Anime Hajime Review: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

Series Synopsis

The war between humans and demons has been waging for many, many years. Both sides have seen countless casualties and the bitterness between the two has never been stronger. Now it has come to what could be the final battle.

The humans have placed all their hopes on four legendary warriors, the strongest amongst them being Yusha (voiced by Jun Fukuyama). Not wanting to risk the lives of his comrades, Yusha charges into the depth of the Demon King’s fortress alone. After all the trials he had to go throught, for all the pain and suffering he had to endure, he could only imagine what final horror was awaiting him.

In the throne room, Yusha at last sees his sworn enemy and charges into battle, but he was not ready for what came next. Firstly, the Demon King is actually a beautiful Queen (voiced by Ami Koshimizu). Secondly, instead of attacking, the Queen, named Mao, says hello.

Utterly unprepared for this turn of events, Yusha is completely taken aback when Mao offers him a proposal instead of a challenge. The Queen says that she would like nothing more than to end the war, but a rushed peace would only lead to future disaster.

She explains that there are many within the human and demon world that stand to make a lot of money the longer the conflict goes on. Plus, the only reason humans have not been fighting each other is because they have united against the demonic forces. If that banner were to suddenly be taken away, humanity would quickly turn on each other; a scenario that is already unfolding in the demon world.

While this outcome is grim, it is not inevitable. Mao hopes to use her vast knowledge of agriculture and economics to set the stage for a true, lasting peace for everyone. While her plan is grand, it is not one she can do alone. Thus she asks Yusha if he would be willing to help. Mao’s conviction is enough to sway the young hero and the two become partners.

Building a sustainable future without violence will not be easy, but Mao and Yusha put all their faith into each other in order to see it through.

Series Positives

Episode one of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, a.k.a. Maoyu, didn’t instill the greatest amount of confidence. It wasn’t bad, I did enjoy it, but this was also not the first time I've come across this set up. There was potential, but I had concerns; a lot of concerns. So while optimistic, I was bracing for the worse.

Having now finished the series, I can say that a few of the initial issues I saw weren't unjustified. My overall apprehension on the other hand was. I ended up really liking this show.

The Characters

There are no character names; everyone refers to everyone with titles. I considered doing that here as well and I kind of am. For instance, Yuhsa and Mao mean Hero and Demon King respectively, but I am playing them off as names. This has absolutely nothing to do with this section, but I wanted to clarify and I didn’t have a better place to do it.

All the characters, or at least the vast majority of them, have a distinct personality. This is great because while there are a number of battle scenes, this is a dialogue heavy show. In order for this kind of storytelling to work, it needs to have characters that are interesting because there's little to no action to distract the audience.

For instance, Mao is not just intelligent, she’s insightful; a longer term thinker. She's the kind of person that sets ground work and is several steps ahead of everyone else. Because of this, she has to be confident, she has to be sure, she has to be convincing. Although the show (and it bugs the ever-loving s@#$ out of me that it does this) gives Mao obvious boob physics, she doesn’t rely on them.

Mao also doesn’t like to keep secrets from people, especially if she’s asking them to believe in her. However, she’s also the Demon King which would mean a lot bad things if that got spread around. So when she does reveal her identity to someone, it’s her ultimate way of showing trust.

For a lead she's solid and it's easy to appreciate what it is she's trying to do. You want her to succeed and stand firm with her convictions. What makes this show even better is that there are more characters like this.

Onna Kishi (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro), which in Japanese means Female Knight (did you think I was kidding), is an extremely skilled sword fighter. She's tough, she's been through many battles and has seen many things. Because of which, there's a presence to her that screams authority. Coinciding with that is her desire to live another kind of life one day; one that includes Yusha. She's not subtle about her feelings, but never do they take away from her sense of duty or image as a formidable warrior.

One example before moving on because this is kind of getting a little wordy is Tojakuo (voiced Daisuke Hirakawa), Japanese for Winter King. This is a guy with a sense of responsibility. Being king isn’t an excuse for luxury in his mind; there are thousands of people counting on him. He wants to do the right thing at all times. Though idealistic, he also knows that sometimes he does have play politician with neighboring kingdoms; particularly the powerful ones. But when something wrong is happening in front of him, he will not stand by; no matter who it pisses off. There’s a scene where he gives the most powerful organization of the human world, the church, the proverbial middle finger.

I could keep going, but there’s other stuff I want to talk about.

Politics

Like I said, this is a dialogue driven narrative. There are battles, but we mostly see behind the scenes; in the war rooms, in the planning stages, we're usually not on the front lines.

This could get boring for some people, but I found it fascinating. Here was a different look at the old human versus demon story. Neither side was better than the other; each had similar virtues and similar vices. I don’t know if I can express how much of a huge breath of fresh air this was for me.

Maoyu brings up a really interesting point that should always be considered, but is often overlooked. Many stories focus on winning the war, not building the peace. What happens when the fighting is over? Peace could last yes, but if you’re not ready for it, it might not last long.

Does war foster violence, cruelty, and greed? Yes, and a lot of other awful things. But what does it also do? It bolsters industry, advancement, and unity believe it or not. When potential enemies have a common goal, differences can be put aside for however long it takes to solve the bigger problem.

Maoyu captures this idea well. It’s not preachy, but it gets the point across. Victory is only one step, and it’s not the first and it’s not the last.

Series Negatives

Although I liked all the political chess playing, I will admit that the moment economics got involved things became a little hard to follow.

Actually now that I think about it, the entire story isn’t always that straight forward. It’s pretty jumpy and there will be times where you might have to pause to collect your thoughts.

The first problem, the entire show takes place over the course of a few years and the story does a rather s@#$ job at illustrating the progression of time. So in between episodes, and often times during episodes, a few months will pass and it’s very hard to notice.

The second problem, there were a few conflicts that were fabricated by the storytellers because of reasons. The biggest was near the end when Mao had to return to the demon world. She didn’t need to that, like at all. The only reason I can of think off that justifies doing so could have come about several other ways.

And the third problem…

The Hero

I said that the first episode didn’t bolster full confidence. I was talking about Yusha. He’s a fine character and I don’t dislike him. The problem was he became a fine character. His entire demeanor in the first episode was a little off and here’s why.

From the beginning, I was willing to go along with this series’ narrative. I believed what was being presented to me. The war between humans and demons is actually the lesser of evils. The whole situation is a business and political calculation that keeps people rich and people feed. This whole set up was, again, extremely intriguing to me. So I accepted this reality. But in order to move on, I have to address a glaring flaw in this reality.

Yusha, from his introduction, was garbage. This guy was a title, that’s all. He could easily be manipulated. I say this because he pretty much jumped ship almost immediately. Consider all that we knew at the start of episode one.

There’s a war between humans and demons. Yusha has known one truth. Demons are evil and must be destroyed. This was instilled indoctrination that has probably been reinforced his entire life. Therefore it makes sense that he would not and, from his point of view, should not listen to the words of the Demon King (regardless of how big her rack might be). He does resist, for about half an episode, but it doesn’t take much for him to be convinced.

Hey jackass, the odds of the Demon King lying are astronomically high from your perspective. But you went along anyway, without any thought of how moronic doing so might be. So good on you because from episode one, I’m had a hard time seeing you as anything other than a generic nobody who was hero in name only.

That’s another thing, the hero title. People kept saying that he was humanity's strongest warrior and that he could take on legions of demon hoards single handedly. Everyone kept bringing this up and we did see glimpses of power from him, but we never got to see the hero we kept hearing about. He’s a good diplomat, but as real battlefield combatant, I’m sorry I don’t buy it.

Yusha may not be the worse character, but he is overshadowed.

Final Thoughts

From cautious optimism, to full on recommendation, Maoyu Mao Yusha is a lot of fun.

The characters are interesting, the premise in intriguing, and I feel that there is still a lot more that can happen. The story's a little bit jumbled, hard to stay with at times, and I wouldn’t call it finished, but it will carry you through to the end.

The stage is certainly set for a second season, and this is a series that defiantly deserves one. I know for me, I will be waiting.

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