Maougun Saikyou no Majutsushi wa Ningen datta

It's fine. Everything is fine. Nothing is great. Nothing is particularly bad. It's... fine.

That is simultaneously the best and worst thing I can say about this anime: it's fine. The show manages to do everything that it sets out to do, which is basically to "not completely suck" and it manages to do that. However, when not being terrible is the height of your ambition, it's also the best you can hope to accomplish. So this show... doesn't suck; which is not praise. It is forgettable mediocrity: something to pass some time and then forget everything about it in less time than it takes you ... to click on a different show to watch.

The show's title tells you all you need to know about the concept, and once you start watching it, you get this vague feeling like you've seen this all before, and now it's all being delivered to you in the most-slightly-better-than-bad version possible. Everything feels like it's going down a checklist of what you expect to see: the harem that the protag doesn't realize is developing around him; the superior who passes all their work onto him; the overconfident, mustache-twirling villains; the inexplicably ever-increasing number of people who know the secret; and of course the OP protag. If you told me that this anime was written by an AI, I'd believe you.

So, it's fine. If you're just looking for some media content to fill the air, you can do worse. But you can also do better.

The premise given by the title seems unique--a human not only working alongside demons but commanding their respect--but it nosedives straight into a subpar generic plot.

It's impressive that the anime with the most unique title/premise turned out to be the most generic out of a lineup of fantasy and isekai anime with far more generic titles. Granted, I'm only 4 episodes in, but a lot of the promises that were set up in this anime's story have been broken. Of those promises: the MC who is the human in the demon lord army and who is designated the "strongest" is not shown to be the ... strongest (or smartest or otherwise having any sort of interesting quality) in any of his actions; and (not really a spoiler but if anyone truly cares this is a very minor SPOILER) his race being human being a secret to the other demons is not actually a secret and it doesn't even matter.

The problem with an uninteresting character goes beyond the MC. It's not entirely due to the characters themselves, as the plot and pacing tends to breeze by events and moments that could instill character development. And stakes. Golly gee, the characters treat the stakes with minimal care, which subsequently just leave the conflict feeling so benign and unengaging. An example: the MC was given a test on behalf of another character he cared about that put her life on the line. None of the characters treated it as important including the character whose life was at stake, and the MC anticlimactically completed the test in a totally unimpressive way that defeated the purpose of the test.

Outside of plot and characters, the animation and music aren't things I'm going to complain about but they aren't great either.

This show is another generic fantasy with nothing more than that. Humans and demons fight against each other, but why? The show doesn’t bother to explain. In fact, basically everything that happens in this show has no reason to happen. We follow the MC who is once again a nice guy who can never be mean to anybody ever. Definitely a solid choice for a guy who’s supposed to be commanding a demon army. As events unfold around him, you, the viewer, have no reason to care about anything because nothing has any weight and zero world building is established.

On top of being a failure ... through a storytelling perspective, the other elements of this show are just as horrible and boring. The visuals are godawful CGI vomit to look at so no point in watching for the cool magic battles or any of that appeal. Dialogue is slow and is perfectly described as “stock standard”, so no point in watching for how the characters interact with each other. While the music is decent in some parts, anybody who’s ever watched a show will tell you that audio is most impactful when complimented with good visuals or dramatic writing. This show has none so the audio falls flat despite being good on it’s on merit.

Skip this show. People are somehow giving this show a 5 or 6 and I totally disagree. While you can enjoy mediocre shows, and I do myself, there is no point in watching something as dumb and boring as this. Hard pass, 2-3/10.