Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist – 11
Yes, go ahead and play chess, Michael. I’m sure nothing important is happening elsewhere.
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Now we’re finally getting to the elector part of the plot, and this anime is almost over. That’s really… regrettable. I don’t know if Makai Ouji merits another season, but I really wish we could have seen more of this part of the plot as opposed to the daily life stuff. |
Finally, hell reacts to the fact that heaven tried to attack them and claim William. Why they didn’t do this earlier is beyond me, but maybe they were being kind and wanted William’s school’s cultural festival to go off unhindered. Yes, that must be the reason we had that random filler episode. On that note though, …does Astaroth even know William? I can’t remember them ever talking to each other, let alone knowing who each other was. And I guess that was proven later when Lamia came from the ceiling and William had no idea who she (or Astaroth) was. It’s a good thing William has absolutely no sense of urgency after all of those demons after his life earlier, or else he might have assumed that Lamia was an enemy. …Not that he could have done anything about it anyways.
Admittedly, the demons are being more proactive than Michael is (I imagine the entire episode, he was just sitting there playing chess with himself and talking to Kevin about how his plan didn’t go well). It was rather surprising that Baalberith had no intentions of killing William (and less surprising when he suddenly wanted to kill William again later in the episode), but overall, it seemed like a good plan. Protecting William protects their own self interests (keeping Solomon away from Michael), William is kind of friends with a few of them, and they’re technically doing William a favour. Everyone wins. …But then, of course, William has to go and piss off the demons.
At last, the importance of Solomon’s ring is becoming clear. …It was rather convenient timing for the ring to fall out of William’s pocket, but oh well, it had interesting results. Seeing how no one in this anime likes thinking things through, everyone decides to try and take the ring. Because if they somehow manage to forcibly take the ring that absolutely none of them could defeat, they might be able to challenge heaven. Right. So if William is so powerful WITH the ring, why try and take it from him head on? Why not send someone more subtle (like Baalberith sending Sytry) to take the ring discreetly? It’s not like William thought that the ring was very important besides the fact that it was his father’s. Considering the fact that it was in his pocket, it’s not like he was watching it very closely either. Well, in any case, the confusion causes William to put on the ring, and *gasp* Solomon apparently… awakens in William’s body or something. But not completely. Now, if only this happened like, half a season ago.
Can this get it’s own spin off series? Please?
Not even 10 minutes of screentime, and Solomon kicks all kind of ass. I can definitely see how he managed to command 72 demons without any problems. The guy commands respect and he greeted everyone pretty casually, considering that they just tried to kill him and steal his belongings. …And I think he might have almost added Gilles to his harem as well. But then, of course, Solomon doesn’t seem to remember his most devoted pillar of all (or maybe the fact that he didn’t recognize Dantalion was because Solomon/William was looking at him from an awkward angle over his shoulder and this was just a pointless cliffhanger)! Oh, the drama! But the important thing here I think, is the point where Dantalion was concerned for William and not overjoyed with the return of Solomon. Inexplicably, somehow, I guess Dantalion got attached to William himself.
So I read the first two volumes of the manga, and my conclusion is that I just don’t like Chiaki Kon. She did great with Higurashi (not that I’ve played the VNs, maybe she butchered those too), but that’s about it. There was a lot of stuff taken out (the manga had some awareness that Solomon lived in Jerusalem and William goes “I can’t be the elector; I don’t remember anyone in my family being Jewish”, for example, and William kept having rather important flashbacks of his life as Solomon) and a lot of emphasis put on things that were less important. William was certainly less annoying. Where he flounders about talking uselessly about everything being for realism here, he was way less helpless in the manga and actually used his smarts for things other than just throwing around scientist’s names when ignoring the demons. He was even more of a figure of fear for the demons since he lectured one back to hell when Sytry first arrived (making it more reasonable that they’d leave him alone all the time, since it was obvious that he could take care of himself). Plus at the beginning, William actually sits down, listens to what Dantalion has to say (yeah, those two have a better relationship here), and then decides that he doesn’t want anything to do with this. There’s less of “demons don’t exist period, you’re all some weird delusion I’m having”, and more of “demons don’t have anything to do with my life, go away”. I dunno, these are just small things, but make a huge difference with William’s character in my eyes. Though Chiaki Kon has changed the traits of main characters before (if you don’t remember me insisting all throughout Arcana Famiglia, Felicita was waaay less helpless/personality-less in the original game for that anime). Another thing the director did weirdly here was the fact that she messed with the sequence of events a lot (William actually met Lamia and Astaroth right after Sytry appeared). Long story short, the manga is much better than the anime ever has been. Actually, the manga is really, really good. I can see why it merited an anime adaptation. It’s just a shame how far away from the manga it is. …I apologize for the huge rant.
Anyways, this episode wasn’t too bad. I’m rather curious as to how they’re going to get William back from… wherever he is. I assume it’s possible for his personality to return since they said that Solomon isn’t complete. It should be interesting to see where they end the series off too. I’d say that it’s impossible to make a full conclusion out of this series at this point, so let’s see if this show can at least give an ending that’s somewhat satisfying.
…Either this means something symbolically, or William decides to eat feathers in the next episode.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Hmm…. Maybe I should check out the Makai Ouji manga some time soon.
Hmmm…. personally this IS my 1st male harem romcom fantasy series I ever watch and the SOL/random part sounds crazy hilarious frm your posts. Unfortunately C3-Bu/Free!/Rozen Maiden or Blood Lad is higher on my priority list.
Oho, new avatar! Is that Ene and whathisface from Kagerou Day series? Liking the manga of it and can’t wait for the anime!
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Yeah, I’d definitely set the manga WAAAAY above this anime.
Ahaha… yeah, those were all way better than this. …Though my patience for Yura in C3 kind of ran out when she cut her hair. I don’t know what it is about that, but she’s just been annoying me ever since…
Yep!! I couldn’t find a picture of Takane I liked, so Ene it is~. I suddenly got really fond of the Outer Science song and am now going through a Kagerou Project phase. Bad Ends are great ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ~ The anime should be good!!