Kyou Kara Maou Season 1 (Eps. 1-39) Review

Title: Kyou Kara Maou
Year: 2004
Total Episodes: Unknown
Categories: Comedy, Adventure
Fansubbed Version Watched: AnimeOne
Episodes I Watched So Far: 59
Episodes Available ATM: 59

Kyou Kara Maou is a mix of comedy, adventure and shounen-ai. It’s about a male, black-haired (yes, that’s important) teenager, Yuuri, that gets pulled into an alternate world, where he is deemed as the Maou (Demon King?) - i.e. ruler of Shin Makoku - because of his black hair (nah, it’s just one of the reasons). With a Demon King, Shin Makoku can’t be normal of course. It’s a kingdom of Mazoku - long-lived, magic-using, human-like beings.

Once in a while, he does get pulled back to his home dimension - by falling into water, from puddles to fountains. But while he’s in Shin Makoku, there’s never a calm moment. From a male fiancee (yes, male), Wolfram, that Yuuri somehow picks up when Yuuri slaps him, to an obsessive bishonen advisor that cannot get enough of Yuuri, we are treated to light-hearted comedy. In fact, even on Earth, he has to contend with a fantasy-loving mom (with a tendency to dress guys in dresses) and an ever-absent dad.

Of course, being a comedy doesn’t excuse KKM from having a plot. That plot involves humans and Mazoku being eternal enemies, an almighty Original King (the very first Maou) plotting Yuuri’s path behind the scenes, and Yuuri himself transforming into a magic-wielding Justice-obsessed Maou. That’s about it for the first season, I think.

Personal Comments:
The first thing I have to say is don’t worry about the shounen-ai as its just part of the comedy. That said, Kyou Kara Maou initially looked rather promising - with the comedy that is. But over the first 39 episodes, it got rather stale. So, I looked around, and I found that I wasn’t alone. Check out Cinnamon Ass’ summary of episode 8 (KKM was dropped right after this summary) where you have this:

KKM! is in danger of getting stale. The Wolfram engagement joke is wearing thin, frankly, although that nightie is really quite astounding… and while there are some interesting bits of political plotting going on they’re not really developed much - fair enough, this is a fairly light-hearted series as it is, but it seems a little one-dimensional and predictable.

So, it’s pretty much 39 episodes of snail-like plot and character development. The second season gets slightly more interesting with a few plot twists, but barely so. You’ll really have to like comedy, or have nothing much else to watch in order to enjoy Kyou Kara Maou - especially since it’s going to be one of those very long series.