Our story begins like the end-game of a classic RPG. The hero (in japanese, 'yuusha'), having set off to slay the Demon King (in japanese, 'maou'), leaves his party of adventurers behind to face his nemesis alone, so that the others will not be in danger. He arrives at the strangely empty castle of the Demon King, and is prepared for a trap.
But the Demon King turns out to be a beautiful woman, and instead of challenging him in battle, she instead explains to him, completely honestly, why the war between demons and humans is beneficial to both sides, and furthermore, how ending it would be devastating to the economies of both the human and demon realms. Finally, she also mentions that she has been watching him from afar, and that she is maybe just a little bit in love with him.
And so, the Hero and the Demon King agree to work together, to try to move beyond the senseless fighting, to bring about a real and lasting peace, with countries that are moving forward and supporting themselves. It is a story very rooted in economics, scientific discovery, agriculture and political philosophy, set in a fantasy world of characters who are all called by their titles, none of the characters' names are mentioned.
And it's a good story, with fun characters, some excellent writing, truly moving moments, sociopolitical commentary, humor and drama. I really liked it.
It gets a C+ for not ending. It's perfectly set up for a second season, and a second season would result in it getting a much better grade: with more explanation and development, it has the makings of an A-rank series, but it starts out very slowly and rushes itself toward the end, and the ending it comes to is sudden and inconclusive.
If you like watching fully-developed worlds where the storyteller has strongly considered all the gears that are turning in the world intertwined with personal drama and intelligent discussions of economics and politics, Maoyuu is good, but far too short. If you want a lot of action, or if you need a good ending, or if characters not having names would drive you up the wall, avoid this series.
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