Review of Demon Lord 2099

Maou 2099 has a lot of potential, but lack of execution really kills a lot of this show that failed to live up to its full potential. I just love the setting. A reboot of a classic Demon Lord vs Hero. What happens if the Demon Lord actually loses and he gets defeated by the righteous hero? Well, he gets resurrected in a strange, unfamiliar sci-fi world with technology so advanced it might as well be magic. The concept of magic and technology fusing to be magitech is not an uncommon theme nowadays, but the way the sci-fi setting is handled is great. AI powered familiadevices power a lot of the logical processing that takes place when trying to create magic, and there's a real reason why Veltol, our main character is unable to use it. The device was made intentionally to exclude and become incompatible with higher level deities and entities so that people like Veltol would be at a massive disadvantage in the future, where their mana reserves and magical prowess are much less pronounced due to advances in technology. While you don't get to see a lot of the world as worldbuilding isn't exactly the focus, just the basic explanations of how the world works makes sense in the scope of the story. There's backdoors in the familia, there's "aether hacking" on magic devices, there's the ubiquitous prevalence of technology in order to apply for jobs, buy groceries, and do day-to-day activities. The setting doesn't go so in depth as to lose focus on the story, but good enough and makes a lot of sense in order to set the story up for success.

And despite the sci-fi setting, it pays so much homage to the classic hero on a quest to beat the evil Demon Lord entity. Demon Lord Veltol and Gram are very classic archetypes intentionally crafted that way. Veltol is an arrogant, strong, ruler that wants to defeat humans so as to rule over the world. He uses strength to obtain territory, and while he's not stupid, he's a bit naive and narrowminded sometimes. He demands obedience as the supreme ruler of the immortals, and yet also cherishes his subordinates and truly wishes for both humanity and immortals to thrive in the whole wide world. He's the very definition of what the personality of a typical demon lord would be in a hero's journey type of story. Gram is similarly the hero archetype where he finds kindness to be the greatest virtue. He's humble, fearless, and knows his destiny is to destroy the great evil that is Veltol. Along his journey, he gathers like-minded comrades to vanquish the great evil. This basic set of personalities clash and evolve with each other as the story progresses in a very meaningful way. The motif of hero and demon lord keeps on getting revisited throughout the entire series as Veltol and Gram slowly change.

When Veltol fights and gets defeated by Hero Gram, he's very much the older, wiser, and jaded veteran while Gram is the young hero with all the aspirations. Veltol scoffs at the idea of humanity, friendship, bonds as absolute power appeals to him much more. Yet, when Gram defeats Veltol, he has to accept the fact that he truly was defeated by such "unnecessary ideals." Despite his unwillingness to accept defeat, he acknowledges Gram as stronger fighter, and respects him for it. Yet he's still unconvinced with such explanations that "glimmers of life" and hope were the reasons he lost, and with those thoughts, he vanishes.

Yet, when Veltol reawakens, he's in more of an infantile state. His personality and memory are intact, but he's much weaker, lacking faith, power, and subordinates. He's a ruler with no subjects and power. Veltol, in his weakened present day self, can't solve problems with violence. He requires diplomacy, relationships, and more. His perception changes as he encounters betrayals and loyalty alike. He has to adapt to the new world, change his worldview, and re-evaluate his previous self and ideals. He's forced to face the present day reality that is magitech and all the strings that come attached with such a product.

Meanwhile, while Veltol does his own awakening and reimagining, Gram lived through all life had to offer for over 500 years. If Veltol is learning new things all the time, Gram is now the jaded veteran with more experience in his belt. Lacking even a reason to fight, ironically, Veltol, his sworn enemy, is the only person left in the world that genuinely respects him.

And then they meet. If Gram was the hopeful hero and wanted to make changes with a bright future ahead of him and Veltol was the dispassionate ruler, the present day have the roles reversed. Now Veltol's the one with a hopeful outlook in life while Gram seems to have lost reasons to fight as the Hero. 500 years made both of them forget their grudges against each other. Instead, perhaps that 500 year bond is the only thing that's left in the 500 years time.

Then, finally, Veltol bows his head to Gram. To borrow his power and to save his vassals, he's willing to ask his greatest enemy in the past to aid him in his cause. With the roles now reversed, Gram's the weary Hero that doesn't believe Veltol can achieve anything, while Veltol's the one with idealistic goals, ambitions, and innocence. While Gram berates Veltol for his statements, Veltol refutes with "I have the solutions to all the problems, not just one! For I am Demon Lord Veltol! And this World is mine to rule!" With those words, perhaps Gram sees his past self in Veltol, and maybe just to help the weak getting exploited as Hero Gram always had done, he joins hands with Veltol to save the city.

If you've read this far, you can tell just how much I enjoy the Hero vs Demon being reimagined in this world and setting; it's very fun to watch like that! No edgy protagonist, protagonist with harem, convoluted sci-fi plot, or OP MC. It's a Demon Lord and Hero reuniting after 500 years in a completely different world.

I won't write about all the flaws too much or else the review will go on too long, but there's a decent amount of them. The main problem is the pacing. A lot of the fights are really poorly paced with dialogue and fight scenes. There's way too much dialogue and it really makes the potentially tense fight defuse too much. The story is also pretty mediocre. There's always a lot of action and people fighting and dying, but there's never any true buildup. Usually, when there's city level fights, there's different organizations involved, personal armies, or people that Veltol recruits. In this show, it's kind of just Veltol and his crew alongside Gram fighting the like 2-3 enemies that appear. The scale of it all just doesn't really make sense, and the buildup for all of the fights are really bad. For example, a story arc about investigating artifacts to unlock a secret vault just devolves to the evil guy revealing himself and none of the previous setting, worldbuilding, or characters even matters. There's a complete lack of story when it comes to investigations, character interactions, and so on for the scale of the actual plot at hand.