September 06, 2015

Hataraku Maou-sama

Pete loved it. I didn't.

It's been a couple of years and I only watched two episodes, but my memory is that the only thing in that show that was of even slight interest was the human female coworker with the ridiculous jugs.

It wasn't terrible; it's just that I didn't find any of it interesting, except the coworker and her jugs. That wasn't enough to keep me watching, even in a disaster of a season with nothing else to watch.

UPDATE: In response to Pete, the problem with the coworker was that it was completely gratuitous for them to draw her that way. Total pandering.

Still, he liked Divergence Eve for the story. One would think the plot and characters of Maou counted for something.

If it had a story I cared about, featuring characters I found interesting, then yes. Divergence Eve did. This one didn't.

I sure don't mind having attractive women in a show, but there needs to be more than that. I stopped watching Bikini Warriors, for instance, because there wasn't anything in it except male-gaze closeups and preposterous character designs.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 187 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Pete's right, you're wrong.

Kidding aside, I rewatched Maou and I find it to be one of the better Japanese comedies I've seen.  They resist the urge to do the Manzai thing, so thankfully there's no tsukkomi to scream objections to the punchline. The humor is clever, e.g.: the comments about Maou always wearing Uniclo clothing ("Apologize to the number one clothing manufacturer in Japan!"), Ashia missing battles so he can get his cape, Suzuko's knowledge of Japan stemming from Sengoku period dramas, etc.

And like Pete points out, those are really just asides to the plot.  Sure, once defeated every villain ends up settling into ordinary Japanese life, but this is only a 13 episode show so it doesn't feel like a tired device by the end of the series.

Posted by: wahsatchmo at September 07, 2015 09:09 AM (r4uXE)

2 Episode 5 has some of the funniest and most crowning points of awesome in the series. It includes quite possibly the longest wind up for a punch I've ever seen, right after the "character most likely to have peed himself" image out there. Lots of reveals and forced cooperation.

With this series it seems the little bits are the reasons I always revisit. Episode 5 has many.

Posted by: topmaker at September 07, 2015 10:06 AM (2yZsg)

3 Long time lurker, first time commenter.  I to loved this anime though I watched the English version called "The Devil Is a Part-Timer!"     I found it's attention to detail amazing and the overall story rather fascinating.  There were plenty of plot hooks left over for a follow-up series that I'm sure was the intent from the beginning.  Many unanswered questions.

Posted by: homer1357 at September 07, 2015 10:19 AM (+iKZT)

4 Y'know, Steven, you don't really watch many comedies in general. Plenty of action stuff, even comedic action stuff, but not many shows where comedy is the main focus. Maybe that's it?

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 07, 2015 10:32 PM (qxzj1)

5

Different people have different tastes. As Toren said here once, "If we agreed on everything one of us would be unnecessary."

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 07, 2015 11:21 PM (+rSRq)

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