[kagato3]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

They had to survive on something, and it appears they had survived well enough to provide enough soldiers who are able to defend the entire continent(?) without having to rely on soldiers from other countries (at least that's how I understood the situation, but correct me if I'm wrong). The king guy said something along the lines of "before the war we had an uncertain existence" - If they seriously can't support themselves with anything at all I wonder why they still existed as an independent kingdom before the war. (And why they have so many strong men who can ward off an entire invading army.)

You may want to rewatch the start. All the kingdoms pooled thier men and lanuched a massive strike on the Gate that the demons came through and are holding it at the same time the demons took an island and since then have been launching atacks from there and have little hope of getting reinfocements untill the Gate is retaken, these atacks are what the southern kingdoms are holding off which are pretty much sea raids. the fact that they are still holding the island implies they have a fairly impressive naval force ( I think we might have found those vikings you were looking for).

Although we haven't been given much info on the king and prince they have shown enough to reasonably assume that they are kind and care about thier subjects well being. If that is true the the king's statement that without the war funds they would have an uncertain existence points to at the current knowlage, farming, fishing and trade level of that kingdom and useing all thier resorces they can spare the best they can hope for is a tight winter for thier people and god help them if it is a bad winter. As for why do they live there you might as well ask why have humans lived in so many god forsaken places where one bad season could lead to disaster, it's kinda what we do. And for the some what large number of able body men for the armies: 15 years of war funds = 15 years of more food = 15 years of lesspeople dieing from stavation = more able bodied people.

Perhaps this is the case. Perhaps not. We'll see.


As I mentioned earlier, I hope the show will touch on these. It would be nice if they had a reasonably complex setting with many variables that may affect the Demon King's plans.

ETA
For what it's worth, before anyone misunderstands: I'm not saying the show is bad.

I'm just pointing out they can't touch on everything in the first ep and the more complex a setting the more you need to easy into it so you don't lose everyone.
Just remember the whole ep was only the Demon Lord explaining how the world realy is to someone that saw it in almost childlike terms (demons bad, humans good, war bad) that doesn't understand the subtlties of economics (he's a RPG hero they sell thier stuff back for half the cost they buy it for) of course she had to dumb it down a bit.