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

Anego Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Rim Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Denatora Supporting

Hayamizu, Risa Japanese

Fred Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Leo Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Sezek Supporting

Tanaka, Mayumi Japanese

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Nishimae, Shuka Producer

Kawasaki, Mai Producer

Onizuka, Kousuke 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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Dec 27, 2023

Drakestalker

Mixed Feelings

The premise is pretty straight-forward. The Hero Max defeats the Demon Lord and saves humanity. 10 years pass. The Demon Lord is resurrected. While 10 years was not enough time to restore himself to his previous power level, the Demon Lord rushed his own resurrection because he was anxious for a rematch with his nemesis, Max, before the human’s death. As such, the prematurely resurrected Demon Lord, who looks like a thick loli now for whatever reason, goes to the Human Realm to face his opponent in glorious combat once more. What he finds, however, is far from the stuff of legend. Fame went to ... his head, and after numerous scandals, his degenerate behavior caused Max to be shunned from society. He has let himself go and now lives as a complete NEET.

In essence, it’s an idea that has been done to death in comedy – previously revered and legendary character has now fallen off and is the butt of every joke. I find this premise fairly ridiculous, and I’ll reiterate what I said about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. A dude who has literally saved the entire world would earn carte blanche to do literally whatever he wants forever, but that’s neither here, nor there, so I digress.

Given this sad state of affairs, through some kind of pretzel logic, in order to revitalize his rival and bring him back to his former glory, the resurrected Demon Lord essentially decides to become Max’s live-in maid. Hilarity ensues.

While a lot of humor is derived from it, the narrative logic is thin, much like in The Devil is a Part-Timer!, so don’t try and think too much about it, but unlike the aforementioned show, which I did not enjoy, this is not massively popular, so I did not go into it expecting anything impressive, and as such, felt adequately entertained! It was still weird, though. Let us forget about them being mortal enemies for a moment. The Demon Lord is a dude, but comes back as a loli (not a shota), and whenever he walks around town with Max, he transforms into a presumably barely legal bombshell chick. Why am I telling you all of this? Because I got the distinct impression that the show is trying to softly ship them, which was just bizarre. No actual romance happens, to be sure, but the finale was pretty sus.

On an unrelated note, I’d like to note that though the show explicitly states that Max has ‘let himself go’, the dude is still crazy strong and in shape, it’s just that there’s stubble on his chin now and his eyes have lost the sparkle of youth. What I specifically want to point out here is that I find Max to have the ideal male anime action hero physique, much like Zoro from One Piece and Laxus from Fairy Tail, though those 2 have their over-the-top shots. Max is muscular, unlike some scrawny git like Naruto or Ichigo, but also not cartoonishly big like Escanor from T7DS or some Baki character. The show also doesn’t feel the need to constantly explicitly point out to the audience the fact that he is in fact muscular, like Amazon’s Reacher. You don’t even really see him without a shirt. You can simply tell that the dude has a perfectly built and proportioned strong physique that’s hiding in plain sight. Show, don’t tell.
As for fanservice, yeah, there’s some, but nothing too outrageous, so if you’re thinking about watching this show for a quick tug, don’t.

I will say, though, that while there is no action to speak of throughout the series, the finale features a protracted three-way battle that put on a pretty impressive spectacle. Not only was it a pretty light show, but this random gag show made me actually invest in the mechanics of the fight and the abilities of these dudes that weren’t foreshadowed or explained before in any way whatsoever. There’s even one particular scene where this massive rock gets shattered, and there’s an incredible number of particles flying around on screen, and 2 characters are jumping from flying rock shard to flying rock shard, chasing and hitting each other, and the 3D camera movements tracking them were legitimately amazing. If you’ve seen One Piece Film: Z, and you remember the fight between Sanji and Bins, the Mosa Mosa guy, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

In the final analysis, if you find this kind of parody humor to your liking, give it a go, but it’s not overly deep or brilliant, so I’d posit that there are lots of other shows that would better occupy your time. Like I mentioned earlier, The Devil is a Part-Timer! feels very similar and is massively popular, so setting my personal dislike aside, there’s a good to fair chance you’ll enjoy it. A much better recommendation, though, would be YuuShibu (#83), which, apart from sharing an almost identical premise and being a whole lot funnier, is also just downright softcore porn. A quick tug is back on the menu, boys!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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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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