What They Say:
Fifteen years have passed since the start of the war. A small band of warriors have set out to defeat the Demon King, but when the Hero, all alone reaches his target, gets more than what he expected. less
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the light novel series of the same name that began in 2010 by Mamare Touno and has five volumes to date, as well as a few spinoff manga, Maoyu is a new series from ARMS for Pony Canyon, a company we don’t really hear all that often about compared to the 90’s and earlier. The series is directed by Takeo Takahashi who has done quite a bit of directing over the years, more recently known to fans for his work on Spice & Wolf, but he’s also done work such as Aki Sora. With this series, we go to the whole realm of humans versus demons for the general idea, though there are quite a few other aspects drawn into it as well as one might expect. Taking us to a time where a war between the two sides has been raging for some fifteen years, we get the classic mold quickly on before it feels as though it moves to somewhat traditional territory in a way.
While the idea at first is that we’re likely to get a Japan-based show, what we get is more in line with traditional fantasy series which are admittedly pretty rare, making this intriguing from the start. We get introduced to our Hero as he makes his way through a large castle in order to take down the Demon King. To his surprise though, the Demon King is an attractive (if busty) redheaded woman who is excited in her own way that he’s finally shown up. He’s intent on taking her down, but she seems to have a sense about her that she’s not completely aware of what it is that demons have done throughout the lands, how many nations have fallen to them in these short years and the scale of destruction overall.
Except, it seems, a lot of what he claims is actually things done by others who use demons as their cover for their own evil deeds. The Demon King is rather amusing in how she comes across as more modern in a way, talking about pollution, economics and other aspects that our Hero doesn’t grasp, bringing to bear the real tools of war and control that others are employing in order to raise their own place within the world. A bit of an exploration of the history that’s gone on is interesting and seeing how the Demon King has unified her side over time is certainly a decent approach, but a lot of what makes it really intriguing is just the way that she carries herself when it comes to dealing with our Hero, and the way that she makes it clear that the fighting must go on when you look at the bigger picture.
The show dabbles here and there with other characters that are a part of our Hero’s group that was seeking to kill the Demon King, but most of it is about these two as they spend time together and she does what she can to try and educate him to the realities of the world. It’s a very heavy dialogue driven piece in a way that feels very odd for a first episode, but it fills it with solid character designs and a feel that is just off kilter ever so slightly so that it keeps you paying attention to see what it’s really going to be about. Of course, she makes an amusing proposition to him along the way, which is played for some laughs in a way, but it sets the stage for what it is the show may really be about, which is a new kind of journey tied up in a contract, which definitely gives us some familiar shades of Spice & Wolf.
In Summary:
In a way, I’m not really sure what to make of this episode. With its focus on Hero and the Demon King and the kind of education she seemingly gives him and the offer that’s made, it’s intriguing it what it could lead to. But it’s also hard to tell what it is that it really wants to be at the moment, so you hedge your bets a bit. It’s not often you get such a dialogue driven show starting off in this manner, but it has a host of possibilities. The animation looks great, or more specifically the character designs and the settings, but it also knows how to bring in some good humor along the way as well that makes you grin like a fool, especially watching the reaction shots from the two main characters. Maoyu has a decent setting and starting point and definitely has me very curious to see what it’s all going to be about.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
