Lv1 Maou to One Room Yuusha

After the climactic battle to decide the fate of humanity, the hero Max, alongside his party, emerges victorious against the formidable Demon Lord. As he draws his last breath, the defeated Maou vows to return more powerful than ever to take his revenge.

Ten years later, although Maou has resurrected, the process is incomplete, resulting in him taking on the form of a child. Nevertheless, not wanting to waste another second, Maou pays his nemesis a visit—but the hero who once gallantly protected humankind from the demon's clutches is now a pitiful slob bearing no resemblance to a man of his former caliber.

Despite his disappointment, Maou moves in with Max in hope of building him back up into a worthy adversary. But as the demon learns more about the events that transpired in the decade of his absence, he realizes that there is a story behind Max's downfall that he knows nothing of.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Maou Main

Oozora, Naomi Japanese

Max Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Zenia Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Ghost in the Closet Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Rim Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Anego Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Leo Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Denatora Supporting

Hayamizu, Risa Japanese

Trigorin Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Sezek Supporting

Tanaka, Mayumi Japanese

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Nishimae, Ayaka Producer

Yoshida, Norio Producer

Kawasaki, Mai Producer

Reviews

Sep 18, 2023

eksratu

Recommended

I went into this one expecting mediocrity, especially given its mundane premise, blobby visuals, and initially-sub-7 rating, but it proved to be much, much more than that. There are nuanced character motivations, layered political schemes, and a surprising amount of humanization/justification for behavior that normally gets reduced to just "bad" in simpler shows. While no conflicts or plots are taken too seriously, each one gets multiple takes from different perspectives. The two main characters also have great chemistry with each other.

I am recommending this show because it goes well beyond what I had initially expected and far beneath its seemingly surface-level tropes. It reminds me ... of the first season of Hataraku Maou-sama (2013), Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu (2021), and even Porco Rosso (1992) with its themes of redefining yourself and failing to fit in. I am somewhat surprised by its merely lukewarm reception, and I suspect that a lot of people are unfairly writing it off the way I was.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 4, 2023

AeroGunz

Mixed Feelings

“Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero!” is what happens when You dial up a bromance up to 11.

The Hero Max and his companions are able to defeat the Demon Lord. Ten years later the fiend reawakens. In the body of a small androgynous child. Eager to fight his adversary again he quickly tracks down Max. Unfortunately the last decade wasn’t kind to the former hero. He became a lazy slacker neet. After the initial shock the Demon Lord decides to move in with Max and get him in shape both physically and mentally so they can have their rematch.

Not gonna lie, the premise ... is the reason why I watched this. It sounded awesome. The reality… isn’t as interesting.

For starters let’s have a look at the characters that matter for the plot:

Max - The Hero who led the team, then defeated the Demon Lord a decade prior. Today he’s washed-up, lives in a small one room apartment, and has plenty of scandals under his belt. He acts like he doesn’t really care but he still holds on to his old, holy sword and even talks to kids about his adventures proving he is, at least to some degree living in the past. He tries to avoid trouble but he gets dragged in anyway.

Maou - The reborn Demon Lord. Despite being quite masculine in his previous incarnation he now has a body of an androgynous but still rather feminine child. He has the ability to transform into a young woman and doesn’t seem to want or can change into other human forms. He has an unhealthy obsession with Max. Like really unhealthy. Instead of taking care of his domain, maybe preparing for the reawakening of the demon king, he decides to take care of Max. Not in a Hitman: Code 47 kind of way but more like a mother or wife way. He cooks, cleans and tries to get the former hero on his feet. He even gets flustered when Max says something nice about his cooking or is looking at his adult female form stunned.

Zenia - officially a secretary of the Demon Lord. She’s the reason why he’s wearing a sailor’s uniform with a skirt. Unofficially practically everything that the demon lord needs. She’s proficient at gathering information doing that for the last ten years so that the Demon Lord would be up to date. She can’t really hold her liquor. She got drunk and caused a commotion and trouble for Max after just one beer. Let’s be honest, she’s in the show as eye candy and little more. Despite that I think she’s the most underutilised character in the show.

Fred - no, not the barber Fred from “Courage the Cowardly Dog”, this time we have a cleric Fred. He’s one of the members of the Hero team that kicked the Demon’s Lord ass. Friend to Maou and Leo even though he has a strange way of showing it at times. He serves as Chief Secretary at the Royal Bureau of Magic aka a government slave. He’s competent, skilled, confident and likes to have an upper hand when “negotiating”. He cares for his friends but shows it in a very tsundere way.

Leo - Another member of the heroes party. Leo was the tank of the team. Strong, loyal and always having a positive attitude with sometimes infuriated Fred. After the Kingdom tried to swindle his people out of natural resources on their land he was forced to declare independence and with that started a civil war. He did that but made sure to not kill any soldier on the opposite side. He’s strong, like to fight and is loyal to his friends. Of course that doesn’t mean he’s not more than willing to get into a fight with them.

The cast is pretty strong with most characters having some pretty good motivation to their actions. If I have to be honest, the worst one is Max. He’s the only one without any true motivation or goal. It seems like everyone is doing something except the hero. Well… that’s not entirely true. He does reject both his friends when they try to involve him in their conflict. He’s as passive as passive can be. A reborn Demon Lord moves in with him? Cool. He’s practically kidnaped and forced into a “field trip” to another nation? No problem. I get he’s supposed to be a washed-up loser but come on. That’s overkill. He does bare minimum, just to keep himself alive. It takes a war for him to stop being pathetic and even then it’s pretty much a stretch to call him a hero again.

When it comes to the plot itself it’s a weird mix. The show starts off as a comedy but as the show progresses it begins to show a bit of political thriller and at the end it’s almost a full on political action thriller. I don’t really mind that. I have a soft spot for well written political thrillers. This one.. Is not it. The problem is mixing comedy and politics. The comedy doesn’t really hit with all the conniving and manipulations and the politics isn’t a good match for the type of characters Max and Maou are. Despite Maou sometimes acting like a proper demon lord and trying to recruit the hero and other characters to his side, he mostly acts like a wife or girlfriend. It kills the drama for me. Especially that some of those moments are played completely straight.

World building has some problems as well. The part that I truly don’t get is why the war with the demons even happens. There is a point when we see the Demon Lord instruct his minions to not kill humans mindlessly as they do not reincarnate. That shows that Maou cherishes life. So why the war? Why would someone who doesn’t want to kill humans go to war with them? The only reason I could think of is that it’s the result of humans benign humans and feeding people some bullshit to get the riled up and forcing demons to defend themselves. It’s a huge hole in both world and character building.

Apart from that the writing isn’t anything special. It’s just a middle of the road comedy that plays with some romcom tropes. To be honest it did get me to chuckle now and then and the relationship between Max and Maou is a pretty interesting one. Threading the line between a bromance and a full on romance at times. I liked it. It took cliche tropes that got old a decade or two ago and put a nice twist on them.

All in all it’s not a bad show but it’s not great either. The potential is there and the show ends in a way that promises more things to come and those things could be more political in nature. I wouldn't mind that to be honest. If the writers would do a better job at balancing the politics and type of comedy this could be a really solid show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 13, 2023

PixelB

Not Recommended

Preliminary (5/12 eps)

Ever heard of comedy revolving around a once decorated person, only for them to laze around, aimlessly reading shounen jump and unwilling to do any work and lives in poverty? Yeah, the creation of Max clearly drew inspiration from Gintoki from Gintama.

The problem is how absolutely unfunny and lacking in action most scenes are. While the beginning is kind of funny, 99% of the jokes in the series become lewd/perverted jokes or it's some rom-com setup. They miss the mark completely. Max becomes friends with Maou, a demon he killed, and somehow, the Maou becomes very feminine in nature and personality to further facilitate the ... lame romantic jokes or the weird romantic atmosphere going amongst them. The theme of befriending a demon and having comedic shenanigans happening could have been a decent setup, but there's no execution. The supporting cast might as well not exist, and if they do, they only further facilitate the repetitive nature of the romantic comedy setups.

I've run out of things to say. Gintoki beating up a waiter to get his strawberry parfait fix --and save shinpachi--is a perfect opening scene that naturally introduces the main characters in the show. It's also going to be miles ahead of demon girl getting drunk and chasing Max while being naked.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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