Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 8 - The Conspiracy in the Moonlight

Trouble's a-brewin' for Yuuri once more - seems that the ex-Regent, Stoffel, wants to regain some of his former power, so he orders his subordinate Raven to send in assassins. However, most of the episode is taken up with Yuuri getting pulled back into Makoku and associated hijinks, wherein he meets the High Priestess that controls when he travels between worlds and Wolfram generally gets jealous.

KKM! is in danger of getting stale. The Wolfram engagement joke is wearing thin, frankly, although that nightie is really quite astounding... and while there are some interesting bits of political plotting going on they're not really developed much - fair enough, this is a fairly light-hearted series as it is, but it seems a little one-dimensional and predictable. Hopefully Gwendal will kick some ninja ass next episode.

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 7 - Gone Wild? Straying? Maken Activated!

Rick and Yuuri face off - turns out Rick was a pirate after all. After Yuuri beats him but refuses to kill him, the archers around the arena shoot Rick and almost shoot Yuuri - however, Morgiv devours the soul of a man who has a heart attack in the audience, giving it indigestion and thus blowing away all the archers with the power of its vomit. Yup. So Yuuri and co. escape on Cecilie's ship, having incurred the wrath of the humans, but all is well since it turns out the bald guy on the ship was a relative of the human king so there will be peace between the races for now. Yuuri gets sucked back to his own world again, too.

Another fun episode, with inspired moments of random lunacy - Gwendal is one seriously weird man. I can see the series not really going anywhere, to be honest, but these little adventure storylines are fun enough of themselves to carry the show. The shounen ai is quite incredibly silly, though.

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 6 - The Cannibal Maken. The Fear of Morgiv?

Yuuri and co. quest to get Morgiv, which has turned a peaceful mountain lake into a seething pool of water that only the Maou's flesh may enter safely. So Yuuri has to get naked to pick up the demon sword, which is starving for souls - and all their best efforts to steal dying human souls fail when Wolfram's beauty cures every sick person they come across. Yozak and Conrad rope Yuuri into entering a gladiatorial fight to try and get some energy for Morgiv - but who should his first opponent be but Rick, the cabin boy Yuuri made friends with last episode. Oh, and Gunther and Gwendal get high on fortune-telling potion fumes.

The amount of mileage they've got out of Wolfram being a pretty boy (does he have a male seiyuu?) is astounding. I think this storyline should finish pretty soon, which is quite nice since it doesn't really have enough substance for an entire series (take note, Saiyuki, you must have gone THROUGH the bleeding West by now...) My one complaint about the show is that I don't really like the main characters aside from Yuuri and Conrad, since the others are a bit too much like charicatures - although it's a nice change from the immediate angsty backstory onslaught other such shows might give the audience, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more depth to Gunther and Gwendal in particular (Gwendal with that kitten was just...wrong on SO many levels).

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 5 - Sailor Uniform and the Irrational Child

First off - is it me, or are Studio Deen incredibly lazy when it comes to ending animations? THREE shoujo shows of theirs now - Fruits Basket, Full Moon wo Sagashite and KKM! - do the whole "box-out re-run the episode" thing for their EDs, and frankly it's a bit cheeky if you ask me. We want more like the MaLoki ED, thank you! (the less said about Yamibou the better...)

Anyway, on with the show. Yuuri and Conrad (alongside a seasick, lovelorn Wolfram) are on their way to find Morgiv, and have hitched a ride on a human boat. After Yuuri does some dancing and makes friends with a cabin boy, the ship gets invaded by pirates, who are eventually defeated when Yuuri goes all Maou on them and summons a giant skeleton made up of food scraps. They end up getting arrested for being Mazoku, but are freed by a random bodyguard who had been dressed up as a woman for the boat ride.

Wolfram is so blatantly in love with Yuuri - "I can't believe you danced with a woman!" and so on. Yet Conrad is a much nicer person. Although I reckon they'll just keep it as an innuendo sort of thing, which suits me much better. Anyway, yeah, all fine and groovy - now we've settled in to the characters and so forth the series is that much more enjoyable.

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 4 - Now it's the Ultimate Weapon?!

Yuuri's back on Earth playing baseball once more, but gets transported back to Makoku whilst in the public baths after the game - and, of course, ends up in the baths of Gwendal's palace. He refuses to declare war on the human race so they come up with a new plan - to get the Maken Morgiv, a fearsome weapon that should scare away the humans. We also get a little background on Yuuri's mum, who is obsessed with cute fantasy stuff, and meet Anissina, Gwendal's invention-crazy childhood friend who usually ropes Gunther into her crazy schemes (see the OP for more...)

There's not a lot to say about this episode - it's more of the same, basically. Which is a good thing, because KKM! is great fun, especially since it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 3 - Shibuya Yuuri! I am the Maou!

Yuuri decides to become the Maou after an incident involving Adalbert and the burning of a village, but gets pulled back to his own world during his coronation ceremony. But you're not here for that, right? Perhaps a better summary would be SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH female doctor SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH rain SLASH SLASH thong aaaaand the end. I am so ashamed to be enjoying this as much as I am - mainly thanks to Yuuri, who while being an idiot a lot of the time is quite likeable for a shounen-ai hero (I'm looking at YOU, Gravitation). Plus we DID get an Emancipation of the Flying Skeletons moment, which appeals to the revolutionary in me.

Dropping Konomini, I really just can't be arsed now when I reckon I'm going to be continually disappointed with the series (more a reflection on me than anything else I guess). May drop Panda Z too, I can't be bothered to download the next episode.

Kyou Kara Maou! Episode 2 - Decisive Battle! Beautiful Boy vs. Baseball Boy!

Hmm, slightly suspect naming in the fansub I watched, I'm going to make up my own methinks...

Yuuri meets the previous Maou, Cecilia, in the baths - turns out Wolfram, Conrad and Gwendel are all her children (although Conrad is half human). Wolfram is a prejudiced little bigot, and after insulting Yuuri's lineage Yuuri slaps him - only to discover that this is a method of proposal - and then picks up a knife that Wolfram dropped - accepting a duel, apparently. As Yuuri prepares for the duel, he bonds with Conrad when he discovers Conrad named him, and Conrad gives him the blue pendant that was so prominent in the previous episode.

So, Yuuri gets to choose the duel. And he chooses... sumo. To Wolfram's great embarrassment. Unsurprisingly, Yuuri wins, and Wolfram gets very pissed off and starts thwacking away with his sword. Yuuri fights back the only way he can think of - by playing baseball with his scabbard, disarming Wolfram easily. After Wolfram gets all pissy (AGAIN) and throws a fireball at Yuuri and misses, Yuuri goes all let-my-power-awaken, grows his hair and beats up Wolfram with some magic water dragon things (I don't know what they were, but they were cool). So now Gwendel accepts that Yuuri is the Maou, Wolfram is engaged and incredibly pissed off, Conrad is proud of his boy, and Gunther is having naughty dreams about Yuuri in a speedo.

This show's great, it's just so silly but it's got some substance in there with the randomness. Wonder if Cecilia's going to try and assassinate Yuuri? She manipulated Wolfram into getting engaged to him and he's next in line to be Maou anyway, or so I gathered from the dialogue.

Kyou Kara Maou! episode 1- Flushed Away to a Strange World

Opening - Hateshinaku Tooi Sora ni (THE STAND UP) - I wonder why bishounen/shounen-ai shows always get cheesy sort-of rock songs for OPs nowadays instead of frenetic pop songs like they used to? Obviously the Weiss era has moved on. Oh, it's fine, quite a good OP, but the song's very much in the Saiyuki mould (although nothing beats the sheer crap of WILE WILE ROAH!)
Ending - Suteki na Shiawase (same again) - more cheese, and the chibis suggest that Gunter and Wolfram will be chasing after Yuri's affections at some point.

It's Fushigi Yuugi! Without Miaka! And a whole lot more intentional shounen ai!

Right, we've got that out the way. Our central character is Yuri, who in a fit of justice tries to defend a classmate from bullies but ends up being flushed down the toilet into an alternate universe. As you do. Well, first he thinks he's been flushed to the Alps, obviously - this is a comedy, if you couldn't tell.

Yuri is not welcomed kindly by the natives, but is bestowed the gift of understanding their speech by a passing blond man named something like Ardabelt or Adelbert. Yuri is then carried off by flying skeleton to a castle having been rescued again by Conrad (who wears the same pendant that Yuri's dad did in a small prologue at the beginning, and laters enquires "Do your buttocks hurt at all?") where we get the lowdown on what's going on from him and Gunter, who has purple hair and dotes on Yuri's every move. Seems that Yuri is the "Maou", the king of the Mazoku (some sort of demonic race) and they need him to kill all humans. After a brief ride through the capital city is interrupted by a fly stinging Yuri's horse and sending him racing up to the palace, where we meet our last two main characters, Gwendel (who hates him) and Wolfram (obviously a love interest).

It's pretty refreshing to see a bishounen-filled show that leavens the angst with a bit of humour while still managing to have a vaguely interesting plot in there somewhere - sort of Fushigi Yuugi crossed with a very slimmed down version of Twelve Kingdoms, perhaps. The characters are a little cliched, as to be expected, but they're all pleasant enough - Yuri is a little bit of a moron, but a fairly likeable one. Besides, as long as there are nicely animated magic spells I'll probably be happy. This'll probably be my guilty pleasure of the season, like Matantei Loki Ragnarok and DN Angel were this time last year.