Fai said:
From what I got from this episode:
He also had all those ideas and fantasies/dreams of how his romance would play out(him dying at the lap of his love of his life, etc), but, unlike usual anime characters, has not actually realized on what A REAL commitment would be like. Its not some fairytale with an ending. Its for life.
And he just does not feel like he has anything to offer in the relationship. Demon King, in his eyes,is smart, resourceful, witty, diplomatic - all those things, while Hero sees himself like someone who would fail at anything but swinging his sword at stuff and fighting stuff. He just feels inferior to her and thus, fears eventually ruining the whole romance thing.
I personally like it because it sets him apart from usual "rpg hero" stereotypes in anime, who do not stop to think about real world mature implications of a relationship.
After seeing all the confused post about yuusha's action, I thought I should make an attempt to clarify. The above quote basically explains Yuusha's reasons, but I thought I should make it more clear. The post will be quite long.
Story started with Yuusha rushing to the Demon Castle alone because he thought that was the quickest way to end the War. After seeing Maou, who told him about the truth of the War, he realize he was just another tool by the Central Government. After cutesy interaction yadayada, Maou told Yuusha that she can bring about peace with his help. Thus Yuusha agreed to form the contract with Maou, because his primary goal was to find a way to Peace and end War. Given the intelligence and insight of Maou, he can be the sword to further their ideals.
Something to note is their contract is not merely a contract to mutual possesion of each other, that would be a marriage. It was build upon a similar ideal, curious to how they can contribute to better the world(end War). Maou definitely has a different agenda(to posses Yuusha's body and soul) in mind.
But Yuusha as of currently is still quite hang-up on the reason they formed the contract. Given his role and name, the Hero, there's a greater amount of responsibility he feels towards the contract. That he has a role to fullfil as the Hero, even if he isn't very smart as shown, he knows his responsibility. Although it's fairly obvious he also likes Maou, he doesn't want to get too close with Maou because he's afraid emotions would affect his responsibilities. Also as mentioned by Fai above, he feels inferior to Maou as he is aware of her intelligence, while he's self-aware of his lack of insight. In his mind he thinks his role is just to be the blade and sword of his partner as it's clear Maou has no combat power despite being the "Demon King".
I know responsibility seems stupid at first glance, but the more you mature you'll understand it's importance, moreso in real life than in anime/manga. Even for Love, the responsobility of lifetime commitment is different from a temporary crush.
Thoughts about Maou's strong interest in Yuusha before they even met:
Being the Demon "King", I'm sure she hear news of the Hero, and know what he looks like from her underlings. There is a huge time skip before Yuusha fought his way to the Demon Castle, it's clear she knows what he looks like(evident by her pillow), and generated a crush on him because of his "heroism" we never got to see. Same doesn't apply for the Yuusha tho(thought Maou was a King).
Thoughts about their relationship:
It doesn't really feel rushed if there really isn't any sentimental value in their relationship thus far, I would say their relationship seems lovy-dovy last episode mostly driven by Maou's persistence. But in fact they don't really understand each other that well. I would say they are attracted to each other right now, one more than the other, but they have not formed the strong bond of love yet.
Thoughts on the direction of the anime:
It was made rather clear at episode one, this anime is about Politics and Macro Economics. 1st approach to ending War was education, but obviously it would take at least another generation(30 years or so) before they can see change. 2nd approach was that if the start of war was money and resource, then improving the macroeconomic would be the answer. Would be interesting if they do more development on the Politics later on, as it is shown historically, Wars don't just start with lack of money, but also strong prejudice between race/nation/religion.
Romance and Fantasy mixed in for a twist and not a main focus. Thus why they omitted the action scenes(tho I would have loved to see them, im sure there is more to come). Although there are many similarity to S&W, this is also very different. One is about Microeconomic and one is about Macroeconomic(google it if you dunno what's the difference). If you watch this anime with just the romance in mind, there are way better ones out there. Same with Fantasy/Action there is SAO or other fantasy anime. This anime has been staying quite true to it's focus, at least what I think. But it may dwell deeper into Romance like S&W did in the later episodes, I wouldn't mind that either.
Thoughts about this series overall:
I haven't read the manga or LN, but the pacing feels really rushed. It was harder to pick out the details, which the audience gotta fill in ourselves. Really interesting to see animator taking a bland topic like Economic and incorporating it into anime. I have to admit S&W did a way better job with the execution with the focus on microeconomics. But I'm rather hopeful of Maoyuu, and enjoying it so far. |