English Dub Review: The Misfit of Demon King Academy “The Misfit of Demon King Academy”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

2000 Years Ago, the Demon King ruled the land, but then died. In present day, his descendants are looking for his reincarnation through magic exams at Demon King Academy. What they don’t know is that the reincarnation has already appeared in the form of Anos Voldigoad, a one month old who quickly grew into his body. On his way to the exam, he meets a new friend, Misha Necron, and then proceeds to soundly defeat Zepes Indu in combat, but when Zepes refuses to give up, Andos kills him…and then brings him back to life to kill over and over until he yields. After taking Misha to meet his proud parents, Anos and Misha are attacked by Zepes and his brother, Leorig, who kills his brother for his defeat. Anos then brings Zepes back as a zombie and makes Leorig make up with him before turning him back to normal.

OUR TAKE

Oh boy, it’s one of THESE types of shows. Purely power fantasy, and surprisingly little actual plot or character. And it’s actually rather shameless in how much it relies on this, to the point that it’s almost refreshing. Don’t worry if you’re bullied or looked down on, dear viewer, because you too might actually be the reincarnated Demon King who can literally kill and resurrect all the bullies at your school until you get all of your rage out on them. And then you can pick up all the cute anime girls you like along the way simply by being a decent person! Then you can go home to your stable family where your mom will make your favorite meal every night. And if anyone tries to mess with you, they don’t really know your true greatness yet, but they will.

That seems to be the vibe they’re going with, seeing as Anos looks to be completely in control of the situation at all times. My first thought was that he had the characterization of cardboard, but then you gotta keep in mind that he doesn’t really seem to be made to BE a character, but an insert for the teen marketed demographic who would want to see themselves in him. As a viewer in his late 20’s who has long since moved past needing these sorts of patronizing power fantasies, it doesn’t look to bode well for me if there are about a dozen more episodes of this to come of Anos just being so totally super special awesome for the whole show without much room for growth. Maybe that’s what Misha and the other characters are for, to grow around Anos’ actions, but it sure didn’t seem to look like it here. All Misha really did was just hang around whatever Anos was doing so that a cute anime girl could be in the designated vicinity.

Three more months of this show are most likely going to be quite draining to say the least. But I’ve also been plenty surprised before by seemingly boring shows, so I suppose should be prepared for things to get suddenly interesting in this one too. Only time will tell, but I think I’ll have a good idea of if it’s going there within the first few episodes. But again, based on what we’re getting in this first one, my hopes are pretty low.