First Impressions- Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist
Who needs female characters when you have extremely girly men?
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When I thought that Free! is the gay show of this season, The Devil and the Realist is gayer than I expected. Not that I mind though. The gayer the show is, the better for me. Viva yaoi. |
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Yep. The BL vibes are strong in this. Maybe I might comes off as anti-yaoi, but I’m perfectly okay with it as long as it stays the hell away from the otome genre. Some things just shouldn’t mix. Anyways, this was a rather enjoyable first episode. |
Elections + Realist
Everyone is fabulous and nothing hurts.
Kara // There are still a lot of things that still need clearing up for this series (like what exactly an elector is), but I like the set up already. Or at least, I like the way hell’s system works with the defeat of the strong raising one’s status. Mostly because this means that the plot will have some kind of magical battle sequences somewhere. The battle this episode was kind of… nonsensical though. “If he unleashes his power here, you won’t get home ever!” seemed a little extreme. Dantalion might have busted up the floor, but it didn’t look like the situation was that bad. And then the okama-demon, who was so angry before, just went “Welp. I’m leaving now. K, bye.” and that was that. Oh right, I was talking about the elections. …Yeah, I don’t know what this all entails yet. I highly doubt it’s as simple as William going “Okay, you’re Satan’s replacement now” and if the requirement is something like fighting everyone, it seems like it would be a never-ending battle. I’m sure we’ll learn more about this later, but it seems like an interesting concept at the moment. …I would have thought that Lucifer would have set up a replacement before he took a nap, but I guess he just expects his followers to work that all out for him.
And as a contrast between all of the magical things going on, we have William, the self-proclaimed realist. …Though from the events of this episode, I’d say that his role is more of the series’ tsukkomi/straight man more than the guy trying to make sense of things. There’s no trying to make sense of all of this magic, there’s just flat out (comical) rejection. I guess that makes things more interesting as opposed to the contract scene going “elect me!” “lolokay.”, but you’d think that someone as brilliant as William apparently is would know that something is up. Like, his whole adventure in the demon world or hell or wherever. William just came off as stubbornly naive as opposed to smart. On the plus side though, he adds some kind of comedy to the show that I didn’t mind, so this kind of character is okay with me.
War of the Ships
Homos and Realist
anaaga // Everything about this anime is meant to be yaoi. From the setting to characters, every single thing is set to release the yaoi aura in this anime. Though I am not so sure about the whole Hell and Elector system thing (does the devil need a human elector or something like that?), I do get that every devil is supposed to have some kind of a human contractor that can represent him. At least, that is what I got from Solomon’s relationship with Dantalion. Even the whole contract process looks gay. Holding the chin, having one centimeter space between their mouth… If there’s something that is more yaoi than that, I don’t know what that is. Except, of course, the relationship between William and Kevin. Like any other butler and master relationship in anime, Willian and Kevin has such ambiguous relationship that crosses the limit of normal friendship between men. I love how masters and butlers are depicted so sexually in this anime. Yes, this includes Dantalion and his goat butler. Oh man, I actually went there. Though Kevin needs to be worried about his position now, since I bet Dantalion will be William’s new guy. It seems that there’s going to be some romantic war between the two minions, fighting for the almighty William’s love. Such complicated yaoi relationship they have there.
This is not an anime that should not be taken seriously. The story is the kind of story that has been used over and over again by many authors and mangaka. In fact, I’ve already thought of the possible mysteries and “”mind screws” that are going to be used in this anime. I can already guess who is who (all thanks to the opening and endings) and how the relationsihip among the characters are going to be. The same old routine with a spice of bishies, that is what this anime is all about. With the exception of William’s attitude, which happens to be refreshing and entertaining to be watched, I don’t see anything outstanding or special from this anime.
That does not mean that this anime cannot be enjoyed, of course. Sure, the anime might be nothing special whatsoever, but that is what makes this anime enjoyable to watch. It has a predictable story and the characters look shallow, but I enjoyed every single thing from this anime. The beautiful male characters were a feast to my eyes, and the (predictable) fun fantasy element of this anime becomes something that can be enjoyed at any moment. In short, it is the perfect anime for those who wants something that does not require much thinking and only wants beautiful scenes only. Not that those things are bad, of course. Without those things, there is no way I would have enjoyed the first episode this much.
Not all of this really connected with me, but a lot of it still did. I like the characters I saw, I like the whole idea of the election system (however it works), the demons seem to be loosely based off of ones from existing mythology, and I like the fact that this episode gave me a lot of shipping material. Dantalion and William’s relationship looks like it will be the main one I’ll be watching, but it looks like The FukuJun butler character’s devotion to William shouldn’t be underestimated. … Though I don’t have the shipping feels as much as anaaga does, apparently. The goat butler’s relationship with Dantalion does nothing for me. (Though the goat butler is a bro, I’ll give him that.)
So this wasn’t all that spectacular and I’m not familiar with the source material, so I don’t know if Chiaki Kon screwed this series over yet, but I was content with what I saw. This wasn’t groundbreaking, but the characters came across pretty clearly and the parts that were supposed to be humorous were actually somewhat funny. Watching William was pretty entertaining and Dantalion looks like he will be too, so I can’t wait to see how the other character’s personalities are.
Preview:
A new (extremely feminine looking) challenger approaches!
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
The yaoi is so strong. I actually looked up the genres on MAL and apparently it’s a shoujo. 0_o. Yeah okay…
Despite all of the funny moments, this show doesn’t really have my attention. The character designs are fabulous but I don’t know where the plot is going. I will probably give it another episode or two to see if I want to continue it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
‘shoujo’ indeed. …My friend who told me this was more like a shounen with mostly unnoticable BL hints was obviously lying to me. …Or they have their anti-BL vision set even higher than mine. xD
The plot… needs to be explained more. Yes, we have a battle to become demon king or whatever, but there’s still a lot that needs to be made clear.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I have no idea why they don’t just call it BL. I was more surprised that Solomon and Dantalion didn’t kiss. And this being a show with no girls and a bunch of effeminate males fighting for William as elector and the throne? Yeah, even if you show writers don’t admit it, we all know what this show really is…
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
^no girls
Rewatch the OP. I spot some girls there.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Wow, you’re right. There’s so many effeminate guys that could easily past for chicks that those two completely slipped by me.
Despite how “okay” this show is, for some reason it has my favorite OP of the season, with Free! being a close second.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Protip: Look at the boobs 😛
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I haven’t even watched the episode yet and I’m already disturbed by what’s said here. By reading this, Free actually seems better and that this may be worse than Karneval and the fact surprises me and Karneval and this are supposed to be in the Shoujo genre. I can handle BL tones in a show to a degree but when it’s this full blown and out in the open, it’s makes me cringe and want to abandon it immediately. I’m sorry but I’m not going to even bother giving this a chance.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
Yeah. Free is way tamer than this. I would say this is much more open with the BL than Karneval was. (although I only made it to episode 8 so I don’t know if it got worse after that).
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Karneval is tame compared to this for sure. I barely even noticed BL undertones in Karneval, and they came off as close friends to me more than anything. …This on the other hand, is completely different.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The bit of Karneval I watched, probably 4 or 6 episodes, I didn’t get more than just playing with the BL, joking maybe. I was probably too focused on Nai being really annoying (to me).
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You can say that again, Highway. Seeing Nai act like an annoying helpless little child throughout the series really got on my nerves. Even if he wasn’t human, there’s a limit to everything. Gareki was a lot more tolerable despite his angsty attitude.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Nai was really annoying in the beginning to me too. However, interestingly enough by the time we got to the end of the series he was actually one of my favorite characters. I think it was a mix of that fact that many of the Circus characters themselves were beyond infuriating, and that once I found out that Nai was really an animal in human form, I could actually forgive him for a lot of his previous annoyances. As a human I expect you to show a human’s level of common sense. If not, we’ve got problems. However, once I realized that Nai was merely acting as a young pet animal would in any of those situations, I lowered my judgement and my expectations for his character’s behaviour and changed my POV, and those awkward innocent idiosyncrasies became actually adorable to me. 😛
As to the BL in the series, there really wasn’t any. Garaki and Yogi were close, but nothing even really suggested, let alone shown. And definitely nothing to the point of what D&R blatantly show.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, it didn’t matter to me at all that he wasn’t human. My cats act like dopes sometimes, but they’re not acting helpless and annoying and talking at me at the same time.
Gareki was ok, Yogi was excruciating to me. I did kind of quit watching it, so I don’t know what happened later, but if the show had been “Circus’ Second Ship goes around solving crimes and kicking ass with Hirato, Tsukumo, and Yogi, and Gareki tags along as the mysterious boy”, that would have been a lot more awesome than what I saw.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Free! is nowhere near the BL tones this one has, and this is coming from a half-fujoshi. I’ve actually seen some actual BL animes that were more subtle than this.
Karneval had little to no BL elements once you actually got into the show. There was a couple of times that you could have used your imagination, but D&R puts it right there in the open for you. I would say that if you’ve seen something like Loveless, than that’s about the level that you’re looking at with something like this.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I’ll be honest about something: I hate BL/Shounen Ai/Yaoi. I’m purely a yuri fan. If there’s a show with underlying, non excessive BL tones, I’ll say patience and do the best I can to endure it for the sake of the story like with Phi Brain or [K]. But if it’s full blown and out in the open like Devils and Realist appears to be, I’ll drop the axe without a second thought. I would have done the same with No. 6 but it showed it’s true colors so far into the story that the best I could do was overlook certain things until everything came to an end.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Hey, I totally understand. I’m the same way with yuri. *shivers* Sorry, 😛
Actually, I was kind of mad at the latent BL in No. 6, since I thought that two MCs were actually much better as best friends than as potential lovers.
LOL, strangely enough, my very first vampire anime was Nightwalker, which happened to have elements of shonen-ai. However, as I go through vampire series, I find that many of them have traces of both yaoi and yuri in them.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Vampires and yuri are a winning combination for me. If an anime like that turns up at all, I dare say I can die happily. So far there are only mangas with those two genres together and I’ve already read them.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
Understandable. 🙂 I’m personally fine with both. Yaoi, yuri, *shrug* I can watch pretty much anything.
As for No.6, I agree that I think it would be better that if Nezumi and Sion were close friends instead of lovers. (And not because a small part of me ships
SionXInukashi/NezumiXInukashi)Maybe if the show had been more blatant with it I would have liked the BL parts of it more?POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
As for what you said about some vampire animes harboring yuri elments. The only ones I’ve seen with that are: a part in Dance in the Vampire Bund and Vampire Knight when Shizuka Hiou, manipulating Maria Kurenai’s body, was making advances on Yuuki while she was still human because she was after her blood.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I guess so, I generally stay away from the stuff at even a hint of it, so I really only see the ones with yaoi elements. I just generally assumed that there are some that have the other end of the spectrum. Sorry, there’s not much there for you. 🙂
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, based on what you guys are saying, this is one I don’t need to watch. The show can do what it wants, BL or not, NTTAWWT. I just doubt it’d be something I enjoy.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
…it’s better than the manga…its a passable episode, a bit “meh”, mostly because of the main character, i get it that he must be THE SCIENCE-MAN, but common use those brains a little there’s a bullheaded man in a suit!
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This is an okay
yaoiseries, I like the animation and the action, I don’t particularly like the plot line, but it’s not horrible.The biggest problem with this series is actually the main character. William is a prick. There is no getting around it, he’s an idiotic prick. I’m guessing this uppity, English snob doesn’t realize that there’s a difference between being a realist and just plain stupid.
Even Sherlock Holmes, one of the most famous literary realist ever, says: “when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Get a clue, baka! You’re surrounded by the supernatural, get used to it!
I think the Solomon angle is kind of silly. I highly doubt that the son of King David was blond and green-eyed living in a castle in a European forest. Also, this would make William, Jewish, which is interesting. And if anyone knows the story, they’d know that Solomon, while the wisest man, fell apart near the end. Is he really the biblical figure they want to do this with?
But whatever, this is a silly, generic story they made up, that has good animation and action and would be interesting to see if not for the MC. The heavy BL reminds be of Loveless, Black Butler, and even a little Karneval, but I don’t mind as long as it shuts Will up.
I give this a 6.5/10.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
While I admit this feels like one of those BL VN adaptation, I won’t outright call it gay yet. (Its not gay until they kiss on-screen to me XD) And I don’t think this a fujoshi bait cuz Free! is more effective lol.
Still can’t get over Gilles ojou outfit and his okama attitude @_@ When I think of Gilles the 1st thing tht comes to mind is the Fate/Zero one not a okama ^.^; Nice to see he still a Joan-con in here too 😛
Will, you just met those supernatural stuff right in your face….. ACCEPT IT ADY.
I thought Dantalion was the loli with lock on her chest? ;P Nice design though and him getting tied up is hilarious to me.
Tht goat butler will be forever known as Goat-kun to me. He a cool guy 🙂
Will be following this.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
AAAH! I didn’t even realize that this Gilles is based off of THE Gilles!!! ….Suddenly the beloved virgin line makes so much sense. OTL
…And Will seems to be more accepting in the 2nd episode, so there’s that.
Ugh I wish that this Dantalion was a loli with a lock on her chest. I miss that show more than I thought I would.
…I don’t even know if he has a real name, so he’ll probably be Goat-kun to me too.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
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