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Old 02-11-2013, 09:31 AM   #1
Doppleganger
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Maoyuu

I've been super hesitant/lazy to make this topic, and it's probably a poor time to bring it about, but some time is better than no time!

So, Maoyuu. Welcome to a medieval universe where demons and humans are at war with one another. I bet you couldn't tell this medieval universe apart from other, similar high fantasy settings!

Our story takes place at the end of the story. Or a story. Note that people in this story are named after their jobs/functions. Given this, I find it ironic that the main female is named "Demon King". She should be named, "Hero please bang me really hard, right now!".

Anyway, the main character, aptly named Hero, charges into the Demon King's castle and demands challenge...but the Demon King is actually a cute girl, and she wants the Hero as an ally (and more) to make the world better for humans and demons!

Later in the story, we get harem hijinks as more females are added. The Hero is also pretty thick headed. We've basically got a middle ages historical drama with anime influence. Also, meat.

Meeeeeat!

(also, Maoyuu = maou + yuusha. Note that couples combine their names together, like Bradgelina and Bennifer. Hint hint!)

...

I read pretty close to all the manga like last month, in preparation for the story, but I was seriously underwhelmed by it. It's just boring outside of the stereotypical anime throw-ins...I hate to use "tropes", but stock scenario and stereotypes as descriptors just don't cut it.

The story isn't bad (technically original), just dull. I felt the same way about Spice & Wolf too...the main coupling was more interesting than everything around the characters, and I felt that poor because a good story should have endeared the reader/watcher to the setting and external events just as much.

In Berserk's Golden Age, for example, there's tons of political happenstance that doesn't involve Guts directly, but the reader is interested in it. This continues even into Millennium Falcon, the current arc. Legend of the Legendary Heroes followed a similar vein. For whatever reason, and I have my theories, Maoyuu does not.
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Old 02-25-2013, 04:39 PM   #2
Talon87
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Talon's thoughts on ...
Episodes 01-04
Episode 05
Episode 06

Just finished Episode 07. I'm convinced at this point that the Maoyuu anime is intended as eyecandy for fans of the novels rather than as a television adaptation that keeps newcomers in mind as its primary audience. We're not the primary audience. I'm not even sure we're any audience they care about. ^^; The series is followable but boring and confusing as all hell. This week's episode keeps up the tradition of just completely out of nowhere introducing some general (the dude with the X-shaped scar over one eye) and having him be a major supporting character who Yuusha has been working with for the past several weeks/months. We're given no introduction to him: he's just suddenly there and people are talking about how important he is. We get a similar deal with the father of this one suitor of Yuusha's. The father is a dragon king, his daughter a dragon princess. Said dragon king is said to be important, but again, we see him for all of like two seconds before we cut to his daughter ... who is just there to send a letter to Yuusha which ends up driving the plot later in the episode when it comes time for bedtime. We also see a villain introduced (? Reintroduced? I have no idea at this point ...) who blames everyone else for his misdeeds and vows revenge against (unknownst to him) Maou and the kingdom Maou's been supporting. It's all just so very, very confusing -- and when it's not being confusing, it's being terribly dull -- that the only thing that ends up keeping anyone's interest is the harem of pretty faces doing sexy or amusing things. Like ...
Spoiler: show
... the gratuitous shower scene in the beginning with Onnakishi. Or like the climactic three-way bedtime scene with Onnakishi, Maou, and Yuusha. Or like getting to see Maid Older Sister's pretty face and then learning that not only is she Maou's most promising pupil (something we'd seen the beginnings of in an earlier episode) but that Maou trusts her with some amulet which will allow her to assume Maou's form. (Queuuuuuuuuuuuuuue the doujins! )

I can't fault the character animation as it's very charming and beautiful even in its simplicity. Likewise I can't fault the background animation -- it's quite pretty and pleasant to look at. The music is fine, if forgettable. The voice acting is fine. It's just ... I don't even know what I'm watching anymore. >_>; Either the books are trainwrecks that didn't deserve to be animated or else it's the anime's doing. Either way, books or anime, someone dropped the ball when it came to weaving a proper narrative.
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Old 03-06-2013, 07:56 PM   #3
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Watched Episodes 08 and 09. The series is hinting at various promises of development but it remains to be seen whether they'll satisfyingly deliver or not.

Spoiler: show
WTH @ the Lady Knight's begging the Hero to let her be his mistress, declaratively second to the Demon King. Her character's kind of become a joke now in that regard.

Not too keen on the Demon King suggesting that she might emerge from the chamber as a typical demon ruler who is all "DEATH TO HUMANS!" or w/e. Surprisingly supernatural and deus ex machina-ey for a series that has been so down to Earth and methodical.

Hmm @ the Church calling the Scientist (a.k.a. the Demon King) a heretic. They say it's because the potato is a demon food? A, why didn't anybody speak up sooner? B, why would the Demon King have used demon crops instead of exclusively human crops? C, I thought the humans had no qualms about implementing demon technology and such. (Just like the Crusaders who came home and brought with them Middle Eastern spices, medicines, science, and so forth.) Obviously the potato is just an excuse, and they must have some evidence that the Scientist is really a demon in disguise.

WTH @ the Hero sharing the Demon King's secret with that one merchant. The very same merchant who paid you a mere 15 gold to give him a rallying speech which turned his guild millions in profit. The same merchant who laughed about it. You told a guy like that all of your guys' secrets?

Cool @ there being a neutral city where humans and demons co-exist quite happily.

WTH @ how this episode morphed the Hero from a shy nice guy who had a weakness for beautiful girls but remained fiercely loyal to the Demon King into a perv who had no qualms about gulping down mouthfuls eyefuls of big squishy boobies. Seriously, where did this come from? Felt very out of character for him.
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Old 03-07-2013, 12:31 PM   #4
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Clearly it's a case of Hero developing a taste for lean meat. I'm not a fan of fat myself.
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Old 03-07-2013, 02:41 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Watched Episodes 08 and 09. The series is hinting at various promises of development but it remains to be seen whether they'll satisfyingly deliver or not.

Spoiler: show
Hmm @ the Church calling the Scientist (a.k.a. the Demon King) a heretic. They say it's because the potato is a demon food? A, why didn't anybody speak up sooner? B, why would the Demon King have used demon crops instead of exclusively human crops? C, I thought the humans had no qualms about implementing demon technology and such. (Just like the Crusaders who came home and brought with them Middle Eastern spices, medicines, science, and so forth.) Obviously the potato is just an excuse, and they must have some evidence that the Scientist is really a demon in disguise.
I have to bring up what I thought of that development:
Spoiler: show
I immediately concluded that the Big Bad Capitalists that are taking advantage of the war are in cahoots with the church in some way. When someone suddenly brings in a new vegetable that can survive the winter and make people less dependant on imported food (if not even moving them to domestic altogether!), which lowers the Capitalists' income, they send in the church: "she's a heretic and potatoes are evil, that way they'll buy food from us again! ".

And as I assume the church is getting their cut of all the money, they're not going to start defending someone who's taking away their money too.

Am I somehow being too pessimistic about how the economy works in this show when this is the stuff I think of before anything else?

Which brings me to episode 9: Big Sister Maid's speech was righteous and justified and all, but the real value of it (for me) was dropped by the fact that THE HERO COULD HAVE STEPPED IN AND SAVED HER AT ANY MOMENT HE FELT LIKE IT; plus, if she knew he was there, she had all the time and composure and nerves to think of a great speech and to make it like she did. I was also reminded of the ”I Have A Dream” speech – and laughed out loud when the ”heretic” was made a saint out of the blue and the crowd defended her. Because I’m all too painfully aware that that’s not how the situation would have worked out in the real world.
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Old 03-07-2013, 03:08 PM   #6
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Are you talking about 09 or 10? I haven't seen Episode 10 yet, which means I haven't seen anyone give any speech to a crowd, if that's what you're suggesting happens in 10. Or ... are you just using "crowd" to refer to the people gathered around the kitchen dinner table at the nighttime scene which ends Episode 09?
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Old 03-08-2013, 05:27 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Are you talking about 09 or 10? I haven't seen Episode 10 yet, which means I haven't seen anyone give any speech to a crowd, if that's what you're suggesting happens in 10. Or ... are you just using "crowd" to refer to the people gathered around the kitchen dinner table at the nighttime scene which ends Episode 09?
The speech happens in episode 9,
Spoiler: show
with "Demon Queen" getting whipped and abused by the church representatives. It's almost the entire second half of episode 9.


Are you sure you're not talking about episode 8? Because 9 doesn't end at a dinner table, it ends with
Spoiler: show
the Hero talking with Big Sister Maid.

Last edited by kaisap112; 03-08-2013 at 05:29 AM.
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Old 03-19-2013, 09:50 PM   #8
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I was indeed talking about 08, it turns out. I could've sworn that I'd sat through a double-header and watched 08 and 09 in one go ... but apparently not! I guess Episode 08 just felt so long that I mistook it for 08 and 09 instead of 08 alone!

Well, I finally watched 09. Not much to say. In-universe it was very good, but for us in the audience outside of the characters' universe, it was a fairly ordinary speech about the topics she spoke on. (Liberty, pride, what it means to be human, etc.) Not bad, of course. Just nothing that's going to be going down in the annals of history as one of the best speeches ever made. ^_^;

Spoiler: show
I thought it kind of interesting for the future that the Older Sister Maid has gone ahead and publicly established the Crimson Scholar to have been a former serf. Now the Demon King's going to have to play along with that ruse! ^^;

Hooray for the young Winter King finally manning up.

Oh look, a new minor villain to worry about. ^^; (The blue-skinned demon prince.)

The bit of the episode after the ending credits is interesting. Has there been an endless cycle of Demon Kings partnering up with Heroes to try and solve the world's bloodshed problem? Guess we'll find out next time.

I haven't seen any of the most recent episodes obviously. Episode 10 apparently was a recap episode? The folks I was watching with apparently skipped that one, so I'll have to try and watch it with someone else if I want to be able to claim I've seen 'em all. They don't have 11 out yet either though which bugs me, considering Episode 9 aired like, what, 2˝ weeks ago? Edit: never mind! Apparently Episode 10 just came out on like March 15, so I guess if I see that one then I'll be all caught up.
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Old 04-28-2013, 11:47 PM   #9
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So ... I guess everybody (including CrunchyRoll) skipped right over the supposed recap episode? 'Cause everybody's Episode 10 is the same thing ... and it's a brand new episode. (Or it was, a month and a half ago. ) Well, finally got around to watching it. It delivered heavily on the two fronts everyone had been wanting: economic theory and overarching plot-relevant war. None of this "Who? " walrus general crap, nor any of those "Huh? " episodes that did confusing jobs of character development. While this one was confusing too ^^; , it was definitely the Wolf & Spiciest episode we've had yet.

Spoiler: show
The guild dude (with the crush on Maou) was pretty crafty. Given Hero's comments that Maou would be displeased with this outcome, though, I wonder what she'll think of the guild guy once she returns. And given that he only acted to try and help the Hero, and given how he was all "Maou would never do something like this," I almost wonder, is this just a case of lack of communication between the two men leading to both acting in ways they wouldn't otherwise want to act? / doing things they otherwise wouldn't want to do? ^^;

The flashback with Maou and Head Maid suggests that Maou is quite a bit older than the Hero. So not only does she have the body of a milf, but she has the age gap of one too?

lol @ the people of the Winter Country just making their own church.

Is the title of Maou not inherited? 'Cause Maou doesn't seem to be part-Dragon, yet the dragon princess was saying how the majority of past Demon Kings have been the blue dragons. So I wonder how the next Demon King is chosen each time.

I so want to like this show, but I'd be lying if I denied that I had the urge to turn the episode off and watch something else. Several times, in fact. ^^; I seriously wonder if this is just a terrible adaptation and the original books read like friggin' Harry Potter. 'Cause man if the TV series isn't hard to follow. It is!
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Old 04-29-2013, 01:49 AM   #10
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No...I think the adaption is quite faithful. x_x
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Old 05-29-2013, 08:27 PM   #11
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After much, much stalling, I finally finished the Maoyuu anime. I watched 85% or so of Episode 11 about a month ago, paused the episode, ... and then put the remainder off until today. ^^; Finished Episode 11 (though you'd think it was like I went to have my wisdom teeth removed), pressed on to Episode 12 (same), and finished it just now.

I really, really wanted to like this series. Really, I did. I mean ... just look at her! Maou is absolutely gorgeous, and furthermore her character is that of a demoness -- a demon queen! -- who promises to champion a story filled with gripping drama and economic savvy. Unfortunately, Maou is, along with every other character in this series, as much a hollow shell as her lack of a given name implies. Nothing in this series is explained well. From start to finish, I was confused and always on the verge of developing a mini-migraine as I concentrated 3x harder than I usually have to when watching an anime, desperate to try and remember what people had said, what various parties' agendas were, and sometimes what the hell I was even watching at that very minute. I thought that the outbreak of war would make things better, but boy was I wrong: it only made things worse, and the final three or four episodes of this series were pretty much a total waste of my time, Older Sister Maid's speech notwithstanding. It's thus with heavy heart that I think I have to give this series an overall score of "5/10 - Average". And that's because while in many ways this series was above average -- its daring to be unique and its attractive animation are two of the big ones which come to mind -- in many more important ways this series was just plain awful. Let's go through them?

Plot: 3/10 When I could follow the plot, it was a major snoozefest. Sadly, I could only follow the plot maybe 40% to 50% of the time. I suggested several times, "Maybe the story makes more sense in the light novels?" Even now, I still cling to that hope. I still want to believe that. But you guys have said that, no in fact, the anime's a pretty faithful adaptation of the light novels. In which case I've gotta ask, how in the blue blazes did this series get picked up for an anime adaptation?

Characters: 3/10 See above! While the designs were pretty to look at (see below), the vast majority of the characters were hollow shells about whom we knew next to nothing. The merchant guy with the crush on Maou? The evil general who lost an eye? The dragon princess? These weren't minor supporting characters -- these were some of the single most important supporting characters in the story! And it's not much better when we move to main characters either. The mage? The old man? Even Head Maid and Lady Knight? These characters were just plain hollow, man. Shells. Friggin' shells with absolutely nothing on the inside. What little was there ... was good, hence a score of at least 3/10 and not, say, a 1/10 or a 2/10.

Animation: 8/10 The character animation in this series was really quite gorgeous imo, though people have faulted it for being one of those "the faces are all identical; all that changes is the hair styles, hair colors, eye colors, and presence or absence of glasses" styles of animation. I can see that, especially on certain characters (*cough* Maou and Older Sister Maid *cough cough*), but I still think it's quite pretty. Insofar as Maou is "delicious meat" for the eyes to feast on, it suits the audience well that such a beauty would be animated beautifully. The background artwork is technically not that robustly animated but is aesthetically very nice and appealing. The studio managed a great job of balancing realistic colors for a Medieval setting with appealing colors for the eyes such that we don't get bored out of our fucking minds by seeing absolutely nothing outside of browns, grays, and creams.

Music: 5/10 Dead average. Not bad. Not memorable either.

Replay Value: 3/10 or lower ^^; I wish it weren't true, but man, I can't see myself wanting to watch this anime ever again.

OVERALL: 5/10 While the series isn't bad, neither is it good. I had to force myself to watch roughly half of it, not unlike how one has to force a child to swallow a tablespoonful of cough syrup. And unlike the cough syrup, I can't even say that I benefited from my time spent watching Maoyuu.
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Old 05-31-2013, 05:56 AM   #12
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I'm sorry you're disappointed but what can I say, we're both victims here!

I haven't touched this series since I read most of the manga initially. There were some cute interactions (I liked the dragon princess...) but it's basically a plot-first series with some fanservice asides, and the plot sure is convoluted.

S+W ended up being the far stronger series, all things considered, and the big reason for that was a character-first approach and a simple plot. I got S+W even if I felt pedantic at times. I felt the same of Maoyuu, but I still don't get it.
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