Story & Characters

<i>I'll start off by saying I'm a HUGE fan of Kyou Kara Maou, but I'll take a bit of an objective approach here</i>

<u>Title Translation</u>: From Today on, Demon King
<u>English DVD Subtext</u>: God(?) Save Our King!

The story is about a boy named Shibuya Yuuri. An average High School student, he's a daydreamer that has a passion for baseball and a sense of justice. One day when coming home from school he sees a former classmate of his, Murata Ken, getting picked on by bullies and ends up becoming the bullies target, getting swirlied in a toilet and flushed into another world.
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Yuuri is revealed to be the spirit chosen by the Shinou (Original King aka Great One in the English DVD) to be the new Maou (Demon King) of another world. His soul is from that world and was carried to our world to be raised in safekeeping. His strong sense of justice brings out another side of himself that I like to differentiate by simply calling him "Maou" because of the fact Yuuri's appearance and voice and manner all change when he's in this mode. As the Maou he has many loyal retainers, the 4 main ones are: <br>
<b>Conrad Weller</b> - The lowly born middle son of the previous Maou, he is half human and a highly accomplished swordsman. He is Yuuri's closest friend and most loyal subject in his kingdom, Shin Makoku (New Makoku aka Great Demon Kingdom). He is plain in appearance and dresses in earth tones.<br>
<b>Gunter von Christ</b> - Yuuri's most doting retainer, he is hopelessly devoted to Yuuri and constantly worries about his king's well-being. He educates Yuuri in the ways of the kingdom as an accomplished scholar. He is also an accomplished swordsman. He is a shining man with long silver hair and dresses in white.<br>
<b>Wolfram von Bielefelt</b> - Conrad's younger half-brother, Wolfram is hot-headed and a demon purist, holding no respect whatsoever to humans or half-breeds like his older brother Conrad. After a mishap turns him into Yuuri's fiance he becomes possessive of Yuuri and their fragile relationship. He is young with wavy blonde hair and dresses in blue.
<br>Gwendel von Voltaire</b> - A cold, tactical man, he is the eldest son of the last Maou and half-brother to Conrad and Wolfram. He is all about sticking to the law and taking the most expedient route. He wears green and has long black hair.
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There are a lot of twists and turns and be sure to pay attention or you might forget someone who'll be important later on ^_~

Rating: 7

Art

The art is in a very shoujo style with a lot of attractive men, pretty scenery and flowers and sparkly and flowery special effects for emotional moments. However these elements are not overused so much that the show becomes a sparkle-fest. The colors are very vibrant and color is used in a very distinguishing manner. Uniforms are also very common as you easily recognize which minor characters affiliate with which major characters by the colors and uniforms they wear. The magic effects are quite impressive artwork. Characters have very expressive faces with a lot of wide-eyed reactions from Yuuri.

Rating: 8

Sound

The background music of this series is quite subdued and doesn't draw too much attention to itself in the anime, which means it does it's job well, I say. The opening song is wonderful and energetic and is called "Hateshinaku Tooi Sora Ni (Towards the infinitely distant Sky)" and really captures the mood of the anime and sets you up for the show you're about to watch. The first ending "Suteki ni shiawase" is bouncy and childish, which I think expresses how the first season has a very childishly naive and innocent Yuuri. The new ending for season 2 (starting at the end of Episode 40) "Arigatou" has a more mature air to it to show how Yuuri's now come into his own as the Demon King and knows how he wants things done.
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For the dub acting, my personal highlight is Mona Marshall as Wolfram. She captures him quite well. Wolfram's an effeminate young man with a chip on his shoulder and he tries to overcompensate by being as manly as possible. Mona sounds a little feminine at times in this role and that's suitable for Wolfram in my opinion. Overall the dub voices don't shine all that much but they aren't terrible. The dub acting is decent enough, and I think it's bound to get better. Josak is another character that I think has a good character voice, it really fits. ^_^
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The Japanese acting is wonderful. Yuuri has a wonderful actor that captures regular Yuuri and Maou magnificently. The Japanese track has a definite advantage over the english track, but when you're watching another language it's harder to catch nuances that would be annoying if it were your own language... plus the japanese seem to be better at voice-acting in general in my opinion... I'll let you decide for yourself on the japanese track though.

Rating: 8

Presentation

The story elements of KKM are that of a parody. Every character in this show parodies or is meant to be a generic character to the extreme... It looks like your generic "Hero sent to another world to Save the day" story, but it's not. Instead of being a Holy Warrior, he's a Demon King, instead of defeating demons he's to defeat humans. All of his retainers are different stereotypical bishounen and the women of the castle are very wild and controlling. It's a very fun story that works with all of the general cliches you'd see in a fantasy anime and make them into something you wouldn't expect... or at least, Yuuri doesn't suspect XD. This show likes to turn the most minor insignificant character you encounter into a useful player later in the show. It's quite amazing how someone you'd never think twice about suddenly shows up to save the day. There are some slow episodes when you first start watching into the double digits, but stick with it, it definitely gets better again.
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The english DVD has a lot of little inconsistencies in the credits that I'd like to mention here. They obviously didn't check that. The English dialogue handles the puns of Kyou Kara Maou in a way that probably inspires a reaction that the original Japanese puns are probably meant to evoke, but are unsuccessful in direct translation. The English DVD does keep the subtitles as a pure translation though so purists needn't worry about that.

Rating: 8

Final Verdict

7.67 (good)

Reviewed by Terra-chan, May 22, 2005

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