Animation Company: Arms 
Genre: Educational, Fantasy, Romance
Airing Date: January 5, 2013 – March 30, 2013
Summary: The story is set in a world embroiled by war between Humans and Demons. The Humans’ greatest warrior known as the Hero invades the castle of the Demon King, leader of the Demons who is actually a Queen, as he is determined to vanquish her. However, instead of fighting back, the Demon King proposes an alliance with the Hero. She explains how a sudden end to the war can bring further chaos to the world as the Humans once united to stand against their common enemies would eventually begin fighting among themselves, with similar issues already occurring at the Demon Realm. Convinced by her words, the Hero joins forces with the Queen and together they execute a plan to bring prosperity and a lasting peace to both Humans and Demons alike.
Trailer(s): PV1
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Story/Plot: 8/10
When the first episode aired I had high hopes for the story, the series reminded me a lot of Spice and Wolf and I suspected that it would be pretty much on par with the latter. The first episode drew me in; it presented us with interesting characters, an interesting plot and moral dilemmas to boot. In the end though, it was just way too rushed. They tried to fit too much of the story from the light novels into 12 episodes and they failed, it’s as simple as that. The otherwise alluring plot is rushed, too many details are left out and in the end the viewer just feels hollow. The final fight was anticlimactic, the plot felt rushed and very quickly I felt myself becoming bored. The problem is, the story is still there. I refuse to fault a good story just because it was presented badly, I mean, that wouldn’t be at all fair would it? If the series had been lengthened and this plot stretched over say, 20(?) episodes, it would have been great. I loved the romance (even though it became a minute part of the show towards the end), I loved the action and most of all I loved the plot. I’ve always said you can’t go wrong with a fantasy (plot)… I just wish that they had presented it better is all… 8/10, I think that’s a fair score.
Characters/Development: 5/10
I’m not sure if this (5) is a fair assessment… allow me to explain: The characters don’t even have ‘real’ names, how can anyone expect them to have a proper back story? None of them (apart from the Demon Queen and the Maid Sisters) were even remotely interesting and I found it hard to relate to any of them. You know your characters are bad when I can’t even remember there names properly, I mean, titles such as ‘The Winter King’ aren’t exactly impressionable, y’know? And character development, PAH! This show doesn’t even know the meaning of the word… let’s look at the Female Magician (and the Old Archer, the Female Knight, the Head Maid etc.), she is made to look interesting and awesome at the beginning of the show… way over half way into the show she just turns up and does nothing. Nothing. Don’t tell me otherwise because I know that she didn’t make a single important contribution to anything. Yes, yes, I know that Older Sister Maid had quite a lot of character development and so did the Hero too, BUT, the point I’m trying to make is… there wasn’t enough. That is all.
Damn though, there were some pretty good characters who DID receive some good character development… My own hypocrisy is disgusting, I know. Let’s look at the Older Sister Maid and EVERYONE the Demon Queen ever taught. They started off small and ‘weak’ but by the end of the series all of them were important in the events that will (hopefully) change their world. Hell, the Older Sister Maid is the reason the Human World is now divided and enthralled in a bitter war of… the ‘same’ religion(?) and what is right… go Southern Triad!
Animation Quality: 7/10
Wavy. I think that’s the best way to describe it… I was pretty darn good in most fighting scenes and the artwork was consistently good, BUT… I don’t know, sometimes it just seemed average. Average. Yeah.
Original Soundtrack: 9/10
If there’s one thing I can’t fault this anime on, it’s it’s soundtrack. Let’s talk about that OP… AMAZING. I absolutely loved the beginning of every episode and that soundtrack is the reason why! Simply listening to it (I’m listening to it now in fact) was enough to make me ready to face the incoming awesomeness (I guess that’s why the song was at the end of the last episode haha…), it was emotional, it evoked feelings of melancholy and optimism, it was a breath of fresh air (literally, like, seriously, whenever I hear it I feel as though I’m taking a nice, long breath of fresh air…) and I loved it! Moving swiftly on… Maoyuu really knew how to make a battle feel epic. The music during such scenes was amazing and I flew to the edge of my seat in anticipation whenever a battle began – just, wow. Music man, it’s enough to make me swoon…
Overall Score: 7/10
I’m not going to lie, I actually really like this anime. The problem is it was a failure: the transfer from light novel to anime was not a nice one, in the end all we received was a rushed piece of work that didn’t befit the novels epicness at all. Too much was forced on the viewer throughout the 12 episodes and it all just felt rushed. Episode 9 was, without doubt, the best episode out of the 12, the Older Sister Maid’s speech captivated me, it was the only time during the anime when I felt fully invested in the show and I loved it, it was the moment I knew I’d made the right decision in watching it and it couldn’t have felt better. I’m not sure if I want another season though, I mean, sure, go ahead, I’d love to see the story continued BUT, if the rush and cram like they did this time, that will be it. If the spread it out and leave a proper impression than I might just fall in love again but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…
Recommendation: Sure, go ahead.
I warn you though, prepare for the mediocrity. Okay, now that’s not really a fair assessment, I mean, there were spikes of epic littered throughout and the final battle was terribly lack luster BUT, with all that being said, the romance was great, the intrigues were amazing and the Demon Queen’s boobs were as large and awesome as ever the opening is reason enough to watch it. Now go, go to Crunchyroll and watch the hell out of that opening! Oh yeah and the rest of the episodes too…
I actually quite liked how none of the characters were given any names – by losing their individuality and replacing them with titles, it focuses on how each role contributes to the functioning of society as a whole; Maoyuu’s economics and politics are based around a wider societal scale after all. The role of a “Hero” or “Merchant” is only a cog that makes the entire mechanism turn, yet each member is vital (thus there is only ever one person in each occupation). Likewise, even if the “Demon Queen” cog is massive, it doesn’t turn if it’s all by itself – Maou needs the help of everyone from Yuusha to the serfs to get to the other side of the hill. Maoyuu looks at the bigger picture instead of focusing on individual characters, and as you said, loses out on character development as a result.
But yeah. Needed more Magician 😀
Heh, heh, went on a little bit of a rant there and forgot to talk about that and yeah, you’re totally right, the fact that character names coalesced with character roles was really awesome, but at the same time I felt as though sometimes characters became restricted by their roles. Like the Female Magician (definitely needed more Magician ;)) for example, she rarely showed up at all and when she did, it was just so that she could perform magic and… well… cure small pox (making my own point invalid…). ALSO! The students of the Demon Queen! They only showed up when their roles required them too! (Phew saved it).
Well, there’s a manga version completely dedicated to the female magician. Although I’m not too sure how much the female magician’s background is covered in the anime (since I wasn’t really following it), but the manga should give you further detail about the female magician and her adventures during the time of the main story.