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Apr 30, 2023
Allow me to digress… Did this special really take me almost 4 years to finish? I remember I watched the first two episodes in 2019 and then stopped. Sheesh. Well, let’s review it and see if I was justified to slack off for so long or if I’m just lazy. I will do a quick review of individual episodes, I will tell you what these episodes are about and then list them in rankings. Let’s go. Every episode is 10 minutes long, that’s about ideal for specials.
1st episode is centred around Saitama and three “Ebay” robbers planning a heist. Robbers bump into Saitama and try
...
to eliminate him, only to realize their powers are quite weak to be mild. Out of fear, the robber trio undergoes an afternoon training session with Saitama, trying to “pretend” they want to become heroes.
What to say about this episode? It’s for the giggles mainly. Some references are thrown here and there. For example: the mosquito swarm is a reference to OPM Season 1. The episode is mainly messing around with no real motion. The writer has thrown in a “strong” monster for Saitama to defeat as well as Genos cameo. I say this episode is somewhere between “mediocre” 5 and “average” 6. A slow start to the OPM S2 specials. I won’t probably watch this episode ever again, there’s nothing really interesting for me.
2nd episode is a fishing episode. Bang and Atomic Samurai fish while Mumen Rider and “Something” Chain are fighting a monster, thinking these two fishermen are average humans.
I’m starting to notice a pattern. Basically, writers seem to add this monster who either wishes to destroy the world or conquer it into the OPM Specials episodes. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of this approach. I view it as a “jumpscare”, sure they might scare you or excite you at first, however… the more jumpscares you experience, the more hardened you usually become. Eventually, jumpscares might stop exciting you and it becomes an annoying pest. I feel like this “pummelling” of Mumen Rider and his buddy by a giant frog just doesn’t work here and the director should have either used longer flashback sequences or a brand-new animation of some unknown or less-known heroes. Sure, One Punch Man is about fighting monsters and etc. It doesn’t mean you always have to force a battle for no other reason than a “thrilling” moment. Talking episodes can be fun too, for some. Overall, it’s an alright episode and it is better than the previous one for sure. I won’t rewatch it most likely tho.
3rd episode is an amnesia episode. Genos loses his memory and goes on a journey to regain it.
That description sounded more exciting than it actually was. The best thing about this episode was and yes, you heard right, the best thing were those flying Lays chips in slow motion. Lays should copy it into one of their commercials with Lionel Messi no kappa. Otherwise, some cheap laughs about Genos acting out of character with Saitama and Fubuki. Yet another monster aiming to destroy the world appears, or destroy urbanism to be precise. Unfortunately fails and City Z occupants still use “DoorDash” to this day, a tragic ending. This episode didn’t hit the right spots for me and it is maybe the worst yet. I didn’t enjoy the way OPM handled the amnesia, it’s probably because my humour senses just did not tick. You probably guessed it, I won’t be rewatching this one anytime soon.
4th episode is a gaming episode! Saitama goes to a gaming event to participate in a tournament.
This was the best episode by a margin. Creative episode, with a clear idea of what it wants to do, paired with great execution. An interesting choice of cast. About the tournament, we all knew which god gamer is taking the victory. This episode is a strong 9, a definitive highlight of specials. I would watch this episode again.
5th episode is a jailbreak. Some prisoners escaped, and PP Prisoner is hunting these poor souls down.
I feel like a good portion of your experience will depend on whether you like Puri Puri Prisoner or not. If you enjoy seeing large, muscular, naked dude fighting, then this episode will offer you something of value. The episode itself is quite average, nothing exceptional. Basic prisonbreak, and a fight with some monster in a jar. Prisoners didn’t even bother to split, except like 2 and stayed together to make it easy for PP Prisoner. Probably 5 or 6, I won’t be rewatching this episode.
6th episode is a “killer” mystery. Well, it’s a sequel to the "who killed Zombieman". Some S-class heroes and Saitama get stuck in a cottage during a blizzard, they capture Sonic o Sound and eventually, somebody kills Zombieman, so the cast must find out the culprit to protect "blondie" in distress.
The 2nd best episode. Not nearly as good as the gaming episode, still way better than the rest. When I saw the episode title I was hoping this might be an attempt to make a bit of a horror episode. Unfortunately not, the most “horror” thing was Sonic creeping on Superalloy Blackluster workout. Still, good idea, with solid execution. It’s a weaker 8.
Okay, time to rank these episodes.
Meh:
Episode 3: The amnesia episode did not work at all.
Episode 5: “Vanilla” prison break.
Episode 1: The idea was there, execution missed the mark by a lot.
Alright:
Episode 2: Mumen Rider getting pummelled didn’t bring anything of value. The fishing part was good tho.
Good:
Episode 6: I think the prequel was better, was a while since I watched it. It’s worth your 10 minutes of life.
Excellent:
Episode 4: I’m glad I didn’t waste 1 hour of my life, this episode is great and I’m glad I finally kicked myself enough to watch it.
The final rating is 6/10. You should at least watch them once, even if you hated the 2nd season animation. It’s a downgrade from season 1 Specials, still, there are episodes worth your time. It took me almost 4 years to finish six 10-minute episodes, I bet you’ll be done in 2 years. In the end, I was a lazy bastard, kinda.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 26, 2022
MAL preliminary review system needs a bit of polishing. Here's my review once again, the exact same review I posted a year or so ago when the series concluded. It'd be so nice if the site could just update my chapters count to the correct number instead of putting my review as a preliminary, hiding from the series main page, thx.
It is said that this is only part 1. However, I doubt Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha part 2 will ever come out due to sales. That is my suspicion.
One day, Morioka Yuuto awakes to find out he got chosen as the devil king candidate
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of Lovers for the upcoming war for the title of "Devil King". Yuuto is the first human to become a candidate. He has and uses an option to transfer to the Ginsei Academy. Ginsei Academy is a place where other candidates and average devils study and prepare for the upcoming war. On his first day, Yuuto meets a girl, Himekami Lizel. Lizel offers to assist Yuuto and becomes his first peerage member, his queen. Lizel brought her friends Yuugaoze Miyabi and Koiwai Reina as well to join. From there, Yuuto begins his journey for the throne as well journey to explore his new member's personalities, their past ( sometimes good, sometimes tragic). His first opponent, devil king candidate of World, Aspite is already plotting his fall. That is a sort of basic rundown of this series, now onto the review.
Story:
I'll be brief. Up until volume 5, the story is pretty decent. It is not anything groundbreaking, but I enjoyed it for what it is.
I like the "Tarot" card system of the devil king candidates. Every candidate has their own arcana.
I feel the pacing was a bit too much at times but okay overall.
For most of the volumes, we were focusing on the main character cast or the villain. There weren't many side stories of other devil king candidates doing stuff. The only time we got another perspective were the main villains plotting against others or attacking someone. While someone can complain it would be boring or distracting, many readers appreciate it when you do a quick side story on another less relevant, minor character or rival. Rival candidates should be shown often as they are Yuuto's primary adversaries for the throne, plus the audience would get to know them better. If I were to redo something, I would mostly avoid any major fight with the devil king candidates for the first two to four volumes and spend it on world-building, introducing some new candidates, students and characters' families. I feel Ginsei Academy was vastly undiscovered in terms of both facilities and average "random event" students.
Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha is supposed to be about a war between twenty-two ( I think) mighty foes. That is unfulfilled, as Maou Gakuen follows a Dragon Ball pattern. A strong opponent appears, the main cast trains and get stronger, defeats the villain and repeat. I can forgive the training part, Yuuto is training nonstop because he is human. That makes perfect sense. What doesn't make sense are the devil king candidates. They are supposed to all be mighty, each with unique abilities, yet two or three main villains fall after Yuuto reaches a certain amount of mana. Yes, this can be excused as character development, but it is lazy writing. Yuuto defeats a villain after his mana reaches a certain number. From volume 4 forwards, the series really goes to being Yuuto team vs villain team vs unknown super-strong enemies. Candidates, who are introduced as massively individual characters who do not believe other people suddenly join a team in the brutal majority of cases.
Let's talk about the setting for a bit. Maou gakuen no Hangyakusha is yet another series set in school. While this doesn't have to be a problem, you cannot deny this setting is overused in the modern light novel and manga. twenty-two devil king candidates, what if all of the candidates inherited a unique base? That sounds cool. Sure, you can have them visit a school if you so much want to, but twenty-two original areas already give a massive boost to the world. In Maou Gakuen, every candidate gets a palace, but these palaces are on the school grounds, and nobody uses them because someone might spy on them, and the candidates are nobility anyways, so they don't need it.
Now, the infamous volume 5: It is a rushed volume. The author shouldn't even have made the volume in the first place. SIX devil king candidates fall within a single volume, including the main villain that was, in my opinion, a fascinating character worth watching. Volume 5 starts alright, but you can feel it when the pace goes off-limit, and we turn on the highway to hell. Even if the series comes back, I doubt it is going to repair the damage it did.
To give you a small rundown: My biggest issue lies with the lack of space for other "non-allied" candidates to get space to develop themselves, this leaves the Hangyakusha world vastly undiscovered as the main focus is centred around Yuuto's peerage, leaving side characters as disposable toys.
My 2nd issue is that the series devolves into a team deathmatch. While I enjoyed the concept of the alliance when it got introduced, the lack of treachery ruined this group. In the end, not even one member betrayed and there were like 7 devil king candidates at the same time.
3rd issue is the length of the series. 5 Light Novel volumes won't create a compelling story.
4th issue is volume 5. A mishandled mess. I understand the author didn't want to volume 4 be the final volume. Unfortunately, volume 5 didn't work out at all.
Characters:
I enjoyed the majority of the cast.
Morioka Yuuto is one of the better ecchi main characters. A good personality evolves through the series.
Himekami Lizel is a good heroine, a mature, level-headed, mentor figure for Yuuto with an intriguing backstory.
Yuugaoze Miyabi is a provocative heroine. Her daring persona was enjoyable.
Koiwai Reina is a cute heroine and a katana user. She is an alright character that should bring wholesome factors.
other notable characters:
Carnac Neith is the shy heroine. Eventually, she overcomes her shyness.
Hoshigaoka Stella is the "idol" of Maou Gakuen. She is one of the characters that got hit by the sudden conclusion.
Aspite, the villain, later he takes the role of an antihero (if you know Highschool DxD, it is Rizer Phoenix's redemption moment)
Joudougahama Lost, best Maou Gakuen villain. A fascinating character and a clever schemer. Volume 5 did him dirty.
Art:
Every volume has around fifteen illustrations, five of which are coloured. You'll get some spicy stuff, no nudity. I'd say the artist needs to work on the faces of the characters. They often look very similar. If you want boobs, then you won't be disappointed at all.
Last, but not least, villains:
Since Maou Gakuen is short, I will rate all the villains or hostile devil king candidates to be precise.
Aspite, World, 7/10: A pretty decent introductory villain with a cool unique ability.
Mitsuishi Ibiza, Devil, 7/10: Again, interesting unique ability with mind control, playful yet psychopathic personality. I enjoyed this villain.
Takakuzure Marios, Tower, 5/10: He didn't do anything significant. He unknowingly became a puppet and realized too late his "ally" Lost was weakening him.
Kitakami Lunatic, Moon, 2/10: He was a devil king candidate of the moon that got one-shotted by Stella, yeah...
Sansa Summers, Sun, 3/10: She was a devil king candidate of the sun and did basically nothing. Why 3 and not 2? Well, she at least lasted three volumes.
Joudougahama Lost, Death, 8/10: Great character design joined by an intriguing personality and powers. Shame, volume 5 did him so dirty.
Shimokadzuma Rinne, Wheel of Fortune, 8/10: She has the ability to rewind time. Rinne lacks the strength to utilize this advantage on her own, so she spends most of her time with Lost to get herself through this war. She influences numerous of Yuuto's confrontations. I like this little partnership for what it is.
Sannou Rikimaru, Strength, 6/10: She punches really hard :) The reason I give her a 6/10 and not 5 is because she has a secret plan going on with her sister Seigi that makes her a bit more interesting villain.
Sannou Seigi, Justice 6/10: Justiiiiice! She becomes a maniac after her sister died.
Hayachine Yotaka, Hanged Man, 4/10: Sadistic personality, whip user, sort of thot. Her other major characteristic is hating on Lizel.
Mizusawa Balance, Temperance, 2/10: Well, he likes his things "balanced". He appears in volume 5, dies in volume 5.
My main issue with villains was the author following the "new volume, new villain to defeat" pattern. Villains weren't bad. They didn't have enough time to become "something".
Ultimately, Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha is a series with a great idea of a war between twenty-two devil king candidates, a series with the vast potential to create a magnificent world filled with memorable characters. Sadly, it falls short and Maou Gakuen is nowhere near the things that I just said.
Before, I rated Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha Light Novel 8/10. Because of the early conclusion and horrendous volume 5, I have to award this series a 6/10. I was thinking about going even lower, but I enjoyed the series, so I think the average mark is enough.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 23, 2022
World's End Harem: Britannia Lumiére is a scam. Waste of your time. To be precise, I don't say these things because I went into the series expecting fanservice, no. Looking at volume 1 front page, I immediately realized this is going to be a romantic story manga.
Allow me to quickly explain to you the failure of this series.
1st is the length of the series. 22 chapters, no need to explain further. You won't create a good story in such a short time, especially a good romance story. The chapters are quite short, usually around 15 pages on average per chapter.
2nd is the plot, our
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main heroine Eri got hit by a train and woke up in the medieval country of Brittania. Apparently, a witch took away all the females and Eri has to defeat this witch with the help of handsome knights? Or lead the people of Brittania to defeat the witch? I guess the original plan was to fight the witch, but it seems the series didn't get enough popularity or support, so the author rewrote the plot around chapter 6 to transform this series into a short political romance drama. Now, there are 5 females from the modern era located in Britannia. For the rest of the series, the characters engaged in various plots to gain power, find out who's the real Slim Shady and get rid of each other or to romance each other.
What about the witch? She never appeared in the manga. This plotline never progressed beyond the larval stage.
3rd are the missing females. Why? Just why? It's stupid. Britannia Lumiere quickly turned into a romantic mess with a few weird rape attempts. Why did you remove all the females in Britannia for this Walmart Twilight in the first place? Oh, I know why...
4th is Shuumatsu no Harem brand. If you exclude the lack of a female population, this series has exactly zero connection to the original series. There are no similarities in terms of plot or characters.
Britannia characters are mediocre at best, Eri is an alright heroine I guess. You can only do that much with 22 chapters.
3/10. I do not recommend Britannia Lumiere. Avoid this series, it is not worth your time. Britannia turned out as an attempt to milk the Shuumatsu no Harem brand.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 23, 2022
A world where 99,999999999% of men died. I fail to understand why you gotta include the world as a whole when the main plot is set in Japan. Guess Japan's End Harem doesn't sound so well as the World End Harem.
Yes, eventually we move out of Nippon, probably to prevent the nitpicking and it actually seems Shuumatsu no Harem might create an "alright" (when you compare it to other Ecchi series) plot. Volume 12 comes out and secures a "strong" 5/10 for this fantastic story (Irony/sarcasm used).
Apparently, this was only part 1 and part 2 is definitely coming out. When? Well, the last chapter
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of Shuumatsu no Harem manga was released in June 2020, that's more than two years already. Even if we ever get new content, it's not changing this review's score. Now, let us delve into the problems plaguing World's End Harem.
I'll try my best to keep this review spoiler-free, tread lightly tho.
The human male population was utterly decimated by a virus and only like 4 males survived, now they will mate with their female counterparts, while they aim to accomplish their own ambitions and wishes. If this was the sole premise of this series, I'd probably rate it somewhere around 7/10, an ecchi title heavily focusing on erotic aspects with some mild plot going on in the background, like Ishuzoku Reviewers anime. Shuumatsu no Harem decides to be daring and create an actual plot line. I do applaud the effort. Unfortunately, the Ecchi series tend to struggle to create a good, logical, without-plothole story. When a certain big booba blonde Chloe Mansfield reappears after a quick bathhouse scene, a more serious plot is developed. It does start off somewhat solid. Although, a few things severely hinder this new development in the main story.
1st are the Incompetent Villains. Chloe Mansfield and her exotic big booba underling manage to do some harm to the main cast in the early stages, that's about it. Eventually, Main Character, Reito and his comrades escape Nippon for China. This marks the point of the beginning of a "grand" chase that takes like 30 chapters or so. Grand chase is an overstatement, there's only one confrontation, ultimately the final confrontation at the end of the manga. A field trip might be a more proper term. I lacked a feeling of insecurity, a feeling the villains are at their tails, that at any moment they can become a victim of this evil organization. Nope, they were chill for most of these 30 chapters. Finally, the final battle occurs and the villains appear out of nowhere to be honest. The confrontation was dreadful, it had plot holes, and lacked logic. Horrible conclusion. Don't worry, the big booba blonde survived to plot her revenge. Yeah, I look forward to it.
Chloe Mansfield is a disastrous, incompetent villain. You’d think the author is going to make her be at least entertaining in the ecchi aspects of the series, nope. Her ecchi record is also horrible, with only a few topless scenes. She despises 75% of men in the world, fine, at least have her do some girl-on-girl action other than punishing her underling. This girl always seems like there is some grand plan going on in her head. Sadly, it never materializes, she attacks the main cast and always fails miserably. These failures leave her as a bland, “extra” character.
2nd is the plot. China lasted only for a moment and our cast went on Duchy of Rosania -_- (Just call it Duchy of Muscovy, Republic of Novgorod, Tatarstan or Tsardom of Ruthenia FFS if you wanna go for an alternative way to name Russia, yes I am actually gonna complain about it, it's stupid to make up these name when you can literally type "history of Russia's land into Google) Why am I ranting about nothing? Because I can afford to rant as I know there is little to address about the plot. From a mile off you can see the plot just starts to accelerate out of control after we head out for Russia.
Allow me to oversimplify:
> Reito arrives in Russia
> 5 minutes pass
> Reito is marrying a monarch
> 1-day pass
> Reito finds out he cannot hold onto his virginity for the rest of his life and has to save the earth by losing it instead.
> 3-days passes
> Reito has had numerous dates without any breakthrough, moving on.
> 1-day pass
> We get backstory about the main heroine, Mira
> Mira wants to have a threesome with Reito
> Out of nowhere, Chloe appears and interrupts the act.
> Final battle begins
> Somehow, sex-crazed primitive females came all the way from Japan to Russia in an absurdly short time to destroy the evil organization.
> Chloe is defeated and retreats
There you go, your summary of the last 20 chapters of Shuumatsu no Harem. You can clearly see the author was in rush to finish this "part 1". The first 40 chapters ( I will talk about that later) are somewhat solid, then the author decides to evolve his story into something deeper, and more complex, a move that unfortunately backfired. Don’t get me wrong, I compliment the effort, it’s not easy to create a “complex” plot after all.
Who are the sex-crazed females? A "pagan" religious faction. One day, the ladies kidnap one of the remaining males, make him their messiah and force him to have sex with them, an unfortunate soul. No, really. The guy was a married man before the virus. Would you switch a happy, married life to becoming an Arnold Schwarzenegger in his "Conan the Barbarian" role? (that was semi-ironic/sarcastic). Although, I have to admit this plotline was interesting to read through. As with the previous plotline, it gets rushed. This cult just happens to travel all the way from Japan or where they normally stay to Russia in an instant transmission style to kick ass. Why? How? I have so many questions.
3rd, Reito. Reito's goal is to never lose his virginity or to lose his virginity with his crush even though it seems like the first option becomes his main objective. This "trait" of eternal celibate, unwavering faithfulness sort of ruins Reito as a character. He meets temptations during his journey, Chloe Mansfield for example. I mention her for a reason. Chloe attempts to seduce Reito on two or three occasions, only to be completely rejected. His head is completely determined to always run away from these temptations, even though his mind is so obviously interested. Run away, literally. This immature writing sabotages both of these characters. Chloe is an attractive female villain, bombshell to be precise. I wanted to see Reito struggle with his determination, to go as far as "sin" with Chloe only to eventually realize she's been trying to get into his head. I don't even require any excessive scenes, 3 to 5 pages of boob fondling and sucking would serve the purpose well enough. This would also massively benefit the character of Chloe. In terms of physical warfare, her forces proved to be completely useless. However, if the events I proposed happened, she would turn out to be a skilled manipulator, using her qualities to “control” people to a certain extent.
For some unknown reason, Chloe doesn’t hate Reito even tho she is supposed to hate all the men. Why? To have her and Reito engage in two pre-puberty scenes? I expected to see some development in the relationship between these two before the “great” chase. Nothing happened and my mind is still boggled why Chloe had a “seducing” tendency toward Reito in the first place when the author didn’t want to advance this relationship beyond being familiar with each other.
Reito doesn’t struggle with either inner or outer foes during the grand chase. The villains are mostly MIA and do not present any relevant threat. The author attempts to create an internal conflict within Reito with stuff like marrying a monarch out of blue. These “conflicts” are nothing but an artificially created mess that does not move Reito any further as a character for the entire 80 chapters. In the end, we have this empty main character, who lacks everything. Physical strength, internal conflict to overcome, maturity, special powers, and mental strength or weaknesses to overcome. Reito doesn’t gain anything through the 85 chapters. He is a boring main character.
I haven’t really paid any attention to the first 40 chapters in the review. This is going to be a quick job. There is decent character development going on with the other male characters. A character of Shouta in particular is developed rather impressively. His persona undergoes a rather detailed, yet believable transition through the series. Shouta, together with his girlfriend Karen are the best-written characters in this series by far. I’d rate their plotline as a 7,5/10 or even 8/10. it is more than tragic that they weren’t the main focus of the series. There are other things going on, mostly minor and they didn’t affect the story enough to convince me to write about them, so I decided to avoid these chapters entirely for the most part due to the development of the plot between chapters 40-50. Overall I’d rate the 1st forty chapters around 6,5 or 7/10. There are some interesting moments and some irritating moments.
5/10 is my final rating. Good art. Boring story. Plotholes. Incompetent villains. Unlikable cast. The character of Reito lacks personal development. He’s quite unlikable. In the end, I was way more interested in the Shouta plotline than the mess Reito plotline has become. Even the sex-starved female plotline had me more caught than the main plot and I’d rate it better, despite the deus ex machina final chapters.
Can I recommend this series? No.
Should you try these series yourselves? If you like fanservice and booba, then yes. If you’re looking for a compelling story, then no.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 31, 2020
Chapter 23 is surprisingly still in Light Novel Volume 1. You are around 98% of the LN volume 1.
I will try to keep this review spoiler-free, but I can't promise you anything, so tread carefully.
The review will divide into two parts:
Quick review = I will give you a rough explanation of what this series is about (genre, plot, location, similarity to other books, etc.). Quick review is for people who decide if they will watch anime or read the entire manga on a short amount of episodes/chapters.
Standard review = I don't have to explain that.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Without further ado, let's go for the "quick review":
1, MG is an ecchi genre. Lewdness is "tame" at beginning, becomes more daring as we progress. There's an effort to build the characters to be something more than just fanservice objects, like it is with Highschool DxD.
2, Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha is as you may already guess about devils (word "Maou"). The main protagonist Morioka Yuuto is the devil king candidate of Lovers Arcana. He's the first human candidate, now preparing for the upcoming "devil king war" (the winner gets the throne, everyone else dies on the battlefield).
3, MG like a lot of other ecchi genres has a school setting. The primary location of Maou Gakuen is Ginsei Academy. An Academy exclusive to devils. LN volumes 1-3 are primary set at Ginsei Academy. Volume 4 is mostly primarily elsewhere.
4, Bit more info about the candidates: All candidates have his/her own Arcana. Every arcana has its unique signature magic as well as unique "ultimate abilities". Every Arcana has a "nemesis" Arcana ( Random example: Arcana of Tower performs badly against Arcana of Lovers).
5, The story, as I already mentioned is about Morioka Yuuto. In the beginning, he is a pretty standard ecchi character regarding erotic stuff, braveness. His character grows up quite well in the Light Novel series compared to other Ecchi series.
6, If you are a fan of Highschool DxD ( I've read all the 25 volumes, and I am up to date with Shin), I can recommend you to try Maou Gakuen. You will find similarities between DxD and MG. Both titles have their own unique identity.
7, MG is from Kuji Masamune (author of Masou Gakuen HxH), so if you enjoyed his other works, you will likely enjoy going into Maou Gakuen.
8, Maou Gakuen chapters have a monthly release schedule. Unfortunately, the chapters are a bit short to my liking (Usual Maou Gakuen chapter is around 15-30 pages long, I'd like to a see longer chapter coming from monthly release, maybe it's a limitation from publisher, not sure about Dragon Age policies, might correct me in my comment section on profile, would be most appreciated), more on that in the standard review
Quick review end. It might be longer than the Standard review. However, The Standard review is going to expand with new chapters. "Quick review" will remain the same.
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Standard review (last updated 05.07.2022):
Twenty-three chapters read. Let me show you a quick data table I did when I got past chapter 20.
How many pages Maou Gakuen chapters usually have:
1-10: 1
11-20: 7
21-30: 11
31-40: 1
41:50: 0
As I mentioned, the current length of manga chapters is not exactly to my personal liking. Maou Gakuen Light Novels aren't exactly the lengthiest of books, my guess is they are "medium-sized" compared to others (non-ecchi title included). The point is that these short chapters are sort of artificially prolonging Maou Gakuen manga. I can confidently tell you that never would I have expected we'd be still adapting LN volume 1 in chapter 23. When the series originally began to release, I always kept a close eye on the fan translations to be up to date (there isn't any official ENG version just yet, sadly, I don't have time to learn Japanese). Time passed and I got bored of waiting for these short chapters and nowadays, I usually check once per 3 months or even longer. My golden standard for any manga series that releases chapters monthly would be 40-60 pages if I could influence it. MG chapters often felt slow, sometimes I wondered why two chapter with a same theme were split into two while you could have one 35 page long chapter, I got this feeling around chapter 10. I feel longer chapters could help tremendously, maybe add some manga original side stories from minor characters into the kettle. Thirty days is quite a while after all, you want to get a good chunk of content thrown at you, rewarding you for your wait. Again it is likely due to the Dragon Age policies, I will complain about it regardless, because it is stupid.
Art: It's a pretty decent art style. I think Gelatin did good character designs. Fight scenes were relatively entertaining to read through. Overall, it's really solid.
Story: As mentioned, Morioka Yuuto is the devil king candidate of Lovers Arcana. He's the 1st ever human candidate to compete for the devil king throne. Yuuto enrolls into Ginsei Academy. Devil king candidates are studying and preparing for war, are training and building their peerages in Ginsei Academy. They can kill each other even before the "Devil King War" starts. 1st day in Ginsei Academy, Yuuto meets Lizel Himekami. She helps Yuuto during his conflict with a devil student, later joining Yuuto's peerage as his queen along with Yuugaoze Miyabi and Koiwai Reina with the ambition to make Yuuto the 1st ever human devil king.
It's a good story. Unfortunately, it is stretched out by the short manga chapters. I feel many of you will feel as underwhelmed as I did while reading new chapters every month.
Characters:
Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha has four protagonists. They are entertaining in general. When we're talking about all of the characters up until now, I like most of the characters, with exception ( or maybe /s) obviously, this is very subjective theme, so I won't really expand it any further. Generally positive opinion.
Yuuto might seem OP in 1st few chapters. From Light Novel experience, I can say he's not the overpowered "I calculated everything, I was planning this all along" type of MC (not even close to OPness of Kirito, Shiba Tatsuya, Ousawa Akatsuki). He will find tough and entertaining opponents.
When it comes down to character development, MG does a good job. Yuuto is constantly training, emphasizing his desire to close the gap between him and the other candidates.
Villains:
When it comes to villains, I always have high expectations, so how does MG fare?
Volume 1: Well, our 1st villain is the devil king candidate of "World" Linel Aspite. As a 1st villain, he is okay. I thought I'd have more to say about their fight. Well, I have one thing to say, there was way too much talking and reactions during the fight in my opinion. Now, some nitpicking: The confrontation lasted 4 chapters, whether you take it as a positive or negative is up to you. My guts tell me it was too long. Let's be honest this was a "tutorial boss fight", and not many spells were used. Basically, Aspite was smashing the floor with Yuuto for 3 chapters, then got rekt in chapter 23. Otherwise, it was an alright confrontation, enjoyable.
Rating:
When I reviewed the first ten chapters, I thought Maou Gakuen no Hangyakusha manga would stand at a solid 8/10 by now. Unfortunately, this series is slow, too slow in progressing. 24 chapters to adapt a single LN volume is scandalous. I think many people dropped this series because of how slow the story was adapted. Back when I wrote my review, I thought even 18 chapters was an overkill. I hope Maou Gakuen decides to start releasing at least 30-40 page chapters consistently, if possible with the publisher ofc. Should manga progress with the current tempo, we'd get over 100 CHAPTERS covering just 5 LN volumes, that's insane in a bad manner.
6/10. It's not a bad series at all. I recommend you to try it out. Maou Gakuen already has a good amount of content to point, where you can make your own decision whether you like the series or not.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 25, 2020
Warning: You can buy Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai manga on Amazon. I had another source for reading, but most likely, manga isn't translated to english.
If you somehow found this before "Sin" anime and you don't like any form of ecchi or ecchi jokes, then this is not for you.
If you are here for nudity, I should warn you: I've read the censored version and I am not sure you will get uncensored titties when you buy it from Amazon or any other site, just a small warning (you can correct me if you find the proof).
It's really short, so let's not waste any time:
"Sin" manga
...
is like "Nanatsu no Bitoku" shorts, but this time we see devils interacting with humans. It has some ecchi moments, some comedy moments and you will probably enjoy it, that is if you enjoyed anime and it's special episodes. If you found this manga somehow before anime, then I can't guarantee nothing.
6/10, it is worth reading (and by reading I mean look at the pictures and stare at japanese in my experience), it won't consume that much time. It has only 6 chapters and no sequel coming, so there's no way I can rate it higher.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 20, 2020
I swear to god, whenever I watch a Netflix anime show there's always nudity in it, don't get me wrong I don't complain, but it's an interesting fact that flew by my head when I was watching.
Now without further ado, let's jump onto the review. This review will be more talkative as I played Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen and I will talk about my thoughts about what could have been done better and things I like and dislike.
Dragon's Dogma has only 7 episodes, once I learned about it (day of release), I pretty much knew to have little to no expectations, because seven 20-30 minute
...
episodes cannot possibly make a good adaptation of Dragon's Dogma.
\\Spoiler alert//
Dragon's Dogma is an RPG game, a game that is about going from being absolute nobody to becoming an absolutely overpowered "God Gamer" in the entire universe. This journey is slow, but you grow, you get new OP gear that becomes useless 2 hours later when you find even more OP gear. You learn about the world, you meet and sometimes even befriend interesting characters. You cannot achieve something like this in 7 episodes. In order to get 7 or 8/10, DD would need at least 24 episodes so it can be decently explored and explained. But if Netflix wanted it to be real attempt in breaking into anime industry, something special, something beyond 8/10, Dragon's Dogma would require at least 60 episodes minimum and also way bigger budget and more experience.
Artstyle/Scenery: 6/10
Unknown and inexperienced studio was decided to be animating DD and it's inexperience or just lack of time or lack of budget is definitively seen through DD. There are scenes that look really amazing with some really good attention to detail, but there are also scenes, where Ethan and Hannah are just walking around wilderness that is just static, no movement at all, no animation of trees or grass moving. For 2020 it is not good standard to have static scenery.
Characters: 6/10
Ethan and Hannah are the only ones worth to talk about:
Ethan is an Arisen, he lost his wife, family and all his friends to the dragon. I think Ethan was decent protagonist until the "Rage Arisen" thing came (will talk about it in Story), there's not really much to talk about Ethan, he is "sidequest type" (person who has a main goal, but gets sidetracked whenever foes appears) and sadly he uses same equipment through story, I wish he got at least some legendary armor or weapon before the dragon fight, so it would as some sort of progression and not just go with "common", "un rare weapon" against dragon.
Hannah is okay, she is a pawn. Pawns don't aren't bound by human feelings. She can use magic to enhance her arrows or use "Fire Boon" on Ethan's weapon or other spells. Hannah is very smart and overall I like her character because she pretty much fulfills my expectations from pawn.
Other characters either appear in 1 episode and die or never appear again, so I think I don't need to mention anyone else.
Story: 6/10
Each episode represents a mortal sin: Pride, Greed, Envy, Lust and etc. I like that there are different tone conclusions to the episodes. Some episodes end on a darker tone even though Ethan had his best interest to help people, other episodes end on a lighter tone, where we find out that the character we thought died actually didn't die. Almost every episode has a boss from DD appearing, which is pretty good fanservice and overall it's not bad, really, but it's just average. DD really needed way more episodes to properly introduce itself and it's world. Instead we get mostly generic characters or when we find someone who can be interesting, he dies or disappears after the episode. In the end it is a bland world with Ethan and Hannah in it.
Now the rage Arisen: I probably know why it was implemented, it is because your "plebeian" character cannot become "RPG god gamer" in 7 episodes without downloading cheats, it wouldn't make sense, so they made him this alter ego to give him huge plot ability boost while his sanity fades away the more he gets devoured in his rage. I hate this mechanic and it ruined Ethan's character for me a lot.
If they just implemented Rift Crystals (pawn legion currency, you earn it after killing bosses and doing quests in DD game) and created a pawn legion merchant to give Ethan OP, I would appreciate it way better than "Rage" Arisen.
Sound: 7/10
Soundwise DD was fine, opening OP was good and that's all I need to say.
Summary: Dragon's Dogma earns 6,25/10, so it is 6/10. DD is not bad and it is worth trying. The main issue is lack of episodes and artstyle lack of attention to detail, you just cannot hope to accomplish a serious attempt at adaptation of an RPG game in 7 episodes.
I can recommend you to try it at least, you might like, I don't regret watching it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 19, 2020
I'll keep this short, six 3-4 minute shorts. I will tell you what these shorts are about following with my episode ranking list in the end with some of my input. Also, this review will be less serious, because I don't think I really have to be serious when it comes to these types of shorts.
It is fanservice, nudity, lewd stuff, so if you don't like this kind of stuff, then you won't probably enjoy this.
1st episode is about Miu trying out different "battlesuits".
2nd episode will teach you how to become an adult anime woman.
3rd episode will reveal that some women need to pee very
...
often.
4th episode shows Miu, Kuzuha and Chikage in an open hot bath, they do some sexy stuff, then Akatsuki comes and does fatigue relief "stuff"...
5th episode is a slimy episode
6th episode is tentacles and "holy pose".
Now comes ranking from worst to best:
Decent:
Episode 5 - I guess it was okay fanservice.
Episode 4 - You don't hit women Akatsuki...
Episode 3 - I don't have any fetish for girl peeing, but I like Haruko's butt
Episode 6 - Highschool DxD tentacle special episode was better.
Episode 2 - Very educating indeed.
Good:
Episode 1 - Stepbrother fantasising whilst choosing "battlesuit".
Final rating is 6/10. Decent fanservice, but 3-4 minute shorts seems pretty cheap to me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 19, 2020
“Highness, Piccolo Daimaou has been defeated, we have found out his son has escaped to another dimension, he will not be able to return, we can now rebui...”
“No”
“Sorry sir?”
“Bring him back to our dimension, we will sent our stupidly strong hero”
“But sir, Piccolo Jr. is the only person that is capable of destroying our planet, he can’t come back on his own, why would we want such a dangerous person back?”
...
“So we can make him pay for his father sins, executing him and luring his remaining demon forces to defeat them”
“But sir, why won’t we use that stupidly strong hero on demon forces, instead of potentially endangering our world?”
I hope you didn’t mind this small dialogue much, but I had to write it, because it represents one of two biggest flaws of Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica: Story and characters.
Anyway let's get into the review. I won't be rating how well Hagure Yuusha represents its Light Novel, this review is solely a review of Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica anime.
\\Spoiler alert just in case//
Art: 7/10
Hagure Yuusha has normal looking artstyle, it is good quality for the most part, but I did notice some less beautiful scenes (or CGI) that really did stand out even for me and I am someone who doesn’t really have that big expectations towards anime artstyle.
Characters: 5/10
Our main character, Ousawa Akatsuki, is a sadly disappointing protagonist. He is a hero, who defeated a devil king and returned to his world with devil king's daughter Miu. He has a very relaxed personality, which is the type of persona I am usually enjoying to watch, but when it comes to his abilities, Akatsuki is like Sora from No Game, No Life. He can do anything, he’s stupidly overpowered, he expects you to do things at a certain time and even if someone secretly helps him from shadows, Akatsuki already knows about it, there is nothing that will throw him off his cool. He saves the day always and by always I mean always, even when it is not his fight and it is time for minor characters to shine, Akatsuki comes and steals the spotlight! His fight with Cockatrice was actually pretty good “last second” save, but from that point on you will start to notice Akatsuki is always in the spotlight, always saving the day, hurting other characters growth because they don’t achieve anything by themselves, their meaning to the story is literally holding up the villain, so Akatsuki can prepare to destroy him or to arrive on the scene.
Our heroine, Ousawa Miu is also a disappointing heroine. Miu, same as Akatsuki, starts with a good premise. Miu is a devil king daughter, Akatsuki takes her on earth and begins to live with her, Miu’s father told if he is defeated, he wants her to live with the person he was defeated by, but if he proves unworthy, Miu would kill him, it adds very good tension to their relationship. her character is developed fairly well and it really shines with her fight with Cockatrice, but sadly it is the last moment Miu would really shine. From that point on Miu fades away and becomes ecchi material, existing for lewd scenes with her and Akatsuki to happen. This has to do with Akatsuki being always in the spotlight, Miu alongside with many other Hagure Yuusha’s characters has little to no time to shine and even when she is in danger, we aren’t really worried about her, because we already know that Akatsuki will save her 100%.
There are 5 supporting characters worth a mention, 1st three Nanase Haruka, Doumoto Kuzuha and Izumi Hikage:
At first sight I thought Haruka and her council would become sort of rivals to Akatsuki, but I got immediately proven wrong when Akatsuki made them a laughing stock. Haruka could have been a really good character, but she is in shadow of Akatsuki and when she and her council have an opportunity to shine, Akatsuki comes at the last second to steal their glory, making their effort in vain. Haruka is along Miu and other female characters becomes an lewd scenes material
Kuzuha is class representative, she used to be often in a sad, distancing mood, until Akatsuki helped her with her issue, but from that moment on, she never really got any more spotlight to develop herself and was lowered to sidekick you won’t really notice.
Hikage is introduced kissing and groping naked girl in gym storage.I did found it be quite interesting addition to Hagure Yuusha and I was interested if Hikage will try to advance towards Miu or other girl, but sadly her interest in girls has diminished over the course of 3-4 episodes and never really tried to approach other girl romantically.
Remaining two characters are: Motoharu Kaitou, Hikami Kyouya. Both of them have mysterious backgrounds to them and are keeping Hagure Yuusha interesting. I thought Kyouya was the final boss of season 1, but sadly it didn’t happen, I was hoping Akatsuki would fight and lose to Kyouya, so we could have some real opponent to look forward to and an epic rematch.
Character development: 5/10
Almost every Hagure Yuusha character ends up in Akatsuki shadow and is left with little to no spotlight, most of them don’t grow. Motoharu Kaitou, Hikami Kyouya are probably the only ones that are worth following and there is something to their characters that is to explore. Hagure Yuusha is way too much centered on Akatsuki, putting him in everything that is happening.
Story: 5/10
Akatsuki has defeated the devil king and has returned on earth with his daughter. Both of them are trying to not attract attention to Miu, who Akatsuki introduces as his long lost sister in order to protect her true identity. Hagure Yuusha has two different story parts: 1st part are episodes 1-7.
Episodes 1-4 have a direction of Miu and Akatsuki adapting to their new school and 1st 2 episodes serves as an introduction to Hagure Yuusha, which is pretty solid.
Episode 3-4 has a terrorist attack as a plot point and is again handled well, but the confrontation with the main villain ends up as a disappointment and Hagure Yuusha’s quality worsened from that point.
5-7 are side episodes. There is actually interesting “side quest” between episode 5-6, where Akatsuki gets a cool “magic” motorbike that chooses it’s wielders, but here as well with other occasions it proves no problem for Akatsuki, even though he gets shock from motorbike, it happens to him once and after that he rides it and has no problem at all, which kinda makes the point of motorbike shocking other people useless and it’s really plot convenient for Akatsuki to get that motorbike. Other things that happen in episode 5-7 is Miu picking her new underwear, hostage situation for Haruka to defuse, “swimsuit competition” and that’s it, but every single event I just listed has one thing in common, Akatsuki is in the or steals the spotlights. I know Akatsuki is the protagonist, but he’s literally in everything and not just like a supporting character to do some joke or something no, he must be the main character, even in Haruka’s case where she and her team saves numerous civilians and have one terrorist left to beat, but he has a hostage, so instead of letting Haruka or someone from her team using one some special technique, Akatsuki appears to save the day and steal the spotlight.
8-12 is a promotion tournament and Akatsuki fights with Barnett Phil, a hero like Akatsuki sent from the other world to find and bring Miu back.
I’ll try to cut it short. Akatsuki is on a team with the girls, they destroy every competition, Akatsuki repeatedly shows he’s absolutely op. Then we cut to the night and the Student Council challenges Akatsuki. They fight 3 v Akatsuki, but they get destroyed, then Barnett Phil appears, hunts Miu through the woods, has an actual fight with a bully Kenya Onizuka you probably forgot his name and tbh this fight was actually really good and I liked it, it’s only shame that last time we saw Onizuka (episode 4, now we are episode 9 or 10), he was an absolute jerk and we didn’t get to see him up until now. Phil catches Miu, then we get an SAO vibe for a minute, then Akatsuki appears.
Fight between Akatsuki and Phil goes something like this: Akatsuki has an upper hand, puts Phil out of commision, but he contracts some super deadly poison, which turns out to be nothing serious for him to handle he will be ready to fight in few minutes, then we get to see pretty heartwarming scene when Miu tries to warm up passed out Akatsuki who is getting colder by using their naked bodies. But of course, this really emotional scene gets ruined when Akatsuki wakes up and says he was awake all that time they did it, emotional scene ruined just to get cheap laughs.
Phil appears, transforming into a giant dragon, Akatsuki isn’t ready to destroy his opponent, so Miu, her friends and student council come out to stall up Phil. The fight has some really good action and I enjoyed the fight, but once again Hagure Yuusha has disappointed me, when Miu and friends had the upper hand, it seemed they were doing a lot of damage to Phil, but suddenly an explosion occurs everyone except of Miu is down and Phil reveals it was just an illusion and they didn’t do anything to him, making their effort worthless and demoting them to the type of character that exist only to hold the line for protagonist to have just enough time to come and save the day with no real influence on the battle. Finally, Akatsuki comes out, does some fighting and after a while, he destroys the dragon with one hit.
After this we get an epilogue, where the queen from another world prays for Akatsuki to come back and save them from demon armies, so Akatsuki with Miu and her two girlfriends. Haruka and Motoharu go to the other world for some reason too, the end.
To sum it up: Hagure Yuusha has some really good, cute, thrilling, heartwarming scenes and I can see it getting 8/10, but many of those scenes are ruined by wayyy overusing Akatsuki, little to no spotlight for other characters, underdeveloping them and putting unnecessary ecchi actions inside some of them.
Story progression: 6/10
Story is super easy to follow, you won’t get lost, but you will be disappointed with the fact, there is only one story and it is Akatsuki and Miu, other characters don’t really have any story going on for them and serves as a minor support to our duo and it is painfully visible they aren’t getting much attention (I don’t count ecchi scenes in just to be clear), unless they are villains or mysterious characters.
Villains: 5/10
Tanaka: 5/10 - Member of terrorist organization, he was pulling strings behind the scenes before getting confronted by Akatsuki, he had an upper hand over Akatsuki but was put down by Kyouya with ease and we never heard of him again from episode 4 onwards. Very disappointing conclusion, I wished he would escape and serve as a constant threat to school and Akatsuki.
Barnett Phil: 5/10 - Hero sent from another world to catch and bring Miu back, he’s not really an interesting villain, his persona consists of calling others weak and pathetic. Phil is basically a powerhouse sent to serve as an excuse for Kyouya and Akatsuki fight we were looking forward to not happen in season 1.
Girls: 7/10
5 girls (plus more in another world, but they didn’t really appear much in season 1) are worth a mention, so we have 1 pink haired big big breasted girl, 2 medium sized brunettes, 1 loli type and big breasted green haired girl. A bit better variation than in Hajimete no Gal in where I did give 6/10, so I will add a point here.
Sound: 8/10
Pretty good soundtracks and overall Hagure Yuusha sounds well.
Overall rating for Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica is 6/10 exact. Hagure Yuusha isn’t a bad anime and it has a really good potential, but overly focusing on Akatsuki, always putting him in the spotlights, not developing other characters much and adding ecchi to scenes, which could have been really memorable just for a cheap laugh has really hurt this anime a big deal for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 16, 2020
I'll keep the review short as it is covering 1 episode only and it is 20 minutes long.
Steins;Gate: Oukoubakko no Poriomania is a special episode following Okabe and his lab members visiting Makise Kurisu in the USA 6 months after Okabe reached Steins;Gate timeline.
If you enjoyed Steins;Gate then it is very likely you will enjoy this episode as well, now onto the review.
As far as I am concerned it wasn't stated whether it is canon episode or not.
My positives:
1, Story: We follow recollections of Kurisu memories from Alpha timelines. We get to hear Kurisu, like Mayuri in Alpha timeline has dreams of
...
her experiencing many things, including exchanging kiss with Okabe. Oukoubakko no Poriomania serves as a finale to Kurisu and Okabe romance with humorous input and some 'easter eggs'. The story itself is structured pretty well with humorous moments that work quite well. I think this episode has managed to deliver a good finale.
2, Art and Music: Pretty much the same as Steins;Gate, so if you enjoyed anime, then you should enjoy this too.
I didn't find really anything that would be annoying or bad, just a few nitpicks here and there.
Overall it is 9/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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