English Dub Review: The Misfit of Demon King Academy “The Spirit’s Trial”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
In order to visit the Spirit King, Anos and his team continue to go through trials provided by the Great Tree Spirit Enyunien. In the next trial, “The Staircase of Geunier”, they must choose the five correct paths out of the 20 paths before them, which appears to be a game entirely dependent on luck. However, thanks to the advice from Lena, Anos and his team individually made their way to the top. Lay and Misa arrive at the Spirit King’s castle first and engage in the final trial!

Our Take:
The second half of the second season’s first cour begins with Anos and the gang completing the written test of the Spirit’s School Building. After completing the written portion, the Demon King crew is set to tackle the physical part of the Tree Spirit’s series of trials. Their latest test leads them to conquer the “Staircase of Geunier”, where they must use their brains to find the right paths leading to the Spirit King’s stronghold.
There are twenty paths, but they only have to choose five to move to the final trial. Fortunately, Anos takes Lena’s advice and transforms the classmates into himself to make sure there isn’t any foul play from the Great Tree Spirit. The plan turned out to be a success, with Anos, Lina, Lay, and Misa being the ones to reach the top. But, of course, their journey isn’t complete without a couple more trials for them to encounter.
The first trial involves the Hidden Wolf Geno, where Anos teams up with one of the demons to complete its test. Unfortunately, Lina magically disappeared during the fight, leaving us to question her true purpose. The other trial has Lay and Misa reaching the Spirit King’s castle first, only to battle him in combat. This sequence was a bit better than the Hidden Wolf trial regarding the vibrant animation for the action. More importantly, it further showcases the love between Lay and Misa, who helps Lay defeat the Spirit King in her true form. Sadly, the Spirit King pulled off a cheap shot and impaled Misa after Lay claimed victory. Finally, Anos’ trial has him battling Gilysiris, only for Anos to quickly kill the demon without breaking a sweat.
Overall, “The Spirit’s Trial” starts the first cour’s second half with an enticing series of trials that offers suitable animation and shocking surprises. One of them involves the Spirit King, who took over the spirit realm when the Great Spirit Leno died. To make things worse for Anos, the Spirit King is another person disguising themselves as the Demon King, meaning we might be heading into some familiar territory from season one. However, it was the true identity of the Spirit King that made me go, “What?”. Whether it’s in a good or bad way would depend on the context given in next week’s episode.