Throwback Review: Maou

I found this “review” in my personal journal that I thought I had posted here but I did not. Its very informal but it at least gives off my impressions of the show decently enough. I am working on my JOKER ~yurusarezaru sosakan~ review/thoughts/summary. That’s taking a while… especially since I just managed to see the final episode, so adding that in last minute.

I wrote this review exactly two years ago.

So, I finished Maou… despite holding it back for almost a half week because I didn’t… want the story to end.

Great drama is really great, despite the slow episodes two and three, the show picks up around episode four and just doesn’t stop which I really enjoyed, and wished, I hadn’t taken for granted when I started watching Maou when it premiered three months ago… The tension between every single character in the drama is well played and well written, especially once you hit the climax and you realize what the motives really are, the jealousy and bitterness between everyone within Naruse’s web of trickery and lies, and the emotional pull of a relationship doomed to failure between a young woman and a fallen man. I have to admit I grew so attatched to Satoshi Ohno’s character, that by the final three episodes, I wanted him to succeed. I wanted him to get his revenge, and I guess, that’s why at the final episode I ended up sheading tears for the ending. I usually don’t cry watching dramas, but Maou pulled the tears out of me — I guess I got so caught up in Naruse’s despair that I ended up feeling his pain.

Twists and turns made Maou great and ended up seperating itself from the Death Note feel it had in the first three episodes. It wasn’t just a vigilante taking the law into his own hands, there was a lot more to this man than someone on a god complex. I really enjoyed how he killed not by using his own hands but manipulating the people around him, using their emotions against each other and having them kill themselves. It was more of an interesting turn of using the characters against each other, friend against friend, brother against friend, father against son, etc rather then just having someone off the street pull the trigger. Why did these people envy each other? Hate each other? How far could you have thrown someone off the edge before they broke? This intricute story of lies and deception covering the truth made it an emotional rollercoaster…

… and a devil with character development. This is one of the reasons why I love Maou, and over Last Friends from the previous Spring 2008 season. Here’s two villians, one a scorned lover who can’t tale the difference between loving too much and not to love and one lawyer, masked by the viel of justice but yet the one thing he defends in court…. Yet, in Last Friends we get a man who does not grow at all, instead, becomes flatter and flatter to all we have is just flying fists and malicious intent to commit pain upon others with no real intention other than he’s angry and jealous, and then in Maou we have a man, a man who is angry but yet slowly begins to break down and question his own existance, his own meaning for doing what he is doing. This character growth in Naruse Ryo’s character, the confliction between Ryo and the dead child Tomou, is the key point of Maou and basically steals the show in my opinion. But not only that, we have Toma Ikuta’s character, Serizawa who comes a long way from just a screaming hot headed rookie detective to a man conflicted with his emotions – Should he stop the man taking revenge on him for his crimes, or should he allow him to take revenge for his crimes and die?

All of this makes Maou a great series, which, quite frankly ended up being a major underdog in the seasons ratings to shows like Code Blue.

My only frustrations with this series the ending… how in merely 46 minutes the remaining cast just dies. Kasai is stabbed in the back, Serizawa’s brother commits suicide and in return his father dies of heart failure, Yamato is shot to death and you only find this out in a brief mentioning as Naruse and Serizawa walk to the final confrontation, and the biggest kicker of them all — Naruse is not killed by Serizawa, but, instead killed by none other than his accomplise, Yamato… a major twist in the plot that had me stare at my computer screen with my mouth agaped and literally saying ” What the hell… “. Though wounded, he eventually bled to death… and Serizawa, who you had expected to survive, ended up dying the same way as Hideo 11 years earlier. As if the roles were reversed…. a powerful scene of mixed emotions, but an ending uxexpected. No one wins, eventually, everyone involved 11 years ago die tragically. Is this to be a strong message that two wrongs do not make a right? Who knows…

My final gripe is the Shiroi/Naruse relationship… a doomed relationship from beginning, but sucked me in helplessly to the point that I was as frustrated as Shiroi. Shiroi was offering him redemption and instead he continued to walk his road, always staggering, but jumping right back on. Had he accepted her redemption, I’m sure he would have been forgiven of his sins and manage to live a happy life… or at least I would have wanted.

In the end, two black butterflies fly together off into the ocean’s horizon, eluding to the fact that Serizawa and Tomou have forgiven themselves in the after life… and, despite it ending so… depressingly, you can’t help but cry at how two torn souls manage to live on happily together in the after life… Which I did. Their sacrifices some how give off that those around them have managed to live happier lives, even Shiroi, but the harmonica left behind seems to bring back the tourment to Shiroi…

.. and left to an ending unknown.

… and sometimes I wonder, was that necessary?

Ah, well, Maou’s over…

… and everyone wins.