# Maoyu

Maoyū: Maō Yūsha (まおゆう魔王勇者, "Demon King and Hero"), also known as Maoyu, or Archenemy and Hero in English, is a Japanese light novel series by Mamare Touno that was initially posted in a play format on the textboard 2channel in 2009. Enterbrain 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 adaptation by Arms 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 Hero (勇者, Yūsha), invades the castle of the Demon King (魔王, Maō), 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

| No. | Title | Release date | ISBN |
| 01 | "Become Mine, Hero" "I Refuse!" (「この我のものとなれ、勇者よ」「断る!」) | December 29, 2010 | 978-4-04-726933-0 |
| 02 | Conspiracy of Kurultai (忽鄰塔(クリルタイ)の陰謀) | January 31, 2011 | 978-4-04-726994-1 |
| 03 | Expeditionary force of Seiken (聖鍵(せいけん)遠征軍) | April 28, 2011 | 978-4-04-727097-8 |
| 04 | What Can be Done With These Hands (この手でできること) | July 16, 2011 | 978-4-04-727098-5 |
| Episode01 | Episode1 Female Magician from Elms country (エピソード1 楡の国の女魔法使い) | October 31, 2011 | 978-4-04-727551-5 |
| 05 | The other side of the hill (あの丘の向こうに) | January 21, 2012 | 978-4-04-727144-9 |
| Episode00 | Episode0 Archer from Dune country (エピソード0 砂丘の国の弓使い) | June 30, 2012 | 978-4-04-728095-3 |
| Episode02 | Episode2 Female Knight from Flowers country (エピソード2 花の国の女騎士) | December 22, 2012 | 978-4-04-728456-2 |

### Manga

The manga series Maoyu: Archenemy and Hero "Become mine, Hero" "I refuse!", illustrated by Akira Ishida, was published in English digitally by Kadokawa Shoten, with the first two volumes made available on BookWalker on December 24, 2014. First 16 volumes were released. Yen Press had licensed the manga and planned to release it in a digital format.
| No. | Release date | ISBN |
| 01 | August 24, 2011 | 978-4-04-715766-8 |
| 02 | December 20, 2011 | 978-4-04-120054-4 |
| 03 | April 24, 2012 | 978-4-04-120205-0 |
| 04 | August 23, 2012 | 978-4-04-120361-3 |
| 05 | December 21, 2012 | 978-4-04-120518-1 |
| 06 | February 22, 2013 | 978-4-04-120577-8 |
| 07 | May 23, 2013 | 978-4-04-120697-3 |
| 08 | August 21, 2013 | 978-4-04-120822-9 |
| 09 | December 26, 2013 | 978-4-04-120938-7 |
| 10 | March 26, 2014 | 978-4-04-121047-5 |
| 11 | July 26, 2014 | 978-4-04-101732-6 |
| 12 | October 25, 2014 | 978-4-04-101733-3 |
| 13 | January 26, 2015 | 978-4-04-101734-0 |
| 14 | April 25, 2015 | 978-4-04-101735-7 |
| 15 | July 25, 2015 | 978-4-04-102908-4 |
| 16 | October 26, 2015 | 978-4-04-102909-1 |
| 17 | February 26, 2016 | 978-4-04-102910-7 |
| 18 | August 26, 2016 | 978-4-04-104685-2 |

### Anime

A 12-episode anime television series adaptation, directed by Takeo Takahashi and produced by Arms, aired in Japan on January 5 to March 30, 2013 on Tokyo MX. The screenplay is written by Naruhisa Arakawa and the music is by Takeshi Hama. The anime is streaming by Crunchyroll with English subtitles. The opening theme song is "Headwind" (向かい風, Mukaikaze) by Yohko and the ending theme song is "Unknown Vision" by Akino Arai. Sentai Filmworks has acquired the series for a release in North America, while in Australia it is licensed by Madman Entertainment.