I wasn’t very good at anime during the Spring Season, so I’m making a concerted effort to watch as much as I can squeeze into my schedule this season. And I’m starting off with a show that screams Ecchi Harem from the get go, but doesn’t actually seem to end up going in that direction at all. Much to my own shock, and honestly much to my relief.
The Misfit of Demon King Academy was a slow burn for me, which I suppose is the entire point of this 3 episode rule series. The rule of thumb being that you can get a feel for a series within three episodes and decide whether to continue it or not. After finishing the first episode, I was ready to drop this one like a bad habit.
But I stuck with it, as it the entire point of this series, and by the end of the third episode it had won me over somewhat. Our hero is Anos Voldigord; the reborn Demon King who sacrificed himself to end the war between Demons and Humans two millennia prior.
A mere month after being born, he is back in his old body and attending a high school for kids being trained to be future Demon Kings. What is the purpose these kids are being trained for, and what is Anos’s goal and purpose in joining this academy? Um… It’s never really addressed.
Rather, it’s about Anos being incredibly overpowered and going around showing everyone up in astounding fashion. This a school for demons after all, so it goes without saying that everyone is using destructive magic, and Anos has no qualms about murdering one of his fellow student and resurrecting him over and over again just to win a little duel.
Anos is a weird guy, and not an especially interesting one in my eyes. I’m not a huge fan of overpowered protagonists as a general rule, but Anos isn’t the worst example of an OP MC. Seeing him lifting a castle with one hand and spinning it on his finger is goofy enough to make me laugh, but the most compelling thing about him to me seems to be his weird obsession with meddling in other people’s lives, for the purposes of fixing broken familial relationships.
He seems far more interested in repairing the bond between two scummy, elitist brothers or the two sisters he finds himself on a team with than he does looking into why the world has gone into such decline since he’s been dead, or why nobody seems to remember him. Any connection to his old life has been stolen by someone else who seemed to have taken his legacy from his shortly after he died. Although he doesn’t seem especially driven to learn the truth behind it with any urgency.
The first episode ends up being kind of meh, just setting the stage and introducing the Kuudere type girl Misha as his devoted companion right from their first meeting. After this we’re introduced to her sister, the suitably more Tsundere Sasha. The two sisters seem to have a very complicated/broken relationship, the true nature of we don’t get to learn within these three episodes, but I’ll be honest, these two sisters and their relationship ended up being the thing that made me want to continue watching the show.
I don’t especially care for Anos, nor whatever has happened to this world, but the two sisters and whatever is going on between them is making me want to continue watching. Anos is entertaining when he wants to be, treating everything around him like some mildly comical sideshow, but like I said at the top; an overpowered protagonist of this variety only does so much for me. It’s his meddling in the lives of Misha and Sasha that keep this story compelling for me.
Verdict: It’s done enough to get one or two more from me
The third episode ended on enough of a cliffhanger that I want to know where is goes. Depending on whether this revelation opens up something more compelling or not will determine whether or not I’ll keep this one up. I get the impression there is no real danger nor stakes going on here to really makes the events seem compelling. Unless of course they double down hard on the emotional stakes, then I could be on board.
I don’t hate Anos, and his dry humour is one of the aspects of the character I do like. But I’m still not sure what his character’s deal is at this point, he doesn’t seem overly interesting in learning about what happened in the world since he was dead, and he’s not shy about announcing who he is, although the rest of his classmates think he’s just some weirdo misfit.
A weirdo misfit who consistently show everyone around him up and makes them look dumb and weak in the process. I hope the power fantasy isn’t all there is to this one, as it doesn’t tend to do it for me.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 