, also known as ''Maoyu'', or ''Archenemy and Hero'' in English, is a Japanese

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

series by Mamare Touno that was initially posted in a play format on the textboard

2channel , also known as 2ch, Channel 2, and sometimes retrospectively as 2ch.net, was an anonymous Japanese textboard founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura. Described in 2007 as "Japan's most popular online community", the site had a level of influe ...

in 2009.

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on 30 January 1987 as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy ...

published five main novels in the series, in addition to three side-story novels between 2010 and 2012, selling over 450,000 copies in total. It has received several manga adaptations. A 12-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation by

Arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

aired in Japan from January 5 to March 30, 2013. The series follows the exploits of a human hero and the queen of demons who join forces to bring peace and prosperity to their war-torn world.

Plot

The story is set in a world embroiled by war between Humans and Demons. The Humans' greatest warrior, the , invades the castle of the , intent on vanquishing the leader of the Demons. Inside, the Hero discovers that the Demon King is in fact a Demon Queen; and instead of battling him, the Demon Queen proposes an alliance with the Hero. She explains how a sudden end to the war can bring further chaos to the world as the Humans, once united to stand against their common enemies, would eventually begin fighting among themselves, with similar issues already occurring in the Demon Realm. Convinced by her words, the Hero joins forces with the Queen, and together they execute a plan to bring prosperity and a lasting peace to both Humans and Demons alike.

Production

Commercial releases

Game designer Shōji Masuda took note of the series and contacted the author on Twitter. This led to the establishment of a project to publish the series commercially as a novel. Masuda acted as the series' publication supervisor, with Atsushi Yamakita and Hiromi Hosoe taking on the role of setting director, Atsushi Yamakita providing extra consulting on map creation, toi8 providing illustrations, with additional character design assistance from Keinojō Mizutama. Besides the novel series, the franchise has received several manga adaptations and drama CDs and a TV anime adaptation, which was broadcast between January and March 2013.

Media

Light novels

Manga

The manga series ''"Become Mine, Hero" "I Refuse!"'' was published in English digitally by Kadokawa Shoten, with the first two volumes made available on

BookWalker , stylized as Book☆Walker, is a Japanese e-book store that sells manga, light novels, and magazines from various publishers, as well as a few published by themselves. It is based in Chiyoda, Tokyo and was created by Kadokawa Corporation. The c ...

on December 24, 2014. First 16 volumes were released.

Yen Press Yen Press, LLC is an American manga and graphic novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published ''Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press ...

had licensed the manga and planned to release it in a digital format.

Anime

A 12-episode

television series adaptation, directed by

Takeo Takahashi is a Japanese animator, animation director, and storyboard artist. Filmography Director Television series OVAs Films Other Television series OVAs/ONAs Films Adult Anime Notes References External links *Takeo Takahashi animeat ...

and produced by

, aired in Japan on January 5 to March 30, 2013 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

. The screenplay is written by

Naruhisa Arakawa is a Japanese screenwriter who primarily works on anime and tokusatsu Japanese television drama, dramas. He first served as a series' main writer for ''Blue Seed'' anime and the Kamen Rider Series revival ''Kamen Rider Kuuga''. Arakawa was the m ...

and the music is by Takeshi Hama. The anime is streaming by

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

with English subtitles. The opening theme song is by Yohko and the ending theme song is "Unknown Vision" by

Akino Arai is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and lyricist for various anime theme songs and shows, including ''Record of Lodoss War'', ''Please Save My Earth'', ''Macross Plus'', ''Outlaw Star'', ''Kaze no Stigma'', ''Maoyu'', and '' Aria The Origination'' ...

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

has acquired the series for a release in North America, while in Australia it is licensed by

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatri ...

References

External links

Official website

Official anime website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maoyu Mao Yusha 2010 Japanese novels 2011 manga 2013 anime television series debuts 2channel Akita Shoten manga Anime and manga based on light novels Arms Corporation Enterbrain Enterbrain manga Fantasy anime and manga Japanese fantasy novels Kadokawa Dwango franchises Kadokawa Shoten manga Kodansha manga Light novels Shōnen manga Sentai Filmworks Television shows based on light novels Yen Press titles