do too much in too little time; they should have either made it into a 2-cour series, or a 1-cour series that stopped after Aurora Island was recaptured. The only things that truly shined in this series was HeroxDQxFK moments, or any combination of two of those chars. I loved Sawashiro’s voice for FK to bits; she really did a wonderful job there =03. Other than that, this series is rather forgettable(well, the anime anyways. The manga is excellent =03)
@Stilts: In the end, I’m forced to conclude that this adaptation was a failure.
This was by far the anime I looked forward to the most preseason (excluding last two episodes of Girls und Panzer). Sadly, I have to agree with you. I finished the series, but it quickly became my lowest priority show this season. I’ll leave it at that.
FYI – RE the manga:
I get the impression that Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – Be mine Hero I refuse! manga adaptation doesn’t follow the LN quite as closely as another manga adaptation simply entitled Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (published by the same company as the LN, Enterbrain). There’s much more humor in the former. I definitely think you will enjoy MMY – Be Mine Hero, I refuse! Perhaps you could post comments as to your impression of the manga vs. the anime after reading.
Finally, there are still other manga adaptations including a 4-koma, Muitemasen yo, Maou-sama!, (funny), and more recently a side story from Onna Mahoutsukai’s perspective Maoyuu Maou Yuusha Gaiden – Madoromi no Onna Mahou Tsukai. Enjoy reading. 😀
Have to agree with you, I think.
Among the multiple manga adaptations of Maoyuu, the one illustrated by Ishida Akira is the best one, IMHO. He does like to reuse art, but his art style can be dramatic, and he also does a great job illustrating the humor.
That’s the one I’m planning on reading! I may check out the others if I have time, of course…though considering how I’m always behind on shows, I doubt it :X
Disappointing. Still though, glad I watched.
Hey all,
Just some info I looked upon the Maoyu novel series:
Wiki and the book’s main website say the entire series has been completely written and published.
There are 8 books in total. 5 of them obviously contain the mainstory and (I assume) the epilogue.
The remaining 3 are sidestories about the histories of the Hero’s 3 partners, the Witch, the Lady Knight, and the old Archer(back when he was a young man).
True the series was rushed, but perhaps it was because the Japanese production committee only planned this as a test run show of sorts?
Perhaps they were scared of committing resources to a non-mainstream otaku title, so they simply gave the studio enough budget for 12 episodes only,’make the most of what you get’ scenario.
PS. The title of the 2nd novel(from Wikipedia)is ‘The Quriltai Conspiracy’.Which means theres going to be more political drama coming soon in the story’s chronology :3
Aye, this is probably a textbook case of executive meddling (trope!). They wanted the adaptation but didn’t give them the resources to do it properly. Tried to get the best of both worlds, and ended up with neither. Feh!
I was super excited for this show and even with the previews on RC this seemed like it was pretty hyped but I think I watched the first 4 or 5 eps without knowing the eps count and it did seem weird that they were skipping months and almost 2 years went by. Then I saw it was one cour and I can’t help feel it didn’t do anything. failure adaptation or rushed just seems right right about now. It’s a show I see lots of potential but just didn’t do it. ep 1&2 and 9 are probably the most memorable because it was slower. the last few eps and 5&6 seemed really rushed.
Might have to check out manga like some here suggest, but as for this anime it’s pretty forgettable.
That’s why we do those expectation levels…so we know when to be thoroughly disappointed when it happens, heh 😛
I didn’t even notice that this was the finale until I saw that the opening song playing in the closing.
while blue hero trying wake up red queen at winter land mage give winter ruler a scroll with advice to cure from smallpox yet oh yikes big sis & little sis meet one-eye war guy.
blue hero give I Know You’re in There Somewhere speech give want red queen yep she wake up all good while one-eye going mad killing mood til close eye soldier to rescue even armed with metal wrist band to speak tackle one-eye to fall from high area.
female knight making lots of scatter the people to play numbers to battle plans & one-eye is splat with soldier close eyes is all fine.
meanwhile a meet going on reveal the an item a rifle where some higher power want these items & yet red queen meet the people give them speech cue dark knight but not amused.
so unleash big plasma ball to make a volcano cue people’s power yes chant with that plus merchant make trades deal with human & demons.
now time for hero, red queen, female knight, maid, & two sis have dinner some talk fun with hero got “sandwich” by red queen & female knight with red this is begin of new era.
Sequel! Sequel! Sequel!
Story’s just starting to pick up, relationships are back on track and… fin?!
This needs a 2nd or 3rd arch to finish properly.
And I so want to listen in on their conversation at the end…
I hope there will be a second season of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
Yeah, I kind of have to agree in the end – while I liked this show and its characters, as an adaptation it was a mess. Even for someone who hasn’t read the source material it was damn obvious they were rushing it like crazy – it’s akin to a CliffsNotes version of the story. Not to mention there was no resolution whatsoever, so that was kind of a dissapointment. I don’t regret having watched it, because it was still enjoyable, but I can’t help but think about ‘what could have been’.
Glad I have dropped the anime in the middle when I realized that the original source have been rushed beyond belief and yuusha adapted into a forgettable dense beta character.
Now,now,let’s continue to read the ln/manga again \o/
Has there been any announcements regarding future adaptations?
I know that the story continues in the novels, but given how this
turned out, I’m skeptical that they will continue animating it.
NOOOOOOOO, it’s over???!!! Even the manga hasn’t ended yet.
(sigh) The Crimson’s scholor’s chest was truly worth the anime. It even puts Tsunade’s (Naruto) chest to shame.
The only thing that made up for the rushed plot was Maou’s EPIC PLOTS!
If this is a ending, Christopher Nolan can do a better one. Left me fuming and a thirst for more fulfilling answer.
Well, it is possible for them to fall faster than the sword, and seeing how the sword can break other sword, it pretty safe to say that it can carry the force.
Not a bad episode, I’d call it decent at least, but definitely not a good finale. It was way too open-ended to be that, and very much still left unexplained.
I enjoyed Maoyuu, even if I was well aware that his was a 2-course show forcing itself into being a one-course. Still, even if it’s not up to the standard that it’s manga counterpart set, I’m glad this story was animated. Though the story was forced by production constraints to move at a breakneck pace, the performances by the all-star cast and the parts of the story that were portrayed well really captivated me. Ami Koshimizu as the Demon King was definitely a highlight. Whatever the flaws the series may have, the positives, at least to me, prevent it from ever landing in the “Wasted Adaption” pile.
It looks like the one true pairing of the show has officially been upgraded to a one true threesome… and I’m fine with that. I feel that the Demon King and Female Knight both have a deep connection with the Hero and offer something different to him. Demon King pointed out in the episode that no matter how much Hero may love her, a part of him wants a life with a human like Female Knight. And even if Hero wanted to be a one-woman man, he’s stuck in irrevocable contracts with the both of them, so it looks like he’s got no choice but to bear with it. At least it looks like the two have agreed that no matter what, neither of them are the mistresses of the relationship. Where that leaves Dragon Princess and Female Magician is anyone’s guess.
So all in all, a flawed but entertaining adaption. Unfortunately a season 2 isn’t looking very likely, but hope springs eternal…
This show deserved 24 episodes at least. A second season hopefully.
Honestly, I don’t know if I agree about the Onna Kishi part of the blog. She’s a knight, her values doesn’t put romance as that high a priority. The hero was her one love and she chosen the honorable path of not hurting Mao and being the side as the Hero’s blade and served her role quite well. I don’t see a problem with her being there, especially in the time frame where mistresses are allowed, especially for a Hero.
This show gradually became harder to watch. They wanted to cram so many elements into it that it lost its appeal. An anime is supposed to entertain, but those medieval economics were not a good means to achieve that, at least not for me. It may have been important story-wise, but if I knew it would become like this I would have reconsidered watching this in the first place. I only finished this because I’m not likely to drop a show of which I have seen several episodes.
I think this anime adaptation only covered the 1st volume of the novel by looking at the description of the novel~ There are 5 volumes in total~
Show Spoiler ▼
I think that explains the pacing rather well. I soubt they could have done it slower then 1 volume and still get money backing the show. If not for this season, but for the next ones. Some progress is needed to keep the fans around, even if it may feel hurried sometimes.
great review. have to agree with a lot of what you have written. wish it wasn’t this rushed. but all in all, i still feel they did a good job with only 12 episodes.
Upon reading Stilt’s post and everyone’s comments thus far, I have concluded that I can add nothing more. So I will just act out my frustration like one of my kids…
WHHYYY!!! NO!!! NO FAIR! YUCKY!!! WAHH!!! *KICKS! SCREAMS! ROLLS ON GROUND! POUNDS FISTS!… sits up, sighs, rubs eyes and goes to play with something else*
I really felt this could be better than Spice and Wolf, for which I loved for many different reasons. I too will have to find the source material now.
*resists the temptation act out again*
You have a rough time of it, don’t ya? D:
“…a finale that didn’t feel like a finale at all.”
Might that be because it’s feels more like a huge “Sequel Hook: the episode?” My basis for this is that the manga and novels are already beyond this episode, and still continuing, it’s impossible for them not to create a proper end and the only reason I could come up with is that it isn’t the end.
So I’ll be on the lookout for an announcement for a sequel, probably will have to wait for a year. Given how decent it sold I won’t be surprised at all.
Series score: 8/10, for now, probably….
I know the manga and the LN and the moment i heard that it would get an anime adaption with only 12 episodes I knew that it will be rushed and fail. It’s not like that I hated it but the great potential was not in the slightest used. I can only recommand the manga and the LN for people who really want to see how great the story, the characters and and the art is.
Generally, the anime studios should just stop with adapting when the source materila is not even close to be finished or when they only intend to cram everthing in only one cour. I hate something like that and this show doesn’t deserve it.
Black Knight (Yuusha) shows off his sword summoning skillz
Crowd not impressed
Black Knight improvises by obliterating mountain
Crowd overjoyed
Yuusha: Oops.
LOL
I agree with Stilts. The problem with the anime it was too fast and adapted too many plots without anytime to properly explains things to the audience unlike the mangas and novels which did.
But still(No pun intended), i still enjoy the anime since i get to hear all my favorite characters from the series being voiced.
Here’s hoping when an another anime is made, they do it properly this time.
I was also disappointed with the finale of the show. I was under the impression that MMY was going to be a 26 episode series. Nonetheless, the very least they could do was make it 13 episodes instead of 12. The fight between Yuusha and Maou never happened… which really irritated me when watching this last episode.
In my opinion, I thought most of the series did okay until episode 12. It felt rushed and tried to pack too many things into one episode. Had they cut it into two with the finale of Yuusha vs Maou in episode 13 like they did with the manga (which waaaay better in my opinion), I think they could have ended this series on a very good note.
You’re right. If not a full 12-13 more, they could have used another episode. They crammed so much I was having flashbacks to college…and not the good ones that involved sex and booze!!
This series needs to be fleshed out a lot more. Nonetheless, some parts were interesting, but overall it’s still lacking the proper portrayal of everything that’s going on. The fact that it’s 1 cour may be to blame, but I feel that the pacing could have been much better.
As others mentioned, this would have worked out with more episodes to cover all the source material. Law of conservation of details really hurt the ending of this anime, sadly. Nevertheless, I always enjoy spot on insight into human behavior all wrapped up in the form of the best entertainment on earth. 🙂
Disappointing. A disappointing show in general. I’d say it was a poor man’s Spice and Wolf. I was looking forward to Yuusha and Maou’s interactions, but they spent most of the show separated from each other.
Also, it was a weird choice by Arms to adapt this series. They’re mostly known for the Queen’s Blade anime, ecchi anime, and even some hentai. In this anime, however, there was barely any fanservice. Strange.
I found this entertaining while found Spice and Wolf extremely boring and dropped it.
This series was pretty good. I like it. I can’t believe the HERO couldn’t solve the balance between the humans and demons with powers like that. He’s so overpower. *Blows up Mountain*lol. He could of just demand humans and demons should just stop fighting if he has that much power. Hero, mage, knight, demon king, nobody stands a chance if they fought.
I liked the series characters, atmosphere, music, and focus on full-spectrum economic-strategic-diplomatic-personal-religious conflict.
However, there were three things that weakened my suspension of disbelief in the show, and at least two of them trace back to the original material.
(A). Super Heroes
If you’re going to make political-economics a focus of the story, why in the name of everything do you have Dragon Ball-level super heroes like The Hero with teleportation and tactical nuke energy blast powers? (Same with the Mage). The story would have been 10 times more potent and believable if this sort of fan service had been avoided.
(B). Archetypal Names
What was with “The Hero” “The Mage” “The Soldier” and so on? It came off like an attempt to be cute and post-modernist, but it just pulled me out of the story and made me think this wasn’t as “real” as it could be. Again, made no sense given the focus on diplomacy, economics, etc. and felt like something out of a cartoon aimed at much younger viewers. (Titles like the Crimson Scholar that come naturally are fine.) This is a personal thing, though, and not a really big issue, unlike…
(C). Demon King’s Rabbit Out of Hat Technology
This may have been the anime’s fault. They owed it to the viewer to explain or at least hint at a mystery of where the ideas for technological uplift were coming from. Was the Crimson Scholar a Da Vinci-like genius, and if so, had they already been introduced in the Demon Realm? Or were these all concepts that had long existed in the far reaches of the Demon Realm but had not reached border areas and through general prejudice had never been picked up by humans? Or was the Demon King/Scholar acquiring these concepts through magical or other means? The lack of explanation or even hints toward this meant that Demon King was essentially able to pull endless Deux Ex Machina. The mention of a smallpox vaccine was particularly egregious – given the apparent occasional physical differences in the races, how would she even know it would work on humans? (It would have also worked better if smallpox had been mentioned more prominently). I assume this was a weakness of the anime rather than novels; if the novels fail to explain this as well, epic fail!
I still enjoyed the series for its atmosphere, but I think it could have been truly great if it had addressed elements (A) and (C).
You pretty much Addressed all the issue’s that series had. And as a reader of the Official manga adaption “Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – “Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo” “Kotowaru!”” I can say that the manga, and i assume the Light Novels as well handel everything much better. Part of “joke” of Yuusha is that he is what an RPG Hero who’s made it to the Last boss would be with no GamePlay story Segregation. A man who was adept enough of a warrior to solo entire armies. And skilled enough at magic to wield WMD Class combat spells. But for all his awesome powers is still incapable of eliminating the problems that are the root cause of conflict and suffering.
I’m shocked that many are disappointed with the series as a whole. I haven’t read any of the source materials, sometimes I felt that I’m missing events, but still I thoroughly enjoyed it and became one of my most-awaited episodes every week. And I think it’s because of the main characters, yes they fall to some tropes but they felt real and they are very likable.
Although I do believe this could have been a better, epic series if it has more episodes, I still can’t bring myself to say that Maoyuu is a failure. It is an intelligent series with likable characters, I was entertained and that’s all that matters to me.
It’s story isn’t a failure, only this adaptation. Like I said, I too could see the strength of the underlying material, it just wasn’t presented well here. Will have to seek that out elsewhere.
Whaaat?
There is so much more to develop:
Guns, germs (or countermeasures to them) and steel…
Trade relations with demon realm, the story of the Gate city becoming cosmopolitan trade center?
Maou and her political struggle to control demons warlike attitude?
Stomps off towards manga amd LN websites…
Anyway thanks Stilts for coverage, and everyone for commenting!
The economic tensions kind of make me think of C.
The strategies and economy stuff took some time to digest.
Looks like the Maoyuu duo has establish a base of sorts in the Southern countries.
If theres a season 2 I suppose it would be more on the Demon Realm and the Blue Demons.
Never read the original material but I enjoyed the anime adaptation.
Though I feel that theres less time for characters like the Female Magician and sometimes characters just popup without introduction.
Also they should have subbed the maps, make the map readable.
Looking forward to another season in the future.
About your point about onna kishi, I agree with you but with the way things are going I feel like in the end it’ll end up in a semi harem end with maou as the wife and onna kishi as a mistress.
Where’s the KISS!? Where’s our KISS dammit!?!?
I want to see those love birds kiss! *sniff*
Yuusha no baka!
I was watching this series as it came out, not at all keeping up on any news or anything. It took me 2 weeks of no new episodes to finally research only to find it had “completed” nothing of the story was completed…I feel like where the left it they are hoping to get some interest in it and plan on making more when there is a budget for it. My heart sank when I found out like they must have canceled it mid season. I need completion damn it >.<
If this series had about 20+ episode in it, the anime adaptation could have been much satisfying since to me a lot of aspects in Maoyuu maou yuusha are interesting. I might as well read its source material when I get the chance and see the difference between the anime adaptation and its source material in terms of how much stuff they included. The anime adaptation makes me feel like I wanted to demand of a redo of the anime but this time with more episodes so the storytelling could be much better because the anime adaptation felt like there are certain parts that are cut off in between.