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REVIEW: Kyo Kara Maoh! DVD 2.8-2.9

It's heavy stuff with nary a boys-love gag in sight; anything less would have been anticlimactic. But it still isn't what Kyo kara Maoh! does best.

As personable as the pretty-boy cast is, there isn't much to them outside of their central quirks.

It's hard to care much what happens to them, and even harder to believe that the softhearted writers would actually do something irrevocably nasty to them.

irrevocably nasty

It's a facsimile of a climax, going through all the right motions, but without the muscle to make them work. There is never any doubt as to the ultimate outcome of the conflict with the Originators, and consequently no tension or excitement as the climax unfolds.

Nishimura wisely emphasizes Yuri's inner conflict—which unfolds largely in stills inside an eerily empty simulacrum of his home—over epic warfare that the budget is plainly incapable of supporting. He also makes the most of the continually inscrutable Murata, whose wild-card behavior not only drives the final act, but also provides the only genuine surprise these volumes have to offer.

It's heavy stuff with nary a boys-love gag in sight; anything less would have been anticlimactic

Kyo kara Maoh!'s English dub is far from the worst you'll hear.

But neither is this one of the better dubs you're likely to hear. It isn't unusual for characters to get their inflections off or flatten their delivery, and for all the well-intentioned sprucing of the duller dialogue, the script is still too staid for it's own good.