The Summer 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero

Ten years ago, the hero Max defeated the Demon Lord. In order to regain his power, the Demon Lord went into a deep slumber...but when he awakens, his body is only a chibi version of its fearsome form. Now curious to see what his enemy is up to, the Demon Lord visits Max, only to discover the mighty hero living in a dirty one-room apartment. The Demon Lord decides to move in with Max and help his old enemy become a formidable opponent once more.

Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero is based on toufu's Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero (LV1 Maō to One Room Yūsha) manga. It streams on HIDIVE on Mondays.

Anticipation ruins many things. For the demon lord, defeated ten years ago and now finally resurrected, that truth is a hard one to swallow, because not only has he reincarnated as a teeny version of himself, the hero he was keen on taking down a few pegs has already taken himself down. As in, after a series of media scandals, he's living the slob life in a one-room apartment. Since the demon lord was hoping for an epic rematch, this is absolutely not living up to his decade-long dreams. And while this is hardly Frieren with a nuanced look at what happens when the hero's fight is done, it's also at least a little bit better than I was expecting based on the plot summary.

In part that's because, silly as it is, it also has an undercurrent of something bitter. Max the hero is clearly not living the life he thought he would, and not only has he lost contact with his old companions Leo and Fred – Yuria, I suspect, is the ghost in his closet – he's also learned some harsh lessons in reality. “Cynical” may not be the way to describe him so much as “beaten down,” and while it's clearly meant to be kind of funny, it's also a pretty apt statement on how society (and social media) treats heroes who don't live up to bloated expectations…or how they simply fade from view once their role is played out. Again, this isn't necessarily looking to make bold statements, but I also didn't expect it to have even this much substance.

At its heart, however, this is an odd-couple comedy, at least in this first episode. After the demon lord sees Max's state, he immediately sets about trying to fix the situation, first simply cleaning up the area he's sitting in and later making the decision to put himself in charge of Max's life, something Max wants to resist, but that would be too much trouble. He tells himself it's because he can't have his long-awaited rematch with Max in his present condition, but it also looks like he just feels sorry for the former hero. The demon lord may have (presumably) tried to take over the world, but he's also still got Zenia, his swimsuit-wearing secretary, to care about what happens to him; Max doesn't even have that. Thus we get a situation where a pint-sized demon begins taking care of a lapsed hero, and if it isn't innovative, it at least has more to it than you might expect.

As seems to be the norm this season, this doesn't look spectacular. The fanservice feels weird and shoehorned in (and entirely about Zenia's inexplicable swimsuit), and I could see Zenia getting annoying very quickly once she becomes a bigger part of the plot. But it also feels like it could be more than it at first appears, and I'll definitely give it a second episode if only to see if I'm right about Yuria.

This one gets off to a rough start. I don't mean the opening sequence, which is just a straightforward setup for the eventual turn into comedy. Rather, I mean our initial introduction to the eponymous Demon Lord's new form, where his demon secretary dresses him up in girly outfits, all while the camera is wedged up the woman's butt as tight as her decidedly not-work-appropriate leotard. It's a weird, unpleasant first impression of both the characters and comedy, and feeds into an overlong setup for a joke that was given away by the synopsis, as the Demon Lord discovers his once proud nemesis is now a depressed shut-in. Frankly, if I hadn't been watching this for work, I'd have probably turned this off by around the 7-minute mark.

Thankfully the show finds better standing after that opening. While I never really laughed through this episode, I could see the humor in the setup, even if “traditionally noble person is now a deadbeat” is a pretty played-out idea in anime these days. I rather liked the bit where Demon Lord googled all of the scandals that lead Max to his current state, as it paints the picture of somebody who couldn't handle the celebrity of being a capital H Hero, poorly combating the press while doing his own image no favors. That's a pretty believable downfall for a young, overconfident hero who just took down the world's greatest evil. It's a solid bit of characterization to give this fantasy domestic comedy some identity, and Demon Lord chuckling at the snappy headlines at Max's expense was probably the most charming moment of it all. If the show can deliver more moments like that, it may be worth keeping around.

That said, I also mentioned I didn't really laugh throughout this episode, and that's not a great sign for the rest of the show. Maybe things will liven up – comedies like this often do once they introduce the supporting cast – but this premiere mostly got by on being pleasant and well-timed rather than busting guts or whacking funny bones. In a stronger season, I probably wouldn't even consider watching more, but with such slim pickings on the horizon, I'm inclined to give the series a little more time to prove its comedy chops. It at least looks nice, when the camera isn't trying to fit into the folds of Zenia's wedgie, and the central cast gives strong performances that are energetic without becoming grating. I guess we'll see with this one.

I could see some folks getting turned off (or, on, I suppose) by the first few minutes of Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero since this is clearly a show that was made by proud perverts. Not only do we have the reincarnated and very tiny Demon Lord being made to (unwittingly?) cross-dress in a bunch of fetishized outfits by his assistant, who herself walks around in high heels and a one-piece swimsuit for some reason, but we also spend a significant amount of time with the camera zoomed right up into darkest corners of that secretary's nether regions. It's so brazen that it is, admittedly, kind of funny, and when you factor in the multiple masturbation/sex toy gags that we get once the Demon Lord makes his way to Max the Hero's grungy apartment, it's clear that this show is purposefully leaning into the shlocky comedy. Still, I wouldn't blame anyone for reflexively bowing out before this premiere has the chance to get going.

I'd recommend that you stick it out, though, because the first thing I realized after coming to the “Damn, this show is horny as hell!" conclusion was “Aw, it's actually pretty cute and funny!” We've seen this dynamic before, where a magically smollified villain ends up becoming besties with their sworn archnemesis, but Level 1 Hero has enough charm, humor, and genuinely impressive production values to stand out from the crowd. Sure, the repeated references to Max's scuzzy behavior and sex scandals give the whole thing a rather crusty edge, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It just makes moments like when the Demon Lord casually walks back into the apartment with a bag full of groceries that much cuter.

As I said, Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero is not making any apologies for the pervy lens that it often applies to its material, but like so many anime fans, I've been desensitized to this brand of weirdness enough to be able to go along with its shenanigans and have a good time. It won't be to everyone's taste, but if you're looking for a legitimately funny, good-looking, and cute buddy comedy to watch, then this might be the one for you. Either that or maybe you just want to stare at that Demon lady's butt some more. Don't worry, I won't judge you either way.

The protagonist of Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero kind of works as a metaphor for the show itself: there's a real hero hiding under there somewhere, underneath all the layers of garbage and years of reclusiveness. Similarly, there's a good show hiding somewhere under all the off-color, uncomfortable horniness. The real question is, do you want to be like the demon lord and hang around long enough to dig it out?

It had me for a second, there. I was almost ready to overlook the extraordinarily gratuitous, detailed close-ups of the Demon Lord's secretary's dump truck or the unnecessary and unfunny sequence of her playing dress-up with him for funsies. When the Demon Lord found Max hiding out in his one-room apartment with the blinds shut, surrounded by garbage bags, rather than being out and living the high life, I thought that maybe Max, unable to function as anything but a warrior, had grown depressed and withdrawn from a world where he felt increasingly irrelevant. I had a vision of a slightly pensive but heartwarming buddy comedy where, with the help of his old nemesis, the wounds in Max's heart can finally heal and he finds a new purpose in life. I was even willing to put up with all the jokes crusty cumrags and masturbation aids.

But no! Turns out Max is nothing but a common scumbag who ended up disgraced after sex scandal after sex scandal piled up like the garbage bags in his room. To be honest, all the gags about him jacking off and the number of women he banged paint the picture of a sad sex addict who can't stop himself, but based on the tenor of the episode and how events unfolded, I doubt it's going to be introspective enough to really contemplate the implications involved there. I don't want to spend another minute around this creep, which I'm sure works for both of us because that's another minute he gets to spend manhandling himself.

But, if this all sounds appealing to you, I actually think Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero might be worth giving a shot. It certainly wasn't to my taste, but I could still see that it pulled off its punchlines most of the time, and the animation was more than serviceable for what it was trying to do. It's competent, even if it's not for me.

I'll say this: Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero worked hard to help me reaffirm something I've long since known about myself. It takes a lot more than a series of close-ups of an anime girl's butt to engage me in an anime.

Simply put, this is another show where the basic setup has already been used more than once—i.e., a demon lord and hero living in poverty in a modern Japanese setting. In fact, in just over a week, we'll have the return of the anime that made this setting popular in the first place. Of course, that's not to say the two are identical. There are numerous small twists on the setup. Honestly, it could blaze its own path from here on out to become something truly unique.

However, this first episode is largely predictable. It's simply introducing all the characters and setting up the general dilemma for the series, with little else. For the most part, it was so paint-by-numbers that I found myself bored—and when I get bored, I start overthinking the details.

This anime's world is, for all intents and purposes, modern Japan. The city and buildings in it adhere to standard Japanese architecture, right down to the room our hero, Max, is living in. But this raises the question: in a world of magic, why would technology evolve in the same way as in our world? Technology exists to solve problems. If magic can already accomplish something that certain technologies can, then those technologies wouldn't exist—they wouldn't be necessary. And since technology is an ongoing series of needs that have been overcome, it seems illogical for a world with magic to be identical to our own.

Now, of course, I understand it. The creator of Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero wanted the story to have a modern world but with the concept of heroes and demon lords being present. Several of the gags in the first episode deal with Max's failures as a celebrity—how the modern press and his ego contributed to his downfall. However, without anything to keep me entertained, the unbelievability of the world became an annoying itch and drew my focus right up until the episode's end.

Maybe this series will become something fun on its own now that the setup is out of the way. But I feel no need to give it another chance.