First Impressions: The Misfit of Demon King Academy

Guest Written by: Noah Haley

Do you like wish fulfillment fantasies? Magical academies? Blank slate characters with the personality of a lightly salted baked potato? Congratulations, this might be the anime for you.

The first episode is fine. Not the strongest opening, but it’s competent and it gets done what I think it’s meant to. We’re quickly introduced to our Designated Love Interest, a soft-spoken over-powered young lady whose most interesting personality trait is the fact she quickly picks up on the obvious hints that the main character is Not Like Other Boys, despite adhering perfectly to the typical arrogant jackass character type. Were this a sports anime, he would be the rival that our actual hero strives to prove wrong, while along the way earning his respect and homoerotic friendship.

The magic system seems like it would make for some nice visuals once it’s been fleshed out properly and our hero – no I don’t remember his name, and I do not intend to look it up – stops being quite so overpowered. It was interesting enough during his exams, where we get an establishing character moment so subtle it might as well have been written in neon pink in the sky while fireworks went off around him. There are a few good moments, and it might be interesting to see how the characters and world develops as they’re fleshed out, but for the most part it feels fairly standard. Good if you’ve got twenty minutes and nothing to fill it, but not really worth dedicating any real time to, at least for now.