// warning: word vomit ahead (this is the only series I have to do these warnings for lmao) //
Wow, I finally finished up the main series after two months and a half...it was an interesting ride, for sure, and I don't regret watching it. I love the series in general, but the anime adaptation, much like the manga adaptation, falls short of the novels. Really short.
I'm glad to see people share the opinion that this ending was anti-climactic; it was the only thing on my mind while watching this episode. Anti-climactic and predictable. Like, come on, I know we all saw Yuri being able to come back.
I think it was interesting to watch and see the eventual divergence from the novels, and kinda be like "Okay, wonder where they're going to go with this." Did they do a good job, though? Honestly, I don't really think so.
To begin with, the animation just wasn't good. That was what bothered me most through the entirety of my watch. It was wonky about 99.9% of the time, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in a past thread before, but the characters almost always looked half-baked. The colours were pretty and vibrant, but that's literally all the visuals had going for them. 78 half-hour episodes, and I can count off the top of my head around 3 episodes where the characters didn't look like janky misshapen Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads for the majority of their screentime. I get that it's a product of it's time and that more episodes usually mean an expected downgrade in quality in anime productions, but in Kyou Kara Maou it's kinda overkill and it's disappointing because again, it's a great series all in all.
Furthermore, storywise, it was definitely lacking. The whole boxes ordeal was really exciting to read in the novels, with a lot of twists and turns and suspenseful buildups. With the anime, I feel like a lot of that suspense and excitement is lost because of "simplified" they made it. That's probably why the ending here feels anti-climactic. The characters also seemingly don't develop that much here--because they just didn't go through the same heavy stuff they did in the novels that caused those changes.
I wish they'd waited until the 2010s to make the adaptation, and stuck more to the novels in the process. The novels are so cool and complex and I think had the anime come more later, they'd have done a better job with it in terms of story and animation. There's a lot of great stuff in the novels that never had a chance to get adapted and would've made things better than just a bunch of guys standing around with mouths gaping open while another guy(s) in trouble...multiple times. Seriously, these last 20 or so episodes really pissed me off lmao.
If I had to sum it up, I'd say the anime is basically a dumbed-down adaptation. It's fun for what it's worth; there are definitely some cute original moments and hijinks here and there, I loved the voice-acting, with the exception of the godawful Wolfram who made me want to rip out my fucking eardrums if he so much as grunted, and of course, the mere existence of Conrad who makes literally everything better (God bless the beautiful Toshiyuki Morikawa for breathing even more life into this beautiful creature.)
It's definitely better than the shitshow the last 11 volumes of the manga was, though (which I vehemently refuse to accept as canon--the manga ends at the halfpoint exactly for me.) I still implore anyone who's taken an interest in the series to read the novels, and if possible, read them before watching or reading the manga...or maybe just skip the manga altogether lmao.
I'm giving this one an 8/10. I liked it, I love Maruma in general, but I really wish it could've been better. I'm looking forward to the OVAs and the third series--just to see what more they can cook up. Plus, it's just always good to see more of Conrad. You can never have too much Conrad.
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