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Hoo boy... this show... when people said it started well, and went downhill at the end, they weren't kidding.
I watched Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou at the recommendation of a friend on Steam; he told me that I should watch it, since I seem to enjoy harem anime. He did warn me about the drop in quality, but I never expected it to end like that.
Perhaps it would have been better for me to give this a miss altogether...
Story
The initial premise isn't actually that bad - Akuto Sai wishes to become something similar to a high priest, yet is predicted to become the next demon lord, a bringer of destruction. So now he has to do his best to fight his apparent dark destiny.
This anime was good at the beginning, but its pacing more or less destroyed this anime. The last episodes in particular tried to cram FAR too many things into such a short space of time, and it left far too many things unexplained - episode ten especially so.
Animation
There really is not a lot for me to say about animation this time around. That or I can't put it into words.
The animation was amazingly average for me. The action scenes were nice to look at, but outside of that, there was nothing that really stood out for me.
The character designs were also nothing really special, with maybe the exception of the different hair colours for each of the heroines. Not one of them shared a colour, which was a little odd at first, but otherwise not important.
Sound
The background music in Daimaou is one thing I never really noticed. There were some times when it seemed out-of-place, but otherwise there was nothing really noteworthy about it.
The opening song somewhat fits with the anime's style; the ending, however - being a sweet J-pop song that emphasised the harem aspect of the show - , grew increasingly dissonant to the episode's mood after each one.
The voice actors fit the characters rather well in this anime. Takashi Kondo and Shizuka Itou in particular seemed to fit their characters like a glove with Akuto Sai and Fujiko Etou, respectively.
Characters
When all else fails, you need to at least have characters to make the show entertaining. However, this may be due to my bad mood when watching the latter half of Daimaou, but I couldn't even really enjoy the characters that much.
While Akuto is a good character, what with wanting to help people yet is always seen as the bad guy even if he isn't involved in something, the real star of the show was most definitely Korone. This single character brought so many laughs to the show, going so far as to adopt a "little-sister" voice from time to time, which brought even more laughs.
Sadly, the other characters leave something to be desired. Junko is a textbook tsundere, while Keena is the energetic airhead and Fujiko is the beloved sempai with a darker side. It certainly doesn't help that Lily Shiraishi, despite being shown in the ending theme, isn't even seen a lot of the time. Which is a shame really, because she was one of the other characters I liked.
Final thoughts
I shouldn't have expected much from Daimaou, but with such an interesting start, it was inevitable. Overall, unless you just want some mindless fun with some fanservice on the side, I would avoid Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou like the bloody plague. Its story - particularly at the back end of the show - is an inconsistent mess, and the characters aren't particularly enjoyable to watch either.
The only thing that really saves this show is the android observer, Korone, and MAYBE the show's opening theme.
Truthfully, this anime needed at least 24 episodes. I wouldn't watch a sequel, but if a reboot were to come about with more episodes to fix the atrocious pacing this anime had, I would gladly watch it.
Story - 2.9
Animation - 6.1
Sound - 6.8
Characters - 5.4
Enjoyment - 3.0
FINAL SCORE - 4.84
