(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of a harem/modern fantasy manga series.
Characters
Arata, our generic male high school protagonist, just can’t quite shake the impression that something’s off in his daily life. Weird dreams. The sun being black. His childhood friend/cousin Hijiri being clingy instead of her usual tsundere ways. Is that even really her ?
Lilith, a girl with a magic gun, shows up to explain : nope, that’s not Hijiri. It’s a manifestation of a grimoire he somehow got his hands on just as the town got destroyed by a weird catastrophe. If the town doesn’t look destroyed, it’s merely because he unconsciously reconstructed it thanks to the grimoire’s power. Now, please hand over that thing (as well as lose any hope of getting Hijiri back), or die. His choice.
He takes the third option : enroll into her magic school, because the story was in danger of getting remotely interesting. (She’s a teacher rather than a student, by the way.) Oh, and because of the nature of magic wobble wobble better suited to girls wobble wobble he’s the only boy attending. Cue generic hijinks. Also, his reputation skyrockets once it becomes clear he’s achieved feats worthy of the “demon lord” class.
Oh, and to make the show even more boring, it’s revealed that he can take a shortcut instead of actually studying his own powers : he just has to “conquer” the Trinity Seven, aka the seven most powerful and specialized people around. This includes Lilith, a ninja, and an emotionless girl who looks just like Hijiri.
Production Values
Perfectly okay ; it sells the offbeat atmosphere that the script desperately tries to water down, and the various characters have expressive body language and weird expressions that sell their scheming quirkiness. (not!Hijiri is particularly creepy.)
There’s actually less fanservice than you’d expect. Sure, it opens with a boob grab and includes a gratuitous bath scene, but it could be worse.
Overall Impression
The sound you can hear is my goodwill progressively draining away. There’s a semi-interesting premise in there, but it’s completely buried by the magic school nonsense. This is a perfect example of why I’ve come to be very wary of this trope : it’s an excuse to forget about the plot and turn the series into a generic harem series with a bit of fighting.
I don’t trust this show to deliver on any of its mysteries ; after all, it’s based on a still-ongoing manga. So I don’t see any reason to bother with it.
