MAOU GAKUIN NO FUTEKIGOUSHA: SHIJOU SAIKYOU NO MAOU NO SHISO, TENSEI SHITE SHISON-TACHI NO GAKKOU E KAYOU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ComedyMaou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou
MANGA ActionMaou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou
ANIME ActionMaou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou II

REVIEWS

• 

  CHBUKI

  65/100
  It was alright up until the finale.

  Basic Story Spoilers.

  Overall: 6.5/10
  This show had a lot of hate at the beginning because it's a very cliche story right from the get go filled with tropes. Essentially, it's about the eternal fight between humans and non-humans (mainly demons), and the heroes/mad beings that lead them.

  Story Construction/Plot: 6/10
  Construction-wise, the story is a fantasy version of the Overpowered Character Trope that we've ironically seen re-popularized by the trope deconstruction in One Punch Man. Instead of a bald-headed normie gaining superpowers through a crap-load of basic exercise living in the modern world, we follow OP character Anos Voldigoad, Demon King of Tyranny, leader of (obviously) the Demon faction, fighting against the undying Spirit Saint, Hero Kanon, leading the Humans. This battle has lasted as long as time itself, with the Hero's special ability of regeneration, he comes back to life even upon defeat and fights against the Demon Army time and time again.

  But plot-twist! Demon King of Tyranny Anos Voldigoad is a pacifist (?!) The Demon King invites the Hero Kanon to his castle to parley. The two strike a deal. The demon king is sick of senseless war. He's actually a benevolent king and is distraught at the death of his Demon subjects, and so he offers the Hero Kanon a way to end the fighting, offering to lay down his life and magic energy to create a magical rift between the Human Realm and the Demon Realm to keep the two sides at bay. Being the almighty Demon King, of course he is not going to simply die with no plan. He has developed a form of magic that will regenerate his spirit over the course of 2,000 years. And so, the Hero and Demon King come to terms to stop the fighting in the hopes that the two sides will lose their appetite for war and destruction in the 2,000 year peace, and the moved Kanon swears to the Demon King that after the 2,000 year regeneration period of the Demon King's spirit, the Hero Kanon should also reincarnate and they should be friends in a time of peace.

  Of course, despite the sacrifice of the Demon King in hopes of peace, not everything goes to plan. Anos Voldigoad reincarnates in a time where all records of the promise between the Hero and Demon King have been forgotten. Something is afoot! Follow the Demon King in his quest to uncover what happened in the 2,000 years he was regenerating while navigating the new world and the various new problems that have arisen such as the aristocracy, classism, racism, and dark plots!

  Animation: 6/10
  The animation was perfectly normal. No particularly jarring scenes, but nothing particularly striking either. Overall it's a cleanly drawn anime that shouldn't distract your eyes too much. The character designs are fairly simple, and the magic is displayed with highly detailed symbols for the most part that might interest people who like that kind of thing.

  Characters: 5/10
  Being a one cour show (13 eps) there are limitations to how deeply you can go into individual character arcs. The attempt is made to show the basic stories for the most important characters, but it has to be said that some characters are left on dry land in the end... One might end up wondering why certain characters were treated as being so important without getting enough development.

  Audio/Music: 6.5/10
  A purely subjective matter, but I personally found the OP/ED to be great. If I were simply basing my rating on the opening and ending, I would have given them a 7 or maybe a 7.5. There's nothing in particular amazing about them, but they are great songs that both fit very well with the story if you understand the lyrics. Both are J-Rock, but the ED singer Kusunoki Tomori does very well with some powerful vocals. The band that plays the OP, CIVILIAN, is reminiscent of other J-Rock bands that do anime songs, and it's a very familiar sound for anyone who watches enough anime. The problem with the music in Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha is that there are some parts of the show that involve singing... that doesn't really need to be there.... It's not good.

  Key Takeaways:
  I shortly mentioned it in the Review Summary, but really the show has a rough ending thanks to the one cour pacing. It really needed more time to expand on the story. Some characters could have been given a better handling. The rush to the ending leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. For a story that has a 2,000 year period of mystery to start delving into, it doesn't take advantage of the use of lore and leaves a lot on the table.

  Baseline:
  If you're looking for something simple to watch, I could possibly recommend Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha, but you have to go in with low expectations.

  Essentially, the appeal of this show is based in the main character Anos Voldigoad's quirkiness as a truly OP schemer. Following him as he gains followers and learns more about the new world that resulted from his decision to sacrifice his life. Another cour would have really helped the story, but it feels like they've closed the door with the way they closed out this first season.

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• 

  KaizokuOtaku

  62/100
  cool twist with the concept of demon lord. It was good till the last two episodes. Rushing ruined it a bit

  Countless amounts of anime are out there where the central focus is the overpowered main protagonist alongside loads of waifus. Most of these tend to get boring in the long run or quite fast, barley passing an episode or two. Unless you are like me once upon a time where I was fully dedicated to torturing myself by finishing up everything I put on my plate. That being said, rarely did I find any of those entries worth my time or all that fun. It was just me being stubborn and telling myself this, which is good when nothing actually was worth it. I have seen more than a fair share of these kinds of anime, but only a few have hit the right marks. It's been a norm that every season, a big chunk of the selection goes to typical fantasy anime. Out of them, more or less everything gets a place in the dropped or the trash can. But by a stroke of miracle, a solid show does actually get dropped someday. One was Cautious Hero, released a few seasons ago, and made me pumped about seeing where its story will go. Yes, I am talking positively about those classic light novel's where the title tend to be blown out of proportion when it comes to length. Now we got another such title, which is "Maou Gakun no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou."

  Don't expect me to write that long and unnecessary title over and over again. I will just call it MisfitMaou since it's short and still informative to an extent. MisfitMaou starts after 2000 years later after the war against humans, and the demon had passed. The former ancient progenitor, the demon Lord Anos, is reincarnated as a misfit student. Not gonna get into it too much, but basically, instead of being with the royals, he messes up on his test and ends in the class for misfits. Anos is the backbone of MisfitMaou and makes the show so damn fun. He got acalm and collected attitude at the surface, nothing like a real demon lord. But when he does get enraged, he can be vicious and merciless. Anos is such a good and gentle guy who cares about his people and does not throw any hands at the humans unless someone forces him. Just goes to make those moments when Anos get down to business mighty satisfying, and it's incredible fun. Yes, Anos is overpowered, but calling it even extreme is not a sort of justice. He can literally blink someone out of existence, destroy enemies with his heartbeat or cause actual unimaginable miracles that make no sense in the grand scheme of things.

  Even so, those overused tropes of being invincible never seem to get old for me. The story itself is nothing to write home about, but it's addicting and lots of fun in other areas. For one, MisfitMaou's got a solid but typical waifu cast. Misha is the quiet and shy type, while Sasha is the tsundere (my best girl). Both make some romance progress. That's right, we don't have to wait untill the end of the story and get some sorry excuse of romance development that doesn't leave one sated as you'd hoped. Anos is fully aware of the girls' feelings from early on. When it comes to the overarching narrative of MisfitMaou, to cut a long story short. Someone replaced the history with a fake demon lord. Now it's up to Anos to find out who it could've been and restore things to its proper order. It's been a blast to watch MisfitMaou from start to finish, despite how simplistic and shoddy the premise truly is. Other areas, such as action, Anos, and the waifu, were handled well. We got a good side cast that feels necessary and is not suddenly long since been forgotten.

  There are some laughably bad executions of plot elements, one of which is the tension of a dire situation. It's just poorly handled and lacks that oomph of genuineness, it ruins the moment's flow in question. At one point, a character was playing the bad guy role, but it was never convincing and fell flat on its face. Many others of such segments are scattered across the anime adaptation. Also, the main bad guy was such a boomer that made me want to rip his head of an revive him to do it over again. Besides that, it's really not all that bad and could've been far worse. For a typical fantasy, I gotta say the production was decent. I didn't notice many derps, and the animation was okay. Overall, if you're like me who enjoys your overpowered badass main guy and harem with cute waifus, then give it a go. Sasha was the true best girl for me tho. What can I say? I am so damn weak when it comes to tsundere and if you add twintails on top of that then that's one killer combo. Well, you get the point. MisfitMaou was certainly a good time for me, despite its shortcoming later down the road. I would certainly watch a sequel if it dropped at some point.

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• 

  Theata

  78/100
  OpEd: A great show for mind-neutral entertainment.

  Summary:
  Haters gunna hate, yet somehow, I watched each episode 3 times and felt it got better each time. Based on the tags of 'ACTION' 'COMEDY' and 'FANTASY' attached to the show it has the first and last in spades but is lacking in the Comedy department. Don't be misled, it's not a parody nor is it as self-aware as something like KonoSuba. The show also has a pompous, self-aggrandizing, cocky and absurdly Overpowered Main character... which is precisely how you'd expect a scathing comment would start yet this character was written with that exactly in mind. The show manages to plant necessary information for its plot points sometimes multiple episodes in advance and executes all the main plot triggers it sets leaving little behind that isn't particularly useful. This is especially well noted as while a growing number of shows have filler and wasted time this is kept to a minimum throughout the show. Animation and Sound are, at their worst, up to par but generally above average and I found on rewatching the show that the non-diegetic sounds worked excellently at seamlessly enhancing entertainment value. However, some of the 'diegetic' sounds (read: attempt at singing) were cringey and probably better off left out with only the final use being best described as 'average'.

  Plot and concepts: As far a story building blocks go it's a reasonably typical "Magic Academy"/"OP Hero" styled affair with the twist and hook being that we are observing from the demons side as the reincarnated Demon King himself. Given that a role or perspective reversal can often be refreshing I welcomed a change from always being on the 'Hero’s' shoulder. While it didn’t get into exploring the nitty-gritty of being a demon lord or what it is to be 'Evil' it does reasonably well establish not to judge a race based on its name. The 'Demonic' race depicted is an, albeit weak, demonstration of how our perception can be shifted by being shown the other side. While I will freely admit that this show doesn't explore in-depth any themes that can be easily related back to the real world I will leave with my opinion that this isn't necessary to make an enjoyable or engaging story.

  Plot Execution:
  Overall plot twists were well executed and were successfully able to blind-side the viewer even after being well hinted at upon rewatch with a minimal amount of truly unnecessary filler. As mentioned previously there isn't any attempt at breaking the rulebook or deep-diving any themes however it's my opinion that while the envelope wasn't pushed the executed elements were done to a high enough standard that the story was able to have taken what could have very well been a boring copy/paste show and keep the viewer's attention and engagement. As far as whether this will entertain others, I have little doubt that those who pay attention and enjoy this genre of show (Magic Academy/OP Hero) will find this show very worthwhile. During re-watching I was able to pick up 1 minor plot hole which could be a result of over-analysation on my part however for the majority of viewers there will be nothing to worry about as by-and-large it is free from contradictions and major holes. Though do bear in mind that being the nature of the MC to be overpowered the use of Deus-ex-Machina and what some would call plot-bullshittery do get served in large dollops.

  Characters:
  While there are no 'new' character tropes nor are any 'mould-breaking' I didn't find them to be egregiously generic or bland. Most characters got fleshed out to a reasonable extent where the viewer could understand the motivation for their actions. I also found that most actions taken seemed mostly consistent with their displayed personalities and traits. Again I feel it necessary to reiterate that while the envelope wasn't pushed the executed character tropes were filled out to a sufficiently high standard that the characters never really felt bland, boring or like they were acting out of character to push the story forward. Some characters, especially in the latter portion of the show from the Human faction could have done with some more development, screen time and action however with only 13 episodes at the show's disposal I can understand the decision to potentially decrease side character development in favour of completing the story overall.

  Audio-Visual:
  I have very little qualifications with which to commentate on the Visual side of the show as I'm personally not that well attuned to art styles nor do I commonly notice animation glitches that often. However, Silverlink is reasonably well known for decent quality animation and this title does not appear to be the exception. I will applaud that every 'source' that was shown when casting magic had a unique design which was a nice touch and that there was consistency moving between episodes with design elements. This even extends to spells that are reused (Gatom, Gyze, Asla etc.) additionally scene re-use was rather minimal and, if a location was reused there was typically new art drawn. Moving to the Audio aspect, the non-diegetic soundstage was well mastered and typically never felt like it overpowered the characters while speaking or during action scenes. As for diegetic sounds, I found that while reasonable this is where some improvements could be made. Some SFX for spells were rather generic as were several other 'interaction' type sounds (metal on metal, spell breaking etc.) Finally, we come to the massive --BUT-- in this category and that is the 'Fan club' and their songs, this diegetic 'sound-track' (if I dare call it that) truly makes one wish they were deaf and I almost died from a cringe-induced cardiac arrest. Luckily, if you're not someone who enjoys non-idol cast members singing this only happens 3 times in the course of the show with the final time being a large step above the others as it's more pushed into the BGM and less focused upon. That being said, for my personal enjoyment of the show, I'm willing to mostly overlook this due to how well the non-diegetic sounds were mixed in and were able to modulate and change the feel of the scenes in addition to it only being egregiously bad 2 of 3 times.

  Overall, did I enjoy the show? Yes, very much, as did my watch partner.
  Do I recommend the show? Absolutely, especially for those that enjoy overpowered MCs. For those that don't like an OP MC then you're probably in the wrong place.
  Is it a 'must-watch' or 'required viewing' show for everyone? Nah, no way, for people like myself it scratches an itch you didn't know you had but it's certainly not a show for everyone, especially not those looking for a deep plot or commentary on social or story themes.

  PS: Score weighting here includes point removal for singing and will vary from personal rating.

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