Kyo Kara Maoh! - God Save Our King! Volume 1
By: Kimberly Godwin - June 2, 2005

This article was originally posted on PlanetExile.com

In many cultures, it is believed that water is a gateway to other worlds. But even with that in mind, the idea of getting “flushed” down a toilet is traumatic enough without being taken to a new world. When this happens to Yuri he is indeed troubled but even more so when he is told that he is the new Demon King. With such an odd beginning to a series, Kyo Kara Maoh! promises to be very interesting with some off the wall humor.

Yuri is a fairly average Japanese high school boy with a very strong love for baseball and aside from being told that the Greater Demon Kingdom is his real world, he's lived a fairly normal life. In this new world, he is a member of the Demon Tribe with his black hair and black eyes and his black high school uniform marks him as a member of royalty plus, the Demon tribe is at war with humans. The culture shock that Yuri experiences is incredible with very strange new customs, which get him into a bit of trouble. But luckily, Yuri is not alone in his situation and has several comrades, (Conrad, Gunter, Wolfram, and Gwendell) whom protect and advise him on his duties as king.

The overall look of the series is typical of the normal Shounen ai series with very pretty men and very few but pretty women. Every so often, the animation changes to single watercolor still shots for dramatic impact before switching back to the usual animation. There is innuendous humor but it is mostly kept off screen and many of the boy love relationships are implied or subtly stated. Of course, there is also the pre-requisite rpg game, and magical girl series in-jokes that are expected in this type of storyline. It is overall an enjoyable series with intriguing characters once you get past the boy love.