Review of Demon Lord 2099

Demon Lord 2099 — Psycho-Pass meets Hataraku! Maou-sama, and it's legitimately good, interesting even. I have a legitimate question to discuss here: why don't people take the less-traveled road and do something that's worth the interest to talk about? This has been my gripe with consuming AniManga within the post-COVID era (in which series' delays (or even hiatuses) are STILL the norm): the number of authors writing stuff of interest has been nothing more than copy-pasting aesthetics of one another; you can't help but see predictability at every corner. This is especially so if the series is marketed in the Isekai genre, because good shows arefar and few in between, and for the case of one show in particular, it is so interesting that I just can't help but be mesmerized at how it's being done here. And that, my friends, is novelist Daigo Murasaki's Maou 2099 a.k.a Demon Lord 2099, the newest and freshest take on the reverse Isekai trope to come out of the anime spectrum.

Think of your usual fantasy good vs. evil trope, but take the premise up a notch by bringing the traditional to the modern. This is the setting of the magical world of Alneath, where the battle of justice over evildom takes precedent through its Hero Gram defeating the villainous Demon Lord Veltol Velvet Velsvalt. But fast forward 500 years, with the "Fantasion" catastrophe merging the old fantasy world with the new modern industrial Earth to bring about change that's all for the better, it becomes a place where fantasy meets sci-fi cyberpunk, magic meets engineering, and wars are quelled to make way for peace between the old Alneath and the new Earth. With the help of a revival from a close friend, Veltol now finds himself being the same villainous Demon Lord but in a place where everything is foreign to him and must now navigate what to do to achieve what he's been called to do: achieve world domination...in the year 2099.

On paper, I think that Daigo Murasaki coming up with this concept is pure genius to sideswipe the audience about the usual Demon Lord and fantasy tropes to give a different take on the matter, an "edgy" one if you will (that thankfully doesn't go full-on edge). This may be something that has been attempted before in different mediums, but as is for the AniManga industry, this is brand new and is an area never yet experimented with, so this already does hold more interest and should have your time investment well worth it (which it did for me), even though sometimes it falls back to standard tropes that thankfully don't take the immersiveness out of the entire series.

For once, I truly vibe with a Demon Lord of Veltol's size. Veltol Velvet Velsvalt's character is so similar to Overlord's Ainz Ooal Gown, where he exercises his duty according to the situations and circumstances, knowing when and how to make the right calls (even though that puts his ego on the front out of his usual Lord personality), plus with his powers unexperimented in the new modern space and acknowledging that he has work to do not being the OP in the house, that IS the mark of great character writing to know that Veltol is not just all bark and bite as a Demon Lord who survived countless centuries of experience. Even the hero Gram also makes it into the modern world, but he's a disheveled person of his former self, being in a world where there's no need for heroes, just lazing with his Excalibur (well, it's not exactly called that) sword and passing every day with bats of eyes from citizens of the cyberpunk city (though he soon finds purpose of being one so as not to wane his experience from defeating Veltol all those years ago).

As expected, the one who revived him, Machina Soleige, one of the Six Dark Peers of Veltol's trusted followers, gets him back on track within the new world and its developments to do the same he's always been... and also fall in love with him all the same? Yes, that's what you get for being the Demon Lord's most loyal follower, but also one of the remaining surviving ones due to the infamy of their own brethren, now being the tour de force of the industrial age: Marcus, leading a company on his own that fuels the city he's leading to extreme lengths of modernization through technology for the masses with a heinous plan that's just as ambitious as Veltol's did during their time. Also, I don't know why, but his secretary Kinohara just loves to splice some Engrish over normal Japanese dialogue just to show her range and boost her confidence that way, that's so weird. But the one good fact is that Machina's friend is the Super Girl Hacker Takahashi, who is born after the Fantasion, and despite being the typical high-school-looking girl as she is, she's quite the talent for her aether hacking that provides a way for Veltol in rather sticky situations.

From the world-building to the characters, everything just feels fresh to the point that despite its predictability, there is a perchance of twists that gives the series some substance, and it really shows. Thus, it answers the question of what if authors were able to experiment with genres that don't quite fit together, but they do for some reason, and they do it smartly.

It's safe to say that within the faults of J.C.Staff being chosen to do multiple projects within a single season, some have faltered (like DanMachi's remainder for Season 5), brutally survived from poor production (like Yarinaoshi Reijou wa Ryuutei Heika wo Kouryakuchuu a.k.a The Do-Over Damsel Conquers The Dragon Emperor), are "special" in their own ways (like Mahoutsukai ni Narenakatta Onnanoko no Hanashi. a.k.a The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians), and the most obvious case, have the budget to do so. The 7th of 9 shows for the Summer/Fall 2024 season, and clearly the best-budgeted series of the lot (thanks to the sweet, sweet Aniplex BIG bags money), the studio really has a lot of space to work on delivering scenes that truly matter. For the most part, the anime delivered, albeit with the typical studio production sacrifices that Demi-chan wa Kataritai a.k.a Interviews With Monster Girls director Ryo Ando and his staff team have to make, especially for the director that hasn't had a major directorial work since the Winter 2017 show, only working as both storyboarder and episode director for shows in and out. To say that this is a return to form for Ryo Ando would be a pipedream; it's clear that he's still got it despite being out of the chair for years, and it would be a gross understatement to say that he's still working on it, which I would be down to see what he does next.

The OST is good, as expected from Dr. Stone music composer Tatsuya Kato, which gives a level of impressions to bring the audience into the cyberpunk aesthetic of the show, which, this being under his wheelhouse, is just great to experience. I'll admit that I was in the wrong to see both Shiyui's OP and sekai's ED as decent songs, but they proved me wrong the more I listen to them, and it's just so perfect for a show like this, with great visuals as a backup to hammer in the sci-fi element.

Despite the anime only covering 2 out of the 5 LN volumes present (since the series is brand new that started in January 2021), Maou 2099 a.k.a Demon Lord 2099 has EVERY right to excel with its potential, and I believe that we're just only getting started to see what the series could achieve with so much more. If this show does get a Season 2, I'll be down regardless, but for the anime as it is now, it's honestly one of the best hidden gem shows of the Fall 2024 season that, while it garners the audience numbers (on MAL), more people should give this a chance, because it deserves every bit of attention for being innovative at the very least.