When I first heard about this series, I had mixed reactions. The first thing that caught me off-guard was that this series was being produced by Arms, an animation company profoundly known for their hentai and ecchi series. Although, I guess I shouldn't have considered that a turn-off considering a few of their non-ecchi/hentai series that they produced are Elfen Lied and Genshiken...and those two series turned out alright. The other thing that caught my attention was it was being directed by Takeo Takahashi. Takahashi is mostly known for producing hentai, but one of his most profound direction works is the classic series Spice + Wolf. So I asked myself, would Maoyuu Maou Yuusha follow in the same footsteps as Spice + Wolf? Or would this series be just yet another typical ecchi that goes more the way of Words Worth than Spice + Wolf?
The answer that first question is, yes and no. Maoyuu Maou Yuusha does follow the same structure of Spice + Wolf in regards to its economical and political views. In fact, a great deal of this series focuses heavily on the economics and political affairs of a medieval setting. Maou is similar to Holo in a lot of ways as she uses her wit and wisdom to try and create a more harmonically peaceful world, through means of creating new farming systems and practical inventions. However, where this series varies from a series like Spice + Wolf is it's character focus. Spice + Wolf had a very strong focus on it's two lead characters Holo and Lawrence, so much so that there is very little development with any of the supporting characters. Maoyuu Maou Yuusha on the other hand takes a much different approach. While Maou and Yuusha are the "stars" of the show, all of the supporting characters play an intricate role in the series. To understand this, we need to know what this series is about.
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha takes place in a fictional medieval setting. There is a war going on between the humans and the demons, each of which is from a different realm. The Hero of the humans (Yuusha) goes to the demon realm to slay the Demon King (Maou), but becomes sidetracked when he encounters the Demon King. He discovers that the Demon King is actually a beautiful woman that doesn't want war and even offers to sacrifice her life if Yuusha is so determined to take it. Yuusha hesitates to do so and Maou explains to him what she plans to do in order to end the war between humans and demons, as well as a plan for making the human realm a better place. She asks Yuusha to join her and assist her with her endeavors. The two seem to share an attraction with each other and agree to assist each other in a grand scheme to better humanity through agricultural and economical growth. The series is quite remarkable on how it handles the issues of agriculture, economics, politics, religion, and war; especially with how intricate these factors are when it comes to the plot. I found it to be the strength of the series.
I also found the animation to be quite good as well. This series is extremely similar to Spice + Wolf with its key animation and character design. Judging from the plot of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, I found that to be an excellent decision considering it sets the mood for a medieval plot quite well. The music seemed to fit the theme of the series fairly well, and I'll have to admit I applaud Takeshi Hama's work on it, because he's not a very experienced composer when it comes to anime.
The biggest weaknesses for Maoyuu Maou Yuusha had a few obvious snags. The first being Maou and Yuusha's relationship being somewhat forced. After the first episode, Yuusha's actions don't make a whole lot of sense, especially considering how Maou is forcing herself on him on a whim. The other being that their relationship seems to receive little explanation or development throughout the series. Going back to Spice + Wolf, it isn't like Holo and Lawrence where the two develop a relationship over time through their adventures. This seemed to be an immediate attraction. Another thing that stood out to me was the time skips. This series goes through A TON of time skips as it progresses. However, if you didn't pay much attention to the series, you wouldn't notice that. This series doesn't seem to label or display settings, so you could become a little lost as to where this series is at in its setting if you're not paying close enough attention. My third gripe is the pacing and focus of the plot seems a little confusing throughout the first half. It doesn't make itself very clear as to what sort of series we are going to be in for. With how this series advertises itself, I thought this was going to be like a Spice + Wolf that puts its focus on its two leads' development as well as show the economic aspects of the series. The latter half becomes anything but as the two leads spend a lot of time separated from each other and it becomes more about political and religious corruption, war, and the role economics plays on it. To be honest, it seemed like this series suffered from a bit of an identity crisis.
However, with that being said, I was actually okay with this not being a carbon copy of Spice + Wolf. I actually liked the overall focus being on the plot and the entire cast rather than just the two leads. I found the messages this series was trying to portray to be quite interesting and informative. While the messages behind this series were strong, I found the actual character development to be a bit on the weak side and the relationship development between the leads to be somewhat confusing. I have noticed a few people complain about the pacing, but I'd disagree. The pacing is quite similar to Spice + Wolf, it's slow, but it's methodical and serves a purpose with its pace. To tell you the truth, I think where this series needed to improve was split up its focus. I found the series should've done more to develop the two leads more early on and then get into the intricacies of the world and the supporting staff. Call me crazy, but I found the pacing of the actual plot to be too fast. It needed to put a little more focus on its characters and a little less on its plot. Although, it's hard to fault the series for that though, in my opinion, the plot is outstanding and the strongest part of this series.
All-in-all, I found this to be a pretty good break back into actual series development for Arms. They hadn't produced a "normal" anime since 2004 so I felt this was a pretty decent break back into the anime industry. I was originally going to give this series a 7, but I found the series did a really good job of building its characters up throughout the last 1/3 of the series. It even got me to forgive the lack of development between Maou and Yuusha early on. I know I've been beating the Spice + Wolf comparisons like a dead horse, but I'd highly recommend this series if you liked Spice + Wolf. Don't get me wrong, it's not a carbon copy...but it really has the same feel in a lot of ways. It's romance is weak by comparison, but if you look at the bigger picture of the series, it seems to fair well. I do hope we will see a continuation for this series in the future because it is well set for a second season and there is still a lot it can do with it's plot and character development.
