(L) Hataraku Maou-sama!

[DragoonKain3]

Originally Posted by NeutralZero

Rather than kill Emi... its more likely they want her sword...
After all James did look disappointted when Emi's swords just fade away...

You would think that asking nicely would be easier than trying to kill her, considering they're supposed to be in the same side. XD

[Mahou]

Originally Posted by Skane

It's almost like people have already forgotten about the woman who got skewered in the first episode. Misunderstood or not, bad things did happen during the war, and he just seems so... nonchalant about it, which is pretty jarring in itself.

Natch.

Wasn't it the same when Emi shouted at him for killing her father/foster father? For Maou, it wasn't anything strange or wrong because the thought that the remaining family members could be suffering/grieving from it hasn't crossed him once.
At least the anime tries to explain it with some sort of in-verse logic or simply a mindset

[apsody243]

Originally Posted by sikvod00

Chiho remarked that Maou is such a nice guy that there must be a good reason for waging a war. My hope is if we ever learn what this excuse reason is, they don't try to completely absolve the Dark Lord of the consequences of his actions. Nice guy or not, people suffered because of him. Or maybe they can just stick to the comedy, since these serious parts aren't that great and tend to cause mood dissonance for me.

Yes but your forgetting that he is a Demon King ruling over other demons. He is evil only from the human perspective, for all we know the demons that he rules over may consider his a very kind and benevolent leader.

For example if I recall correctly in certain empires like Persia, Ancient Egypt and Roman Republic it was expected that a newly appointed King would expand the borders of his empire, That was considered normal for them. I very much doubt that their neighbors thought fondly of that, did that make them evil? Maybe in the eyes of their enemies, but for their people the most certainly weren't.

And all that was between fellow humans, now imagine if your enemies are a completely different spices as they are in this case, Maou and the rest of the demons had even less of a reason to worry about them.

We don't really know what is considered as a social norm among demons, as for the lady that got killed at the start, its not like he killed her personally it was some imp/goblin thing that did her in, most likely the same applies for Emi's dad.

Civilian casualties are inevitable in a war and blaming the ruler for the actions of every single foot soldier is absurd in my opinion.

[Xacual]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

You would think that asking nicely would be easier than trying to kill her, considering they're supposed to be in the same side. XD

Who says the Angels are on the same side as humanity or more specifically Emi. It seems more like the angels want to off both Maou and Emi and call it a day.

[sikvod00]

I don't think Maou is evil, so that's not the problem. The issue is if they try to completely absolve Maou of the consequences of his actions. And when I say "actions", I mean at the level of the leader of the aggressors. Yes, he can't be blamed for everything that individual soldiers do. But as you said, civilian casualties are inevitable in war, and Maou instigated that war. He has to bear some responsibility. Being a nice guy is irrelevant.

And let me repeat, this concern of mine is meaningless if they decide to largely stick to comedy, which seems to be their stronger point.

[apsody243]

Oh yeah there is definitely responsibility to bear, I didn't mean that he should escape all responsibility completely Scot free, I just don't feel he should be prosecuted or condemned for his entire life just because of that.

I mean for the demons he's is most likely a hero, he is indeed the aggressor but there are always 2 sides to any story. As we have seen the Church that rules over the human side of Enta Isla isn't exactly full of saints .

I wouldn't be all that surprised if the war would have occurred even without his help. Sooner or later the church would have started a Crusade.

[ookamigirl]

Feeling sorry for Ashiya... wish he would get better.
Suzuno's little plan was uncalled for.
Guess she still hasn't seen the light.
Seems like everyone had a harder life in the old country.
All of them are enjoying themselves here on some level.
This is a nice anime with loads of unused potential.

Recently, I'm having a feeling that all the latest anime are kinda slow.
The plots develop slowly and when something finally starts happening it's in the final episode...

[SQA]

Originally Posted by apsody243

Oh yeah there is definitely responsibility to bear, I didn't mean that he should escape all responsibility completely Scot free, I just don't feel he should be prosecuted or condemned for his entire life just because of that.

I mean for the demons he's is most likely a hero, he is indeed the aggressor but there are always 2 sides to any story. As we have seen the Church that rules over the human side of Enta Isla isn't exactly full of saints .

I wouldn't be all that surprised if the war would have occurred even without his help. Sooner or later the church would have started a Crusade.

I think the way to take it isn't like 20th century wars but 18th century wars.

We know Maou & Ashiya are quite "old" (not sure how much Ente Isla years translate to Earth years) but the conquest of the Demons was fairly short. Something like 20 years total, maybe. That means the Demons were confined and constrained (possibly at risk of being wiped out completely) for a very long time.

Maou, then, ends up being Napoleon. His people have been under threat of annihilation for a very long time and he rises to leadership with the ability to strike back. His leadership just ends up being effective enough to conquer some of the land. But since the Demons hadn't ever expanded that far, the Humans simply caught up to the next methods and fought back.

It's a situation where attempting to assign moral judgments just won't work. Claims to moral legitimacy for war is something of a 20th century rationalization. There should be reasons that would commonly cause a war, not vain attempts to grab moral ones to make you feel better. (This is mostly the result of the invention of the Nuclear weapon, since classic warfare is no more)

This is also a way to put into context Maou's response to Emi & Ashiya's story about their time in a "construction" company. They didn't give much regard or thought to those that gave them no regard or thought. They were trying to build their world.

[Grey]

Originally Posted by Skane

It's almost like people have already forgotten about the woman who got skewered in the first episode. Misunderstood or not, bad things did happen during the war, and he just seems so... nonchalant about it, which is pretty jarring in itself.

Natch.

I've always remembered that scene when watching Maou. And how his forces invaded the other four islands. Did he raze and kill everything in his path? Or were the people to be enslaved? Or was that scene just misdirection and poor control over his troops?

I would like it if Maou wasn't really only a nice guy with no large faults in waging the war. It would be interesting if demons thought about things differently and he really didn't--and still doesn't--fully understand and agree with humans' views. It makes the tension between the characters and the possible resolutions and conflict much more interesting to me.

[marinne14]

i really love this anime its so funny!!! XD hillarious!!

[VTHokiePride]

The last episode was getting so good. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens next week. Ashiya is still the best character in this anime. He makes this series hilarious.

[PonSquared]

How is this going to end at the 13th episode? I just... inconsiderable!

[Sixth]

So in the end, it was Maou's magic who attracted the customers? Kinda disappointed with that.

[SQA]

Originally Posted by noobita

So in the end, it was Maou's magic who attracted the customers? Kinda disappointed with that.

That's what they said, but I still don't think that's quite true. Given the color scheme. Maybe picking out who is using the magic isn't as easy as we think?

I guess we'll find out. I still think it was more the Tree + Wishes just canceling out James' magic.

[GundamZZ]

Suzuno is scary. She uses war hammer to assassinate the church's political rivals. It shows that her organization rule people by force.

In contrast, Emi will be remembered as a hero. She also serves the church, but her objective is clear. She only attacks enemey in battle.

Chiyo is scary in another sense. It seems the landlady's bra can fit on her.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by noobita

So in the end, it was Maou's magic who attracted the customers? Kinda disappointed with that.

That's why she thinks. It's nothing confirmed yet.

[VTHokiePride]

Originally Posted by GundamZZ

Suzuno is scary. She uses war hammer to assassinate the church's political rivals. It shows that her organization rule people by force.

In contrast, Emi will be remembered as a hero. She also serves the church, but her objective is clear. She only attacks enemey in battle.

Chiyo is scary in another sense. It seems the landlady's bra can fit on her.

The Sentucky manager called her a former knight of the Church so I guess she left but came back to fight the demons?

Spoiler for Possible Scenario:

I think it's a setup by the Church to frame Maou and convince Emi he's evil and for her to kill him so she goes back to Ente Isla.

[SQA]

Originally Posted by VTHokiePride

The Sentucky manager called her a former knight of the Church so I guess she left but came back to fight the demons?

Spoiler for Possible Scenario:

I think it's a setup by the Church to frame Maou and convince Emi he's evil and for her to kill him so she goes back to Ente Isla.

We saw in a flashback what happened with her. She got moved to a different "unit" and that's why she's on Earth now. It's also why she mouthed off to the leadership back in ep 6(?) when she got sent to Earth.

[Cadallin]

Originally Posted by sikvod00

Chiho remarked that Maou is such a nice guy that there must be a good reason for waging a war. My hope is if we ever learn what this excuse reason is, they don't try to completely absolve the Dark Lord of the consequences of his actions. Nice guy or not, people suffered because of him. Or maybe they can just stick to the comedy, since these serious parts aren't that great and tend to cause mood dissonance for me.

Well I'd be willing to accept that he waged the war for world domination because he's a demon overlord, and that's what they DO. That is, its the normative thing that his culture expected of him, so that's what he did.

There's really no conflict there with him being a nice guy. You don't even have to suppose that demons and humans are significantly different for this to be coherent.

The great irony here is that I suspect the real rationalization for this in terms of writing is just "for the lulz," but honestly it just makes sense. The series has accidentally stumbled on characters that are so realistic "reality is unrealistic."

And we're really just looking at a shades of grey morality in Ente Isle. Maou did horrible things, so did the Church. People got hurt, plenty of collateral damage all around.

[Traece]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

That's why she thinks. It's nothing confirmed yet.

The theory as I recall was that the tree was, unwittingly, the casting of a magic spell. So I guess their thought is that he used it as a medium of some sort without even realizing it himself.

I still think that the weirdo cast a ward of some sort on MgRonalds to ruin Maou's business, and the tree unexpectedly dispelled it. Maybe he really enjoyed selling chicken?