Volume five of Kyo Kara Maoh is another solid installment in the series.  First, the demon king Yuri has to save an endangered dragon from poachers, and then the series starts another multi-part story when a 10 year old girl attempts to assassinate the king.   Managing to avoid a lot of the cliche's of fantasy anime while still having a familiar feel, this is show is worth checking out.

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 Five:

The disc opens with the final part of a two-part story.  Yuri, realizing that he's in a fantasy world, has decided that he wants to see a dragon.  Traveling to the last enclave of the animals in a far corner of the Demon Kingdom, the king, along with his companions Gunter, Wolfram and Conrad, encounter an errant soldier Alford.  This young man wants to kill a dragon to prove his bravery and skill with a sword, just like his father did years earlier.  Unfortunately he's been tricked by his companions, a group of poachers, who want to sell the dragon's scales on the black market.  Even though Alford is easily convinced not to kill the endangered his ex-partners are planning on getting their valuable dragon scales, even if they have to destroy a village to do it.

Yuri survives his first assassination attempt in the next episode, but from an unexpected source: his illegitimate 10-year old daughter, Greta.  At least that's the story she gives the guards to get into Yuri's presence.  Her attempt at killing Yuri is pretty pathetic, and she's easily disarmed, but the young girl won't reveal who sent her or why she wanted to kill the young demon king.

In a typical Yuri move, he decides to go to a local resort town and sneaks the young Greta with him in his luggage.  He figures if he can get her to relax and trust him, she'll tell him where she's from so he can get her home.  When they arrive though, the pair end up getting involved with a crooked casino and the girls that want to escape their employment.

This is a solid show with some good stories.  There were some fun surprises in this volume and the story has taken on more continuity than it previously has.  There are a few references to earlier story lines that makes the show more textured and adds some to the show.

There's also a good amount of humor in the show, though it's not a comedy.  One of the highlights of this disc is the race between a giant panda bear and a gargantuan koala.  If the idea isn't odd enough, the race it self is very funny.

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 extra on this disc is a gallery of line animation from the series.

Final Thoughts:

This was another enjoyable disc.  While the show isn't deep or overly dramatic, it's a fun program that is worth following.  This volume makes the continuity a little bit tighter by revisiting some old plot points but they don't get caught up in ancient storylines.  A sword and sorcery show that's a little bit different from the other ones out there, this show is Recommended.