StStark700
September 18, 2019
Mixed Feelings
The floodgate of isekai anime continues to remain open and from it, more and more isekai gets introduced every year. The latest entry to join this long list is Maou-sama Retry! (Demon Lord, Retry!) Let me just say that the fantasy and adventure genre seems to have some sort of marriage relationship with isekai. Almost every one of these tends to drop a protagonist into some unknown world and we follow their adventure. The idea of that world being connected to an MMROPG is recycled idea used over and over again. At first glance, this show may evoke some memories for those who are familiarwith the Overlord franchise or that ridiculous ecchi show called “Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu” from Summer 2018. What do all three have in common? The lead protagonist becomes a “Demon Lord” in their world where their fame is recognized. Furthermore, it’s easy to see how powerful they are when dealing with enemies and conflicts. Considering the fact that Akira Oono (aka Hakuto Kunai) made the MMORPG that he gets sucked into, this should come to no surprise to anyone. Simply put, Hakuto is the Demon Lord who retains his human personality of being sarcastic, sociable, and somewhat arrogant. Yet, he does show a kind side to those he bonds with in particular Aku and Luna Elegant. Displaying impressive abilities, Hakuto earns himself admirers but finds difficult in expressing himself towards women. You get the picture here? The guy is pretty much your badass protagonist (complete with a mafia-like coat and cool hair). His weakness is women and it seems the show is rather aware of it. To justify the humor, we have episodes that gets him into compromising positions with women. And given his inexperience with socializing with the opposite sex, the show pokes fun of his personality at every chance it gets. Talk about a show with an awkward sit-com sensation.
Still, Hakuto is an acceptable protagonist. He isn’t whiny or portrayed as some immature high school student. In fact, he gives off a level of charisma that I even find appealing at times. This is a bit contrary to some of the characters he meets such as Aku, the girl he saved in the first episode. As a 13 year old girl, she relies on Hakuto like a father. They form a daughter/parent-like relationship that explores both characters’ personalities. Their relationship is a major focus that shows Hakuto’s human side as a character. Similarly, Aku behaves exactly like a girl of her own age. Because isekai series tends to add all sort of personalities, we meet Luna Elegant, the tsundere holy maiden who develops a sister-like relationship with Aku. It doesn’t stop there though as evidence quickly reveals that she seems to have grown fond of Hakuto as well, to the point of jealousy. This is starting to get a bit into a harem category, huh? Fortunately, that’s not entirely the case as we meet Killer Queen. With a vulgar and aggressive personality, she actually falls for Zero Kirisame, an alternate character Akira created in his MMORPG. The show depicts their relationship as a one-sided with Killer Queen constantly trying to woo Zero. Their type of character chemistry is pretty much a joke, one that is over the top and filled with absolute absurdity. The show can’t seem to get enough of its comedy so it also adds Yu Kirino, a 22-year old mad scientist with a sadism for younger males. To make fun of her character, the anime decides to let Kirino to experience orgasm whenever she gets complimented by Hakuto. If you’ve ever seen the popular fantasy anime Konosuba, there’s this character named Darkness who displays similar traits. God, I miss Konosuba the more I think about it now.
Maou-sama Retry tries to find a balance into the story despite its oversaturated isekai tropes. At the heart of the show, there’s no denying that there’s a charming character relationship between Hakuto and Aku. While most isekai anime these days adheres to wish fulfilling fantasies and harem-esque shenanigans, Maou-sama Retry actually manages to be more than that. It manages to keep me guessing how far the show plans to develop Hakuto and Aku’s relationship. In MMORPG, there’s an invisible rule when players first log in. It’s the fact that people engage in social activities and build relationships. Hakuto and Aku reminds me of old school MMORPG where two players meet as strangers but over time, they form a powerful bond. At its best, this show brings a feeling similar to what a relationship is like from a MMORPG game. As for the rest of the cast, they are unfortunately less relevant although some gets the occasional memorable spotlight; just not on the same level as Hakuto and Aku.
Does anyone remember what Ekachi Epilka’s first anime project was? No? Me either. I had to google this and it turned out to be some short from Spring 2018 called Crossing Time. In other words, this is their first project as a full length show. The animation style honestly looks like it had a limited budget in terms of its character designs. However, the show does commit on making its main cast stand out such as Hakuto, Aku, Killer Queen, Angel White, Luna, and Kirino. Each of them look distinctively unique with Hakuto’s mafia style clothes, Angel White’s pure white dress, or Kirino’s lab coat. Others such as the bunny girls (Kyon and Momo) are thrown it for the sake of fan service. While it doesn’t fully blow up the show, you can definitely expect to be serviced with sexy bunny suits, long leg camera shots, and oh who can forget, Aku in the baths. Unfortunately, the world fiction overall sags around the half way mark. Isekai anime like this had potential to expand more into its world but it ended up being creatively disappointing.
Watching Maou-sama Retry was actually not entirely a sour experience in the end, at least compared to some other garbage like Isekai Cheat Magician this season. Hell, at least we had a character duo to keep an eye on and a protagonist with an actual personality. However, that doesn’t cover the endgame of the show being mediocre. Its overused humor and storytelling made little effort to improve itself and left a good chunk of the cast in the dust. But with just 12 episodes, you could probably get through this without tearing your hair out. Probably.
