Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou - Anime - AniDB (2024)

Note: This review is based on RAWs

Originally written as a series of light novels by Mizuki Shoutarou and later adapted to an anime by Watanabe Takashi (Ikkitousen, Shakugan no Shana II) Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou[/b] is an odd mix of fantasy, action, harem and, of course, lots of ecchi. It follows, or at least tries to follow, the story of a young boy Sai Akuto, who enters a prestigious magic academy dreaming to become a high priest, only to end up having his future occupation predicted as "Demon King". Obviously not many people want to be friends with a would be demon king and Sai Akuto ends up isolated from pretty much everyone. It doesn't stop the show to create a harem setting, however, with girls getting attached to Akuto for various reasons, like just wanting to take a revenge or liking black magic in general. Main character himself is actually pretty kind and innocent for a demon king, thus the show ends up spending more time on ecchi things and funny situations at leisure pace in the first half than it does on introducing setting, characters or doing anything steady whatsoever. Starting from episode seven, however, the pace triples, ecchi is almost discarded and the show finally gets on its rails... or that's at least what you'd think. Because, frankly, with direction like that I wish it had never become serious at all.

While the first half of the show, despite being almost scenario-free, is entertaining to an extent, the second half, when the plot supposedly becomes serious is downright terrible. Characters you never knew jump into screen one after another, old characters who had never been given any backstories start hinting at their pasts you never knew... New organizations, wars, conceptions get introduced and discarded in the matter of minutes, people start talking about things that don't make sense unless clearly explained, characters start using magic techniques you've never heard about before, hell, it's a complete mess. I mean, in the last episode Akuto starts shooting laser beams out of his eyes out of the blue, for fuck sakes, were the people behind the adaptation drunk or something. Anyway, leaving the problems with the plot aside, the characters of Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou are surprisingly entertaining, it's too bad hardly anyone gets a full-fledged backstory, but the charm is definitely here and I actually ended up liking many of them... to an extent. Production values are pretty pathetic for the show of this age, animation is full of deformations and soundtrack consists of mostly bland songs followed by a few nicer pieces which end up repeated over and over. The funny thing, I kind of got the feeling that the original work of this anime might have been pretty good. At least it has potential. Adaptation, however, is an utter mess of things that are nearly impossible to understand and even stop making any sense whatsoever near the end of the show. What I also noticed, however, that even being such a mess, Daimaou is still entertaining to some extent, that is, if you can turn your brain off. If you can just stop thinking and enjoy your ecchi and senseless action on the screen, you might end up having lots of fun with this show. I mean, it does indeed have its cool moments piled under this mess somewhere.

Animation: 5/10

Animation done by Artland, compared to the other shows of this season, is hardly even average. Actually, if you were to say that Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou was made in early 2000s you'd be able to fool about anyone. Backgrounds are not particularly detailed and overly bright color palette only makes things look less realistic. It's not that there is anything bad with the drawings, but the show flows by without any actual eye-candy and it kind of makes it look cheap. Character designs are not an exception either, while Akuto and the girls do indeed look cool and attractive, constant (though slight) deformations and exaggerated use of needless ecchi during wrong moments makes the show look even cheaper. I mean, Keena spends more time without any clothes on than she does dressed, and given her intelligence I ended up perceiving her as some sort of peculiar animal rather than a human being (and I'm pretty sure that wasn't the creator's intent).

What's worse is that the actual animation, as in movements and the flow of things, is amongst the worst of the season. I didn't know they still made action anime with visibly unnatural movements in this day and age. Well, it's not really as bad as I ended putting it (except for episode 7, that was disastrous), and it's still plenty smooth if you compare it with anime from five years ago, but you know, eye candy is what counts nowadays and Maou doesn't have any of it. In the end, the only thing Maou actually has it going for is the character designs, but, at least in my opinion, the way it used its lewd stuff screwed that little good as well. Geez, if you are doing ecchi at least try do things erotic, not pornographic, making female cast run around completely naked in each episode makes you wonder if you are not in a zoo of some kind.

Sound: 6/10

Save for the cool firing up opening song Realove: Realife performed by Sphere there is virtually nothing worth mentioning in the sound department. ED is a sucky childish song which only works to screw up the atmosphere and background music is as memorable as a white wall. There are a few nice tracks in the show, but even those end up getting overused to an extent you end up hardly discerning them from the silence in the later half. Well, they still do work for an atmosphere, however, and even if you don't remember them some scenes are pretty nice thanks to the sound stage.

Can't say anything either particularly bad or good about the seiyuu. They did they job, but noone stood out at bit. I suppose it was okay, but I'd rather have an anime with voiceactors I can notice. Itou Shizuka's performance was likely the best, pompously evil leader's of the girls' dormitory role kind of suits her voice well. Nakata Jouji also had the role of the dragon, but, unfortunately, he didn't have enough lines to fully exhibit his awesomeness.

Story: 4/10

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimou ended up as big bundle of disappointments thanks to horrible realization of otherwise a pretty neat idea. The whole concept of magic setting and demon king history was way too far fetched (though interesting) for a show which could only spawn twelve episodes. And it seems the guys who wrote the script noticed that as well and rather than concentrating on solid things just started to pile up a whole lot of random crap to excuse their soft porn. I've finished watching the show and I still don't know a thing about how magic works or what was that oh so scary demon king guy doing 100 years ago. I mean, if anyone would have even tried to justify the plot, the anime would have gotten twice as good as it ended up being now. I myself am a big fan of main characters with a spine and ambition, and I could do nothing else but to shed tears for Akuto whose otherwise great dream was pilled under tons of ecchi, silly demons, half-baked heroes and other dump. I mean, seriously, while the first half of the show still does its things coherently, in the second half Akuto starts using super powers he has never learned before, characters without a speck of background get introduced, twists completely stop making sense (wedding? what?); the whole show just starts going down the garbage bin. My suspension of disbelief was completely shattered starting with episode 7 and everything what followed was already painful to watch. You have to be a damn seer to understand what's going on in the last few episodes... Nonetheless, I still can't deny I actually enjoyed the first half of the show and the pain I felt during the second was because I actually had expectations for the it. Hell, it was more fun than half of the average sneeze-inducing harems I've seen, however much of a wreck it ended up to be.

Overally, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou isn't exactly a horrible anime. It just managed to fail at every single opportunity to actually become good, ending up as something below average. It's still fun if you can turn off your brain and just enjoy your shows for tasteless ecchi, and some action as a side dish.

Characters: 6/10

It has been bothering me from the very first time I've seen her... but, what was the point of that girl character who could only speak "Guga"? Seriously, the new ways of moe terrify me sometimes, I mean, the girl's level of intelligence was below that of toddler's. Anyway, save for this odd exception the cast of Ichiban no Ushiro no Daimaou is nothing particularly new in the realm of ecchi driven action anime. Well, the show does trick you to believe that the main character, who for a change is intelligent, individualistic and ambitious, is a dose of fresh air in the usual lineup of dull harem leads, but even the way he is, he still ends up inadvertently peeking on naked girls and getting 'rewarded' for that in almost identical fashion. As for his ambitious part, the scenario of the show never let's him do anything with it, so it's pretty much as good as non existent at all. However, I still must commend the fact that he can stand up for himself and debate himself out of situations in which any other harem lead would just end up getting beaten up to a pulp. Oh yeah, and his name, Sai Akuto, is actually a pun, it has the same pronunciation as 最悪党, which means "the utmost villain".

There is a whole variety of girl characters and only two other males, including the main villain of the show. We have a carefree (or rather mentally challenged) red haired girl who becomes attached to the main character for no reason. There is a completely emotionless girl without any common sense whose work is to observe Akuto 24/7. My favourite, however, is the purple haired girl with impressive proportions, who acts extremely kind outside and is trusted by everyone, while being a black witch of most rotten personality inside; naturally her aim is to make Akuto into her love slave. Then there also is a brash student council president who looks more like a boy and a green haired girl of spunky manipulative personality, both lack screen time to get fleshed out completely however. Oh yeah, almost forgot the stuck-up class president who clashes with Akuto for every single trivial matter but ends up eventually falling for him anyway (for some reason). There are more characters, like the previously mentionted "Guga" girl, but since there is no deep meaning behind their existence I suppose there is no reason to mention them. Hiroshi who works as our Maou's underling is a guy with so little individualism you'll end up constantly forgetting him, and the villain is so badly introduced you will hardly get what he's doing, much less what he's thinking.

In the end, the characters of Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, while seemingly charming from the first sight soon fall flat without getting any chance to flesh themselves out. They are still fun to observe, and you might find your favourites, but if you are looking for deep personalities you sure wont find them here. Akuto had the potential to become something great, but, oh well, it was a mistake to expect anything from a show of this genre anyway.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:

Value: 6/10

Actually I feel a little tempted to re-watch this mess to see if I could make more sense out of it with a consecutive watch, but the lack of originality kind of cools me down. I'll keep this show in my collection just to remind myself how nice stories can go straight down the garbage bin thanks to horrible realizations and also, for some nice scenes where Akuto is going cool (even if it doesn't make sense I can still call it cool, right?!).

1. Conclusion[/u]:[/b] Rated as R+, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou had the premise to become a really nice and entertaining 26 episodes long fantasy show, but ended up crashing down like a shot down helicopter thanks to its 12 episodes limit. The way it stands now it's a half-baked ecchi harem show with a serious part which is utilized so badly it's almost impossible to understand, much less suppress your disbelief. Check it out if mindless ecchi and action without any solid explanation is your thing... but stay away otherwise. The only single thing this show has it going for is this mild brainless fun. If you like ecchi comedy check Love Hina or Seto no Hanayome, which are much better. And if you like magic setting and don't mind some mess in the plot, then I get the feeling you'd also like Zero no Tsukaima... Otherwise, just go for Harry Potter.