The Misfit of Demon King
Academy: History's Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with
His Descendants, or just The Misfit
of Demon King Academy for short, is my favorite new anime series that
debuted in summer 2020. It isn’t really
great; I feel that it’s an undercooked adaptation, in a way. But it executes certain things
well enough to show its distinctive merits and be effectively addicting.
The plot follows the extremely powerful demon king Anos Voldigoad. Growing tired of endless wars, he architects world peace by sacrificing his
life. 2,000 years later, he reincarnates in a society wherein the pureblood nobility that came from his bloodline treats
hybrids – those who descended from demons who intermarry with humans or spirits
– as lower-class citizens. Since he’s born
as a hybrid in this new life, he experiences being at the tail end of
discrimination – not that it affects him, as he does not lack self-confidence, being
probably the most powerful being in this world and all.
Moreover, he also discovers that history was mysteriously altered
sometime in the past. As a result, demon
magic has grown weaker. But more
importantly, demonkind is now expecting the reincarnation of the demon king
Anos Dilhevia rather than Anos Voldigoad.
Thus, even though Anos immediately flaunts his tremendous power upon
entering Delzogade Demon King Academy, a school that expects the reincarnated Demon King to come from its students, he gets labelled as a misfit instead of
being acknowledged as the Demon King.
During the course of the series, Anos eventually reunites with his ancient, loyal subjects as well as gain new friends and followers, both pureblood and
hybrid, from among his classmates. And
with their support and help, he sets out to dismantle the distorted, prejudiced
ethos of this current demon society and uncover the conspiracies at work that
keep him from taking his rightful title as Demon King.
At surface level, The Misfit of
Demon King Academy seems to be another self-indulgent power fantasy. And it’s arguably probably is. Like other such anime, the highlights are two things: a.) presenting various situations where it can showcase how overwhelmingly cool,
awesome, and perfect the main character is; and b.) growing his harem of waifus. However, what makes it pretty
distinct is it does this in a way that’s so hilariously over-the-top. For example, in the first episode alone, Anos
kills someone with just his heartbeat – his freakin’ heartbeat! He then resurrects him and kills him over and over again until the broken opponent
surrenders.
Anos is unimaginably overpowered and self-assured to the point of parody. However, another
layer that makes this anime special is it plays these absurdities
straight. Thus, it comes off as being either an intentional, brilliant satire of the genre or an earnest, extreme derivative that ironically becomes
terrific because it’s so trashily excessive. Either way,
it’s a genuinely fun and absorbing show to watch.
It even got to a point wherein I actually became legit invested into
its characters, storyline, themes, power system, and lore. I might have considered it as something
so-bad-it’s-good before this, but at that point I just thought of it as just good
good. Actually, when one truly pauses and contemplates about it, the show really does have interesting elements.
That’s why I’m disappointed of how the season’s last two or three
episodes turned out. Clearly, it tries
to pack too much of the story into them, which proves detrimental to the
production quality. The plot at that
point contains a couple of superb twists-and-turns, but because of the
undesirably rapid pacing, there’s not much time to let them marinate for
optimum emotional effect. There are
noticeable shortcuts in the animation that occur, too.
Thus, I believe that the story that The Misfit of Demon King Academy has delivered in its 13-episode
debut season would have been much more effectively told if it had two cours to
do it.
Nonetheless, in the end, it has
entertained me well in general, and I am looking forward to a season 2, which hopefully happens.
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