Let's cut the chase, and go to what really matters: Story: one of the most curious plot I've seen in my anime watching life. A rock headed realist with the power to select the new ruler of Hell. A meatheaded demon and his companions/rivals wanting to be selected as the new ruler of Hell. A Victorian England set. Angels in the middle of it. Wait...what? That was my first good impression, the setting was good, the time was good (personal opinion, I love the Ol' England times) and, well, I didn't got disappointed. The plot was amazing, even though sometimes it was quite slow-paced (again, personalopinion, I could live without some "filler-esque" episodes). The episodes were hilarious, or dramatic, but even so they didn't fled the main theme of it, the Hellking must be chosen, and a certain human needs to do it. Amazing, but I can't give full points because I hate slow paced animes, and this was a case of it.
Art: sometimes the show budget is godlike, and the art sucks, sometimes the budget is low, veeery low, and the art is crazily good. This time, I can say, the budget is low, and the art sucks. Repeated scenes! At this time and day! Nothing leaves such a bad impression as the art, and it was terrible. The opening and ending art were good, maybe that's what lifted up the rating, because I was willing to give it a 4. Nothing more to say, watch it and take your own conclusions.
Sound: I already told my opinion about the OP and ED arts, let's talk about music. The songs were great. For me, the anime sound is quite hard to give it an opinion, since I'm not someone that keeps listening to the insert songs. But the sound is something that can raise a good anime to a higher class, and that is what I think that happened here. The art sucks, ok, I said it, but the sound was very good, well done and it fit the "classic Victorian theme" of the anime and the dramatic scenes got awesome insert songs. Good, good.
Character: that is were the show gets it done. An anime that is not comedy per se, but something in the middle of drama, action and comedy made me laugh it out loud a lot of times. The devils x realist relationship was awesomely well done, and the secondary characters were captivating. Specially the big guys of Hell. The plot was unique, and the protagonists and their counterparts were unique as well. Nothing could get any better (though I really wanted to see God, what a pity), and for that, 10 for you William and Dantalion.
Enjoyment: I don't know what to say here except that I liked it, the plot was unique, the setting was unique (have I told you guys that I love the Victorian theme?), the art was the bad part, but the characters compensate this loss with their awesomeness. Good, that is what I say.
Overall, I recommend it, with one advice. If you, like me, takes art into A LOT of consideration while picking a show, please, give it a try, it is a good show and it was quite the surprise of the season for me. But be warned, the art sucks. Hope you all like it. See you.
SoSoEmmazing
September 22, 2013
Recommended
Makai Ouji is definitely something you would probably on first impression be like: This is so unoriginal, the story is boring, why would anyone make this. But once you actually finish the first episode, you become enticed and deeply connected with the whole story and it's characters, honestly worth your time. Story: The story is great. It's action packed with jocular/jovial relief. The story centers around a young high-school teenage boy named William Twinning, and the setting is around the same as Black Butler, I would say. William turns out to be the descendant of the great demon tamer Solomon, and William is now forced to balanceout his regular life, of realism, while demons begin to meddle in his life and bring out this "nonsense of heaven and hell" as William is supposed to choose one of the demons to continuously serve him as they rule Hell together.
Art: The art is simply beautiful. There's meticulous detail in every scene, and each character is specially designed to match their personality. The colours are all varied and vibrant.
Sound: The sound is in great quality (of course, this varies with your video server). The voices match the characters perfectly. You can tell that the voice actors didn't slack off in voicing their characters, as everything was very synced, and the sound effects and fight scenes were very well captivated. Also, the OP & ED sountracks were great, in my opinion, and they matched quite well with the series.
Characters: As mentioned, the characters are all specially created for a large purpose of the series. They are all different and creative. There's also a character that meets every mood, from being stuck up, to jocular, to stubborn, to jovial. The characters really fulfill in elaborating the plot, and they tend to attach to the viewers, leading up to SENTIMENTAL FEELINGS ;~;...I mean, the characters are lovely.
Enjoyment: I found this anime extremely enjoyable, I was frantically awaiting a new release every Sunday. This anime will guarantee to make you laugh..and sometimes even cry, if you're the sentimental type (cough), but there's no doubt that if you've liked what you've read/heard about Makai Ouji so far, you'll enjoy this series.
Pros: Characters, art, unique plot, sound, story, comedy, FEEEEELLLSSS
Cons: A bit too many fillers/straying away from the plot at times, could have more action in fight scenes, a bit rushed due to only one season
cicintopaz
November 22, 2013
Not Recommended
I really wanted to like this anime. Unfortunately after sitting through 12 episodes all I could think about was how it was a complete waste of my time. I haven't read the manga myself so what ever that I say in this review I say it for the anime only. Basically the entire show was a flatline, nothing special and nothing particularly interesting. At the beginning it shows some promise by leaving a few mysteries here and there which is why I actually stuck with it for 12 episodes, only to find a wall at the end of the tunnel. The story revolves around maincharacter William Twinning who comes from a wealthy family and possesses extraordinary intelligence. He is also supposedly a hardcore realist, so hardcore that he still claims to not believe in anything other than science even after just being slapped in the face by a demon. Despite being a realist, William is constantly surrounded by demons who are all desperately fighting for his attention because he is a descendant of King Solomon, who has the power to elect the next ruler of hell. This part of the story was what originally attracted me to watch this show, I was pining for a good plot with a dark philosophical undertone somewhat like pandora hearts and kuroshitsuji (mind you, the manga not the anime). However all that it turns out was Solomon pimping out demons all the way back in the biblical times and William Twinning being a little twat and using everyone around him to further his academic career. The demon and non-demon characters are all pretty one dimensional and predictable. And if you're hoping for some BL in this anime I regret to inform you that you will be greatly disappointed. All in all, the story is weak with no character development and doesn't really go anywhere beyond flashbacks of Solomon the king pimp and demons fighting over the throne in hell.
The soundtrack is nothing special, I draw a complete blank when I think about how the soundtrack added on to the anime so it really wasn't anything memorable. The art was to say the very least horrifying. Maybe because I had high expectations going in to this anime but the art consisted of all the wrong colors on the palatte that made the anime look cheap and the amateurish. The absolute worst part for me is probably the action scenes. If you are an action fan I suggest that you don't touch this anime even with a ten foot pole. It was all wrong, just thinking about the action scenes gives me second hand embarrassment. You can really tell that there wasn't much going for this anime financially from its production, but they also failed to make up for it in the writing department.
I gave this anime a 1 on my own list but a 2 here because I don't want to completely trash a series before reading the manga. I'm still going to give the manga a try because I've learned that you should never judge a manga-based series from only watching the anime. However if you're thinking about giving this series a shot I highly suggest that you skip straight to the manga. Don't waste your time with this anime that has no enjoyment value.
