Maougun Saikyou no Majutsushi wa Ningen datta

An unfortunately generic anime that has its music wasted on it.

Every season we get dime a dozen of anime like this. Either an Isekai or a Fantasy (or both) with the concept of "but X". This time, it's a generic copy and paste BUT the demon general is actually a human.
Unfortunately, it changes nothing. The MC is generically OP, but is also the super nice guy and savior with no extra features or qualities.

On the side, we have our own share of cute or hot girls who are all around the MC but are equally uninteresting.

The CGI in this anime (for monsters, effects, spells, etc.) ... is pretty horrendous.

It's sad seeing Kohta Yamamoto's music (AoT S4) being wasted on this work.

Skip, 3/10.

The concept of a human living among demons, seeking to bridge the gap between two warring species, offers a wealth of narrative possibilities. However, the anime falls short in execution, plagued by various issues that prevent it from reaching its on-paper potential.

The series opens with the Demon King's army engaged in relentless battles against humans. Ike, the leader of the Undying Brigade and grandson of the great magician Romberg, is revered for his unparalleled magical prowess. Yet, his human identity remains a closely guarded secret, as its revelation could spell disaster. This central conflict could have set the stage for a compelling story of espionage ... and moral ambiguity, but the anime stumbles in its delivery.

Pros
- The anime features a few war tactics and espionage elements, though they are simplistic and not particularly innovative.
- No LitRPG nonsense and nerd video game terminology; magic and spells are not explained unless necessary, which is refreshing.
- Morally grey conflict where human leaders, despite facing a great threat, remain selfish and divided. In fact, human leaders are more concerned with the distant future, focusing on securing their future positions after defeating the demons, leading to internal disputes and lack of teamwork.
- The Demon Lord, Dairokuten, has an interesting level-headed personality, believing how humans can have desirable traits (such as humility) demons could learn from to become stronger.

Cons
- Dairokuten does nothing interesting besides sitting crossed legged on her throne. Leaving command to her minions, and by minion I only mean Ike, because he does everything, resulting him to be practically the 'de facto leader' of the demon kingdom.
- Excessive exposition and thoughtless superfluous dumb dialogue.
- The so-called 'genius' protagonist and his 'intelligent' foes are disappointingly incompetent. Ike could have used his mind reading powers at numerous occasions but didn't for reasons, Ike explains his mind reading ability to opponents for reasons, and despite knowing Ike's mind-reading abilities, Jace the goblin foolishly orders an attack directly, only to act surprised when Ike finds out. Not only that, Jace could have at least pretended he was not involved, because mind-reading powers and interrogation are still not proof or evidence that he betrayed the demon kingdom by ordering his underlings to shoot Ike with an arrow, causing Jace's demise. He then challenges Ike as if that would do anything; Jace was already doomed from that point on, as he became wanted by both demons and humans with nowhere to escape. Jace then offers Ike alliance against Demon Lord, rendering all his previous actions unjustified; leaving you wondering why he attacked Ike in the first place. That's not a rational way to start a revolution either.
- There is a noticeable lack of tension. Ike doesn't face threatening adversaries, and his human disguise is not convincingly dangerous. He is often seen casually removing his mask at home, making it hard to believe that he has maintained his secret for 20 years before being discovered by a random maid.
- The forced harem elements is non-organic and unnecessary, featuring a naive defenseless slave maid the protagonist protects from one-dimensional evil rapists, a flirtatious mentor witch who supposedly has an unrevealed history with Ike and does nothing besides infodumping and plot armouring Ike with her broken powers, and a succubus who constantly follow the MC begging him for sex, adding nothing substantial to the narrative beyond wish fulfillment.
- The CGI during action scenes is horrible to say the least.
- The opening song and visuals are overly sexualised and misleading, showcasing characters that are not introduced early in the story, which diminishes their anticipated importance.
- Traitors and spies are introduced at the moment they are revealed, leading to random and unimpactful twists. For example, episode 3's titular 'traitor' is a previously unintroduced goblin, making the revelation feel hollow.
- The title 'Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord's Army Was a Human' is misleading. Ike's human identity holds little narrative significance, and he is not the strongest magician by any notable margin. The difference between humans and demons isn't highlighted either, lacking contrast, with some demons resembling humans or being allies with Ike, fighting for his cause.
- The light novel is still ongoing, meaning this is likely going to be yet another incomplete adaptation with an open ending. It's not even a good adaptation, with some scenes lifted verbatim from descriptive narration, which isn't welcome in audio-visual mediums.

Although it is tagged as isekai, it doesn't reveal this element until later, worsening the story as the isekai aspect proves to be a needless gimmick (much like most contemporary isekais). The narrative could function perfectly well without a human being transported into a fantasy 'Dragon Quest knockoff' world; it could have been a generic low fantasy. Additionally, the series incorporates harem elements that add nothing serious or consequential, merely fueling the wish fulfillment fantasies of twenty-something male virgins. Despite its promising premise, it ends up being yet another otaku wish fulfillment power fantasy. It is not entirely without merit, offering some interesting ideas. It isn't complete trash, one step above average current isekai, but that's a low bar to begin with.

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.

The writers for the original season of Power Rangers (1993) called and they want their dialogue back. Action scenes are few and far between, bland and dear goddess how can they talk so much during a battle? Like how is that even possible?

In addition to lackluster dialogue and action scenes the costume design is also... not fit for a high definition screen. They lack so much detail that you might as well be watching this on VHS. Of all the components of this show perhaps the most heroic efforts to save it are in the music, which ... sometimes is so good compared to the (lack of) drama that it can feel a little embarrassing to watch.

A priori this series had a good idea of plot : an human commander of a demon army try his best to fulfill his duty without killing his human's brothers, and has to balance between his ideal of peace and the inherent violent nature of demons.
This series had the potential to highlight a smart and powerful MC who have to deal with his ethics, his feelings toward the sacrifices that he has to make ; on one hand ensure victory without killing which is difficult and not guaranteed, on the other hand ensure victory without raising suspicion. The task is far from easy and I ... naively thought the anime would depict the difficulties and the moral dilemma behind the MC's situation.

But, it is what it is, this series is generic, mediocre, like a sandwich with no flavour, no consistence. The MC is a good guy not because his actions image it, but because supportive characters tell that. After violent combats in which we see human soldiers fall, other characters will say that our MC has, again, not killed humans. Not only is there fantasy magic in this world, but there is also another magic called "scenario" that make his wish of not killing humans true... In this series, everything is simple, no struggles, no difficulties, whereas in a situation of war, death can't be avoided so easily.

It's often said "better show than tell". This series definitely don't follow this point ; this guy is a great person and you can't question it because this is what the series stated. As a result the MC is mediocre and the supportive characters aren't better but worse.

Other reviews had already highlighted all of the critics that we can make toward this series, I have chosen to speak about one part of this trash can, as I consider the lack of wit, reflection, etc., of the main character as a red flag : we can't expect a great story from this.

Personal rate : 9/20

For some reason I didn't have an emotional or physical reaction to this show, even though it's worse than many others which produced such results. Without wanting to sound like I am making a claim that quality of acting, animation and everything else that goes in creative process is actually good here, it's not. Rest assured this is the result of scraping sludge from the bottom of the barrel where all the cliches that no one wants anymore are kept.

This show simply failed to keep my attention. It wasn't the visuals or the acting. Not even the story that repelled me. Just wasn't entertaining. With ... literally every episode I had to go and watch the ending of previous one so I could remind myself what actually happened. It was that forgettable. And while writers tried to produce some sort of drama and conflict it all falls flat. We get no sense of urgency, dread, envy. We get no feeling what so ever. Even MC who is suppose to be a pupil of the best mage ever to walk the planet, you still don't know how good he is.

Overall I'd say not recommended and entirely forgettable. Ultimately a waste of time.