OK, this is it, a war started between two human cultures while humanity is fighting a war against demon (who turn out to be from another world INSIDE their own) and the Hero apparently has to fight the Demon Lord (who got possessed by, at least one of, the spirit of previous demon lords). 'Till that point, she (yes, I said "she") was a more intelligent (and genre savvy) ruler who (strangely enough) seeks to not 'rule' the world but rather 'save' the world...with the Hero's help of course.
And, no, it's not that I'm not bothering to remember their names. The characters in this series are seriously referred to by their titles rather than names, even when they technically have more than one. The Demon Lord and the Crimson Scholar are actually the same person (even though there is a point where the elder of the Maid Sisters poses as the Crimson Scholar), same thing with the Hero and the Black Knight.
Let's do our best to see the other side of that hill..
Warning!: This post contains spoilers if you haven't seen the entire series yet.
The Demo...oops, I mean the Crimson Scholar (Yes, the Mage made the same slip up as well), is introducing to the human world a way to eliminate the dreaded disease of Smallpox and... (this is how it was done in real life...) ...it's to purposefully infect the population with a similar, but weaker, disease commonly known in real life as "Cowpox".
While the Maid Sisters are working a printing press, some kind of soldier from the central kingdoms arrives...I assume, to kill them! (Dun-dun-duuun!) ...And it turns out I was exactly right. But they were saved by another soldier, this one from the Southern Triad, who ends up throwing the enemy into (what I think is) a mine shaft taking himself with the enemy...except that the friendly soldier survived by sticking his sword into the wall, stopping his fall.
The general populace of the demon world seems to seek war, while the (Merchant) Alliance seeks to trade with the demons; there are both set backs and gains but I believe that eventually the Demon Lord and the Hero will get to see the other side of the hill...a world where both humans and demons live in peace and harmony.
Overall this series does have at least some similarities with Spice & Wolf in that one of the most interesting thing about this series was the 'economic action', of all things. In this case, it's not just the aforementioned economic action, deals and alliances, but also the sorts of concepts and inventions introduced...ahead of their time. Things like the compass and the printing press, or concepts like crop rotation, the use of fertilizers, choosing crops that fit the climate, liberation of the serfdom, the importance of education for all, and even to the point of seeing the medieval equivalent of 'trench warfare' for crying out loud!
Then there's also the acknowledgement of certain fantasy tropes and concepts, like why "we can rule together" is actually quite pointless. It's like the Demon Lord's read some version of the Evil Overlord list, and I like that!
So, yeah, I enjoyed this series. But it's also bitter sweet now that I've finished watching this show, I have to replace it on my weekly watch list with a different show. Hopefully that one will be just as good as this one.
Meanwhile, the Hero's fighting the possessed Demon Lord while telling her "I know you're in there somewhere" and dropping call backs to the first episode at the same time. And the fight ends not only with both sides being alive and well, but the (episode) title drop to boot!
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