12 Days of Anime: Mao from Endro!

The cutest demon lord you'll ever meet!

If you've never seen the slice of life fantasy Endro!, you could probably guess why the demon lord Mao is one of my favorite characters from this year. Just look at her! She's adorable! She's like a little baby devil! She couldn't possibly be a threat to anyone...well, she could but she chooses not to be the bad guy that she's born to be.

Okay, so despite her compact and baby appearance, Mao is a legit demon lord that is reincarnated to battle with and ultimately be defeated by a hero. She may be small but she is probably stronger than any mage or warrior that might challenge her, and she can take the form of what most people imagine when they hear "demon lord".

But it isn't her role as a villain that made her stand out to me. Because the hero that was supposed to defeat her made a big mistake, Mao was sent back in time to before the chosen hero knew they were supposed to become a hero. So the fun-sized demon schemed to prevent the hero from ever realizing their destiny and Mao became a teacher and an adventurer school. 

At first, she was really serious about trying to create obstacles to stop and defeat the hero, but instead Mao helped the hero find their sword and get stronger. Eventually, Mao even lost focus from her original goal and embraced her job as a teacher and even became a friend to the hero. Despite being a demon lord, Mao fell in love with her new life where she had friends that cared about her and where she would fall into comedic antics with her students.

Mao stole my heart and even though she's a demon lord, I doubt that she'd break it. If you're like me and think Mao's adorableness rivals that of Baby Yoda, I'd suggest you chill out with Endro! and have a laugh or two.