What They Say:
When Emilia the hero finally tracks down the ruler of demons here on Earth, he’s not exactly what she was expecting, which may or may not make her a little crazy.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first episode of this series was a somewhat surprisingly strong start; despite a silly premise that seemed likely to fall victim to many of the overused clichés of similarly-themed series, we got an opening episode that felt rather fresh, possibly even more ridiculous than it seemed but so competent at pulling that off that it would hardly seem appropriate any other way. It dragged slightly in the middle and I was left unsure of whether the series would be able to continue carrying itself with such entertaining grace without getting too one-note or stale. The second episode has now confirmed that, at least for the time being, I don’t have much to worry about.
If Maou’s amusing daily life would’ve soon become as boring for us to watch as it seems it must be for him to live, the appearance of Emilia, the hero from his homeland, is exactly what’s needed to spice things up and make the situation even more fun than it was before. Much of Emilia’s role is fairly predictable: she shows up in our world to take Maou down but is underwhelmed by how much of a pathetic life he’s living, and ends up being involved in some misunderstandings that introduce some obvious romantic tension between the two of them. I don’t think there was much doubt that Emi would be a tsundere, and we see that almost as soon as the initial faux seriousness breaks down in favor of the comically stark contrast the first episode enjoyed much of, she slips right into that archetype. In most situations I’d be disappointed that our heroine is reduced to that when she’s presented as a strong warrior, but looking at her male counterparts going from the king of demons and his faithful servant to a fast food server whose great ambitions amount to becoming a full-time employee and a very comfortable housewife, respectively, it’s a perfectly fair setup, and the dichotomy between the two sides of each of these characters is one of the show’s strongest selling points, one that it knows how to present quite well. Emi is shown having settled into her own nine-to-five, and it’s really funny that none of these characters, regardless of their noble origins, seem to mind bowing down to this unremarkable society’s harsh reality in the slightest. Emi is introduced as very determined to defeat the demons, but upon seeing how passive they’ve become, she’ll have no choice but to adopt a similar mentality.
In addition to all this, there’s a sense of mysterious danger introduced in a way that feels much more real than the fantasy world our characters arrived from, or the hero who was always obviously going to be a fun companion to our initial protagonists (and, of course, those protagonists are the bad guys anyway, right?), and with the episode ending on that note without really telling us anything, it’s clear that this is providing us with our main plot that won’t necessarily revolve around the humble lives our main characters have happily settled into.
In Summary:
The first episode was no fluke, as the second ends up actually being better. Emilia’s arrival kicks the comical focus of the first episode up another level, keeping things fresh and fun throughout most of the episode. The end brings some beginnings of a serious overarching plot, and as much as that seems to clash with the usual mood here, it’s almost certainly for the best to have a solid backing to carry things along without it feeling pointless.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.
