 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 4:3 FULL SCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 5.1 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 100 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13 UP | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 06/23/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 06/23/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | DAVEY C. JONES |
SYNOPSIS:
Yuri Shibuya is an average baseball-loving high school student. One day, Yuri tries to save his former classmate from a group of hoodlums. Turning on him, they drag Yuri into the bathroom and push his face into the toilet. When they flush the toilet, he is transported to another world! Yuri is then taken to a castle and crowned King of the Demon World. Is he going to end up as the leader of the land, surrounded by his extraordinarily handsome lieges, or will he make it back home?
REVIEW:
Sword and sorcery doesn’t get crazier than this! Yuri is a regular guy with a keen sense of justice, when wham bam he suddenly finds himself in another world! But he isn’t any Alice in Wonderland. It turns out he’s the heir to the throne of the Great Demon King and now everyone in the Demon Kingdom wants a piece of him – one way or another! I really mean one way or another. Yuri gets surrounded by a bunch of guys who all want him, some more literally than others. In fact, when he looses his cool and slaps the hot-headed Wolfram, Yuri is suddenly engaged to be married to the dude! This kind of guy on guy teasing goes on throughout the anime, and other guys at the royal court and pretty hot for Yuri too. The show never actually ‘goes’ there but yaoi subtext be thy name. The betrothed couple argue like a couple of newlyweds! It’s guffaw time all around. The ongoing plot along with the comedy is a bit more on the drama side. They go traveling along the kingdom for various reasons. Sometimes it’s to find a magic flute, other times bears, but during his travels, Yuri sees the harsher side of the fallout from the war between the humans and the demons. It’s not pretty and he’s a soft-hearted guy but a soft-hearted guy with a strong sense of justice and the magic might of the Demon King within him! Do not make him angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. So whenever he sees dirty deeds being done, he goes all magical Hulk on the never-do-wells and teaches them well earned lessons in justice. So Demon King imposters and sand bears beware! The show is all over the map for comedy fantasy adventure. A war between the humans and the demons is coming up, but in the meantime they go find more magical relics like a holy sword, dragons, and the zany tale of the bear bees! But Yuri gets his righteousness on when a multi-story arc has him confront some nasty dragon hunters and poachers. After the halfway point, the story gears towards more serious matter with assassination attempts and a traitor revealed. We get the low down on Conrad’s past with the beautiful Julia and the triangle with Hube. It’s the lead-in to a whacky reincarnation story with Yuri in the middle of it all! The action hits full force when the latest and deadliest assassination attempt land Gunter in a sate of animation while his soul is trapped in a doll, and Yuri separated from his people and alone except for his pal Ken and needing to get back to the Demon Kingdom – fast! And Conrad, whose body has gone missing except for the dude’s arm! Holy missing limbs KKM fans! Yuri makes friends but also gets captured by the enemy. The big deal about the Forbidden Boxes has him searching for them in order to stop them being used as weapons of mass destruction. If all four are gathered together, then it could mean the end of the entire alternate world Yuri now lives in! The trick is that each box has a key to unsealing it. The keys were passed down to the descendants of those ancestors that originally helped the Demon King seal the boxes away. And the truth about who holds the keys and what they are is going to rock Yuri back a few steps at least! Conrad’s arm, Ken’s true identity, and the Cimaron Army has one of the boxes and the key to using it! People back from the dead, others who are reincarnated souls, a huge army about to invade the Demon Kingdom and a box of trouble make for one heck of a finale extravaganza! KKM is a long anime series. The first season introduces the main players (for now), poses some big questions, but since it has a ton of more episodes coming up in later seasons that have aired in Japan and the second season which will be released here, the show doesn’t bother answering all of them. It might thwart some viewers’ happies but not all the good times. That’s what Kyo Kara Maoh is, a big splashy fantasy adventure with all kinds of zany laughs and fun to be had. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should the viewer. It’s an all around sword and sorcery hootenanny to frolic with and enjoy. Studio DEEN is responsible for the animation production on this long-running puppy. They did work on Simoun, Patlabor OAV and films, helped with Rurouni Kenshin and ROD the TV series, plus produced ROD the OAV, Fate/Stay Night, and Fruits Basket. That’s just some of the titles. They have the power of variety and they make Kyo Kara Maoh a splashy fantasy fun-filled ride. They have some nifty visuals for the magic duels and spells being bandied about and the anime definitely holds some of the most unique (and funny) creatures in a fantasy series such as the bear bees.
EXTRAS:
Extra goodies include trailers of other anime titles and textless opening and ending animation.
IN SUMMARY:
Kyo Kara Maoh is a sword and sorcery anime that is epic in comedy! |
