English Dub Review: The Misfit of Demon King Academy “Sasha’s True Intentions”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After dinner with Anos’ parents, Sasha asks Misha if she likes him, which Misha says she does and asks the same of Sasha. She denies this but says that he does look her in the eyes, which is uncommon, since only Misha has ever really done that before. The next day, Sasha is more than happy to get in the team dynamic with Misha and Anos despite yesterday feeling like she was in it against her will. Though they’re definitely going to need more members, even if Anos is adamant they only need the three of them. But today, a special guest will be showing up in class: Ivis Necron, one of the Elder Demon Emperors, servants of the original Demon King made from his own blood. Anos remembers doing that much but is surprised that they’ve become essentially the deans of the school in his absence.

Anos wastes no time in making a scene by showing that he knows Ivis, who is confused but notices that something is familiar about this kid. Unfortunately, he’s lost his memories from 2000 years ago, so Anos jogs his memories a bit, though he’s only able to confirm that the memories are indeed gone AND that the seemingly fake name of Avos Dilhevia isn’t just a mistranslation, but deliberate tampering by someone.

The next test is each team searching for magical items in a castle, which Anos figures out handily since it used to be his castle. He also gives Misha a chance to find a good birthday present for Sasha, whose birthday is coming up. They’re twins, so Misha’s is the same day, but she doesn’t want anything. Sasha is delighted by the present and asks to try it on in private, though it’s just a way to get Anos out of the room so she can stab Misha out of supposed hatred, though Anos knows that this is an act and she actually cares a great deal about Misha. Sasha flees to get somewhere in a hurry, but Misha explains that she is going to die at the end of her fifteenth birthday, or rather that she never existed.

OUR TAKE

Another week, another confirmation that I could not be bothered to give a crap about anything going on in this series. Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen shows like this several dozen times over or maybe this is just exceptionally self-indulgent, but I have yet to emotionally connect with any of these characters so far. Anos is an impenetrable super god mode harem protagonist who is slowly gathering his collection of weirdly obedient anime girl archetypes and is never wrong about anything, so nothing around him has any sense of tension of stakes right off the bat, and I shouldn’t have to explain why that’s a problem. Not only that, he is constantly in pretentious edgelord mode without a shred of irony to any of his actions, so not only does he never seem to be on the ropes, he’s never going to indicate it in his behavior either. I’ve seen characters who have had this sort of gimmick to them, but usually they’re put up against a threat that they makes them sweat a little pretty early on so that we can see them be vulnerable for a little bit. But so far that doesn’t seem to be a thing with Anos, which is just going to hinder my investment with things later.

With that in mind, I can tell you that I just haven’t found much in the way of energy to care about the matters between Misha and Sasha since I can already see the outcome of them both surviving to maintain this love triangle coming a mile away. Plus, Sasha keeps bouncing around between heartless monster and demure love interest to the point that she might actually be bipolar, but none of it matters anyway. So that just leaves the mystery surrounding this Avos Dilhevia person who seems to have taken over as the retroactive Demon King once Anos killed himself off, which at least is slightly more interesting because it offers some possibly interesting outcomes. Maybe this is an old rival of Anos who took over in his stead once he died and erased the memories of those who would survive like the Elder Demon Emperors to cover his tracks. Or it could even be that Anos is not who he thinks he is and that Avos is the real Demon King, which would accomplish what the show has failed to do so far and make me think that maybe he can’t win this conflict without growing as a person. Either way, it’s certainly been awhile since I felt more interested in seeing the protagonist fail than hoping for their success, which is an achievement in its own right, but probably not the one this show intended.