Say you are some powerful high ranking general of a force. The Demon Lord’s army. Nobody could beat you. Not even put a scratch on you. Must be boring. Even if the hero and his comrades continue to be stubborn and keep challenging you, the outcome is always the same. You always win against the weaklings. So boring. That is of course until you realize one of his party members is a real hot cutie pie. So what you do? Like any virgin boy in love, you confess to her! Oh wow. Takes guts but yeah. It happened. That is the power of love for you! The most powerful force ever in the entire universe! Bringing the most powerful general down to his knees! And thus it is the case of Yuusha Party Ni Kawaii Ko Ga Ita Node Kokuhaku Shitemita. Yeah, the spoiler is already in the title itself. All because for the sake of love, you quit the army and now you’re going be a normal guy, do good stuffs so you can be in her good books and earn her love. Oh yeah. You gotta love the power of love!
Episode 1
The hero’s party is going to fight the Demon Lord but first they have to fight their captain, Yoki. Spoiler alert: They lost. However Yoki spots this cute priestess, Cecilia Aquarain and is smitten with her. As his subordinates tease him about it, he has them throw out the unconscious hero’s party. The Demon Lord is pleased that nobody can best Yoki but is stumped he doesn’t kill his enemies. Too weak to be worth killing? In that case, he will order his men to do so. Yoki advises against it as they are not strong enough but promises to do so the next time. When the next time the hero’s party mounts another challenge, it seems Yoki is willing to let them go ahead and fight the Demon Lord as long as they leave Cecilia behind here. Eh? They deliberate on this and since Cecilia is okay with it (just 1 girl for millions of lives), they go ahead. Yoki then confesses he loves her! However she rejects him! Thinking it is to let her guard down, she soon realizes he is serious. He has no more motivation and couldn’t care less about everything. Better off dead? Yoki reveals he is actually a human from another world but reincarnated here as a demon. He doesn’t want to do all of this and even if he is stronger than the Demon Lord and can take him out, he doesn’t want to replace him and do all this. So he’d rather stay where he is now and be stuck in his room here. Until of course he first met Cecilia and he felt most alive since becoming a demon. Cecilia notes his great power and wants to come with her to the outside world to help others. Soon, the Demon Lord is defeated and the kingdom of Clariness declares 3 days of celebration.
Yoki disguises himself as human as he tries to register himself as an adventurer at the guild. He gets registered and sloppily told the ranking system by this rude and moody receptionist, Kramen. A few days later, Yoki has levelled up a few ranks and seeks more quest from Kramen who is not fond of his quick rise. That is when Cecilia shows up and invites Yoki to her home. As a friend of course. She requests him to quit the guild. You see, even when the Demon Lord is defeated, the demons are monsters threats are still around. Even more so, there will be fights among human nations for supremacy. The hero already has received many proposals and offers. If they find Yoki is ranking up quickly, they would think he is a worthy fighter and will try to recruit him. His normal days would be over. To help with his living expenses, she will hire him. Yoki assures that no matter what others offer him, he will reject them for he only has eyes for her! So cheesy so she laughs but it is so reassuring. She lets him stay at the guild. Soon, Yoki meets Cecilia’s mom, Celia. She mentions Cecilia has offered many marriage proposals including the hero. You worried, Yoki? Of course all turned down. Celia knows Yoki loves Cecilia and offers her hand in marriage. Yoki declines as he already shared his feelings but she turned him down. So now he is trying to make a decent living as an adventurer and in the future hopes to ask her again. Celia is happy and passes him. Just a test. Can’t hand her daughter so easily, eh? First step, Yoki and Cecilia agree to address each other as so.
Episode 2
While fighting monsters in the woods, Yoki is accidentally being attacked by his former comrades, Duke, Shiek and Happiness. Luckily they recognize each other and learn what is going on. As they want to see the girl whom he has fallen, they too disguise as humans and visit Cecilia’s home. Talking with Cecilia, Yoki can’t believe Duke is now so talkative although he credits Yoki for that change. He also admits he once hated Yoki at first. When the commander, Zaekill ordered him to do something, Yoki often went into his chuunibyou state. He got tired of it and let him be. Duke then wanted to teach him a lesson but got his ass handed back. Soon, they find Shiek sleeping on Celia’s lap. Don’t worry, she loves all children. What about Happiness? Head maid Sophia just turned her into one! She thought she’s the new recruit. However Happiness wants to work here. Celia then hints to Yoki to take Cecilia out tomorrow to take her mind off her work. Is this a date? You bet Yoki is up for it but in the streets, they bump into Cecilia’s comrades, Yuga and Mikana. Seems Yuga is interested in Cecilia, much to Mikana’s chagrin. There goes her date with the hero. It also seems Yuga is trying to compete with Yoki to buy bigger and more expensive gifts for Cecilia. A slip up causes Cecilia’s disguise to drop. The public now recognize them and goes to hound them.
Yoki soon sees Raven (the taciturn swordsman for the hero’s party) uncomfortably being hounded by girls. So, the girls leave when Yoki says Yuga is around? We know the pecking order now… Yoki then realizes Raven sounds like a girl! This is the reason he doesn’t talk much for fear of people making fun of it. Because Yoki will not laugh, Raven hopes they can become friends. Yoki reunites with Cecilia and they spend the rest of the day helping a lost boy reunite with his mother. Due to exhaustion, Cecilia collapses but it is not life threatening and is resting at home. Celia doesn’t fault Yoki. Though, Yuga was also here trying to visit but Sophia managed to shoo him away. Yoki goes to see her in her room as she ‘blames’ him for ruining her day off. So to make it up, he’ll have to go out with her again on her next day off. Okay? Okay. So happy this guy, he starts to act chuunibyou and this loudness has Sophia throw him out of the house. On the way out, he bumps into Raven who is asking him for love advice. He’ll try to help. Raven claims he is interested in someone who also did not mock his girly voice. Not confident in confessing his feelings, Yoki gives him the motivation and other good stuffs he has. So go for it! You can do it! Raven is now confident and heads on. This is when Yoki questioning what on earth is Raven doing here. Don’t tell me the girl he likes is Cecilia?!
Episode 3
Yoki frets over this and by that time, Raven leaves and he looks dejected. Oh, rejected I presume. So when Yoki goes back, he is surprised to hear from Sophia that Raven went to see Happiness. Oh. Yoki then talks to Happiness about it but she refuses to talk further. Thus Yoki talks to Shiek and Duke to discuss about Happiness and Raven. Duke has his doubts about Happiness having a human by her side. As a harpy, she attracts humans and many become her slaves. That is why Duke joined the Demon Lord’s army to keep humans away from her. Yoki goes to the guild looking for Kramen. To his surprise, he learns he is the vice guild master and is currently in hospital. He visits him there and it seems he got his injuries from his wife! Yeah, he was taking too long to decide on an anniversary gift so the shopkeeper kicked him out. He came home late and his wife thought he forgot all about it and beat him up! Embarrassing. He tells his history with his wife as they were a pair of adventurers in their heydays. Be further surprised because Kramen’s wife is Sophia! Yoki asks for suggestions for buying gifts for girls. Hope Kramen didn’t give him funny ideas because Sophia doesn’t look too impressed. Yoki then goes to see Raven to ask how he knew Happiness. One day out in town patrolling, he saw a maid being bullied by ruffians. He saved her and as she thanked him, he accidentally let slip his voice. However she found it beautiful. Yoki says Happiness is not good in dealing with men and has her own issues. But don’t give up yet.
In town as they are browsing for gifts, they stumble into Mikana. She knows about Yoki’s crush on Cecilia but can’t imagine Raven too has a sweetheart. But even Mikana herself has her own woes and it is no surprise that she is in love with Yuga but thinks she made him hate her. Looks like the hero’s party has strained relationship. She reveals the thing that has torn them apart: They lost to the Demon Lord many times! And not even the Demon Lord himself but one of his captains! Each time they were defeated and passed by a village home, the villagers gave them free stuffs because they were happy thinking they were working hard. Obviously the hero’s party were piling up the lies until that ultimate day came when Yoki made that offer to leave Cecilia behind. As it was Mikana’s decision to let Cecilia be left behind, she is sure Yuga cannot forgive her for that cruel choice. Basically she sacrificed Cecilia just because she liked Yuga. She hasn’t talked to her since because it’s awkward. Of course she doesn’t want things to end like that so she will give it more thought as Yoki suggests. Yoki and Raven visit Sophia’s place with Raven’s intention to see Happiness. However Duke will not allow Raven to see her because he can’t even voice up. When Raven does speak out, he is confused on what to say to her. Duke then just lets him go see her and this is all part of his plan to play the villain and testing him. Raven sees Happiness and apologizes for that day. He gives her a present and hopes they can be friends. She’s okay with that. Well done.
Episode 4
Learning Cecilia is free today, Yoki thinks of paying a visit. However a fortune teller nearby says he will have bad luck. He doesn’t believe in that crap but soon finds out he may have bad luck. From getting ruined pastries from the usual bakery (because macho big brother made them instead of that cutie sister) to bumping into a gangster to almost stepping on poo and then having to buy a kid who dropped his meat skewer, finally he almost got pickpocketed. When Yoki gets his money back, Yuga thinks he stole it and arrests him! Thanks to Duke, he gets bailed out and soon Yuga realizes the err of his ways. To atone, Yuga treats him to lunch and he only does so because Raven wrote him a written lecture. Yuga also wants to ask Yoki’s advice on how to be friends with Cecilia. Well, you’re friends with her, right? Yoki and Raven can’t give good advice. What about Mikana? Yuga thinks she hates her. However Yoki is not happy that Yuga is blaming Mikana for making the decision to leave Cecilia behind then. Yoki corrects him as told by Mikana but with Yuga still not accepting that it was not his idea to abandon Cecilia, Yoki tells him off blaming others doesn’t make him look cool. Yuga starts crying?! WTF?! Yuga tells his past with Mikana. Basically they are childhood friends and she always scolds him because she cares about him. So Yuga goes to see Mikana (WHILE CHANGING!) Just to apologize and wants her to scold him?! WTF?! Since when he turned masochist?! You bet she is happy to oblige! With Yoki’s luck changed, we see bakery sister compensating him with better pastries and that meat skewer kid turns out to be a noble and returns the favour. More meat skewers for Yoki? Yoki finally has his time with Cecilia. But soon Yuga barges in and wants her to scold him! WTF DUDE???!!! Apparently Raven and Mikana are also here as they apologize together for that day of abandoning her. However Cecilia doesn’t blame them. Because after they defeated the Demon Lord, they came back worried for her. Therefore, she finds they did nothing wrong. Later Yoki gives Cecilia a necklace gift he bought. She likes it and this makes him so happy that he cries.
Episode 5
Yoki is happy to accompany Cecilia for a mission. Could’ve been a perfect outing had not Shiek tag along too. Shucks. In this remote town, Cecilia heals all the villagers who have been hurt by a recent bandit attack. The chief notes that because somebody appeared and killed the bandits, no villagers were killed. He hopes Cecilia can go take a look at a girl named Teal who lives in the outskirts. She was born with a weak constitution. As they go see her and give her some medicine, she believes this must be the work of the local guardian deity. Each time she was in danger, this deity was always there to save her. Finding this suspicious, she brings them to where the statue is. After the girls return, this gargoyle statue starts attacking them but is easily subdued. He backs down learning they aren’t here to kill him. He explains his origins that he was originally made to guard a temple but thieves stole him. Then when they attacked this village, he killed them. The villagers have since worshipped him as a local deity but only Teal visits and cleans the place. Because he only lives here and doesn’t cause harm to normal humans, Yoki writes him out as the attackers. Soon, the bandits return to attack the village but this time Yoki and co are here to protect. Easily taken care of. As fire is seen from the statue, Yoki sends Shiek there while he finishes up the rest of the bandits.
When Yoki later checks on Shiek, this kid is down. Turns out the one who attacked him is Miller, the hero from Gallis Empire. Miller thought the gargoyle was attacking Teal when he was only protecting her. Shiek tried to protect them but got defeated. Miller wants to kill all and his special sword absorbs all magic. However Yoki continues to throw magic at him. Miller’s goal is to start war because he can’t kill anybody if there’s no war going on. Yeah, bloodthirsty psycho killer. Yoki’s magic blasting isn’t for nothing as his goal is to overload his sword until it cannot absorb any more magic. Miller’s sword breaks but he still has tricks up his sleeve. He fires an arrow at the gargoyle but Teal protects him with her body. He then fires multiple arrows, forcing Yoki to protect everyone. But this is a distraction as Teal escapes. Yoki so mad that Teal got hurt, he turns into a demon form and flies about to find Miller! Once he does, he beats up the guy but when is about to kill him, Miller looks happy because killing is fun for them. Yoki realizes he is not worth killing and just drops him into the lake. Miller vows revenge for this humiliation. Yoki returns to Cecilia who is glad that he is safe. In the aftermath, Teal is made to work as a maid back at her mansion. Even though the gargoyle is disguised as a deity, Celia will not have this ugly statue in her home! Poor Teal. Are you gonna separate this guardian deity from the loli?!
Episode 6
Yoki and Cecilia are summoned to have an audience with the young kind, Dartz Olta Clariness. He will reward them for saving the village. Cecilia doesn’t want anything in return. Yoki claims Dartz cannot grant him his wish. And that wish is his love for Cecilia! OMG. Did he actually say that out loud?! You bet Cecilia lectures about this embarrassing thing back home. Because of that, mom bans Yoki to see Cecilia for a month. Oh, if Cecilia is getting worried about not seeing him for that long, she shortens it to half a month. It seems Gar (name given to the gargoyle by Yoki) is now living in Yoki’s home as furniture. Oh well, better than nothing. Teal visits him every day. Yoki takes more jobs from Kramen so as to become worthy of Cecilia. But soon Gar shows Yoki something tragic. Looks like he is falling apart and there is no cure to it. Because Teal is still suffering from her illness, he hopes Yoki can take care of her. But Yoki vows to save both of them. Seeking Duke’s advice, seems this magicite stone may be the miracle cure for Gar. But Cecilia soon comes running to Yoki seeing Teal’s illness has caught up on her. Shiek tries to make medicine for her but it’s not working. Looks like this twilight grass is their only hope but this rare plant doesn’t grow in this kingdom. Yoki and Cecilia head to the guild to see if they have some stock but they’re all out. Great timing, Kramen has a quest to defeat a monster hogging a magicite mine in which twilight grass grows there. You know what this means, right? Along with Sophia, the quartet head toward that mine as they fight this tough monster. Magic doesn’t harm it on the outside so by cooperating, Sophia destroys it from the inside. After picking the twilight grass, in the dead of the night, Yoki uses his demon wings to fly back home so as not to let the others know his true form. After passing the herbs to Shiek, he goes back home and stuff all the magicite into Gar’s mouth. Works like a charm. A miracle! Gar instantly heals and the first thing he does is fly to Teal’s side. She’s alright too. Gar grateful to them for protecting him and Teal. Yoki then flies back to avoid suspicions and so exhausted he is, he sleeps on Cecilia’s lap. It’s the least she can do to reward him.
Episode 7
Yoki is shopping in town and decides to get this full gear that makes him look like a chuunibyou hero. Yeah, now he can live his dream. Again. Kramen not impressed. Even more so when Yoki requests to take on multiple quests. Whatever. Just do it. So we see the masked swordsman completing the quests as Yoki revels in playing the hero. This includes stopping a group of young thieves led by Envy in trying to sabotage ingredients for Valentine’s Day. Soon, Duke has to tell off Yoki if he has seen himself in the mirror. The shock on Yoki’s face, I guess this means he is done playing the hero. It is now Valentine’s Day and it seems wherever Yoki goes, he sees his pals getting chocolates. Gar getting from Teal, Duke getting from Irene, Kramen from his wife, Raven from Happiness and of course Yuga from Mikana. Damn, did Mikana bake poison or what?! But Yuga eats it! And finds it good! You bet Yoki is jealous as hell. Will Celia give hers to him out of pity? He doesn’t want any except from Cecilia. If he doesn’t take it, Shiek will have more. Okay, okay. So he accepts. Envy and her thieves soon break out of prison and terrorizing the streets with her chocolate golem, stealing all the Valentine goodies. Yeah, they’re jealous about not getting chocolates aeon ago, blah, blah, blah. Yoki now without his getup, goes to stop them in his chuunibyou style, which makes it even more embarrassing in the eyes of the public. Even though he is in the same boat as them for not getting chocolates, this doesn’t mean they can go around ruining the happiness of others. As they battle, the golem soon swallows up all the goodies, including Cecilia’s. Yoki so mad that he zaps the core, destroying the golem and returning all the presents. Yuga saves Envy from falling to her death and realizes she is a girl. Flashback shows someone rejected her chocolates because he didn’t want them from a tomboy. Envy still thinks nobody wants her chocolate until Yuga says he accepts all of them as long as they put their heart into it. So now she’s a believer? All is not lost for Yoki as Cecilia finally gives him hers. Because it is in the form of a cake and the only one who gets this, you could say Yoki is the biggest winner in the end.
Episode 8
With a quest involving thieves and stolen cargo at a port town, Yoki thinks it is a great time to bring Cecilia to the beach. Unfortunately she is too busy and can’t go. Oh well, looks like Happiness is her substitute. And Raven too? Is Yoki also trying to set them up? Reaching there, they question a few sailors and find that it strange despite being robbed, they have no recollections of the thieves. Because the only clue they remember was a beautiful signing voice, it is believed the culprit is a mermaid. Before Yoki can think they are beautiful creatures, the sailors get scared and seek their help and protection. Mermaids are always blamed for sinking their ships. Later some guy tells Raven he saw sailors loading cargo at a cove. He sounds shady but he tells it to the rest so they go investigate. Upon reaching, they see lots of loot there. Suddenly a mermaid pops up and sings. Luckily they close their ears in time as Happiness sings back to nullify her voice. Before the mermaid can escape, they trap her. Raven is hell bent on killing her but Happiness protects her. Raven is still stubborn so is this where their strain in the relationship begins? With Yoki pleading to hear her out, Shike claims humans captured her friend, Misaki. She was put up to this. As Raven still cannot trust a demon, Happiness hopes he can trust her who trust Shike. They continue investigating and find the loot to be fake. This is to lure unsuspecting victims as the mermaid will then put them to sleep before the thieves kidnap them. When the thieves return, Raven prepares to fight them. The thieves curse Shike for blowing their cover but of course the thieves can’t stand up to our heroes, right? Then they go free Misaki at their HQ. The mermaids reunite and as thanks, they sing them a song. Happiness won’t lose out so she also joins in. As Raven apologizes for accusing Shike, Shike kisses him on his cheek! Happiness not happy. First she beats up Yoki and then goes to kiss Raven on the lips! Now you know why women are so hard to understand!
Episode 9
Yoki doesn’t want status quo with Cecilia so he talks to Duke for advice. Yoki opines since he doesn’t know much about her, he thinks of turning invisible and watch her. You mean, he wants to be a stalker?! Duke advises against that and despite knowing Yoki likes Cecilia, he is not aggressive enough to pursue her. He won’t make any progress if he doesn’t know anything about her. That’s when Duke has Mikana and Raven help out. Ask all you want about Cecilia from them. Basically, Cecilia is the backbone of the party. She cleans, cooks and even does the finances! This leads to them talking more about Yuga then her. When they want to tell her nickname, looks like Cecilia is here! She wants to have a nice long talk with Mikana. Is she screwed? Raven then takes Yoki to the orphanage they often visit. All the kids have nicknames for the heroes and for Cecilia, it is Holy Mother. While it is not Raven’s place to tell him why, he can learn more about it from now. Yoki’s next step is to take a quest with Mikana, Happiness and Cecilia. They fight through an abandoned mansion filled with undead skeletons until they defeat the undead king. Cecilia uses her holy powers to send him to the afterlife. With Cecilia using too much power, she is exhausted. Yoki carries her like a princess back to the carriage. Embarrassed? Later Yoki asks Mikana on how well he did. She refuses to judge him because all he needs to do is just do the best he can. Next time Yoki is with Cecilia, she heard he visited the orphanage and learnt her nickname. She hopes he won’t call her that. Yoki won’t pressure her to tell why although he thought it really suits her because the way she treated the undead king with sanctity and even when he fought her under the Demon Lord, she was like a saint to him. Cecilia decides to tell him since it is better coming from her mouth than someone else. Remember about Cecilia that she was good in all those chores in the party? Yuga was so impressed and doing all those stuffs reminded him of a mother! Yuga then started calling her mom in front of everyone. Yoki can’t stop laughing… Oh Cecilia…
Episode 10
Gar doesn’t want to be a freeloader anymore and wants to work to earn some money. Yoki gets him registered at the guild. The receptionist panics and calls for Kramen. This dude doesn’t even bother to ask because it’s gonna be troublesome so he just gets it over quickly and registers Gar. Not only Yoki will guide him around on how to be an adventurer but Cecilia too. Yeah, with Yoki as his chuunibyou masked swordsman, you bet she doesn’t trust him to handle this alone. Feel free to ignore this chuunibyou dude when he starts acting like one. Starting with a simple quest, Gar watches Yoki and Cecilia help find a few lost cats. Now it is his turn to gather a few herbs and take out a few goblins. Once all that is done, head back to the guild to report and get rewarded. Now that Gar has the hang of it, he can go on his own. Cecilia then invites Yoki for a higher ranked quest and they will be away for a few days. Yeah, just the 2 of them. Camping out during the journey, seems both of them are interacting normally. I guess they’ve got used to each other’s company so no flustering and blushing whenever they’re alone. However it seems Cecilia can’t bring herself to tell Yoki that Dartz told her there is a man requesting her hand in marriage and he is not someone whom she can turn down lightly. The duo continue their quest to investigate some ruins and fight some monsters. Then they return to report it to Kramen who is very delighted that Cecilia has documented her report. That’s right, Yoki. Oral reporting is just plain laziness. When they go back, they see Teal sitting inside for days. It’s like she’s in a daze asking for Gar who has not come home! Is she getting some withdrawal syndrome? Coincidentally Gar returns and she rushes to hug him. He forgot to tell her that now he has a job and has rented a room nearby. He doesn’t want to always depend on her magicite despite she is more than happy to serve him forever. After they leave, Yoki realizes the embarrassment of his chuunibyou garb in the mirror. He throws it all away but Cecilia notes if not for that masked swordsman’s magic, they may not have succeeded. She would love to team up for his help again. Just like that, Yoki changes his mind and grabs back his garb. More chuunibyou garbage but she is more than happy to look forward to their next quest.
Episode 11
Looks like Raven is having problems with his feelings for Happiness again. Seeing Yoki for advice, he suggests a triple date! So yeah, Yoki, Raven, Duke having outing with Cecilia, Happiness, Irene. In town, Raven stumbles upon some of his men and they accidentally hear his girly voice. They start mocking him and even more when Happiness and Duke come to his defence. This has Raven run away. Although this is all part feeling embarrassed, Raven remembers Happiness wanted to tell him a secret. He fears he cannot handle that secret if he continues to worry over this weakness. Raven returns to the rest and apologizes and the outing proceeds as normal. But soon Happiness goes missing and she left a note to come find her in the forest. Of course Yoki tracks her down and learns that she plans to tell Raven the truth about herself. Duke cautions that Raven might not accept it and this would have her lose everything. This would trace her link to her friends too. As she doesn’t want to lie anymore, the guys give their blessings. Meanwhile Raven confronts his men who continue to be rude. But this time Raven forces them to address him by his title and name as respect. The men do so and Raven gets his due respect. Celia realizes Cecilia hasn’t told him about her arranged marriage. Cecilia plans to turn it down so mom asks about her feelings for Yoki. She brushes it off but mom notes if she doesn’t have feelings for him, she wouldn’t have kept this arranged marriage a secret. When Yoki meets up with Raven, it is hinted he knows about Happiness and wants to kill him. As they fight, Yoki is forced to reveal his true demon form as he ponders what really happened. Turns out he found out Yoki plucked all her feathers to disguise her as human and she wanted Raven to beat him up! Yoki will not entertain this sh*t so he calls out to Happiness to stop this prank. Eventually both apologize as they tell what happened. After Duke led Raven to the forest, Happiness then showed her true harpy form as she was scared and didn’t want to carry on lying. Raven hugged her. He won’t reject her because he loves her. What a sweet ending. Yoki gives his blessings by chaining them up together. Yoki returns to Cecilia to tell them the good news. However Cecilia hints she will be busy for a while. What a coincidence. Yoki too because of some quest from Yuga. Cecilia not looking happy. Since when he became good friends with Yuga? Raven and Happiness barge in to give Yoki some payback but he runs. Can they both chase him holding their own hands? They note they have a debt they can never repay Yoki.
Episode 12
What’s worse than Yoki trying to help Yuga running away from the infatuated ladies? Cecilia having to meet her future husband who is a hero from the Duchy of Luminaria, Soleil Gracehart. As Dartz have told him about her disinterest in marriage, Cecilia claims she isn’t worthy and even if she is one of the heroes, she acknowledges it as team effort. Soleil updates her about Miller who has been imprisoned by Gallis. Posing the question why all the nations must have a hero, it is because with the Demon Lord gone, all these nations are vying for supremacy. That is why Dartz was wise enough to accept his proposal to marry Cecilia. This union will keep other nations in check. Soleil proposes to Cecilia to marry him to keep world peace. As she is still unsure, Soleil realizes he too needs to learn. As he will be staying here for a while, he hopes she can show him around so he can get to know her people better. Yoki and Yuga are away on a quest when Yoki gets the biggest shock when Yuga mentions about Cecilia’s arranged marriage to Soleil. Yeah, Yuga complained to Cecilia to decline the marriage but she told him to throw his tantrums to Dartz instead. Now Yoki doesn’t feel like completing the quest with him. You’re on your own, Yuga. Yoki rushes back. Angry that Cecilia didn’t tell him, that he changed into his demon form? Cecilia brings Soleil to the orphanage as the kids take a liking for this guy. Back home, Cecilia is in despair as she missed her chance to turn down Soleil. But her thoughts are now on Yoki. Now he is a totally different guy with new friends, unlike the one she fought. She is sure he doesn’t have the same feelings. I am sure you are wrong! As Yoki enters the kingdom’s perimeters, guards start attacking him, thinking a demon is attacking. He is forced to retreat. Sophia shows Cecilia something devastating: A wanted poster of Yoki. At least that masked swordsman persona. Yoki resting in the forest also receives the same poster from Kramen’s familiar. As security is tightened at the gates, a disguised Yoki enters but Cecilia recognizes him and heals his injuries. She introduces him to Soleil but Yoki claims he is just one of the many adventurers she helped as she is a kind person. Yoki isn’t startled about her arranged marriage and apologizes for getting in the way. But Yoki is soon taken away by Duke and Raven.
Episode 13
You see, that wanted poster is not Yoki but a man who calls himself as Beast of Blue Flame but dresses exactly like the masked swordsman. He goes around helping others but is actually making things worse and being a nuisance! With the guild getting a flood of complaints, you bet Kramen needs Yoki to help catch this imposter. Yoki agrees to take this job to forget about Cecilia. As the masked swordsman, he rights the wrongs. During the break with Raven, Yoki still feels insecure that Cecilia didn’t tell him about her arranged marriage and thinks he is unimportant. Raven disagrees because she always lights up whenever he is around. Meanwhile Cecilia notices Yoki has not been hanging out with her lately. Does he not care for her anymore? Happiness assures Yoki is still in love with her but mentions she may have hurt his feelings with what she said. Beast is back to causing his unintentional public nuisance again. This time a disguised Cecilia (going by the moniker Cecily) goes to talk to him about his help that only brings chaos. Beast claims he is only helping those in need. But Cecilia thinks by doing this, he is also undermining the good deeds done by the masked swordsman. This shocks Beast as he is curious to know her relationship with him. Well, looks like he is here. Crowd must be confused now. Yoki tells Beast to stay away from her as he asserts she is his partner. Beast can’t accept this so they fight elsewhere. Yoki asks why he is dressed similarly and it seems Beast has always admired him. He had everything he wanted and thus he wanted to be like him. No, he wants to surpass him. Yoki adds he isn’t doing this for anything in return but because he wants to. Because it is cool. Really? He walks his own path. That should trigger some sort of realization for Beast.
Cecilia is here to lecture them about their actions as Beast further reveals he wanted to be seen by the people but because he feels his efforts were not acknowledged, the reason he started mimicking the masked swordsman. Cecilia advises him to use the power for himself. In turn, that will benefit the people. With Kramen and the people telling them to hurry up and capture Beast, Beast needs to run in order to hide his identity. Don’t worry, Yoki has thought up of a plan. He announces Cecilia has successfully reformed Beast. Yoki will also personally compensate all the damages caused by this so file your complaints to the guild! Kramen not gonna be happy with more work! Yoki takes Cecilia away. Great timing for the wonderful fireworks in the background. The duo then talk as Cecilia remembers him saying he wanted to die that day. Of course now he wants to live. She notes all the people’s lives whom he has changed for the better. She admits being with him is fun. This has Yoki admit he is scared about Cecilia’s arranged marriage. He was fine if his feelings wasn’t returned but if she got married and went somewhere far away, he will have regrets. He once again asks to go out with him. She wants more time and will give her answer after tomorrow when she replies to her arranged marriage. Next day, we see Cecilia parting ways with Soleil. He notes she has someone else special in his heart and knows it is that masked swordsman. This shocks Cecilia as she realizes that he is Beast. Soleil notes he was hoping to meet him. No, not the masked swordsman but the man himself. Later Cecilia tells Yoki of Beast’s identity. Yoki then confesses he loves her and hopes she will stick with him. She replies the same. I guess a hug will do for now as they enjoy tea.
I Tried Being Normal & Generic
So I take it that they are going to date each other. Otherwise, why confess they love each other like that? I know they are short of kissing each other to completely assure us that they are officially together. Unless their take of I-love-you is not the same as in the romantic context. But I doubt it. Because that is what this whole thing is about. After all, what is the rush, right? Cecilia already turned down the arranged marriage so she has all the time in the world to work things out with Yoki. Remember, she said she had fun with him. So yes, Yoki making is making big improvements so no need to rush and marry her. Until the next marriage candidate shows up…
I don’t know how the story would play out but in my extreme sadistic moment, I would thought that the entire series would be about Yoki trying to chase after Cecilia’s love. After all, he is from the Demon Lord’s army so I assume that he is not going to give up easily and do all sorts of tactics just to get her heart. From dumb bold moves to dumb embarrassing decisions, I had this baseless hunch this will turn out to be like something like that Warner Bros’ Pepe Le Pew and Penelope! Yeah. Shame on me. Had it actually turn out like that, I think this series would have been even worse. Not even cheesy. Cringe. I would have lambasted it as so. How predictable of me.
So instead, the story stayed being at least respectable as Yoki tries to earn his reputation to win Cecilia’s heart the normal way. Just like respect, sometimes you have to earn the right to love to. After all, Cecilia has not closed the door entirely on Yoki so there is still a chance. No matter how small or minute, as long as it is not zero, Yoki can still work hard towards his goal. Isn’t that lovely. And with that, I have to admit the series felt somewhat boring as most of the episodes here are seemingly episodic. At least there is no actual plot to follow. Yoki trying to live a decent life by turning over a new leaf as a normal adventurer. That is basically how this series mostly runs. So you either love this kind of well, somewhat calming series or you would find it a bit boring.
Obviously they cannot be taking their own sweet time and forever because everything changes in the passage of time. Thus Cecilia’s arranged marriage is somewhat a deadline for our lovebirds to make their decision to act or forever hold their peace. Time to re-examine their feelings for each other. Because would Cecilia the ever kind hearted Holy Mother take a bigger responsibility to marry another hero from another kingdom or would she rather pursue a small happiness by going with the man she knows and possible we all know that she truly loves. Yeah, I guess we know the answer. This was all just for drama’s sake. I mean, what if Soleil was really another dick? He was just playing the smooth operator role just to coax Cecilia into marrying him for whatever nefarious plans. After all, doesn’t his face reeks of that kind of suspicion? Sort of. Yeah, I may have been over reading too much stuffs but I also sometimes think Soleil may be playing the villain so as to force Cecilia and Yoki to take the next step. Thus in retrospective, this arranged marriage wasn’t some sort of inconvenience but a blessing in disguise? And to think Soleil admires the masked swordsman and what if this whole arranged marriage was just to meet that guy! He truly loves his people and wants to do good, huh? Oh well. Hope he found his new motivation. But in the event if Cecilia did choose to go with Soleil, I can’t help but want to break into that song by Simon & Garfunkel… Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart/ You’re shaking my confidence daily/ Oh Cecilia, I’m down on my knees, I’m begging you please to come home/ Come on home… Yeah…
Character wise, nothing really special if I should say. Yoki and Cecilia aren’t the perfect characters and have their own flaws. I mean, isn’t it freaking embarrassing that Yoki still needs to resort to his chuunibyou form? I thought being himself was the best? I guess sometimes you have to be a kid once a while. Thus I also think that the random shenanigans of Yoki working hard as a normal adventurer is all part and parcel for him to build his character so that when Cecilia accepts his confession, this time there will be merit in his love. I mean, which (anime) girl wouldn’t like a guy who puts in his earnest effort? And after so many visits as friends, it is about time Cecilia finally take Yoki seriously or some other guy may take her away! You can obviously tell with Yoki making so many visits to Cecilia’s mansion and as many times she entertains him. Many will say close friends but we expect more out of this in the end. After all, you can also see how they react to each other when this topic comes about. How much they care for each other when a third party tries to get in their way. So do you not think that everything eventually leads down to Yoki x Cecilia?
The other characters play satisfactory supporting role but I won’t go so far as to say that they would make any significant impact on the overall series. The world revolves around more than just Yoki and Cecilia so to prove that they have other friends other than themselves, it is good to have a little variety in seeing other characters solving their own minor problems. After all, it feels like nobody is going to be left out of the pairing equation. We already have ever doting Teal and very responsible Gar being the best devoted pair of the series. Then we have Mikana still trying to pursue the quirky and lacking self-awareness Yuga. Keep trying. I wonder if Mikana is tsundere… Then we have the mature Duke who is going together with a fellow knight member Irene and of course things are looking strong between taciturn Raven and Happiness. Don’t forget married couple trope of Kramen and Sophia. Oh, Shiek looks like the odd one out but I guess I can put him with Celia and mama can dote on this little boy! Yeah, why does Shiek’s character feels like to satiate shotacons?! So who else is there left to pair? Yoki and Cecilia better get their act together and not upset this pairing ‘harmony’!
If there is one thing unusual about this series, it would be the art and animation. First thing you will notice is that the backgrounds and sceneries look very much like sketches. It’s like they hired some outside artist to sketch on the canvas to be used for this series. It feels a bit odd and out of place but considering with the current visual style in the current anime landscape, it does come off looking a bit unique. But unfortunately, personally not for the better because it is a bit jarring. Even more so when they mixed in CGI for some of the backgrounds and the background people. I don’t know if this is to make the female characters look cute but personally, I find them all to look pretty conventional. Yeah sure, Cecilia is your cutie pie but she’s just looking as generic as she can in my books. Sorry folks, even Sophia looks prettier and not because she’s in a maid outfit! So sue me. But the overall character designs just feels generic to me. Cute girls having this one kind cute looks and the guys just looking generic. From Yoki to Yuga. Even handsome ones like Raven look generic.
And then there is also the animation issue. Sometimes I find that there are inconsistency between the animation and even so, there is not much animation during the action scenes. Sometimes it feels more like some sort of moving slideshow with minimal movement. No wonder those fight scenes look boring. I wasn’t expecting anything epic but if this is what they’re going to give us, might as well just not animate the scene at all. On second thought, that may be worst. So yeah, just animate a bit of such scenes in hopes we can turn a blind eye. Not! And to think that Gekkou did this anime because they are certainly not gaining any positive reputation if they keep this up. From Tenpuru to Mob Kara Hajimaru Tansaku Eiyuutan to Mayonaka Heart Tune and that atrocious and damning Maou-sama Retry! R!!! OMFG can we start doing better, people?!
Voice acting is pretty normal but even if they got popular cutie pie Kana Hanazawa to voice Cecilia, it still couldn’t save this anime even though she is in her recognizable trademark cutie voice. And to think they had Tomokazu Sugita as Gar too. What a waste. The other casts are Kouhei Amasaki as Yoki, Ayumu Murase as Raven, Ryouhei Kimura as Yuga, Yuuko Natsuyoshi as Mikana, Toshiki Masuda as Duke, Iori Noguchi as Happiness, Minami Tanaka as Shiek, Arisa Kiyoto as Sophia, Yuuki Ono as Kramen, Chitose Morinaga as Celia, Hikaru Tono as Teal, Rio Tsuchiya as Irene, Tomohiro Yamaguchi as Soleil, Keisuke Kimura as Dartz and Reiji Kawamura as Miller.
The opening theme is Lavish by Yoshino and if I should personally say, it is one huge mess! Firstly the fast paced chaotic music that I feel somebody just let their cat step all over the keyboard to come up with this cacophonic tune! I mean, what the heck is this?! Probably it is to hide the bland and generic song that also has some dubstep in it. How can Cecilia sleep so soundly at the end of it all?! The ending theme is Kimi Kouryaku Game by Hiyori Omiya and is not so bad despite its rock roots and has a funky bass line. Still generic and not impressing me, though. With that, I prefer very much the special ending song for episode 8, Yes Summer Love by Happiness and the mermaid duo. Has some good tropical and sunshiny vibes. Its ending credits animation is also unique as it is animated in retro 8-bit pixel art style like you see in retro Japanese dating sims.
Overall, this is just another average and boring series of the season for me. It isn’t anything special or extraordinary that breaks any new ground. Just an isekai kid (damn, did I forget this trope here?) trying to turn over a new leaf to earn the love of the girl he loves. Nothing out of the ordinary happens because that is what you get when you defeat the weak ass Demon Lord and have peace throughout the nations so much so that dumb humans need to fight themselves to see who is stronger. Yeah. Now you know why some characters desire war and action! With peace and harmony throughout the continent, it hardly brings any excitement and that’s why everything feels so lukewarm because there is no urgency. Oh you know, I’m gonna confess my love to you once this war is over. But there’s a risk of me losing my life before that. So can you see the difference why this series failed to inspire and only brought in the yawns? But I am one to say should I mock people like Yoki to fall and confess to a cute girl from the opposite camp (I guess many guys in real life would do the same too) because I operate on the same manner. Only, I would definitely jump in and watch any anime if there’s a cute girl (or girls!) on the promotional poster regardless of the story or genre. No wonder nobody respects my love.
