Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii – Episode 01 Review

OP Sequence

OP: 「ワカラナイアイ」 (Wakaranai Ai) by The Brow Beat

「初恋とは誰もが一度はかかる質の悪い病である」 (Hatsukoi to wa daremoga ichido wa kakaru tachinowarui-byoudearu)
“First Love is a Bad Disease That Everyone Suffers From at Least Once.”

Spring is slowly kicking into high gear, so you know what that means: fantasy, and lots of it, ready for its debut. While a few have already made their presence felt, it’s Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf which arguably starts things officially, because if there’s one combination you know will make for watching it’s romance and elves. Always elves.

Per the RC Preview Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf is a fairly typical fantasy romcom where introverted and wholly romantically inexperienced MC sorcerer Zagan (Kobayashi Yuusuke) comes face to face with stunning slave elf cutie pie Nephilia (Ichinose Kana) and decides on a total whim he must have her. Why? Because she’s cute and he’s never experienced love at first sight before obviously, what other reason would you need? Magical experiments and doing the naughty? Unimportant compared to the greater scheme of figuring out how to make elf turn into loving homebody elf. As proven by quite a few scenes over this episode Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf is all about that romantic comedy and won’t waste any time in thoroughly indulging in it.

Given the thematic nature here it should then be no surprise Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf’s world and characters are largely set up exclusively for the task. Zagan for one, besides his introversion, is also somewhat of a hermit, friends only with one Barbatos and a man whose person inclinations tend towards live and let live compared to other sorcerers out for more involved research. Sure, he’s also on track for a supposed promotion to archdemon following the death of one (and the one who originally owned Nephilia to boot), but it really comes down to that personality. Between Zagan being utterly at loss for how to make small talk to becoming smitten at the sound of Nephilia’s nickname Nephy you can get a good idea of where various conflicts will arise. Miscommunication will be the name of the game, expressing emotion the bread and butter; there’s a lot of options for sweet and funny, something this episode teased in detail.

Part of the opportunity as well lies with Nephilia herself for many of the same reasons. If Zagan is inexperienced Nephie is fatalistic, funnily believing she’s up for death at every other opportunity before latching onto off the cuff apologies and thanks Zagan unknowingly throws out. I wouldn’t call any of the chemistry between them thus far especially amazing when compared to other similar shows – especially with the overt focus on slavery that will split opinions – but you can get a very good sense at how future arcs will play out, especially when paired with Nephilia’s unique status, mysterious powers kept under literal lock and key, and Zagan’s own position in society. There’s a lot of room here to get a nice comfy ride with plenty of warm and fuzzy moments, it’s simply up to Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf to take advantage of the opportunity.

Overall while I wouldn’t pin Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf as a major showstopper, based on this opener I think there will be plenty of fantasy romcom fun to look forward to. As long as the cute and funny can overshadow the rough and edgy, this one will certainly prove to be a nice bit of Thursday entertainment.

Preview

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