Discussion Was Kou overhyped?

Notice me Escanor senpai · Jan 9, 2016

Hello dear Magi fans.

Today we're going to discuss whether Kou as a whole was overhyped by Ohtaka.

In this analysis I'm taking all the aspects about Kou, not just the characters. So let us start, shall we?

First things first ever since Kou was introduced, as far as the Kouga arc, they were presented as this big militaristic country, which has many metal vessel users. More importantly they were able to extend their influence to other countries like Balbadd, with the result that we all know.And this impression was accentuated as the story progressed, to the point that we all pretty much expected Kou to face the Seven seas Alliances, in a worldwide war.

Ohtaka also went out of her way to portray the Kou characters in a very positive light, despite their motives which are nothing short of being world domination. Even their policies that relied heavily on war and slavery were thrown under the rug basically, as Ohtaka made the Kou characters more likable than any other character. However as the civil war came to an end, it turned out that quite a few of them didn't live up to the expectations.
So let's go through it one by one.

She was introduced during the Kouga arc, and I think many see her as one of the Kou characters that deserves to rule the country. She showed that she was lenient, that she didn't want to subjugate the Kouga tribe, but instead tried to convince them through words. She believes in Kouen's and her father's ideal of uniting the world. She later got less and less panel time, only appearing when Hakuryuu tried to persuade her that their mother is an evil psycho bitch, only for her to turn him down. She later showed up to help Kouha and the others during the fight with the medium, and she showed that she was quite brave. However she was absent most of the Kou arc, only showing up at the end when it is revealed that she helped the SSA pass through to help her brother....and as it turns out she was actually possessed by Arba/Gyokuen. So all her character became pretty much irrelevant,since now she is no longer the one in charge.

Perhaps the most liked girl in Kou for reasons that still elude me. My personal preferences aside, she originally came off as haughty princess, cold and distant when she was originally sent to "close the deal" with Abhmad by marrying him, and that way extending Kou's influence on Balbadd. She then had to set her eyes on Alibaba, however we can say she was reluctant to this whole marriage alliance thing. She also showed a different side of her personality, a yandere one, when she was fighting Ugo who had previously tried to kill Judal, only for Sinbad stoping her from using her power. That fateful meeting pretty much sealed her destiny, as she desesperately fell in love with the High King(who wouldn't? :derp

).She later on appeared when Hakuryuu paid Sindria a visit, officially to study. However her reunion with Sinbad didn't turn out so well, mainly because Sinbad was accused of deflowering her. But as it turns out it was all a mockery, and it was staged by Ka Koubun. During her stay in Sindria she was able to bond with Alibaba, with whom she shares a few things, starting with their mothers being prostitutes. During her fight with Sinbad, the latter put her under Zepar's spell, which would turn out to be a major plot point later on. Her dream was to become a general, a warrior, instead her dear brother Kouen continued to use her as a tool to seal his alliances, as he would have her marry Alibaba once again. She showed she was brave, in the fight against the medium but also during Kou's civil war. However we could say she was delusional, as clearly she couldn't protect everyone.Sinbad was able to use her body in order to immobilize Kouha during the war, which made it impossible for him and the rest of Kouen's forces to continue to fight, which we could say effectively prevented Kouha from throwing his life away as they were at a disadvantage against the SSA. She is now an important figure more than ever, because she's the current emperor of Kou, however she's just a damsel in distress as she wasn't able to save Kou. She was never meant to be emperor as she didn't receive proper training for it. Her character could end up the most disappointing one if it turns out that she hates only Sinbad and not Hakuryuu, because it can be said that the latter also has a part of responsibility in her dear brothers fate.

Ah this one is a bit controversial. At first he was shown to be rather weak, going as far as crying during the Zagan dungeon. And as time went by we saw him getting consumed by his thirst for revenge, and his bad history with his mother. Introduced originally as a friend of the main trio, he later became more of an antagonist, especially if we consider that he was the one who killed Alibaba in the first place...Although what he did like the brainwashing of soldiers and killing his mother is hard to defend(nah I love the fact he "killed" her, you can't help but sympathize with him. He was robbed of his birth right, by his own mother. He saw his own brothers die in front of him as a kid and they had him swear to get revenge. He survived the fire but he was deeply affected by those events, I would say it shaped him to be the person we know right now. No wonder he wasn't right in the head. During the Madaura arc we saw him kill her in front of her children, which was pretty shocking but put into context she actually deserved it. We saw him try to kill Gyokuen and fail, only for him to finally accept Judal's help. If it weren't for Judal I'm not sure Hakuryuu would have done half of the things he's done. But in the end he was able to achieve what he wanted: kill his mother, and be emperor but at a steep price. Indeed in the end he wasn't able to get anything on his own, moreover after the 3 years it turns out he had to step down from being emperor of Kou. It's kinda disappointing considering all the trouble he went through to become emperor.In the end becoming emperor and ruling are two different things, while it can be said that he was faced with difficulties that aren't his own doing we simply can't forget that it is his responsibility as ruler of Kou to come up with the right policies.

First Kouen was introduced as someone who could prolly be antagonistic to Sinbad. He had a similar aura that made him into one of the more important figures in the manga. While this might still hold, in the end he also had his insecurities. His ideal of uniting the world while honorable wasn't realistic, as not everyone agrees about everything in the first place. He is the type who would dirty his own hands to get what he wants, to the point he'd use Al Thamen for it, which is pretty bad considering that Al Thamen's goal is to destroy the world, and they were pretty much responsible for all the calamities happening in the new world. He also had no problems whatsoever marrying his sisters in order to forge political alliances, even often forgetting which ones were married. While not being a bad person per say, his greatest sin can be said to be him denying Hakuryuu's his birthright.He fully knew that Hakuryuu was the rightful emperor but decided to stop him anyway. He never tried to talk things through with Hakuryuu either, and it was even revealed he was afraid of Arba. Last but not least when things did get serious, he decided not to fight the SSA, which some can see as disappointing.All this build up only for him to give up, and for me the most disappointing part is the one with Arba etc.So while he was supposed to be Sinbad's rival, it appeared in the end that he wasn't fit for being emperor, his vision of the world would have surely thrown it towards destruction and would have only brought more wars, even his policies were only adequate for a certain type of economy, that I will cover later.

Kouen's right hand man. He is supposed to be the tactician in Kou. He also agrees with everything Kouen says, and is even responsible for some of Kou's more controversial policies. There isn't much to say about him, but it can be said that his inability to predict that Hakuryuu could have more allies was disappointing. For someone who was a tactician, he prolly never occured to him that Hakuei would side with her brother. Even not taking Arba as a factor, the fact remains that there was a chance,albeit small that Hakuei would side with her little brother.

He came off as a psycho originally, but he's actually a decent leader, more than Kouen imo. However the fact he follows Kouen blindly is disappointing, at least for me.

Gyokuen Ren: She's the evil queen, the one who started all this, or almost. She was initially thought to be the real baddy, but as it turns out she was nothing more than a puppet, controlled by Davidillah. While being impressive during her fight with Hakuryuu, she showed that she greatly understimated the magicians of the new world. Her trying to get her son not to kill her was pretty pitiful. And from the AT arc it became obvious that the only reason she did all this is because she's a zealot. She was definitely hyped, only for her to be "killed" but come back as Arbakuei, whose greatest wish is to serve her beloved Illah who had fused with David.

So as far as the characters themselves are concerned there was a lot of hyping done by Ohtaka, but it all went to shit as they pretty much all didn't live to the fans expectations, Kouen especially. His so called determination melted down, as he didn't face the SSA when things finally got serious. Although there's a good chance he would have lost anyway. And more importantly he didn't have the balls to face Arba, when Hakuryuu did just that. Even characters like Arba herself can be seen as disappointing, since ever since she was introduced she came off as someone who could very well be the final villain. More importantly her whole motivation to do what she did is because she loved Illah, and was being controlled by David.

Now let's talk about Kou itself. The country is described as an aggressive one, that relies heavily on the military. As it turns out all of their economy was based on the military and slavery. Those who joined the military were paid, and the work would be done by slaves who would get food rations etc. Supposedly the slaves could leave the system after 5 years, but since Kou's economy is based on them that means they'd need more slaves, at all times. Kou's economy itself didn't give much importance to trade. And the fact they had all the countries they had conquered be assimilated didn't give much of a chance to have an interesting offer in terms of tourism. And now we're seeing the limits of such a system, now that the rules of the games were changed. And even without Sinbad rewriting the rules, anyone who knows a bit about economy would tell you that it's bad to rely on one ressource. What happens when it's gone? Kou should have tried hard to diversify their offer, by actually giving importance to trade. Even stuff like having one culture doesn't mean that everything will go smoothly, as we found out that independance wars happened during Hakuryuu's rule. So it can be seen as these parts of the empire didn't really feel like they belonged with the rest, not just because of the bad economy. If indeed they managed to achieve one culture, one ideology, there wouldn't be people wanting to break from Kou at all costs. And Kou's officials overall failed to come up with the right policies.

So in conclusion I would say that yes Kou was overhyped by Ohtaka, she made them look like they would be huge players, but for reasons that still elude us she decided not to have Kouen fight, and most of the Kou characters right now are in a bad situation, and some of them didn't even live up to our expectations. Even now I doubt they'll be the ones to face Sinbad, characters like Alibaba and Aladdin have a better chance of doing so.

Feel free to comment.