Maoyū Maō Yūsha - 11

"I Just Destroy and Kill, Without Creating Anything”

There's so much stuff happening here that it's almost dizzying to keep track of it all.

I'm not sure if the amount of content crammed into these last couple of episodes is an intentional decision or an effect of adaptation, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to follow what the heck it is that's going on in Maou and Yuusha's world. We have politics, economics, war, famine, conferences, magic, ancient kings, injuries... the list goes on at a breakneck pace. In fact, at this point it seems as if we've branched off into at least three distinct storylines, each with its own nuances but not without effect on the other two. The first, and the broadest in scale, is the story of the Young Merchant's ambitions. His attempt to introduce a dual-currency system using wheat as collateral, as well as the impending possibilities to trade with the Demon Realm for the sake of building up the South's economic prosperity. This, for me, is the most complex and difficult narrative for me to follow; as I've said before, I'm no position to judge how sound the economic decisions are, but whether or not they are, it seems that the Young Merchant has taken Yuusha's words to heart. With the Dragon Princess at his side, he's poised to expand Gate City's success at integration between humans and demons.

The second storyline is then the political position of the South as a whole. The Winter Country has found itself at war, particularly with the Church and the White Night Country, and the conflict has finally escalated to actual bloodshed. The entire region faces the threat of invasion, a fear which comes true when the blundering king of the White Night Country sends in a surprise cavalry force. From actual warfare to the poisoning of the cavalry's horses, the Winter Country fights back with Onna Kishi and the Winter King at its helm to lead them. Whether or not they make it out in one piece, however, depends on Yuusha and whether or not he'll be able to bring Maou back in time to dig them out of the hole they've gotten themselves stuck in.

That leaves the final narrative, that of Maou and Yuusha themselves. Maou's plan to escape the Ancient Kings unscathed has gone awry, and the Head Maid is left with no choice but to attempt to subdue her former Queen before she escapes, bloodlust unchecked. However, the Maid is no obstacle for this new Maou, and it falls to Yuusha (with a lot of help from the Female Mage, who seems to have multiple personalities in one body) to go after her and bring her back to her intellectual and collected self. There's very little doubt that his feelings for her (unclear as they are) will come through to her one way or another, so I'm more interested exactly what it is the blue-skinned demons had to do with all of this. They were mentioned in passing as connected to the Maou bloodline, but I'm probably forgetting what it was that made them trek to the human realm; whatever the reason, I thought they would be more important than they seem to have been, and honestly it feels like much of this series is careening out of control with the overload of material it's attempting to cover in the last few episodes. I suppose we'll see if that holds through in the finale next week.

N.B.: Thanks to Ivan for the screencaps!