Maoyū Maō Yūsha
Well, I asked for an anime recommendation, and this is what I got. I wanted something to watch after having finished Valvrave. "Maoyuu" has a lot of interesting ideas and perspective, but the implementation is sort of... weak, in my opinion.
It shakes up the usual fantasy tropes with a "Demon King" who's female and waiting to meet the Hero (yep, names of major characters are their professions, essentially) in order to convince him to help her establish peace between humans and demons - opposed by those who would use a war between nations to profit. It's a neat idea, especially when her plan is all about macroeconomics and international strategy. While several of the main characters are extremely powerful (Hero can teleport vast distances and level mountains with some of his magic), most of the "action" is army engagements and trade agreements.
Unfortunately, that's where the issues start creeping in. Overall, it feels pretty slow. And just as much of the action is painted in broad, vague strokes, the art style often felt to me rather lifeless. The relationships between the characters, which have some potential with the Demon King - Hero - Knight love triangle and such, end up being played mostly for comedic value. And, ultimately, the promise of all this nation-restructuring simply isn't met. The anime runs 12 (13, counting a recap) episodes and "ends" woefully incomplete, probably because the manga appears to still be running and I'm not sure if the light novels that were the basis are even complete. So there's just no payoff to the story at this point.
It shakes up the usual fantasy tropes with a "Demon King" who's female and waiting to meet the Hero (yep, names of major characters are their professions, essentially) in order to convince him to help her establish peace between humans and demons - opposed by those who would use a war between nations to profit. It's a neat idea, especially when her plan is all about macroeconomics and international strategy. While several of the main characters are extremely powerful (Hero can teleport vast distances and level mountains with some of his magic), most of the "action" is army engagements and trade agreements.
Unfortunately, that's where the issues start creeping in. Overall, it feels pretty slow. And just as much of the action is painted in broad, vague strokes, the art style often felt to me rather lifeless. The relationships between the characters, which have some potential with the Demon King - Hero - Knight love triangle and such, end up being played mostly for comedic value. And, ultimately, the promise of all this nation-restructuring simply isn't met. The anime runs 12 (13, counting a recap) episodes and "ends" woefully incomplete, probably because the manga appears to still be running and I'm not sure if the light novels that were the basis are even complete. So there's just no payoff to the story at this point.