The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done! Review

Writing a review on The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done! is hella risky. I’m most likely being watched by the FBI along with the rest of everyone else who has watched The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done. I hope you all appreciate the dedication I have to inform you on whether this anime is good or not. Anyways, let’s get into this!

The Story

Yaichi Kuzuryū is a prodigy shogi player who has earned the title of the youngest Ryuo in history. After achieving this title, Yaichi finds himself stuck in a slump that he can’t manage to break out of. One day, a nine-year-old girl named Ai Hinatsuru arrives at Yaichi’s house asking to become his disciple. Astonished by Ai’s talent and potential, Yaichi agrees to become her master. The two then venture forth into the world of Shogi to become the best of the best.

During the story there are different subplots which are as followed:

• Ai becoming a female professional player.
• Yaichi taking in another disciple.
• Keika, a friend of Yaichi, and her struggle to become a female professional player.
• And Yaichi fighting to keep his Ryuo title.

Along with these subplots, there is a minor romance going on between Yaichi and basically every female in the anime. The main focus on the romance is between Yaichi and Ginko, a childhood friend. The rest of the “romance” is just Yaichi being a lolicon.

The Characters

Yaichi Kuzuryuu

Yaichi is the “Loli King”. He is surrounded by the most adorable lolis at all times and even has women swooning over him. Of course being the main character and cliche center of a harem, he is very ignorant of these girls feelings towards him. He pretty much rejects having a relationship with his childhood friend because of his ignorance which results in some drama.

As a character, Yaichi does have some characterization for his strive to continue being a top shogi player. The issue I have with him is that you don’t ever feel like he deserves the title he holds. There’s no moment where you’re like,”holy frick he is a god at shogi and deserves that title”. For the most part, he is seen losing matches and ends up getting emotionally invested in the match to somehow come back after being cornered. Sure, he wins after getting stomped, but he doesn’t ever seem like the legend he is described to be.

Ai Hinatsuru

Ai Hinatsuru is Yaichi’s first disciple. Ai first met and became interested in Yaichi during Yaichi’s Ryuo title match. During a break, Yaichi was walking down a hallway and nearly passed out. Ai just so happened to bring Yaichi a glass of water and in return, Yaichi offered Ai if there were any favors he could do for her. Ai responded asking to be Yaichi’s disciple one day. After that day, Yaichi had forgotten about Ai’s request until Ai went out and searched for Yaichi to pursue becoming a shogi player. As Yaichi’s disciple, Ai shows great potential to become one of the best shogi players ever. 

What is also worth mentioning is that Ai is extremely in love with Yaichi. This results in some weird moments where Yaichi should one-hundred percent be arrested and imprisoned. Though somehow, everyone is perfectly fine with a grade schooler living with a sixteen-year-old boy.

Ai Yashajin

Ai Yashajin is Yaichi’s second disciple who has the polar opposite character of Ai Hinatsuru. She is a loli-goth who is quite full of herself when it comes to shogi. To be fair, she has the right to be full of herself due to how good she is. Sadly, Ai Yashajin is focused on for about an episode then is sorta forgotten and put on the back burner. I think it’s a shame that she was just placed on the sideline. It’s a goth loli, why wouldn’t we want more of her?

Ginko Sora

Ginko Sora is Yaichi’s childhood friend and fellow disciple. She is nicknamed the “Ice Queen” and is known to be the best female professional player in the league. Ginko, like every childhood friend in anime, is in love with the main character, Yaichi. She is rather cold and is borderline Tsundere. Obviously, Yaichi is oblivious to Ginko’s feelings towards him, but I suppose its normal for main characters to be oblivious in harems.

Keika Kiyotaki

Keika Kiyotaki is Yaichi and Ginko’s elder disciple and biological daughter of their master. She entered to become a female professional player at a young age but is yet to be accepted into the female league. In the series, there is a large focus on her struggle to push to become a professional player.

I believe Keika has the most character out of everyone in the anime. I definitely felt sorry for Keika and rooted for her, hoping that she’d manage to reach her childhood dreams of being a professional shogi player. Overall, she has a solid story arc and well-developed character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTYQa3HOEYk

Charlotte Izoard

Okay, Charlotte isn’t at all an important character in the series, but she is so FREAKING cute. Like, oh my goodness. She is a six-year-old girl attending a French school in Kyoto. She is in Ai’s training group, which isn’t very important because she nor the rest of Ai’s friends are important to the anime. B-but- LOOK! She’s adorable!

Phew… alright. I’ve calmed down. Let’s move onto the Art, Animation, and Sound.

Art, Animation, and Sound

The art and animation have nothing special going for it. There really is no special animations other than a ripple effect that looks sorta cool at the end of shogi matches or when huge plays are made. Though this ripple proves helpful because you can’t really tell if it’s a huge play unless you see this effect. This may sound like a good thing which helps hint towards who is winning a match, but it just brings out the major flaw of the anime. A majority of people have no freaking idea how shogi is played! Each match is supposed to display the mental struggle in the characters mind’s which is done fine, but when they use shogi terminology like “Double Wing Attack” the viewer most likely has no clue what that’s supposed to mean! I enjoy the characters and lolis, but I don’t understand shogi at all! Anyways…

For sound, when the shogi pieces click onto the board, that sounds pretty cool. Other than that, nothing special. The opening theme isn’t too bad. It’s an op that I wouldn’t mind listening to all the way through. I’ll still skip it if I have the remote with me, but it’s a pretty decent op.

Overall Thoughts

You’ll only like The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done! if you’re a lolicon, simple as that. If you think lolis are adorable, watch this anime to your heart’s content. I personally really enjoyed myself and think it’s worth going to prison for. There are adorable lolis, a decent cast of characters, and a semi-decent story to invest your time into. Now if you aren’t a lolicon… don’t watch this anime; It wouldn’t be worth your time.

I enjoyed Keika’s story arc with her struggle to become a female pro player. She felt like a real person trying to follow her dreams. Her story had solid emotion behind it and really made you cheer her on towards her goal. Every other character is really just bland. If they somehow explained how shogi worked and gave the opponents Yaichi and Ai face off against actual personality, then the matches would feel more intense. I think a sorta Yugioh vibe would have done very well to spice things up.

If my review didn’t help ya figure out what The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done! is all about and whether you should watch it or not, watch this video to help you decide; It’s basically the key point of the entire anime.