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 Eight:

In the previous volume one of the four Forbidden Boxes, The End of the Earth, was opened but the wrong key was used and all hell broke loose. As this disc starts Yuri is helping the humans in a nearby city that were drastically affected by the earthquake that the Forbidden Box caused. After seeing the devastation first hand Yuri promises that he'll never allow another Forbidden Box to be opened. In order to do that, he has to collect the other boxes starting with The End of the Wind, which is currently held in the kingdom of Big Cimaron.

Yuri has an idea to get the box: once every four years Big Cimaron holds an Olympic type contest with the lesser kingdoms in the human world. The winner of this event is granted their heart's desire. Yuri figures that if he can win the tournament Big Cimaron will give him the box that he wants.

Okay, so it's a stupid idea and everyone but Yuri is sure that it won't work, but they try it anyway. First they have to qualify for the event by winning a race, and their rivals are more than willing to cheat. After that Yuri and his two companions have to battle in an arena. The first two battles were interesting, but the third battle match-up was really surprising.

This volume was pretty good, starting the next storyline and also filling in some background details that have been passed over. Just what and who Yuri's friend Ken Murata is comes out, and there is a very unexpected revelation about Yuri himself. The volume also fleshes out some characters quite well, including Lady Celi. I wasn't thinking that there would be much more characterization this late in the series, and I was happy to see it.

There were some parts of this volume that could have been improved though. The storyline with Maxene was pretty ridiculous. I didn't mind that Yuri spared the life of the man who opened the Forbidden Box, but when he keeps popping up after being seemingly dispatched it stretches credibility. I mean he falls off of a cliff and is unharmed? Come on. There are also a couple of Deus ex Machina type last minute rescues, but these didn't bother me as much as Maxene constanly turning up.

There's a good amount of action in this volume and some humorous moments too. A nice disc that should please those of you who have stayed with the series this long.

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:

It started out as a solid series and Kyo Kara Maoh has gotten better as it goes along. The show has a good amount of action, some enjoyable characters and more than a little humor. This is a fun series that is ramping up for a memorable conclusion. It gets a strong recommendation.