

I just discover this series (like ten years late….) and I have start watching the anime. (Crunchy usually doesn't let you skip the credits, so I suggest muting the sound.) I see the anime has lately popped up on Crunchyroll, so despite its age it may be pretty available. I still like the ever-responsible half-brothers Conrad and Gwendal best, and not just because they're drawn pretty. The characters all seem to be their charming, goofy, or appalling selves, sometimes all three at once. 6, it tracks the anime plot pretty well, minus the most annoying opening credits music ever created, so that's a plus. But anyway.) Fights and adventures this tale has, but the conflict-resolution is somewhat more realistic and talky. No one much kicks each other in the nuts in these things, which I'd think would resolve the fight quicker. For a refreshing change, it's not the sort of tale where every conflict, no matter how world-shaking, is resolved with a man-to-man fistfight ending in a punch to the face. The plot is at once an exemplar and a parody of kid-falls-into-another world (in this case, flushed via a toilet that a gang of bullies were trying to stick his head into), discovers himself with magical powers and insta-status on the other side. A friend recently lent me a short stack of the manga, which, it turns out, is still not the original source, that being a series of light novels. Kyo Kara Maoh! was one of the first anime series I watched, years ago when all the tropes were still new to me. You could round up the stars a bit, due to memorable characters.
