Maoujou de Oyasumi | Anime Review: When all you want is to sleep comfortably.

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Maoujou de Oyasumi is an interesting anime, in large part because of its premise. Syalis is only interested in achieving the most comfortable sleep imaginable. Even if that means indirectly breaking every rule in the demon world, she finds herself in to achieve the best sleep possible.

The Demon Lord Tasogare’s castle is a dark and frightening place, filled to the brim with various monsters. Any soul unfortunate enough to be imprisoned here is sure to be terrified by the horrors within. However, the human princess Aurora Suya Rhys “Syalis” Kaymin is a different case. Rather indifferent to her situation, Syalis worries about one thing and one thing only—sleep. Ever since the demon lord kidnapped her from her kingdom, she has not had a single good night’s rest.

To alleviate her dozen dozing issues, the princess makes do with what she can find in the castle. Whether it be the fur of fluffy demonic teddy bears or the silky, blanket-like bodies of ghost shrouds, everything is but a means to ensure a peaceful slumber. With so many potential materials to craft items that can help her sleep at her disposal, nothing will stop the sleepy princess—not even death.

Alternatively, you have the Demon King and his subordinates who do everything in their power to stop her from sleeping peacefully. Which is something I find oddly entertaining because it’s almost like they’re babysitting their prisoner, which drives them crazy.

In short, Maoujou de Oyasumi is an episodic adventure. Watching Suya ‘escape’ from her cell every episode as she travels around the Demon castle for items that’ll help her sleep better is very entertaining. But, like I’ve mentioned before, it’s like babysitting. You’re constantly having to watch Suya because if you leave her unsupervised for a second or two, she’s bound to make a mess or do something she isn’t supposed to be doing.

Usually, in fantasy shows, it would focus on a protagonist to save the princess. But in this show, we have the princess living her life like another day at the park. Suya always stands above all and catches the most attention. Whenever she gets kidnapped, the demons don’t harm her but give her plenty of freedom. In fact, it’s easy to say the overwhelming amount of characters in this show serves as comic reliefs, whether the good or bad guys. On any episode, she would go to any measure to get that perfect sleep while utterly oblivious to events around her.

On the other hand, we have Demon Lord Tasogare or the Twilight the Demon King. Despite being the antagonist of the anime, he doesn’t really act like one. Instead, like everyone else, he serves as comedic relief. If anything, he’s more obsessed with facing the ‘Hero,’ the person meant to save Suya. However, this ‘Hero’ is the worst possible person because he seems like an individual who acts before thinking things through. This leads the Demon King and his subordinates to constantly have to make things easy for the ‘Hero’ to even make it to the demon castle in the first place. Which I found pretty entertaining because if you constantly have to make things easy for the ‘Hero’ only for him to mess it up because it’s too complicated or challenging for him is pretty funny to me.

There are many supporting characters, all of which add a little something to each episode. It isn’t just Suya escaping every time exploring for items to help her sleep better. Suya’s interactions with the other characters and, as a result, their reactions to her constantly escaping, stealing things and having the other monsters assume the worst whenever Suya is out and about was pretty funny.

Personally, I thought that Maoujou de Oyasumi was a very fun anime. Suya was definitely a fun character to watch. Suya is oblivious to her surroundings and doesn’t think of the consequences of her actions or the stress she has caused her kidnappers. Suya wants the perfect sleep, and nothing will stop her in her quest for that. You know you’re doing well when the Demon King and others have to show you other hostages to help you (Suya) understand how to act like one. But of course, since the demons have gotten used to her constantly escaping and treating the castle as her place of play. Suya acting as a hostage is too much for them to stomach, and they would rather have her continuously ‘escape’ and cause a ruckus than have Suya treat them as real monsters and bad guys. And you know what? I’m fine with that. It makes for a great watch.