DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyMaou-jou de Oyasumi
ONA ComedyMaou-jou de Oyasumi Mini Anime

REVIEWS

• 

  notpettan

  73/100
  A wholesome ride with a good message that bases its comedy on its characters and jabs on the anime fantasy genre

  (Light spoilers ahead, but… this is a slice of life-esque fantasy-based anime. Is there really anything to spoil?)

  “Today was a wonderful and uneventful day” - Princess Aurora Sura Rhys “Syalis” Kaymin.

  Great anime come in all shapes and forms. Some greats pull off different complex themes that transcend the norm and challenge them to think about its messages and leave the viewer deep into thought after they finish the show. And some other greats masterfully build up their worlds and characters to establish a climax that takes everything we saw from the beginning up to the very ending and leaves us with a nonstop thrilling show from beginning to end.

  Or some other greats, take all the already established conventional and “cliched” tropes from anime and other media but make them their own by adding their own spice and unique twists to make themselves a fun experience anyone can enjoy. And that’s exactly what Maoujou de Oyasumi or its English name, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, establishes itself as a formula-based slice of life-esque fantasy show that adds its own bright colors to give the viewers a uniquely wholesome experience.

  At first, the show sells itself with a basic premise we’ve seen tons of times in anime. We start in the insert kingdom name kingdom where the royalty live peacefully, and everyone loves the royal kingdom until one day, the Demon King of insert demon king dungeon name swoops into the castle, kidnaps the princess, and locks her up in a cell in his dungeon. Now it’s up to the handsome, perfect hero to save the princess from the Demon King! See? Stuff we’ve seen (way too many times) before.

  But this is where the show pulls off its “twist.” Instead of following the generic fantasy formula and following the hero, we follow the story of the princess, Aurora Sura Rhys Kaymin (who I will be calling Princess for the entirety of this review because everyone calls her “Hime” for the entirety of the show as if her name is irrelevant because of her noble status), as she attempts to pass the time by doing what she does best: sleep. But oh, no! The bed in her “cell” is SUPER uncomfortable, and she needs to think of a way to optimize her sleeping experience.

  So what does any normal captive princess in the Demon King’s lair do? Just deal with it? Of course not! She’s a princess! She will do whatever it takes to make sure she gets what she wants! This basic premise is the driving force of the show and the relationships the princess builds with her “captors” around her.

  Even if there is a lack of “plot” in the show, since it can be described as the Princess trying to get her hands on different materials from around the Demon King Castle, the show doesn’t let its lack of a story progression stop itself from being a fun experience from start to end. Instead, the show relies on building the demon’s relationships with the Princess combined with its satire on the fantasy/isekai genre to carry the show’s comedy.

  All the characters’ designs are built to follow typical anime fantasy designs such as your beautiful princess with a cute gown, your authoritarian Demon King with his two little horns sticking out on the top of his head, your perfect hero wearing his plated armor and sense of justice along his chest, and many more designs for the other demon and human characters that poke fun of the overused designs within the fantasy genre.

  Even if the designs themselves are pretty forgettable because of this, the characters themselves are not. Our protagonist, the Princess, appears to be gracious and calm like how a princess should be. But this Princess is everything but “gracious” and “calm.” She uses her wit and diligence to trick little teddy bear creatures into breaking out of her own cell, sneaks off into different areas of the castle for things for her own beauty sleep, and even manages to get the Demon King and his right-hand man to submit to her by leashing them around just for their precious materials for her bedding! Absolute scenes!

  And speaking of the Demon King, we can’t talk about this anime without mentioning the Demon King and his demon folk and their counterparts, the Hero™, the perfect examples of what this anime represents. Although their designs and actions suggest that they’re cookie-cut from their respective tropes taken straight from fantasy anime, they act as jabs to the fantasy genre by grounding them as “human” rather than “ideals.”

  The demon folk, for example, are meant to be the “big baddies” of the universe and represent everything evil. But rather than true evil like how they seem to the outside world, they act as reasonable demons who act on good morals contradicting their outside personas within the castle. This leads to some great comedic moments between the demons and the Princess with them rather than acting as captors and captives, but as, sometimes, captive and captors, but most of the time as friendly equals.

  The Hero™ is also a great play on the fantasy genre because it does a great job of painting his over the top for justice attitude and exaggerates that point to borderline insanity. Even though his intentions are always good, like an ideal hero, his overenthusiasm ends up hurting those around him, and more importantly, the Princess. Even though he’s continually on a journey to the Demon Castle and not physically with the Princess, we still have great moments with him and the Princess together as flashbacks and “nightmares” when the Princess is sleeping.

  But even with all these great comedic characters that lead to great comedic moments, the best part about this show is the simple yet powerful message that the Princess says to the demon folk that she knows that they’re “all kind and good people.” And that’s the entire message of this show. Although we can easily group people into “good” and “evil’” based on our conventional past perceptions of these groups, we never know what these people, or demons, are like until we spend valuable time with each other as equals. Although it’s not a complex theme that challenges the viewer to spend time pondering on its ideals and flaws, it’s a rather good takeaway anyone can get from this anime to “imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes,” or to put it into simpler terms, “imagine yourself in the situation or circumstances of another person to understand or empathize with their perspective, opinion, or point of view.”

  Although this anime is not the perfect experience, it establishes itself as a surprisingly solid watch from beginning to end, filled to the brim with wholesomely comedic moments and characters. I highly recommend this anime to anyone who needs a break from the deep and psychological a lot of anime tries to be and needs to binge a solid, wholesome series that will bring them some good laughs without thinking too hard about what they watch.____

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• 

  BlackWind9

  79/100
  Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle: A Hidden Gem

  Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle

  ``
  I picked this anime up on a whim during Fall 2020 seasonals hunting. My first impression towards this anime was something about average - the genre was sort of one I would be interested in, the artwork (again, off first impressions) was not my type, and this anime alongside seasonals such as Tonikaku Kawaii and Wandering Witch didn't seem like an anime worth pursuing.
  Nevertheless, this show ended up being a joy to watch, due to it knowing exactly what direction it wants to go in and creating a wonderful experience.

  Character Development and Likeability: 25/25

  Characters are very well done. The character chemistry is excellent, plenty of time is given into how the characters make decisions and interact with each other, and everything is done very well in order to deliver us a very lighthearted comedy. Indeed, the core foundation for the comedy is mainly based off the characters' interactions with Princess Syalis, and what ends up as a result of their very well-meaning intents is episode upon episode of heartwarming and enjoyable comedy. Full credit for the character composition and personality pool being very compatible to pull this off - and extra credit if I could for the teddy demons, they're so cute!

  Plot Development: 15/25

  The plot is very straightforward - the princess gotta sleep. While the episodes offer the high quality fluffy comedy, I personally found the beginning episodes a little repetitive and dryly formulaic. Additionally, the comedy through extremely fortunate circumstances for the princess in the beginning episodes grew less enjoyable over time. However, the plot is not confusing in any way - the setting is very much straightforward, yet lacking a distinct variety of storytelling techniques.

  Artwork: 10/15

  I personally was not a big fan of Princess Syalis's disproportionately big eyes, and I was frankly shocked upon learning that she was an adult towards the end of the anime. The rest of the artwork and animation, to a relatively new anime watcher such as myself, was a pleasure to enjoy.
  Emotions were stylistically depicted well in the anime.

  Music: 12/15

  Background songs fit the mood of the anime very nicely. The OP and ED were a joy to listen to, and I did not skip them at all. In fact, I must remind myself to listen to ORESAMA's works more; she has a very enjoyable voice.

  Emotion: 15/15

  Nothing extra to say here. The anime walked in confidently proclaiming itself as a mainly comedic anime and handled it masterfully. There was not a single episode where I did not chuckle a little bit due to the characters' interpersonal chemistry.

  Dialogue: 2/5

  This anime, in comparison with the others I've watched, had some fundamentally basic dialogue structure. It was no lyrical masterpiece like that in Bunny Girl Senpai, nor was it absolute garbage such as that in Looking Up At The Half Moon. However, the word choices were generally repetitive and genuine misunderstandings due to faulty communication are plenty.

  Please do not go into this anime taking it seriously. This is strictly a comedy show that serves to warm your heart up with these well-intentioned and fitting characters, yet has ended up being one of the shows I have laughed at most in 2020. If you are looking for intelligent comedy, or something more emotional, I would not recommend this show. If you are a fan of lighthearted comedy, I absolutely recommend this show.

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• 

  Edueuller

  80/100
  Maoujou de Oyasumi Review! (THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN IN PORTUGUESE)

  Sobre:

  Maoujou de oyasumi é um anime de 2020 com um design bem simples e fofo, um Slice of life divertido e dinâmico com o tema de um princesa que foi sequestrada e mantida presa como refém no castelo do Rei demônio.

  ---

  A partir daqui a review contém alguns leves spoilers que são precisos para explicar o porquê que a obra é boa. São spoilers pequenos que não estragam em nada a experiência, mas achei importante avisar.

  ---

  Mas é aí que tudo se inverte, em vez dela ter uma reação normal e entrar em desespero à espera de um resgate, ela age totalmente diferente e não se preocupa nem um pouco com o ambiente onde está, ela só tem um único e simples objetivo: dormir tranquila e confortável.

  

  O anime já começa com ela querendo materiais para fazer seu próprio travesseiro e ter uma boa noite de sono, tomando ações bem inesperadas e sem sentir medo dos demônios, ela se aventura por todo o castelo em busca de seu objetivo, assim gerando diversas cenas engraçadas. Mesmo que ela obtenha sucesso ela ainda não está satisfeita, afinal não é só com um travesseiro que se dorme bem, e assim que o anime continua, com a princesa sendo avoada, fofa e desleixada sem sentir medo de nada, à procura de recursos e materiais para concluir seus objetivos de ter boas noites de sono.

  Um fato bem interessante é que ela preza tanto pelo bom sono, que ela não pensou duas vezes em abrir mão da coroa de princesa que ela tinha para fazer uma de pano e conseguir dormir de noite.

  

  O anime tem uma grande variedade de cores e de espécies como esqueletos, fantasmas, deuses (Poseidon e Hades), animais e até mesmo ursinhos de pelúcia que vivem no castelo. É interessante o foco total dado pro lado do mau, jogando totalmente de lado os heróis que vem a resgate da princesa, os demônios até sentem pena deles e sempre tentam facilitar o caminho pro príncipe e aliados conseguirem chegar ao castelo mais rápido.

  No último episódio do anime dá pra notar o grande desenvolvimento no relacionamento dos demônios com a princesa e com a princesa em relação aos demônios, tendo um final muito bonito e bem fechado.

  Músicas e trilha:

  A trilha sonora do anime não é tão marcante, passa bem despercebida, mas em compensação a Opening e Ending do anime são muito boas e alegres, se você der uma olhada na Opening dá pra ter uma boa noção do quão colorido e divertido o anime vai ser o anime:

  Link Opening

  Conclusão:

  Maoujou de oyasumi é um anime muito bom, divertido e descontraído com um humor bem simples e agradável, é aquele tipo de anime sem noção e mais bobinho de se assistir. Na minha opinião não é aquele anime que se deve rushar e ver tudo em um dia, já que além de repetitivo tem um ritmo bem lento. Pode acabar te cansando e talvez você acabe ficando sonolento igual a protagonista, mas vale a pena dar uma olhada principalmente se você gosta de Slice of Life e comédia.

  Depois que conclui o anime comecei a perceber mais o quão gostoso o sono pode ser e assim como a protagonista diz, o melhor sono vem quando você teve um dia produtivo.

  Obrigado por ler e tenha um bom sono!

  
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