English Dub Review: Demon Lord Retry! “Killer Queen”

Overview:

The Satanists plot something evil, and we meet the second Holy Maiden.

Our Take:

Well, it looks like this is shaping up to just be another run of the mill isekai, and while I wasn’t expecting it to be standout-ish, what a shame.

It really is unfortunate how in isekai, the straight male otaku fantasy is on full swing, and that means being a regular guy who becomes ultrapowerful, and all the girls want him but it’s you know, pretty effortless? It’s fine once in a while, and it’s really fun when it’s a power fantasy but not going that route (Overlord, Slime), but this has become the standard… and it’s become pretty dull.

We meet the second Holy Maiden, Killer Queen, and she’s very much the oneesan of a biker gang. She’s tough and extremely harsh with her words. And when she and Luna fall prey to a swarm of evil that robs them of their magical protection, she ends up being saved by one of the protagonist’s other selves, a tough-guy martial artist. Naturally, she falls for him, because what else are girls supposed to do in this series. Of course, having all the main girls in this series fall for the main character is enough of an isekai trope already (growing that harem, huh), but… then it gets worse. She discards her tough-girl persona to become more prim and proper and stereotypically feminine… and then seems to be mildly aroused by being treated as a helpless woman. Where do I even begin? There’s so much to unpack and none of it is good.

To be fair, I actually really liked the antics between the main character and Aku. They had a very sweet relationship, with her naivete as a child and his far more jaded personality. Even if he’s not actually an old man like his avatar looks, he still acts as her parental figure and dotes on her. It’s rather sweet, and I really enjoyed that aspect. Unfortunately, that was ruined by the inclusion of having Luna be a mostly fanservice character, even when she’s interacting with Aku. Why can’t they just be friends without extremely tired aspects? You know that girls can be friends without sizing each others’ busts up or acting as romantic rivals, right? I guess that’s too much to ask.

You can really tell when something is written by a man, huh.