An intelligent young man finds himself in a supernatural succession battle while trying to find some tuition money in this first episode. After discovering that his uncle had run his family’s estate out of money, William goes searching for other places where something of value could be hidden. He ends up finding a portal to the demon world and a demon named Dantalion tells him he is the elector of the interim king while Lucifer rests. Being the realist, William chooses not to believe anything that is happening right up until another demon tries to steal him away. Dantalion comes to his rescue, though William uses a mysterious power of his own to prevent him from utilizing his full power. Once back in the real world, William finds his tuition paid and a familiar face transferring into school.
I’m going to start with a little bit on the production. The director of this series has been shunted onto a career path of doing shounen ai series ever since her work on Nodame Cantabile wrapped up. However, her vision of frantic fights from on Higurashi no Naku Koro ni can be seen here. The battle between Dantalion and Gilles De Rais has a physical quality to it that is rare these days. There’s really nothing bad I can say about how this looks and feels.
As for the story itself, it does feel like it will be a pretty generic shounen action story. William will be fought over by all of the successor candidates for the throne. He will be put in danger a bunch of times and Dantalion will bail him out each time. While he could just choose one, William’s character will still refuse to believe he has that sort of power so it will drag on until either Dantalion has earned that right or Lucifer ends up waking up.
The characters in this series are basically made for different types of BL shipping, but unlike Brothers Conflict this has already earned the right to do that. William is the weak character who will be undeniably linked to the stronger Dantalion. Being taken by whoever ends up being the villain of the week will not be much of a threat to him, but his interactions with them will be lighthearted enough to make both parties come out better in the end. Also for the philosophical out there, I think that title makes for interesting reading. William can be the devil for controlling Dantalion’s powers while Dantalion is the realist for wanting to stick close to him to win the throne. It’s classic game theory in a silly sort of way and damned if I didn’t actually manage to find another fujoshi oriented show that I found watchable.
Reasons to Continue Watching
- Battles have an excellent look and feel
- Comedic timing is appropriate even if not always funny
- Strategic relationship between William and Dantalion is very debatable
Reasons to Drop
- It’s not very hard to find the fujoshi fanservice
- Plot structure appears to be extremely cliche
- References to The Bible have no bearing to anything
My Verdict: Probably the first show of this type I’ve found watchable since the infamous Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, notably by the same director. While I think it will fall into a series of cliches by the end, it’s done enough to earn a 2nd episode comfortably.
Lower Mid-Table 