Fun. Lots of fun. That's probably the most apt word to describe this series. You can see on their faces as sometimes they don't bother keeping a straight face. Yuusha Yoshihiko is a collection of Dragon Quest inspired skits held together by your typical quest to destroy great evil storyline.
It sort of got less funny after the halfway point, specifically ep 7. Way too many running jokes that have lost their flavour and comedy that has absolute no connection with the fantasy setting. They recovered in ep 8 with a funny episode on changing character classes but I wasn't laughing as hard as in the first half of the series.
It probably had to do with all the fights turning out to be gang fighting some inept villain all the time and there were not any cool fights to break up the monotony. I think the two episodes I found not so funny were episodes 7 and 9 where Yuusha and gang had to fight a succession of bad guys to reach the boss.
Some of it had to do with me not understanding the jokes like the raccoon washing the gun or Jyaitan the shaman. The Oguri Shun cameo was funny as hell and you can just see it on their faces. There's basically two episodes over a total of 12 that weren't as funny as the first half of the series but on the whole Yuusha Yoshihiko has provided me with more laughs than any jdorama I can remember.
I've got to say, I really enjoyed the last two episodes. Yuusha and gang have got to go to Maou's castle to fight and since they have no budget and need to set the final battles in a strange place, they decided to set in the modern world which I think had a lot of hilarious results. I don't know why they never addressed how our heroes payed for everything though.
Some of my favourite bits of the series:
Ep 5 - Walking in a straight line and into people's homes to break pots and open drawers. One of the staples of Fantasy RPGs that people never question.
Ep 6 - Yoshihiko X Rien was so freaking funny. I need more Nakamura Shizuka but I can't remember how big a role she played in Mioka which I had dropped quickly. I just can't watch bad doramas just for eye candy.
Ep 7 - Dying and going to a priest. Makes me feel like playing Shining Force.
Ep 8 - Yoshihiko becoming an idol. Actually every episode with Yoshihiko abandoning his quest is funny.
Ep 10 - Cloning skill. Nuff said.
Ep 11 - Yoshihiko and gang enjoying the trappings of modern life. The Murasaki confrontation was the highlight for me.
Ep 12 - They saved all their CG money for the final episode.
On the whole, Yuusha Yoshihiko has given me more laughs per minute than any other dorama I can think of. Its a homage to one of my favourite game genres and there's no reason why anyone would not enjoy this even if they don't play Japanese RPGs. I so hope they do the movie.
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