Me in Summer 2023: Maou Gakuin's a disaster show, yikes. Aniplex's continued mismanagement of COVID, which saw this show (and Ayakashi Triangle) infamously delayed by almost half a year, and the worst offender of all: VA Tatsuhisa Suzuki's BIGGEST scandal of his life being ousted from the AniManga scene altogether, replaced by Yuichiro Umehara as the gigachad's new VA...that doesn't sound quite right.
Back in Summer 2020, when the anime adaptation of novelist Shu's Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha a.k.a The Misfit of Demon King Academy was released, I LOVED the hell outta everything that made the source material gain the notoriety that it did with humongous sales of the LN. It had the classical tropes of an OP MC in the form of Anos Voldigoad (who would become the gigachad GOAT of the fantasy genre); a harem based off sisters of the same blood through Misha and Shasha Necron (that at least acknowledged that Anos cared for the both of them like his own kin); the hilarious but momentful Anos Fan Club of female classmates that would at times be the shining light in the darkness; as well as the Hero Kanon in the form of his reincarnation Lay Glanzudlii with his etched lover Misa. Maou Gakuin was, simply put, a firehouse of awesome (as heck) fantasy for the ages. Despite the aeons of people hating this show, I am still the greatest advocate that Maou Gakuin was a sight to behold back in the day, and I stand by my ludicrious, whack review published 3 years ago.
Fast forward to Winter (or rather, restarted in Summer) this year, and we continue with the adaptation of Volumes 4a and 4b of the LN that comprises the rather large story that is the Great Spirit arc, and this is definitely where Maou Gakuin took a full nosedive here. Considering the element of the story that was the epilogue of Volume 3 a.k.a the ending of Season 1, which prompts Anos and the gang to go back 2,000 years in time to learn of what comprised the reveal of the biggest enemy: the fake Demon King that was Avos Dilhevia. This, essentially, brings them back to the mother of their appointed affair: the Great Spirit Leno and Anos's right-hand man, Shin Reglia. Taking classes in the spirit realm, headed by the Great Spirit Teacher Enyunien, Anos and the gang go back to being schooled one more time to uncover and unravel the sequence of events that led to the scenario of the present day.
Needless to say, I truly got bored in the whole teaching aspect as it was cumbersome to sit around and see Anos and gang try to learn new things, as well as the history of the places they've been, and more importantly, those who are in rebellion against Anos to dethrone him and make Avos the true Demon King, say the main villain of this arc, NousGalia. As a whole, the Great Spirit arc was both a blessing and a curse to the author, as Shu had to somehow continue the story by pacing it within the same aspects as his/her first 3 volumes a.k.a Season 1, but due to the magnitude of the arc having to be split into 2 volumes with the aforementioned Side A and B, both the pacing and the feels dropped off significantly, which if you add Aniplex's COVID mismanagement,which caused the entire run to be postponed 6 months to August, the story indefinitely would have been forgotten to time, and I had to dig my brains just to remember where we left off with the story. That alone is a double whammy to the anime's production, and with no thanks to the somewhat overly convoluted plot, is no consolation to the testament of the anime at this stage of the story.
It's a BIG shame having to lose Tatsuhisa Suzuki for his misforgivings, but no matter the outcome, we all can agree that he is scum for being in an affair after being wed to one of AniManga's biggest music artists (LiSA). Definitely not the kind who is a big 180 from the gigachad's personality. And for the most part, Yuichiro Umehara does a decent job on Anos, though thanks to Season 2's 2nd cour airing next year, we all still have to get used to his voice for yet another 12-episode seasonal run. One of Maou Gakuin's shining moments was definitely with Tatsuhisa Suzuki, and his being ousted means that the anime has lost a critical part of its quality.
With the Domino Effect of Aniplex's mismanagement comes Silver Link's production woes, which, despite being still headed by the studio's chief director of Shin Oonuma and his mentee of fellow director Masafumi Tamura, have shown quite the drastic change in quality in becoming inconsistent, which they got too comfortable with after the impressive showing of Season 1. It's not wrong that Season 1 gave them a lot of footing to work on for Season 2; it's just that the priorities were shifted around when the anime got suddenly postponed and came back 3 months prior for the TV broadcast's restart. And while Season 2 didn't look awful by any means, it was clearly a step down from its predecessor, which was made worse thanks to the delay from COVID.
My woes with Part 1 of Season 2 continue onto the OST. Obviously, new songs are added to the roster of the OST, and this time, I felt nothing about Lenny code fiction and Momosumomosu's OP and ED respectively. Considering that Season 1 hit it out with Civilian and Tomori Kusunoki's OP and ED songs that are good and banger, respectively, the noticeable downgrade always caused me to skip both songs (albeit a few for the ED) that held nothing of the flare that I remember from Season 1.
When all is said and done, the word "disappointment" is truly an understatement to call Part 1 of Season 2 by. Everything was clicking out of place, from the "cannot make heads nor tails" story beats to the lacklustre production, made worse by the decision from Aniplex to postpone the anime, throwing everyone out of whack. It's quite the forgettable 1st half to a sequel season that has its predecessor held to a very high regard, and I pray that Part 2 of Season 2 will hopefully bring us back to the levels of greatness that graced Season 1.
Right now, at this very moment, Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha hits a snagging fluke, but will it have a glorious comeback? That awaits to be seen.
