Hataraku Maou-sama! – 06
Nobody expects the Holy Inquisition!
To all those worried that Maou-sama! will only go downhill from last episode, have no fear. The show continues strong with a hilarious supernatural investigation episode.
The Comedy
Maou-sama! comes at us with some good comedy as usual. The whole episode revolves around the demons’ continued attempt to regain their magic by investigating the supernatural. Lucifer joins the crew as Urushihara, and takes the role of the computer nerd. Armed with a laptop bought on Maou’s funds, he spends his time surfing the web and generally doing nothing constructive. In spite of seemingly becoming Maou’s subordinate again, it’s clear that Lucifer still retains his arrogant, self-centered attitude, which I find more believable than the heel face turn of the usual “befriending”. In any case, Lucifer sends Maou and Ashiya on a wild goose chase to find one of the seven mysteries of a certain school. This just so happens to be Chi-chan’s school, so she’s more than happy to show the two demons around. And of course, wherever Maou goes, Yusa is sure to show up. I find it amusing how she still maintains the claim of keeping an eye on the demon lord, yet her actions are definitely bordering on stalking now.
After a bit of exploring and property damage, the gang reach their goal and find that the mystery of the forbidden classroom isn’t quite as mysterious as Lucifer made it out to be. I laughed pretty hard when the gang realized they’d been fooled and used by Lucifer to retrieve his precious game console, simply because he was bored. You have to give it to the guy. He certainly is slick. Although I’m sure he was in for a beating once the gig was up. Lucifer’s deception aside, the gang made for some hilarious moments during their romp around the school. There’s the usual Yusa chases Maou while screaming threats and brandishing her holy sword sequence, which this time ends in Yusa causing the wanton destruction of innocent school equipment. And there’s also Mao and Ashiya’s reaction to their discovering humans have only one heart. It’s little comical moments like this that make Maou-sama! so great.
Romance
In the romance department, progress has been slow to non-existent, as usual. Chi-chan seizes the opportunity to get physically closer to Maou during their late night school escapade, but the guy remains dense as ever. Yusa still remains in denial and insists on treating Maou as a dangerous fiend, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before this changes. And then we have the landlady sending a fanservice photo of her bikini figure to the demons. Yeah ok. Maybe that last one doesn’t count.
Serious Business
It looks like Emerada and Albert have returned to Ente Isla safely and are spreading word of Orba’s actions. We’re lead to believe that his attack on Maou and Yusa was merely an isolated case of power-thirst and corruption, and the church isn’t all that malicious. But instead, the church is presented as a sort of incompetant organization. The council of archbishops are anything but well-informed, and seem to only specialize in reacting overly dramatically to admittedly shocking statements. Thankfully, they must realize their own incompetence, as they’ve sent a highly capable inquisitor after Maou, who has just moved in as Maou and co’s neighbor. I assume the inquisitor in question will play a more stealthy analog of Yusa’s “surveilance” of the demons, but obviously it will only be a matter of time before her identity is exposed to them all.
Fun is the word to describe Maou-sama!, and this episode is a prime example of how fun the show can be. The opening sequence with Maou’s monologue provided a strong, entertaining start, and there was no shortage of laughs until the end of the episode. To balance things off, we’re also treated to a light serving of some plot, which conveniently serves as an introduction for a new character. And if the OP is any indication, the inquisitor may be the last important character to be introduced. But who knows, it’s possible that the line of characters Chi-chan runs towards will only keep filling up as the show goes on. We’ll just have to wait and see if anyone else decides to make the pilgrimage from Ente Isla to Earth.
About Sumairii
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I should add that the clock theme in the new ED (animation, not song) is interesting. To me, that and the OP foreshadow the Ente Isla folk leaving Chi-chan eventually. We’ll just see where the show goes though.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hopefully that won’t be the case. OPs that reveal certain things tend to spoil the story for the viewers.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 95 comments
Emi: Hero of the Holy Light but cannot fix/restore things?
Maou: Dark Lord, Demonic power but can easily fix/restore things?
Holy magic sucks
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
No, I think it was more that Emi was trying to get out of using her magic power to fix it, so as not to waste it, by blaming it on Maou.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
On the one hand, you can say she was being too stuck up to want to fix the doll. And on the other hand, the contrast isn’t all that new. Before the end of any story, they always make it look like the dark side is the coolest and most powerful because you can do more and don’t have to worry yourself about a bunch of morals.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I don’t think they were so much making the “dark side” look cool here as they were making fun of Emi’s impulsiveness.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Not to mention that in the process, she’s abandoning heroism for pure unadulterated stalking. The only difference is that she doesn’t have pink hair or I’d classify her along with two other candidates.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
::axe axe axe:: “Yuuki?”
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You are correct, sir but you’re missing one. I mentioned two candidates and they both have pink hair and call their targets “Yuuki”. One is Mirai Nikki’s Yuno Gasai and the other is Shiki’s Megumi Shimizu.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’ve never seen Shiki. Should I add it too the ever ever ever deep backlist?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Dear friend, I’m hereby telling you to add it to the top of the list. It easily won best anime of 2010. You won’t regret it and you should have been around for the heated debates. God, I miss those times.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Heated?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yep. Debates defending each side and with some pretty strong arguements behind them, too. Ask Fosh or moreover Overcooled since she blogged the whole series.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’ll give it a go then.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
OK> I just looked it up. The fact that Aoi Yuki and Tomato-chan are in the VA line up is more than enough reason for me to give it a go.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Good luck, skylion. You won’t regret investing time to watch that awesome anime!
Hehehe, I got Karakuri with Trinity Blood and now skylion with Shiki. Things are starting to move along nicely.POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
When Emi destroyed that mannequin, all I could think of was, “HIROSHIIII!” Dang. He didn’t stand a chance. *sniff*
I’m trying to figure out how Emi restores her power or even if she is trying to conserve magic at all. Does good deeds and happiness lend to her power? 0_o
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
— double tap on the stair ..=3=
— triple kill on the bikini photo O.O
— and lucifer show some badass skill by hacking the call centre XD
— and my mom say playstation for the devill XD ..she was right
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That bikini photo must deadly. Think of applications and contracts it could bring if the army got their hands on it. 🙂
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
It would be the ultimate weapon that must never fall in the wrong hands…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
As long as the show keeps up this level of entertainment, I’ll be happily riding along…
…good use of the Crash Into Hello trope at the end there..got to love a girl in a yukata.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Lucifer has the face of a hacker so putting him as one was well suited and I had a feeling he’d be staying at Maou’s house. His alternate name went over my head though because I don’t see any similarity with his real one. I mean Satan is Sadao, Alsiel is Ashiya, Emilia is Emi, so why make Lucifer an exception to the trend? I figured they would have at least gone with “Lucian” or something else.
The comedy was good and the troll that Lucifer sent Maou to do a retrieval under the guise of an expedition to regain magic was hilarious. I’m surprised he wasn’t strangled for that.
Two episodes ago Maou said he didn’t understand humans but Ashiya has made it a general fact that demons don’t know anything about humans at all which is a whiplash if you account the fact they’ve been imposing their campaign on Ente Isla for who knows how long. And if they’re surprised humans have one heart, then how many do they have?
My expectations of the church have been changed somewhat since apparently they’ve been downsized to being a group that litterally follows the leader. After the ending, the new girl looks all bark and no bite but I could be wrong and it could all be just an act. However, for her to give the church the kind of suggestion she did, it’s clear she does some pretty appalling stuff.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I dunno, I find Lucifer’s Japanese name to be relatively straight forward. Maybe you just need to say it a couple times quickly?
I also find it rather surprising how little the demons know about humans. You’d think they’d do some research on their adversaries before initiating an invasion.
As for the inquisitor, I hope she’s just putting on an klutzy act. It would be nice for her to be more capable and level-headed than Yusa.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
That put me into an old episode of Angel I watched years ago. The character traveled to a Demon Dimension, and it was discovered that this breed of demons had their hearts in their butts.
When a demon was reminded to stab a human in the chest, cause that is where the heart is, his response was “In the chest….. disgusting…”
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I can’t even begin to describe how distirbing that sounds.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
As a long time vampire fan, I cannot imagine you not having the Buffy-verse committed to memory.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I never really saw Buffy. Growing up, I was more into vampire movies like Interview with the Vampire, Queen of the Damned and eventually Underworld.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Then I highly recommend the Buffy/Angel canon. Given the fact that the creator, Joss “The Avengers” Whedon is a fan of both GitS and Toradora, it really is the the live action version of anime that American television can ever make.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That reminds me. If Maou, Ashiya and Urushihara were mentally decimated by a single photo of Miki-T in a swimsuit, what must it have been like for the people who were actually there and saw her? The horror must be unspeakable if it was able to silence the might Dark Lord.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
The rest of the beach must have been empty or something. That, or there were many paramedics at the beach that day.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
And maybe paramedics for the paramedics because that could become a vicious cycle.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
its hawaii so ..they must think she was a whale or something