#Maoyuu Maou Yuusha ep1: I just came here to kill you, but since you have gorgeous eyes and milk bombs we'll truce. #anime 

Welcome to the wonderful world of good/bad anime. Where you can't
tell if the series you're intrigued by will ascend the staircase to
heaven, or slip and fall down the muddy slopes refuge and failure.
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (or Maoyuu as I'll call it until something better
comes up) has firmly entrenched itself in this niche with its first
episode.

Well the foundation for this series starts off in an awesome enough
way. There's a long ongoing war between demons and humans. It
doesn't get into the specifics on how this mess got started, but I'm
sure that will become ever more important as the series goes on.
Things are in a virtual stalemate until a party of four human warriors
start cutting their way towards the demon kingdom. Their progress is
amazing, but it's not enough for the leader of the group who leaves
his party behind to put an end once and for all to the war by
assassinating the Demon King on his own.

Cue the super-duper awkwardness. The Hero makes his way to the Demon
King's castle only to find an empty shell leading to his supposed
ferocious opponent. Turns out that the Demon King is actually a very
bright and hopefull woman with "milkiness" for days. She propositions
the Hero in a not very demon way, with facts! Facts! Turns out the
Hero isn't a very smart dude. All brawn is a good way to get the
point across. But they have somethig in common. The Hero too wants
the war to end very badly, and her talk of a contract and working
together to make the world a better place appeals to him. He's also
met with shock and disgust when she reveals to him that both of their
kingdoms are actually benefitting from the war. A war economy to
precise. It reminds me of some of the babble from one of my favorite
PS3 games, Metal Gear Solid 4. The prosperity of the nobles and their
nations as a whole depends on the sacrifices of lives to war. Rich
countries get richer, poor countries are allowed to survive and
there's no good alternative when the alternative is to let hundreds of
thousands starve or internal war when there's nothing to replace the
war economy.

The Hero and the Demon King bonding ended up being a nice moment.
Though it felt very awkward in the beginning. There's no real build
up to their meeting aside from all the background on the world the
series takes place. I would have liked to see the Hero or his
compatriots in action. What little action I saw was really just a
tease.

Speaking of his compatriots. We presumably see all three of them in
this episode. And two of them are tackling the all important question
of what to do with the news of their leader abandoning them. It could
paint him as a traitor or a coward. And just the fact that they don't
that he's now formed an alliance with the leader of their enemy is a
huge problem.

This episode has left with me with a lot to think about and look
forward to in the coming weeks. I know some people are reading the
manga(s) it's based on right now. Hopefully this show is a faithful
portrayal, and hopefully this show is as smart as my imagination wants
it to be. I'll give this series a definite five episode test.