Anime: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

I will keep this review simple and forego the categories. I'll try to avoid story spoilers.

The 2 main characters (hero and maou) are pretty bland. The maou is the smart one (sadly witty is not the word i can use for her). The writer simply uses an outdated world as the setting, and then the maou would out of the blue pull some invention/knowledge that the author pulled from a book or something. She randomly comes up with inventions and methods, but the worst part is the preachy speeches/conversations that the author can't help but include. You never feel that any character is witty. You feel like the characters are just plagiarizing, and not in an epic/witty way. It's like someone is lecturing you, but disguised it in an anime. And it's all over the place.

and how did i almost miss the point where they give lectures on human greed, or that very similar line of different people meeting creates conflict. oh, yes, a character gives another character a lecture on conflict and types of conflict. sounds like explaining conflict with functionalism theory. and i don't think it served much in the story either, nor did the character base her future actions on this lecture. feels like the author just couldn't bring him/herself to omit it lol. maybe it's a lyric he liked from a song and he just had to include it somewhere.

you can expect them to pull random stuff out from modern day knowledge. for example (not saying this happened in the show), if plastic hadn't been invented yet, expect the maou to randomly introduce how to manufacture plastic out of the blue; expect her to walk in an impoverished neighborhood and suddenly give a lecture on racism, unequal distribution, discrimination, etc. basically, the character does nothing witty, just randomly says/does things you might learn in your introductory college courses today, or find on Google.

The hero's role is even more boring. He has his moments, but those moments are not main character moments. you can say they are side character accomplishments. the hero is akin to a side character that is supposed to be dumb and useless, but has side character moments where he kind of did good, but even then, he is not the centerpiece of anything.

also, the show tries to avoid confrontation too much. it wants to show how the hero has the ultimate power but never uses it. it really does nothing to make the story more interesting, and this show of restraint looks less admirable and more incompetent/indecisive. the show thinks it's cool to have the strongest character be a pushover, like it's the trendy thing now.

Speaking of accomplishments, the show also tries to make almost every secondary/side character accomplish something. we don't need such unrealistic equality because this is a story/fiction. it is predictable and tiring when you know it's coming and you have to brace yourself for it. you see it coming a mile away, but you have no idea when or how long and how preachy it is going to be. "Oh, no. I can see this side character i don't care about is about to have his/her moment, which could be long-winded and not enjoyable."

as for fighting, did you think there will be any? (barely) like i said, there is no epic moments, no witty moments, and just a feeling of characters plagiarizing and a feeling of being preached to but in anime format. you will be watching them talk randomly (either briefly or long-windedly) about agricultural methods, vaccine creation, battle tactics, war strategy, co-existence, education, peace & war, ideals, slavery, serfdom, abuse of power, prosperity, wealth, supply and demand, politics, etc.

just have to complain again about the random inventions that pop up out of nowhere. that's how they make the maou intelligent... basically, she invented or will invent all the great inventions if they haven't appeared in the show yet. you are not getting lelouch or yagami light, not even half of it.

the romance is mostly the maou and the female knight fawning over the hero. it's fine and lighthearted. there won't be any romantic storytelling though. they mostly just repeat the same lines like "i belong to you. you belong to me."

if you enjoy demon lord shows, this isn't it. if you enjoy witty shows, this isn't it. if you enjoy war shows, this isn't it. if you enjoy romance shows, this isn't it. if you enjoy action shows, this isn't it. if you enjoy overpowered main character shows, the character is, but this isn't it. if you like your main character to shine, this isn't it. it's quite underwhelming. and at the end of the last episode, they pull out some random invention again, and i'm not even that excited about what's going to happen.

it's not a huge cliffhanger and you can basically see where the story is headed anyways. so even though it's not a conclusive ending, and you can see a 2nd season coming, you can already see how it will end. if there is a 2nd season, you'll just have to sit through some more lectures, probably on building relations, foreign policies, co-existence, trade/trade wars, prejudice/discriminatin, etc.

there are some good quotes, but they are wasted because they are not used at epic moments. they are also long-winded and preachy, and said while they are walking or something. when watching in one go, you might even miss them because they are so inconsequential to the story. it's like having a friend who preaches and you block them off. no memorable quotes in this show except for "___ belong to ___", ironically something that is not scholarly or smart at all.

Maou Yuusha is about the unusual pairing of a demon king (queen?) and a hero (think medieval hero except this guy has lightning superpowers) and how they work together to change the world. Now before you start thinking that this is some kind of run away S&M realize that this is supposedly Spice & Wolf's successor. Thus, this series inherits the former's intriguing focus on economics and trade. However, they go a bit overboard in multiple ways that I explain later. Overall, while this was an ambitious project, it pales in comparison to Spice and Wolf. By being so grand in scale, it fails to achieve the same atmosphere that made S&W so special. And while the perspectives on war and the economy (not completely sure I agree with the logic at times) were unique, it doesn't come across as well as it did in S&W, and may very well bore many people to sleep.

In summary, Maou Yuusha is the pumped up version of S&W. Grander in scale and bustier in character proportions. Unfortunately, I don't think it was the correct approach. Read on to find out why.

Animation:
The presentation of the show is appropriate. The saturated colors and painted backgrounds work well with the parchment map scene changes to clue the viewer in on the appropriate timeline, even though this is obviously in a fictional parallel world. I guess you can write off the lack of nice shading and lighting effects by saying that it fits with the setting, but a bit more detail would have been nice in places. As for character styling, they make it ridiculously clear who the important characters are- just look for anyone who doesn't look revoltingly stupid or ugly. There are a handful of important and distinguishable characters to keep track of, which gets a bit annoying later on as they jump between settings. One thing that repeatedly bothered me was how the demon king was the only completely human-looking demon in the whole series.

There is definitely some action here in the form of battles, stoning, (a) flailing, and lighting-based superweapons. Don't expect expert choreography though, the focus is on "strategy" and "tactics" rather than the bravery or skill of individual fighters. Expect a bit of blood associated with the battles, but nothing really gory. Fan service is relatively light, coming mostly from Maou trying to seduce Yuusha, though Maou lacks Horo's mature charm.

Sound:
The show opens with an adventure-themed OP that I don't particularly care for and ends with a vocodorized ambient song that is pretty much guaranteed to put you to sleep. The BGM is heavy during battles but otherwise fairly light during the other dialogue-dominated portions of the show. It's fitting but most of the tunes aren't memorable.

Ami Koshimizu does a good job as Maou but don't expect Horo v2. Haruka Tomatsu also does a good job as maid ane. The other characters all do a fair job but I didn't feel anything was particularly outstanding.

Story:
The story opens as Yuusha is approaching the demon's castle, where he plans to slay Maou. However, upon seeing the evil being, he is somehow coerced/convinced, rather, to side with her and join forces to see "what is on the other side of the hill". In order to realize their newly shared goal, they travel to a backwater part of the human realm and slowly work to try to end the war that has ravaged both realms.

The plot soon shifts to episodic mode as Maou slowly introduces radical crops and innovations. I found it a bit belittling to our historic inventors how she single-handedly solved starvation, illiteracy, and various illnesses. And found it equally baffling why she applied these to the human realm rather than to her own demon realm. Regardless, expect many episodes showing the improving living conditions for ugly, unimportant characters.

The plot picks up steam towards the end abruptly as Maou returns to the demon realm to "renew" her position and is simultaneously declared a heretic by the church. This builds to a wtf climax that is resolved in a very expected manner. It's a fitting conclusion, but one that somehow leaves an odd aftertaste.

There are two major issues that plague this story. First, the series turns into a bit of a random harem as multiple girls chase after Yuusha and multiple men court Maou. I feel like this might be the director's train of thought: "economics, yes that is good let us have more of it- Oh wait! We need more girlz or else no one will watch!" Second, the severity of the war is completely overshadowed by Yuusha's godly strength. You never feel threatened knowing that Yuusha can literally teleport anywhere to save the day.

Spice and Wolf was a relaxing adventure with a cool atmosphere. Maou Yuusha tried to apply that to an entire world- and unfortunately it results in distancing from the actual characters.

Character:
The lackluster story is exacerbated by Yuusha himself. Apparently when they were creating his RPG character they had to reduce his intelligence stat beyond base levels in order to maximize his battle prowess. He's kind of stupid at a lot of times. Granted, he admits it, but it really irks me regardless. Whereas there was an amazing character balance between Horo and Kraft in S&W, Maou and Yuusha seem to be fine alone (Maou with her body pillow and Yuusha with all the other women in the world) and really don't need each other's support. Ultimately, their relationship feels more bound by a contract than their actual feelings and thus character-development wise, I can't give this a happy grade. The random knight vs Maou battle over Yuusha doesn't really help much either.

Honestly, maid ane is probably the only redeemable character in this show. She actually shows that a right mindset and education can go a long way. Otherwise, there are just too many extraneous characters to distract from the central protagonists. You have random antagonists who don't really matter as well as supporting characters that randomly appear at pivotal moments and magically save the day.

Value:
While the focus on economics and political topics is interesting, the show isn't really pioneering anything new here. What it does try is blow up the size of what worked in S&W. As with blowing up a raster image, you can tell there were lots of rough edges in the result. If you're looking for an interesting, engaging show with economic topics and a really good female protagonist, you're much better off watching the Spice and Wolf series. While a fair watch, I'd recommend spending your time elsewhere.

Let's cut to the chase. This is a series that wants to be Spice and Wolf. Or S&W on an "Epic scale". Why stop at economics and religion when you can throw in outright war to make things "interesting".
By this point S&Ws third season is overdue and probably will not happen. Maoyu itself seems to hammer that in. This show has the same director, voice cast and even script writer from Spice and Wolf. So most likely, they wanted to continue the series, but for whatever reason (who knows if it's poor sales , stuck up producers or convoluted rights battles, it's usually one or the other) they can't. So they moved on to pick up a similar franchise to carry on the torch while the "team" can still be gathered.
With very similar themes and crew you might call Maoyu a "spiritual successor" as someone put it. But does it live up to that, or does it stand on it's own?

The tone of Maoyu is charming. The premise is interesting and has a lot of potential. Two worlds locked in an eternal war, with two heroes and unlikely lovers who set out to do the impossible, end the war. They go about this by trying to change society from within.
But from step one, it has serious problems. I have to give the story credit for what it is trying to be, but the execution falls flat and fails to really do it justice.
The main faults of the show is the pacing and cut and paste story that relies heavily on deus ex machina and forced plot points.
It is extremely rushed. In the first episode (this is not really a spoiler) the two main characters meet, talk for 5 minutes and then gets married. Literally. Bam. You're then supposed to buy that for the rest of the story they are in love. I guess they gloss this over by having huge tits pushed into our (and the male protagonists) face.
Huge tits, true love, moving on.
Which is the exact opposite of S&W, where during the course of two seasons the main characters slowly, but naturally build a relationship that brings them closer. Subtly, with charm and cleverness. They didn't go:
"Hello!"
"Hi..."
"You want to be soul-mates forever?"
"Ok."

In Maoyu It's that forced. This problem continues through-out the entire series. The characters don't have enough real chemistry or character arc (and with good voice actors like this, you have to blame the script and bad dialog). These stereotype characters just pop up, and with no establishment, you're supposed to buy into who they are and care about what happens to them. Aaaand when I say stereotype. The characters don't even have names... No seriously, the main characters are named "Demon King" and "Hero". Then every, single, character in the cast has names like "Archer", "Young Merchant", "Little sister Maid". ("What happens when another young merchant shows up? 'Hello Young Merchant Nr 2!')

This is not meta. It is not clever. It's lazy. Pure and simple. I should not even have to mention what things like this does for suspension of disbelief and investment. You want to like these characters, but they are reduced to plot devices or stereotypes to a point where it's just infuriating and blatant. We have a character who's only defining trait is that she is Maid fetish fuel. And she's called "Head maid". In an attempt to give her depth, I guess? She is also somehow a warlord. Though she never leads an army and this fact has no bearing whatsoever on the story at any point. It's just mentioned as a fact in passing. Then has no relevance whatsoever. This is not how writing works...
"The Winter kingdom". I wonder if it's cold there... There is such a thing as being to the point, and then there is belittling your audience.

This is not something that was simplified in the Anime over the source material either, which was a light novel apparently. This points to the shows inherent problem. A group of talented people where given a work to adapt that just does not seem very good to begin with. On top of that they where obviously not given enough time and resources to make an epic. Because the story of Maoyu tries to be an epic story of changing the world. If they had made it a 24 episode series, instead of 12. Then they might have been able to do the story justice. At least for what that's worth. As it is it is too choppy, haphazard and unfulfilling.

Now, to be fair, this is more of a comedy show then S&W was. But the show is not consistent enough at that either.
Take another show for example, 'Senyū'. A 5 minute episode comedy show with a similar premise. 'A war is going down between the demon world and the human world. A hero sets out to kill the demon king, who turns out to be a cute girl who just wants to end the war.' In execution Senyū is extremely silly, but, and this is a big but. It is seriously funny. It sets out to do comedy and succeeds.
With Maoyu, you get the impression that it takes itself seriously and they do try to tell you a story about serious subjects like agriculture, economics and war. But you can't take it seriously when they randomly throw things like "giant Walrus video-game boss fight" at you in one scene, in another they sit down and argue the benefits of the potato as a crop. It never really held my attention enough to get invested as a drama and as a comedy it's kind of lame and frustrating.
The events have so little build-up and not much of a pay-of to drive the point home. It's mostly just a string of unlikely events. A plot that never got a finished story.

It's not really hard to follow. But it is hard to believe, or care about the story. Especially with huge gaping plot holes that are never addressed. For example, in the first episode the "Hero" arrives at the Demon capital and finds it completely empty. He even questions this, before charging in to slay the Demon lord. Who is completely alone, in this vast unguarded fortress. Why? How? Never explained. It may be implied that she simply ordered the entire city abandoned (yeah right) just in order to meet the Hero. Convoluted much? Because of reasons? Then she abandons her entire realm to go on adventures in the human realm. While somehow simultaneously ruling an entire separate world.
Suspension of disbelief: shattered.

In conclusion:
The artwork is fairly good, the opening and ending where not bad, but kind-of "meh".
If you want to watch something pretty inoffensive that doesn't require too much thinking, it's an ok show. It's a cutesy romp that at least tries to be intelligent. But it's nothing that memorable and you may just end up more disappointed then entertained.
Overall the series is rather mediocre, only empathized by the fact you know the people behind it has done so much better.
In one episode we do get one good speech from a character, that had been built up with a sub plot pretty decently. But it's too little too late to really justify the entire series, which for the most part just keeps afloat on being cute and kind of harmless.
For a story that tries to come across as clever and deep (somewhat). The overall tone is pretty childish. They are probably aiming to appeal to a younger demographic. But that is no excuse for sloppy storytelling and stereotypical characters ("The vaguely chosen one"? They don't even attempt to start explaining this. Fail.) For all it's potential. The story just isn't that good. Sure it's cute, but there is not much subtlety to it. The whole things feels more like a rough draft with loose ideas then a finished work to stand on it's own.
If this really is the compromise we get, instead of S&Ws 3rd season. More then anything that makes me sad. Truly, sad. Not because Maoyu is all that bad. It's entirely watchable. Even kinda charming now and then. But for what it could have been.
The first season leaves off on a note where things are still not fully resolved, but you pretty much already know how it's going to end. It's open for a second season, but I'm not so sure there will ever be one. Or if it's even needed. I for one don't really feel much excitement at the prospect. Even if a second season to Mayou does come out, I won't be waiting for it. I'm more likely to just re-watch Spice and Wolf instead.
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Some thoughts for those who have already seen the show:

Why is Mao (The demon king) the ONLY demon who is physically identical to humans? (with possible exception of supernatural cleavage.) Every other being of her race (or races) shown are either a sort of humanoid Chimera (composite creature) or just straight up monster. Yet she is somehow none of this. And she is their ruler. Do I have to remind you the demons all hate humans? Never explained.

Again, speaking of lazy writing. The "Hero" has the ability to instantly teleport anywhere. At any time. They jump from scene to scene in completely different parts of the world, throw some random plot development at you then move on. This sort of ability raises more plot holes and problems then it serves the story. Why can he do this? He's not a Mage (which do exist in this world), he even stresses the point several times that all he is good for is fighting. Yet he has random powers of plot convenience (He blew up a mountain, just to impress an crowd. So you mean to say, this guy has the power to make an entire army explode. How did he just not win this war with a hand-wave before the first episode even started?). The show is full of these Deus ex machina moments. The heroine constantly pulls yet another brilliant scientific breakthrough right out of her ass (seriously, she picks technical revolutions out of thin air. And they never explain how or why she can do this. I guess she's just Jesus). Leaving me thinking, why should I care again?
If the subjects brought up had been given time to be looked into and examined, it could have been much more interesting. But instead it's just name dropping. Bam! Windmill. Next! Printing press. Next! Rifles. Next! We'll cover hundreds of years of technical and social development in no-time! Then everything will go from bad, to good. All problems solved. Yeah. Actual story progression? Subject knowledge? *pfft*, rubbish.

Mao is gone in the human world for years. Obviously putting tons of effort into managing things in the village, having meetings, doing paperwork. So, who runs the demon world? Why is she not simply overthrown? Does nobody miss her? Never explained. For most of the story it actually would have made more sense if she had turned out to be a deranged compulsive liar with a few accomplices. No, one head maid does not count as a court.
How are you supposed to believe she is the demon ruler when she doesn't even talk to other demons until the last episode. Where are her servants? Where are her allies? Are we just supposed to buy into the fact that this random girl (The demon "king") with false horns, is the undisputed supreme ruler of several demonic nations? Because she says so? Oh, I guess she also entered the demon lord tombs or whatever. So that makes her legit. None of that made any sense to begin with. Only the maid ever saw her enter or leave. How does this license thing work? Does everyone suddenly just know she's legit? Was she a princess at some point? Did she just choose to become demon king and there where no other candidates? You can use magic as an explanation all you want, but it has to have an internally consistent logic. Otherwise it's just random nonsense.

When Mao clearly wants to have a physical relationship, why does the prick "Hero" go out of his way to avoid even kissing her (in fact, does he ever?), then leaves for over a year! Not visiting once, in spite of instant teleportation powers. It is established that they are married from episode one... and that she is considered very attractive. What kind of man is he? Being a bit shy is one thing, then there is being a complete clueless douche. Why are we supposed to like this guy again?
This just goes to show the producers are trying to sell this to an audience of 12 year old boys who still think "girls are icky". But swords and huge spiky armors are cool...
I'm so sick of the pandering to the lowest common denominators and dumbing everything down to be "ok" for everyone, but fulfilling to no-one. How can you put so much emphasis on boob jiggling, yet even kissing is taboo? Pick a demographic and one artistic vision, then stick to it...

Animation:
Maoyuu's light, painting-like pastel backgrounds convey a rich, delightful portrayal of setting based off European middle ages. It gives a sense of authenticity that helps the immersion and further depicts the world as the story sometimes rolls on fast without going into minute details. The characters' design are easy on the eye, dressed in attire and armor that's befitting the setting is a further plus that can be hard to find these days. Characters' design is easy on the eyes with no extremes, even side characters are done just right to either invoke sympathy or suspect. Watching Maoyuu was a visually pleasing experience.

Sound:
OP is catchy even if not noteworthy, however ED was among the better and more fitting ones that I have seen. BGM is passable, I wouldn't say that any of it roused emotions however. The thing to mention here would be the fine voice acting, I believe that some of the cast is instantly recognizable for the regulars of anime and they carry on the good work. It's an important area to cover adequately for a show that relies on a good of dialogue and talking. No shortcomings there.

Story:
Story of Maoyuu is among the more unique that you can find around, maybe not in the way that events happen but how the focus is on stuff that normally happens in the background. Middle age warfare, political strife and intrigues are more in-depth analyzed and touches on ground that's avoided: No war is fought for the glory of God or men, they're fought for base desires and ulterior motives of people. In that, it goes on to show that even that is not solely governed by the greed of men in high echelons of power but also for the needs of society. Even if the people do not want to battle, they want to eat. So what happens when you need war to eat?

As the show began slowly but caught on a faster than needed pace towards the finale, it was beginning to get rather interesting. Then comes along the abrupt end. It was rather disappointing to as the story is neither done nor could be broken in a good place yet. But I at least hope that a second season will be produced as the finish is open-ended to allow for a seamless transition. It needed its second season right now, though.

Character:
The characters are clearly defined yet never named, they're in a way like, the Man with No Name. Not just in the way they're aptly named like, Hero, Demon King and Female Knight, but also how they're each almost a force of nature on their own. They're mortal yet are proficient in their area of expertise to nearly godlike powers. Be that omniscience in well, sciences or omnipotent in combat. That might be unsettling as it's not explained at all, but their presentation pretty much validates the assumption that they're each the embodiment of certain classical archetypes of sagas sung by bards. So yes, a hero single-handedly thwarting off armies is non-sense, but I think it wasn't the intention to make sense out of that here. When I viewed it as "Beowulf and da Vinci: by Adam Smith" in which you still get told the story of people who break ground or faces but the focus is on the sinews of war and social problems, it made sense and was enjoyable.

Not to mention that the main cast is overall, sympathetic and thinking people. They don't try to fill in the archetypes' shoes at the cost of rational behavior. The ongoing construction of an harem was somewhat overdone and cliche though but provides relief moments at times so one might overlook it. The late arrival and little screen-time of a couple of main characters is a shame, considering that they both had potential.

The antagonists of the show however leave something to be desired, they don't have enough time to flesh out and come off as more like caricatures of themselves. A decent adversary shows more of a protagonist than he can do himself.

Value:
It starts somewhat slowly but gets on a good pace soon enough. However as the time runs out, they apparently had to increase it even more. The last couple of episodes are almost like Maou's 'useless flesh' trying to get out of their boundaries. It really needed more space to expand the ideas and tell more. But then again, I'll take this rather than an overly slow pace. It makes efficient use of the viewer's time. Some of the episodes have re-watch value.

Enjoyment:
I had some expectations from the show and it satisfied mostly on the second half of the season. The inconclusive and sudden ending was a letdown but not enough to shadow the previous work. All in all, it was among the more out of the ordinary and enjoyable anime experiences of this last year and I'm looking forward to a continuation even if the "Fin" screen caused some pessimism. There's the groundwork and start of something notable.

Bottom Line:
If the premise of the show seems to interest you even if slightly, give Maoyuu a try. You can do much worse with your time nowadays in anime, you might be pleasantly surprised but not disappointed to the point of regret. It's pleasant to watch aesthetically and relays the story of a sympathetic middle ages fantasy cast from a different angle.

Some stories are not stories, but rather series of moving pictures conveying a specific idea. These don't really get to be called anime, from where i stand. More like propaganda pamphlets.
How is Maoyuu Maou Yuusha like that?
Read on.

Presentation:
This is a show where everything except presentation failed so hard, that the presentation is the only thing left supporting it.
Now, the characters are drawn well enough. Animations, movements, sounds are all on the level. But the main thing that presentation is supposed to achieve - the feeling of flow, the desire to watch more of these pretty pictures and hear more of these great sounds, - just doesn't exist in this show. Even the moe potential of the sleazy and smart Demon Lord ends up completely wasted.

Whether it is poor execution of presentation style (they were trying to recreate Spice and Wolf's tense magic, but forgot to put any kind of tension behind it), or poor character and story rubbing off on the visual and audio side is hard to tell. The end result, however, is a show that is genuinely boring to watch and listen to, because neither pictures, nor sounds have any real feeling behind them.

5/10 in both categories on merits of pure professional execution, but professional execution only takes you so far.

Story:
There is no story here.
Now, there could be. The notion of two near-omnipotent beings uniting to enact change in a homeosthatic world is an inherently interesting one. it echoes any number of myths and can be used to develop all sorts of interesting archetypes. However, notion alone doesn't make a story.

Story is dynamic. Story is about conflict. Story is about both sides fighting for what they love. What happens in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha is that the antagonistic side doesn't really love anything, and is not really strong enough to make the protagonists actually fight. Now, it could be approached differently. Desire for things to stay the same can be as strong and noble of a driving emotion as desire for change. A Knight Templar character archetype should be able to at least give a Progressive Rebel character archetype a run for his money in both politics and battlefield. At the very least, the bad world that the heroes are trying to change can be resistant to change.
But that's not what happens here.

What happens here is that people who don't want change are universally portrayed as greedy and vengeful little stupidheads that only love their own prosperity, and don't even love it enough to adequately reformulate their strategies once they start failing. And everyone else instantly falls in love with the protagonists. The only dynamic here is the union of two near-omnipotent beings completely overpowering all of their adversaries through liberal application of plotdevices and sometimes outright power of love, with past baggage not even serving well as a momentary distraction.
This is not good conflict.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha tries to spice this up with a love story, but guess what, it doesn't have any real conflict either. Hero loves Demon King, Demon King loves Hero, attempts of the Lady Knight to interfere result only in her joining a menage a trois, showing even less resistance than a side character in a high school harem show.

It seems the authors of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha just want everyone to live peacefully together, and really struggle on resolving their desire with the harsh reality of feudal politics in any believable sort of way. So instead of making a story, they make their characters into all-loving and universally accepted messiahs instead. And even then they can't finish the story right in the span of 12 episodes. The show ends the instant the enemy unveils something that might be problematic even for the plot-device-blessed pair.
This kind of story usually gets a 1/10 out of me, but Maoyuu Maou Yuusha did have a somewhat interesting premise and does try to convey some understanding of Middle Age way of life, so 2/10 is what it gets.

Characters:
No real backstories. Very limited development. Where development happens, it is on a stupidly unbelievable scale, basically showing serf girls becoming politically savvy prophets, capable of impressing the kings, after some good food and brief home schooling.
Instead, plenty of characters that seem to exist only to show off how awesome the main pair is :/.
There isn't even any good sort of dynamic between the main pair. They end up operating kind of separately for the most time (with separation not dulling their efficiency in the slightest), and then meet up and obliterate whatever they couldn't handle alone with Power Of Love (tm). Only to then get separated again with no progress at all. Can't even feel happy for them :(
Character work in this show is on 1/10 level with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Value:
One extra point for attempting to tackle a story on the level of Prometheus myth. The basic premise of the story, a union of knowledge and faith that brings enlightement to people, is what kept me coming back to the show, hoping that maybe the authors will finally see the error of their ways and make some good stuff happen.
Other than that, nothing much good to say.
2/10 total.

Enjoyment:
Nonexistent. For me, it was an exercise of masochistic self-flaggelation in hope that the authors deliver on the myth they promised.
They didn't. They didn't even start to deliver. 1/10.

PROPER MINDSET
I once tried to write a review about Spice and Wolf (S&W) but soon gave up since there was absolutely nothing to write about it. Seriously, it was just aimless slice of life with some hints of economy and trade. But now that they made Demon and Hero, (D&H) its spiritual successor, I had more than enough material to finally write my thoughts about it. So in a way consider this a double review.

THE STAFF
- Both the animation studios behind these shows are very minor in the field, and most of their works are hentai. At the same time, these two titles are their best works to date.
- The writers of the shows are different in each one but follow a similar theme in the story.
- The director is the same in both titles and despite having done several other anime, these are his only average and above works. The rest are hentai or heavy on erotic context.

SCRIPT
In both titles we have a mortal male siding with a super hot sexy supernatural woman and going around doing stand alone missions that have to do with economy and trade. Surely, it isn’t much since they are mostly shows about fluff than plot. At least D&H has a bit more variety for having a fantasy war in the background. Other than that, it is still nothing much in terms of plot. And let it be noted that D&H is to the most part a parody of fantasy stereotypes; so it feels funnier and sillier to S&W, which was “serious” as far as slice of life goes.

Let it be noted that the source material has a lot of plot which the anime skips entirely in order to save budget in fights and stick to silly gag and boob jokes before it ends openly. So all the interesting themes are both underplayed and left incomplete for the sake of fan service. If you are wathing this for the plot, prepare to be disappointed.

CAST
S&W’s two main characters had a huge antithesis and made a very interesting couple. Aside from having different genders, the male was a typical mortal merchant, and the female was a goddess of nature. Their common goal existed in how humanity needed to find a balanced way of life so it won’t further damage the environment in which it lives. The protagonists were trying to achieve that with proper trading of goods and by spreading their ideals.

In D&H the antithesis is not so bold, as both main characters are very powerful in combat and magic. The male is an epic level human warrior and the female a demon lord with great knowledge in most sciences and arts. Their species are in war for many years and team up in order to find a way to stop that and promote coexistence. The method they have in mind is through trading; one side covering the needs of the other through exchange of goods.

It seems more colorful to have different species, spells, and civilizations blending like that, but at the same time it lacks the spiritual and philosophical feel of S&W. It has to do with pluralism and equality instead of ecology and balance. And if you see deeper than that, you realize the differences between humans and demons are only superficial. They barely look different besides some horns and tails and otherwise behave and live in the exact same way.

Aesthetic aside, there are other things which make the couple of D&H worse to that of S&W. When you have two overpowered main characters who can pretty much defeat anyone, it is hard to feel they will have big obstacles in their mission. They can just kick the crap out of anyone who disagrees and enforce their beliefs through fear instead of convincing the population of their philosophy. Of course they keep saying the whole point is to bring coexistence without reliance on raw power but there is still that option as a last resort.

Another issue is the way the main two characters are presented to the audience. The male hero was so powerful that everybody was afraid of him. He felt like committing suicide out of depression, until he was offered this mission and found a new meaning in his life. That makes him look like an asshole, since he is scorned by everybody for doing his job right and intends to change everybody’s lives even if they disagree. It’s like he is in a lose-lose situation.

The far more Average Joe in S&W, as simplistic as he was, he accepted the task exactly because it was already his profession and because he realized the crisis the world was facing and wanted to help everyone by doing what he already was good at. It was a selfless act; not an act of boredom or depression. Plus he looked like a mature adult while the super warrior looks like a stereotypical immature shonen protagonist inside a harem.

Even the female demon lord feels so much less interesting to the one in S&W. She is far more sexualized and her boobs bounce a lot. The goddess in S&W was naked because the animals in nature are naked; an excused feature that could not be seen as erotic. When she was dressed, she was modest and fine to look at. On the other hand, how am I supposed to show respect for this big tits? She doesn’t even look like a demon and dresses like a typical human noble with a bare cleavage. Even her horns are there as decoration; she is otherwise just another hentai bitch.

Plus, because the male is as powerful as she, it makes her feel like nothing more than his female counterpart. And sure, at first you are meant to believe she is NOT that good in battle as she is at politics or planning but then they throw a devilish dark side she has which makes her god-level for awhile and thus she is as strong as she likes to be. So she ends up being needless fan service instead of a vital character with a different role to that of harem girl number 1. Why did I say harem? Well…

The final nail to the coffin is how there are many other secondary girls who are all after the hero. Yup, harem in the making, further detracting focus and context from the main goal. Take out economy and war, and throw in done-to-death erotic comedy. Lots of boob jokes and the hero constantly called virgin and a useless piece of meat, as he breezes through missions full of hot animal chicks ho are after his shortsword, if you know what I mean. Unlike S&W, this show is pandering to otakus way too much, a thing I find cheap and lame as it trashes its worth as a memorable series.

It must be noted though that many things in the show are supposed to be there as a parody of jrpg stereotypes. So all the goofy and overused stereotypes are meant to be an excuse to make jokes out of them. No sir, it is not fan service to have breasts bigger than a house; it is a parody! And no sir, they are not named after their classes; it is there to make it easier to remember who is who. Why bother to name your characters Bill, Jeanne, and Maria, when you can simply call them Hero, Demon, and Warrior? And thus we go back to what I said about this one being light and silly, while the other was serious about its themes.

PRODUCTION VALUES
Both shows look nice to keep staring at, with S&W being very calming thanks to its rural areas and old style cities, while D&H heads for fantasy appeal by having knights, wizards, monsters, and spells. The later has some pretty interesting backgrounds, by adding filters and gradient special effects to the mix in order to create a much better fairy-tale feel. So it wins in being more colorful and detailed, although the bouncing boobs in the foreground can be very distracting.

As far as music goes, voice acting is ok and I am not fond of any of the songs. It’s just that the S&W OST is calm and elegiac, while the D&H OST is just generic jpop nobody would care to remember.

LEGACY
Although I was never a fan of such shows, S&W was amongst the best warm and fuzzy feeling anime of all times. D&H is a far more typical show, aiming to appeal to otakus with bouncing boobs, harem, and videogame fantasy worlds. It looks more colorful and variable but it has a lot less development with a lot more elements, and thus loses. It will fail to be anything significant in the longrun but for awhile it will be appealing for many, because the season it aired in was boring as hell, plus all the fans of S&W will be biased towards liking it for having the same feel, voice actors, and director.

And now for some excused scorings.