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Maoyū (TV).


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MrTerrorist



Joined: 20 Oct 2010
Posts: 1348
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:46 pm Reply with quote


Maoyū Maō Yūsha

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Romance, Comedy, Educational

Synopsis:
From TVTropes:

In a World of magic and fantasy, there exist two worlds. The Human World populated by humans and the Demon World populated by mythical, fantasy creatures. Fifteen years ago, "the War of the Southern Kingdoms” began between the Humans and Demons with each side intend to conquer the other. But the war is still in a stalemate until a young man decides to do something about it. Known as the Hero, he is a skilled and powerful warrior and has traveled to the Demon World to end their evil by killing their leader, the Demon Queen.

After finally entering her castle, the Hero prepares himself for battle with the Demon Queen. But to his surprise, the Demon Queen doesn’t want to fight but to talk with him instead and reveals the truth about the war he’s been too naive to realize. The human/demon war is a not really a war between Good and Evil but a grey one as not all Demons are evil and not all humans are good. The war has benefited both sides, with both humans and demons now united within themselves to face a common enemy.

However, the war has also allowed opportunists to take advantage against their own people where powerful and corrupt humans controlling the poor and weak and the stronger, war mongering demon clans harassing and attacking weaker, peaceful clans. It is these reasons why the war has lasted this long. Furthermore, if one side defeats the other, the loser’s gets oppressed and colonized by the winners who will begin fighting amongst themselves over control.

Ending the war now is even a worse idea since a lot soldiers were trained because of the war and with no one to pay them once it’s over, these soldiers will start attacking their former masters leading to a massive civil war on both sides. The Demon Queen on the other hand has a better idea and wants the Hero’s help so they can end the war peacefully with the least repercussions by playing behind the scenes. The Hero, finally convinced, agrees to joins her as both of them try to end the war peacefully while gaining allies and companions in the process.

Wikipedia
Preview: Trailer 1 and Trailer 2
Official Website
Official Anime Website

Originally posted on 2chan, the story became popular and well received. Encouraged by this. the author, Mamare Touno, decided to make it into a light novel series. Thanks to it's popularity, the novels have been adapted into 5 mangas. (Yes, i said five!) These five mangas are:

Maoyū Maō Yūsha: "Kono Watashi no Mono to Nare, Yūsha yo" "Kotowaru!" by Akira Ishida(The artist, not the voice actor).
This was the one that introduce the series to me and has me hooked since. This main official version is the light-hearted adaptation of the novels with a shonen art style.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha by You Asami.
A good and serious adaptation with a mature art style.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - Oka no Mukou e by Hiro Touge.
This version focus on Romance with a shoujo, bubbly art style.

Maoyū 4-Koma: Muitemasen yo, Maō-sama! by Ronchi Nanatsumu.
A comdey 4-koma adaptation of the novels where most of the characters are exaggerated.

Maoyū Maō Yūsha Gaiden: Madoromi no Onna Mahōtsukai by Taiki Kawakami.
Unlike the others, this one is a spin-off that focuses on one of the Hero's companions, a witch. Has a shonen-action art style.


Of all the new anime airing in Winter 2013, this is the one i'm anticipating and interested the most. The way i could describe this anime is "Dragon Quest meets Spice and Wolf" (Heck, the anime is made by the same studio that did Spice and Wolf and the lead characters are voiced by Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu as well!) The series not only has a great story, it has character development and you will learn interesting things about medieval society, economics and some science as well. A unique thing about this series is that all of the characters are never refer to their names but their titles and occupation. It's best to remember those names since there are a lot of characters in this series. Here's an artwork of all the characters drawn by one of the manga artist. Remember, Spoilers!

I can wait to watch this anime.

[EDIT: Changed thread name to be consistent with how Crunchyroll has labeled this title. - Key]
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Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 3282
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:14 pm Reply with quote
I am not certain that TVTropes description is suited as introductions in these threads: TVTropes descriptions tend to include facts that will not become apparent for several episodes into a series by drawing on the source material. The third and fourth paragraphs--and especially the fourth--of the description, for example, sound like facts that the series would show us eventually rather than include as the initial infodump.

I am not entirely sorry to have read the additional information, as the fourth paragraph describing the difficulties reminds me strongly of spoiler[soldiers returning from the war with l i t t l e m o n e y and even less loyalty to the crown. That many become thieves and rebels plotting rebellion against the royal family is to be expected.] I wonder if our protagonists will encounter any malcontent groups who want to violently overthrown the aristocracy in the long term and whether the group would settle for ransoming a noble for money in the short term.

The knight would be the one fulfilling the tsundere quota instead of the queen, I hope.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:08 pm Reply with quote
The adapted manga version I read (the popular one) delved spoiler[deeply into the establishment of sustainable widespread agriculture amongst other ideas to ease and improve quality of life.] It really got into infographics and information dumping, but in a good way, though I'm not sure how it'll carry over to animation when pacing becomes a bigger concern. What I liked most overall is that it felt like the Demon Queen came from the future with all of the know-how to suddenly lay on all of these simpletons, but I suppose it's just because she's enlightened and possesses some great intellect and foresight.

This series is a no-contest addition to my Winter watching list, but I can already see the complaints about Demon Queen's tits coming to the front. The comparisons to SnW are certainly not wrong, but I'm going to wager this will be more heavily balanced towards the economics over the romance.
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MrTerrorist



Joined: 20 Oct 2010
Posts: 1348
PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:10 am Reply with quote
It's 29th of this month which is "Useless Meat Day". To celebrate, the official website is offering different kinds of "useless meat". Laughing (I'm so getting into trouble.)

Anyway here's the official website and click on the "special" link. Wink
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MrTerrorist



Joined: 20 Oct 2010
Posts: 1348
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 8:20 am Reply with quote
Just a reminder.
The anime will be airing in a few hours and will be available on Crunchyroll.

[EDIT: This is essentially just bumping the thread, as this post will be irrelevant very quickly. Please refrain from doing this in the future. - Key]
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:36 am Reply with quote
Episode 1
Not bad so far. There was a lot of dialogues between Yuusha and the Demon Queen. I lol'd @ the way they met though, especially from Yuusha's perspective.

I also liked the fantasy like setting and some of the scenes captured from this episode even though not much happened. It definitely gave me some Spice and Wolf feeling as I was watching this but I found it enjoyable. The ending scenes were funny as well.spoiler[ That pillow like object of Yuusha Laughing]
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Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 3282
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:45 pm Reply with quote
I can't say I subscribe to the economic theory the Demon King puts forth, but it's plausible enough on the face that I don't care to dispute it. Economics is, in any case, not a very well developed science. So long as the series makes use of its theory in a sensible way, it'll be interesting.

I am one of those people who complain about the Demon King's prominent breasts that walw6pK4Alo predicted. I do hope that she gets a different outfit later, because like the Hero, I find them rather distracting. The episode handled the perspective pretty well though, and the little jab of spoiler[virgin accusation from the Wizard was pretty welcome,] though I suspect it's also something of an audience jab.

Being not really familiar with Japanese VAs, I found the Hero's voice a bit jarring. He is youthful--not at all surprising for a Japanese fantasy production, as it's a jRPG trope--, but he has a deep and commanding voice--he loses the commanding part of it when he's flustered, but it remains strangely deep. It's a bit incongruous when juxtaposed to his appearance and his naivete.

And like walw6pK4Alo, I will also leave this:
Inb4 the legions who compare Maoyu and Spice and Wolf and bemoan the grasp moe has taken on anime because of the Demon King and the Hero's quirks!
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EmbraceMe



Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Posts: 2013
Location: Growing old and jaded.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:51 pm Reply with quote
Quite hard to make out what I thought of the first episode; whilst I did enjoy it quite a lot, it felt a little fast pace. . .? I can't really describe it. I had expected the spoiler[hero to be a bit more stubborn to the Queen's conditions but that wasn't the case so it felt like he accepted many of the conditions brought up without thinking it through.] I must say that the Queen is a fun and funny character; her womanly body is quite a service to me and her traits are worth several laughs. The show is fairly lighthearted now but I can see it raising critical issues with how the governments work, economics, and the effects of warfare on various people and becoming a "serious" work.
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Yttrbio



Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3652
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:58 pm Reply with quote
Some of the economics seemed a bit... off. Or maybe poorly translated. Or adapted. Like, the explanation about starvation: spoiler[If there isn't enough capacity to produce food for everyone, why would a war solve that problem? It only solves the logistics one. Is it that war fights overpopulation with all the killing? Because the explanation given in the subs was that everyone only knows how to fight, but that problem is made even worse by the war.]
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Key
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:02 pm Reply with quote
Unless the second episode stumbles badly (the sighting of maids in the opener concerns me), I will likely be following this one. Comparing it to SnW is setting an awfully high bar - and the Demon Queen, while fun, is no Holo - so I will endeavor to avoid that. If the series can continue to maintain a good humor/serious content balance, though, then it looks like it has a lot of potential.
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:22 pm Reply with quote
Seeing as the rest of the season looks to be pretty weak unless this goes downhill it'll probably end up being my show of the season. While I'm not sure how plausable all the economics in this show will be the Demon King and Hero seem like they'll be a good duo in the comedy department so it'll at least be entertaining. Only real issue I have so far with the show is the occasional CG they used during scenes where there were large crowds. It was kind of distracting since the rest of the show looked decent so hopefully that won't pop up too much.
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Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 3282
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:25 pm Reply with quote
Yttrbio wrote:
spoiler[If there isn't enough capacity to produce food for everyone, why would a war solve that problem? It only solves the logistics one. Is it that war fights overpopulation with all the killing? Because the explanation given in the subs was that everyone only knows how to fight, but that problem is made even worse by the war.]

Briefly speaking, the war allows the government to control banditry by recruiting those who are displaced by food shortages into the army and allocating the food resources as it sees fit, probably into displacing people who are less likely to become bandits.

In other words, it doesn't solve the food shortage problem. It just makes the fallout easier to manage.

Key wrote:
and the Demon Queen

I get the impression that it should be Demon King instead. For one thing, the Crunchy subs use Demon King. For another, spoiler[the Hero was quite surprised to find out that the Demon King is a woman, and the Demon King complains that it's a traditional title about which she could do nothing.] These indicate that it's supposed to be a masculine title, despite the actual sex of the title holder.

Of course, I'd prefer to call her Overlord, but I suspect there will draw a lot of complaints of unfaithful translation.

...brb, imagining Maoyu as a yaoi series with a male Demon King.
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:37 pm Reply with quote
Hero spoiler[meets the demon lord and falls in love ROFL]
This one seems kinda ecchi.
But it was fun watching those two bicker.
Watching spoiler[their memories] was nice.
Her spoiler["war-must-go-on" logic made some] sense.
That girl was pretty normal for a maou.
I'll give it a few more episode before I decide to watch it or not.
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Mad_Scientist
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:46 pm Reply with quote
Really enjoyed the visuals and humor of the first episode. I especially loved the part near the end with the spoiler[Hero hug pillow that she was practicing with.] Not sure if it will be able to balance this with the more serious aspects of the show raised in the first episode, but it hasn't stumbled badly yet.

Definitely interesting in seeing more.
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Mr. Nescio



Joined: 13 Jul 2011
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:48 pm Reply with quote
So that was the first episode. I could make a list of things I am unhappy about compared to the most well known manga version (by Ishida Akira), but that wouldn't help anybody. Still, I wanted to see the sometimes deadly serious and sometimes cute Demon Queen and her lines like "Along with being a scholar, I am also an entrepreneur, and an entrepreneur never gives up!". Anime cry

About the war etc.: spoiler[Without going into the details, the main point is that the war keeps the human and demon society stabile temporarily. The Demon Queen wants to end the war in a way that doesn't cause unnecessary losses. As a first step to do this, she tries to do something about the food problem.]
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