Review of Demon King Daimao

Well, I have to say this one was pretty hard to rate. I really want to give this anime an 8 or maybe even a 9, but I'll have to settle on something lower because there are some flaws that are just too big to ignore. Let's start with the story. This is why it's so hard to rate. It actually has a good story. But the pacing is pretty hard to cope with. The first 7 or 8 episodes are mostly character development with little bearing over the overall plot. This guy comes to a magic school wanting tobecome a high priest and help mankind as much as possible. So then there's his physical when he enters his new school that also acts to predict the future occupation of students. And our here gets to be.....that's right a Demon Lord. King of all the demons in the world and somewhat opposing to his "I'll do my best to help everyone" mentality. That's all well and good until the main plot begins to move somewhere around episode 7. Then you get this massive, somewhat complicated plot that other anime 24+ episodes long would have trouble fitting in. And this one is only 12.

It seems like this one tries to be the anti-Bleach/One Piece/Naruto and just does its best to not be longer than 12 episodes. No. Matter. What. And so the last 4 episodes generally leaves you a little unsatisfied because it moves so fast and leaves out any explanations of the situation that would serve to either make the anime longer or make the plotline comprehensible. I just finished watching this series today, and I've spent quite a lot of time just trying to figure out how I should rate it all. The story is actually quite decent if you can grasp most of what's going on in the last few episodes, but it feels so rushed I've thought about rating it anywhere from a 4 to a 9 because of it. So, for putting 97% of a massive, complex, and pretty decent story into a blender and serving it all in just a few episodes, I'm giving the story a 6. I'm going to touch on more of the story later in the enjoyment section, like the harem and ecchi points, so stay tuned.

Moving on, I think I'll combine the art and sound. Both are good but not spectacular, fairly generic at times, and that's about it. They don't take anything away from the show and don't make the show stand out either. So the art and sound departments get a solid 7 from me.

Next I'll go into the characters. The main character is Sai Akuto. Like I said before he wants to help people as much as possible and has high aims to reach that goal. The first episode makes sure to show him as being one to help as much as he can, even if the situation he has fallen into seems to have made it impossible to really help people. He's not your standard magical harem kind of main character though. He's one of the more likable, yet misunderstood characters I've seen in a main character role. So, enter harem of girls. Hattori, Korone, Etou sempai, and Soga are the girls. They all have unique points, but are overall mostly generic. If you watch, you'll see what I mean. And Hiroshi is the obligatory male friend who worships the future Devil Lord. He's quite funny early on but later, his character changes completely and I don't know if I like it or not. I give the characters an 7 because I really liked the characters early on, but in the onrush of the plot, some of the characters' personalities changed quite a bit with no explanation or really any warning of a change.

Now for the enjoyment part. I really enjoyed the show early on. In the first 5 or so episodes the humor was incredibly lewd and just plain fun. There was a whole lot of ecchiness in the show. Really the front half of the show was bursting at the seams with ecchiness. But it was hilarious and super enjoyable as well. Around the midpoint of the show though, all that is turned down to a just somewhat ecchi show, and in the last few episodes is the action of the plot with no room for humor or hardly any ecchiness at all. That coupled with the unreal expectation of fitting that plot into 4 episodes dropped my enjoyment from a 10, but I still give it a 9.

I would reccomend this show to most people, but I would also warn everyone to pay attention carefully in the last 5 episodes cause if you miss anything, you really might not understand the plot at all. So, because of the extreme rushed feel to the last half of the anime, I have to give the show as 7, no higher.