I wasn’t planning on writing any First Impressions until July but Summer 2024 began early a couple of days ago so here I am.
The first premiere of the season is The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human. The show revolves around Ike (Jun Fukuyana), a young human who abandoned at birth and then adopted by Romberg, a renowned demon sorcerer. Since Romberg’s passing, Ike has disguised himself as a human with a mask and has joined the demon lord’s army in its quest to conquer human territory. The only demon aware of his identity is Cefiro (Shizuka Itō), his commanding officer Cefiro. In the first episode, Ike conquers the small town of Ivalias. Because of its location, it is deemed a crucial location for the war so Ike is left in charge of it. While taking a break, Ike takes off his mask, only to then discover that a human maid named Satie (Hina Tachibana) has seen his real face by accident.
What stands out to me is the conundrum between Ike’s association with demons and his humanity. Even though he works for the demons, Ike is still human and he therefore tries to complete his missions with as little casualties as possible for both demons and humans. The problem is that such compassion is mostly lost on demons so Ike has the challenge of coming across as demonic while still being true to his nature. That’s a potentially interesting conundrum and it could be something to latch onto when Ike proceeds to overpower his foes like every other fantasy anime protagonist.
There’s one particularly strong joke in this episode, though I don’t know if it’s actually supposed to funny. When asked by his second-in-command about sparing so many humans, Ike argues that having them alive means that there’ll be people to pay taxes to the demon lord. Admittedly, this is a logically sound argument for Ike to justify his actions without giving away that he is human. That said, it’s very funny to talk about taxes of all things and also to think that the demon lord’s economy would be screwed if no one is alive to pay taxes. Also amusing is how relieved the townsfolk are that the amount they have to pay remains the same. They sure are taking annexation awfully well.
This episode mostly paces through the setup just fine though one character that does get the short end of the stick is Satie. You’d think the show would make a big deal about a human finding out about Ike’s identity but Satie’s screentime is surprisingly limited. The episode instead switches gears to having Cefiro introduce Ike to the demon lord, Dairokuten (Manaka Iwami). To be fair, that scene is pretty interesting, especially with the implication that Dairokuten knows that Ike is a human. But I don’t know, it’s a little weird to put the whole thing with Satie on hold. That said, I imagine that this will be fleshed out in the next episode.
I admit that I was ready to dismiss this show entirely. These days, fantasy anime has run itself into the ground. Honestly, I still don’t know if I’ll stick with it but I did enjoy this premiere more than I expected so I plan on giving it a fair shake.
Watch The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human on Crunchyroll
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