Demon Lord, Retry! R

KANLen09★ 1

Demon Lord, Retry! R - Wait a minute, this isn't the Maou-sama, Retry! that we remember from time past...what's going on? In my own thinking, there is kind of an unwritten rule when it comes to shows and their continuations: the further development of the story plot and its characters into something that we are already familiar with, and no tampering of anything that is outside of its picture. Yet, in the current landscape of the AniManga industry, we have shows like The Promised Neverland diverging from its story to become one of the most infamous examples of a rushed plot. And in this season, thiscan be debated if novelist Kurone Kanzaki's Maou-sama, Retry! a.k.a Demon Lord, Retry!'s series is intended to be as such, but it's quite the confusion that, ultimately, to loyal fans like myself who've really enjoyed Season 1 despite its low-budget aesthetics, it feels like a slap in the face for that dissonance alone. For starters, if you're thinking that Retry! R is continuing the adaptation of the LN as Season 2, then I'm sorry to disappoint you that it is wedged in a weird spot that can be hard to get around. Despite the sequel adapting Volumes 3 to 5 of the LN, it's the decision to follow the "revamped" manga under the "Retry! R" name that just adds to the confusion to let people who've watched Season 1 think that they're watching something else instead of what is supposed to be THE continuation of the original source material. In actuality, it's just the differential marketing for the manga adaptation of the LN under a different name, but the story actually remains colloqually the exact same. And boy, what a convoluted story does the sequel bring to the audience, thinking that Season 1 was produced on the cheap and that the sequel can improve things further. You definitely can feel what the sequel brought: its "revamped" Midas touch, and it's just all sorts of messed up. There's just nothing redeemable about this whatsoever, in any shape or form. God, where do I start with the bad outings of Retry! R? Demon Lord Hakuto Kunai now transforms from a badass bamboo lord to an oversized, fat, plump lord that nothing about him resembles his character to that of Season 1. The cute and adorable Aku is nowhere to be found, and in her place stands Luna Elegant dealing with the intricacies of kingdom politics with being on-screen more with the shenanigans of Hakuto still dealing with his troubles. To add to the matter, Hakuto's NPC summons become more prevalent, but their usefulness only matters towards the plot that needs immediate intervention with clear threats to be dealt with. And this plot, it's all over the place with no recourse nor explanation that would only serve as the basis for knowledge wars against people who understand and people who don't (and I fall under the latter). The saying of "too many cooks spoil the broth" definitely rears its ugly head here, and too many "notable" characters are there for God knows why they're there in the first place, for the bigger of the plot picture that's like a puzzle that has numerous pieces to link together but could not do so for the life of thee. I'm even as baffled to say that despite being a bigger studio than the one that came before it, the combined efforts of Season 1 handled by Ekachi Epilka and director Hiroshi Kimura is leaps and bounds better than what 3rd-rate director Kazuomi Koga and studio Gekkou have given us for these 3 months. What a difference 5 years makes, but for the very worst, and why the decision to remake parts of Season 1 with updated visuals is beyond me. And don't get me started on the music, because it's comical-like circus BGM was the constant white noise that we're all questioning: whose idea was it to add such constraining MIDI-level music on top of just about every scene used that is mind-numbingly jarring? Not even the OST is worth noting, let alone being forgettable and perfectly skippable. What a sequel Maou-sama, Retry! R a.k.a Demon Lord, Retry! R is, and has become, and will be a permanent reality that we cannot unsee anymore. Stick to the original source materials, LN or manga-wise, and please stay at least an Isekai portal away from this horrid mess of a byproduct of a decent and enjoyable prequel.

jenkitsune★ 3

DO NOT WATCH EPISODES 1 AND 2 ! Please, PLEASE, I beg you. If you want to enjoy this season at all. Please skip episodes one and two. It is true that Demon Lord, Retry! R is done by a completely different animation studio and has mostly different voice actors from the original Demon Lord, Retry. It is also true that that Demon Lord, Retry! R adapts the manga, where the original season of Demon Lord Retry adapted the novel, two noticeably different interpretations of the story. However these differences do not make Demon Lord, Retry! R unwatchable. It is instead the first and second episodes ofDemon Lord, Retry! R that have caused most viewers to drop Demon Lord, Retry! R and completely give up on the series all together. While the rest of Demon Lord, Retry! R falls far short of the first season, the first two episodes are significantly worse in quality and writing than the rest of the season. It feels as if the first two episodes were a job forced onto a group of interns that had no knowledge of the series and no love for the characters, not to mention a complete lack of artistic skill or talent. Put simply the first two episodes of Demon Lord, Retry! R are nothing more than recaps of some points of the first season. But instead of properly recapping what happened before, they make a mockery of the beloved first season by redoing the previous scenes in childish lazy and unskilled artwork and blatantly changing the dialogue from the first season to parody versions that change the tone of main characters and besmirch their core values and tenants. Trust me, please just start from episode 3 and pretend the first two do not exist. For fans or knowledgeable viewers, skipping episodes 1 and 2 will preserve your happy memories of the first season, manga, or novel, and you will already have all the knowledge you need to continue onward. For those with no knowledge of the first season or source material, you do not need the recap episodes because the plotline of the second season starts on an entirely different continent and all necessary information on the characters or situation will be filled in during the following episodes in flashbacks. For season two, episodes 3 onward can stand on their own. Please watch them and enjoy the season for what it is. Thank you.