MAOYUU MAOU YUUSHA

DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ActionMaoyuu Maou Yuusha
MANGA ActionMaoyuu Maou Yuusha: 'Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo' 'Kotowaru!'

REVIEWS

• 

  kadarakt

  55/100
  Convoluted, contrived, but worst of all, boring.

  What is this show even trying to achieve? That is the question I found myself asking not even halfway through the show. The premise is simple enough. Demons and humans have been at war with each other for a long time. The hero confronts the demon "king", she points out how both of their societies entirely rely on this war to stay afloat and if this war were to ever end, their realms would fall to internal conflict and civil war. She wants to create a world where the war ends and their societies flourish together in peace, an alternative system to their current mode of living which can sustain itself without eternal war. And some romance between the two because... reasons. Sounds good.

  And then none of it goes anywhere. The romance focused quite a lot on in the first few episodes is almost entirely thrown out by the first third of the show as the hero starts traveling to far away lands. The two do stuff which is supposed to further their plans of world peace but none of it really makes sense to me. Stuff like introducing potatoes and crop rotation to the humans, or setting up trade deals with merchants. Ok, but why? Why is increasing production or wealth conducive to achieving world peace? How will they ensure all of that wealth and population will not just feed the current war machine?

  Some characters work really hard and even cause a war because they want to have a dual currency system, but why is having a dual currency system a good thing? The female MC says some stuff about how it would allow for more free market competition but is that really true? Wouldn't it just cause unnecessary friction and complication? Besides, free market economics bringing peace itself is a very political assumption that is very nebulous and I'm not equipped or knowledgeable enough to really discuss that in depth, and clearly neither is this show.

  Additionally, a lot of it leads to civil war and internal strife later on, and okay it is understandable for the old system to react so violently against a new one attempting to replace it, but I just don't see a new one. Am I supposed to believe the entire feudal order will be toppled just because of the speech of the ex-serf maid about how people should think and act for themselves? What guarantee is there that the system replacing it will be conducive to peace and not just another system plagued with war like in our world, where centralized absolutist states replaced feudal structures and waged wars all the same?

  The plot is honestly all over the place, at any moment there are 2-3 plot lines going on at the same time, and none of it has a clear route towards the world peace order our MCs desperately want. It just recites enlightenment thought about free markets and "dare to know", ironically like it is the gospel, and expects all of it to lead to a good and happy world, despite us obviously knowing neither the enlightenment or the industrial revolution brought world peace by itself.

  Look, I really like history, geopolitics, economics and whatnot. Half of the content I consume online is related to those topics, my favorite subjects in school were history and geography, and I have over 4k hours combined in paradox games, 3k of which is EU4, the game closest to the time period this anime is trying to emulate. All of that is to say I am obviously not an expert, but I am someone interested in these topics far more than the average person. Yet this show managed to turn those things into some of the most bland and pointless things I have ever seen, most of which only serves to stroke the egos of our characters for being so clever, innovative, and morally righteous in this world of moral bankruptcy and buffoonery. Do not worry, we of course have the corrupt church and incompetent noble generals whose only purpose is to be bad, easy to hate dumbasses.

  Speaking of which, the characters aren't any better than the plot. The male MC is cardboard. The female MC is the supposed genius who uses her smarts and wits to achieve her goals rather than brute strength, making sure her interests aligns with others to achieve what she wants. As with most other characters like this, she is lowkey insufferable and it feels like things go her way because the author wills it and wants to show how smart she is over and over again. Usually to make a character like this likeable you need to make her charismatic and endearing, like my favorite character from this stereotype, Maomao. But alas our demon "king" only has impressive jiggle physics in place of those endearing character qualities, making her hard to like. All of the other side characters, of which there are way, way too many, are just as one dimensional as our MCs. You have the female knight who has the hots for the cardboard MC. The pervy old guy. The pompous head maid. The serf girl they saved who is now unwaveringly loyal. The schizophrenic mage. The savvy merchant. And many more characters whose names you will never even bother to learn.

  Add to all of that a completely unsatisfying ending and you have one of the most mediocre shows I have ever watched. While it's not horrible and didn't make me feel actively frustrated, it was so boring and uninteresting. People say this show needed 12 more episodes to flesh out, but I'm honestly glad it was only 12 episodes. Any longer and it would have become actually painful to watch.

  This review might make it sound like I completely hated the show, but I didn't. I was just bored and indifferent. I don't think you need to have everything make 100% sense for a good enjoyable show. I watched Nippon Sangoku recently and a lot of stuff genuinely made no sense (entrusting your entire battle plan on a guy deciphering a roundabout hint? really?), there was a similarly smartass MC in it, and a lot of one dimensional characters. But it was charismatic, entertaining, had you on the edge of your seat, had an unique artstyle, and some scenes were perfectly crafted to be as emotionally beautiful and impactful as possible even if they had weak foundations underneath narratively or logically. This show simply had none of that. It was mundane, a chore to watch, had a generic artstyle, and even the scenes that were supposed to be the most impactful felt like going through the motions and had absolutely no cinematic or dramatic flair to them.

  Bonus points for Hiroshi Kamiya and Miyuki Sawashiro, at least recognizing their voices brought me some joy.

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