King Yuri has to face dragons, killers, bandits, and runaway sand bears in the fourth volume of Kyo Kara Maoh, and he does it all with his usual good natured goofiness. This series is a good solid show and it continues to be a lot of fun.  It wisely avoid many of the pitfalls that fantasy shows often fall into, and manages to tell an entertaining story to boot.  If you've followed the show this far, you'll be pleased with the current volume.

Series Synopsis:

Yuri Shibuya is a typical high school student.  He enjoys playing baseball, can sometimes let his temper get the better of him, and views school as a necessary evil at best.  One day after school though, he discovers that he isn't as typical as he thought.  While being picked on by some bullies, he's pushing into a rest room stall, his head is put in the toilet and it's flushed.  Instead of getting wet though, he actually gets sucked into the toilet and somehow gets transported to another land.

When people in this land see his black hair and black eyes they proclaim him the Demon King, leader of all demons.  This isn't something he really wants or needs, but it's hard to turn down a kingdom.

Demons in this world look and act like humans, but they each have a magical power which makes them more powerful than the humans.  This uneven distribution of power makes the humans very nervous, and when the Demon King appears, they are sure it signals the start of a war.  With humans gathering magician mercenaries the demon kingdom starts preparing for war too.  Yuri doesn't want to go to war, but it's hard to stop it once things get set in motion.

Volume Four:

In the first episode, a Demon Stone is stolen from the castle.  This rare object has the ability to repair magical objects and restore magic ability, and is worth a small fortune on the black market.  Men are out looking for it, but when Yuri hears about the missing item, he wants to join in the search.  (Of course, the alternative is listening to Gunter give him a lecture about manners and etiquette.)

Heading out into town, Yuri and his friends chase off a pair of men who are hassling a young girl.  It turns out that the girl, Rosa, has found a Demon Stone that morning and the men wanted to steal it.  Rosa's father has been very sick and hasn't been able to work, and she hopes that the Stone will be able to help her family get back on their feet.  Yuri feels sorry for her and lets the girl use the stone to earn some money, but when the bandits manage to lure her away in the night, it's up to Yuri to make sure Rosa's safe and the Demon Stone doesn't end up in the wrong hands.

A humorous episode follows when Lady Celi decides to get married again.  There's going to be a big ceremony but when a friend with a trained Sand Bear turns up for entertainment, things quickly deteriorate.

Wolfram and Yuri have an adventure in the next episode.  Yuri really wants some privacy, so he decides to check out the castle's guest quarters.  No one lives there since it's rumored that they are inhabited by monsters.  His curiosity piqued, Yuri and his "fiancé" Wolfram check out the abandoned part of the castle and promptly fall through the rotting floor.  There they find a lot of giant caterpillars who quickly encase themselves in cocoons.

Trapped under the castle with a bunch of cocoons, Wolfram is afraid that they will hatch into the monsters and wants to kill them all.  Yuri on the other hand thinks that it would be ignoble to kill a creature that hasn't attacked you, just because it may.   If they wait until the creatures hatch and they're hungry though, the pair will surely be killed.

The disc ends with the first part of a multi-part story.  Yuri, realizing that he's in a fantasy world, decides that he really wants to see a dragon.  The last enclave of the animals is located in the Demon Kingdom, so Gunter agrees to take him.  Wolfram and Conrad tag along too.  Unbeknownst to the group, a band of humans have sneaked into the reserve too.  One of the humans wants to kill a dragon to prove his bravery and skill with a sword, just like his father did years earlier.  When he spots the Demon King though, he realizes that killing him would be even more heroic.

This show started out good and has stayed that way.  They've avoided the 'never-ending quest' syndrome that a lot of fantasy shows fall into, and have told some fun stories.  The fact that Yuri views things differently than everyone else because he was raised on Earth makes for some good drama and interesting stories.  A nice solid show that has a good amount of humor.

Audio:

This show has the original Japanese and an English dub track, both in stereo.  I alternated listening to these tracks, and while I preferred the Japanese track, I thought the English voice actors did a good job.  Both tracks were very clean and clear with no evidence of distortion or other audio defects.

Video:

This show is presented in an anamorphically enhanced widescreen (1.78:1).  The picture looked very good, with excellent color.  The lines were very sharp and the level of detail fine.  Digital defects were not noticed, with even chain link fences and other diagonal lines not showing traces of aliasing.  A very good looking transfer.

Extras:

The only extras that this disc has is are animation gallery of 20 images and a promo trailer for the series.

Final Thoughts:

I continue to enjoy this show.  The message, that people should be nice to each other, isn't overt and blatant thankfully, and the stories are good fun.  They strike a good balance between drama and humor mixing it up so the show stays fresh.  This volume is a little lighter in tone than the previous ones, but the final episode had a good amount of action.  This is a nice series that comes Recommended.