Released on blu-ray January 23, 2023, Sentai Filmworks brings us a new fantasy anime that will sure to please fans who like their fantasy with a dash of comedy while leaning into deeper themes.
What does the great hero do after he’s defeated the great evil and no one wants to work with him anymore? Well, if you’re Leo Demonheart, fated hero of old, fresh from defeating the Demon King and fed up with the ungrateful populous who no longer trusts him, you offer your services to the Demon Queen. Naturally since Leo defeated her dear old dad, she obviously wants nothing to do with him, but Leo hatches a scheme to worm his way into her ranks via deception by helping her underlings without her awareness and disguising himself as a great dark knight. Meanwhile Leo’s perception of the demon army begins to change when he starts to discover why the Demon Queen really wants to overthrow the human race.
This was an interesting series. It positions itself as a more light-hearted action fantasy comedy in same vein as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime but by the end turns into something much heavier and darker as it begins to delve into Leo’s past and his true motives for doing what he’s doing. The final three episodes are essentially one long scene that brings the series to a quite engaging climax that can’t help but feel a little at odds with what had come before. The series does feel like it’s a significantly longer manga that has been truncated in places (and a later episode even shows some things I believe may have been cut out in flashback) so it can do proper service to its climax. Basically it’s a 24-episode series that has been wedged into 12 episodes. Unfortunate but it happens all the time. But at least the show was given a proper finale rather than just ending on a random cliffhanger and leaving things open (where the hell is No Game, No Life Season 2!?).
Like most of Sentai’s HD releases of newer series, the 1080p master looks very crisp here, and while this isn’t the highest budget anime out there, it still looks quite nice. In the audio department, we’re given the choice of an English dub and Japanese track with subtitles, both in DTS-HD Stereo, and the audio is very clear and mixed well. For the extras, we have the usual clean OP and ED themes, some Japanese promos and Sentai trailers. But as a nice additional extra we have the Tokuten shorts that were shown on youtube to promote the series. These are little one-minute chibi gag anime and while not mind-blowing, I’m still very happy to see Sentai including these sorts of extras with the release. The disc also includes the bonus post-series 2-part OVA where we find the characters from the anime visiting a hot spring. It’s a decent little stand-alone comedy special but doesn’t add anything to the overall narrative.
Overall, this is a solid fantasy anime that’s worth checking out if you’re looking for something a little deeper than the typical comedy series, and I just want to say again how pleased I am to see Sentai including things like the bonus OVA and Tokuten shorts!