“We oppose each other now, but we are brothers.”
Summary: Hero and the Queen are finally reunited after she manages to keep the ancient spirits at bay and regain control of her body. Female Magician appears before the Winter King and delivers him instructions from Crimson Scholar to develop a vaccine for Smallpox and reveals that reveals herself as a demon. Crimson Commander invades the press building and attacks kill Elder Sister Maid, believing that she is Crimson Scholar, but she is rescued by Warrior Youngster who confronts the invader and have him fall to his death. After restoring Chief Maid’s arm, Hero explains the situation to the Queen. Meanwhile at the surface, with their horses sick, the Central Army is stationed with their leaders arguing about the yet unclaimed spoils of the war, until a mercenary force makes the first move. Female Knight leads the battle to quickly defeat the mercenaries, and with the arrival of winter, the Central Army is forced to retreat. Back at the Central Nations, it is revealed that the Azure Demons, together with the Central Kings and the Church and are the true conspirators responsible for the war, prepare for resuming the conflict, now armed with firearms, whose design they stole from one of Crimson Scholar’s collaborators in the Iron Nation. Back at the Demon World, Demon Queen and Black Knight appear before the Demons and the Queen summons a meeting with the other Demon leaders, which they see as a sign that the war with the humans will continue, much to her sadness. While Young Merchant discuss with the Southern Kings about opening trade with the Demons, Hero and the Queen return to their villa and reunite with their friends.
What was that?
Seriously, this seasons anime endings have SUCKED. Okay. I lied. This ending didn’t suck, BUT, if I’d known that this was the ending we’d get after watching the first episode, I may not have been as excited for the series as I was… I’ll get further into that with the overall review though…
The fight between the Hero and the Demon Queen. What a let down. I’m being really serious now, how could they? What even was that? There are no words. It was over so quickly and so (SO, SO, SO, SO, SO) very anticlimactically that I didn’t even know why I had bothered even watching this episode. As depressing a thought as that is, it’s the truth. I’m not even entirely sure what happened, I mean, did he overcome her evil with love? I was hoping for more of a ‘does he kill her to save her’ kind of dilemma, but that was not to be the case… I thought that this battle might actually last longer than five minutes but I (of course) was sorely mistaken. It was over so quickly that I didn’t even know what had happened. Isn’t that just great? I really don’t want to seem as though I’m complaining like a baby but this battle was so underwhelming that I might have even considered stopping the episode there and never coming back… I didn’t of course because I had to review it but I thought I’d let you delve deeper into my soul…
The battle between the Soldier and the General (whose actual name alludes me) was probably more exciting than the actual hyped battle. I liked how 
the General was finally getting to show the viewer just how strong he really is, I mean, the last time we saw him he’d just lost two hundred ships to a Kraken and been jailed… not very General like, eh? He fought the soldier with an amiable amount of skill, slashing his opponents arms and legs as he went, without retaining even a single injury. That of course quickly came to an end with the Soldiers surprising use of brains and adaptation, using steel arrows as arm guards to protect from slashing to the forearms whilst also being able to protect other parts of his body by blocking. The Soldier, of course, quickly overwhelmed the General and threw him down a well (?)… Now I’m not sure if this is the way I wanted the antagonist to die but I guess I’ll have to settle for it seeing as they couldn’t have done it any other way by this point. Another missed epic opportunity for Maoyuu Maou Yuusha…
Smallpox! Who you gonna call? The Mage? What happened to Edward Jenner? What happened to the appliance of cowpox? What happened to the milkmaids and the six year old boy? Why is this happening in the middle ages? What on earth is going on? Nah, I’ll let this one slide because it’s a fantasy and because I love how the incorporate real life events and issues into the ‘flow’ of time. The Mage’s presence wasn’t really necessary in this episode but I feel as though (if there is a second season) the cure for smallpox might play a larger role in the next season. We’ll see. Oh! Guns! Or muskets? I don’t really know the difference… I presume they’ll come into play in this hypothetical next season? We’ll see…
The Female Knight’s appearance in this episode (during the battle scene with the opposing 1000 men) was (as with everything else in this episode) lack luster. The battle was over quickly and even though it was tactical (I do like me some tactical battles), it lacked that special something that makes a battle truly epic. I dunno, I guess it was the rushed and forced feeling of this episode that made everything feel so dull and lifeless.
And so we come full circle. Everything is back to ‘normal’. The Demon Queen and the Female Knight are back to ‘bickering’ over the Hero’s love, the Head Maid has her arm back (seriously, where the hell is the Hero learning all this magic?) and the Sister Maid’s are as cute and awesome as ever. I should be happy right? I am happy, it’s just… so much has been left unanswered. So much has been left unsaid. Who was that Demon Boy from a few episodes back? What was up with that scene involving the Female Magician and the neon lights? What was that spirit from a few more episodes back? Why on earth do the Female Magician have a multiple personality disorder? Where’s my damned resolution? Where’s the finality of it all? I can only hope that there’s a second season the expands and deals with these plot point further, otherwise I’m going to be left extremely disappointed…
P.S, how did the Demon Queen drop a cup of tea on her own head?
Well, I hope its not finished yet, lol. I want to see more manga version of this.
The fight between the demon queen and the hero, I personally think the manga (or one version of the mangas) did better mainly becasuse the demon queen looked MUCH more evil in her possessed state, and you can tell easily when she overcame her possession. In the anime version, I found it a little bit hard to differentiate the voices between the real demon queen and the demon king possessing her. It would probably be better if they used a deep male voice for the demon king for a better differentiation and a better execution of the scene.
Btw, I’m not sure what you’re referring about ‘leaving him with only one eye’, since the general only had one eye to begin with at the start of the fight.
I have been hearing from a lot of people that the manga version of this is MUCH better and actually explains things better than the anime. Out of curiosity which version of the manga would you suggest I read? I went to Wikipedia and saw that there were FIVE iterations of it… Haha, and yeah, your definitely right. I’m not sure if the feminine voice was being used to effect (a.k.a so as to evoke the Hero’s emotions and possible make him contemplate holding back) but it was really hard to think of her as evil when she spoke in the soft voice that we’ve all come to love… ignoring the giant scythe and suddenly sadistic persona that is…
Oh! My bad… It was late at night, my brain wasn’t functioning properly and his eye patch must have alluded me xD. Don’t worry though! I fixed it so that all future viewers don’t laugh in my face 😉
Well, I personally prefer the version by Akira Ishida.
I do suggest reading all the versions you can find. Some will have details others don’t have. Akira Ishida’s version is more preferred by me due to the art style and how he handled story events.
If you want to have a quick laugh though, you can try the 4-koma version XD. Although I’m not too sure if you can find a English version of that one (I don’t read these in English so…)
We can assume that a second season will come along in the next few seasons. The conclusion is really screaming “second season” after how it ended like that. Well I hope we can at least witness a good conclusion like how Spice&Wolf was done. 😀
When I began this, I felt it giving off massive Spice and Wolf vibes, the atmosphere, the intelligence of the plot and (of course) the medieval setting. I only hope that this can live up to the standards set by Spice and Wolf in it’s next season!