Maoyu

Maoyu Mao Yusha (Demon King and Hero) can be described in a word: rushed. Enter Hero (yeah that is his name). Hero is humanity’s greatest warrior, akin to something you would find in Final Fantasy game. He is able to demolish entire cities and armies with his magic abilities. He was sent to vanquish the Demon King in order to end a long war between humans and demons. Only, it turns out the the Demon King is a queen and wants to end war itself.

Demon King (Mao), as her name is, convinces Hero to join forces to end the war. Her goal is to eliminate the roots of war: scarcity and consumption. She joins Hero in the human realm to apply the knowledge she gleaned from the vast Outer Library in the demon realm. She poses as the Crimson Scholar, and freely offers her knowledge of advanced farming and economics to the village she adopts.

Of course, the events that follow are not simple. There is more to the war than simple hate between demons and humans. The human’s Church and demons have a long history. Hero’s companions, generically named Female Knight, Female Magician, and Archer, complicate and assist with the Demon King’s plans.

Generic naming aside, this anime was rushed. There were gaps of time between episodes where events in the war are glossed over in short narration. Hero is so ridiculously powerful that he could have destroyed both the Church and the demon faction that opposes the Demon King without breaking a sweat. He is convinced by Mao that such an action would continue the war. I don’t know, if you could destroy the will of those who make war, war tends to end quickly. The Demon King, for all her knowledge, is terribly naive. Eliminating scarcity and consumption wouldn’t end war. In fact, the war was designed to reduce both through encouraging productivity in both the human and demon realms.

Maoyu fell flat on most accounts. The characters didn’t have real names. They were stereotyped from fantasy tropes. The animation was lackluster. And the Demon King had annoyingly large boobs. Seriously, why must so many female characters have breasts the size of heads?! Bigger is rarely better. Yes, her big chest showed how the Demon King acted as a mother to civilization. But seriously, anime needs to stop with bazoogas already.

Ehem. Anyway, I liked the side story of the Little Sister Maid and Big Sister Maid (ugh, the names) better than the main plot. They were far more interesting. The idea of the story could have worked if it was done better. Perhaps show how war is ultimately useless through wasted kingdoms and villages. The naïve way of ending war could have blown up and create a crisis of faith for the Demon King.

Perhaps the naming issue was a result of localization problems. In any case Maoyu was lackluster in every aspect.