SPOILERS AHEAD! I will try to avoid spoiling the conclusions of major plot elements, but I'm not going to be trying very hard to avoid general spoilers for the series.
Summary
Seventeen-year-old Hajime Nagumo is your average, everyday otaku. However, his simple life of pulling all-nighters and sleeping in school is suddenly turned upside down when he, along with the rest of his class, is summoned to a fantasy world! They're treated like heroes and tasked with the duty of saving the human race from utter extinction. But what should have been any otaku's dream quickly turns into Hajime's nightmare. While the rest of his class are blessed with godlike powers, Hajime's job, Synergist, only has a single transmutation skill. Ridiculed and bullied by his classmates for being weak, he soon finds himself in despair. Will he be able to survive in this dangerous world of monsters and demons with only a glorified blacksmith's level of strength?
(Source: J-Novel Club) (w/minor edits)
Seventeen-year-old Hajime Nagumo is your average, everyday otaku. However, his simple life of pulling all-nighters and sleeping in school is suddenly turned upside down when he, along with the rest of his class, is summoned to a fantasy world! They're treated like heroes and tasked with the duty of saving the human race from utter extinction. But what should have been any otaku's dream quickly turns into Hajime's nightmare. While the rest of his class are blessed with godlike powers, Hajime's job, Synergist, only has a single transmutation skill. Ridiculed and bullied by his classmates for being weak, he soon finds himself in despair. Will he be able to survive in this dangerous world of monsters and demons with only a glorified blacksmith's level of strength?
(Source: J-Novel Club) (w/minor edits)
My First Episode Impressions
(copied from my Summer 2019 Seasonal Anime post)
So, first it's worth noting that the summary above will literally give you more information than the first episode does. Having read the first few chapters of the manga, I personally appreciated the first episode jumping straight to the most interesting part, but from a story structure perspective it's a poor choice. Also, it must be said that this is yet another isekai, one of several out this season. I wasn't even sure if I'd like this one to be honest, but it turns out I really do have a very high tolerance for and interest in the genre. For this show, I enjoy that the main character uses a slightly uncommon power to become super OP, and a lot of his initial powering up comes from sheer desperate survival in desperate circumstances, which I found compelling to watch, and which leads him to become a very violent and morally gray protagonist. If this were an American show, then that would be a very tired archetype, but in anime it's actually much less common/tropy and thus becomes an inherently more interesting take. I am, as always, not a huge fan of the harem or fanservice elements, but I found the show interesting enough that I was able to set those things aside enough to enjoy it. (Note that this starts out pretty dark, due to aforementioned survival horror element, but contains a lot more fanservice as the series goes on). Also the protagonist makes guns with magic and I found that legit pretty cool. Probably the biggest negative is the aforementioned lack of exposition issues -- the first episode was weirdly paced an skipped a lot of early content I was aware of from the manga, which probably makes it confusing to new audiences.
There is a lot more exposition in ep2, if you're trying to decide whether or not you want to watch this, I'd recommend watching the second episode as well before making a call.
Things I really like
Some of this will be repeating things I've already mentioned, but, in no particular order:
Nakumo's skill set
Sure, he becomes traditional Isekai levels of OP pretty quickly, but I find both his initial skill set and the way he does most of his leveling quite interesting. His main original power is transmutation, which he quickly realizes is really only limited by his imagination. It's a great Macguyver-type power, in that he can make use of almost anything in his environment and turn it into weapons or gear at will -- as long as he has enough time to practice, he can create incredibly complex items from nearly scratch. For example...
Magic Guns!
I don't mind guns as a weapon in action series, and I actually really enjoy them in fantasy, because I find the anachronism and comparative overpowered nature of the weapon interesting! Particularly when said guns are used primarily against monsters, rather than humans.
Monster Eating
The primary method by which our protagonist levels up is by eating monsters. Each new monster he eats gives him a crazy stat boost and some of that monster's skills. I find it a really interesting system, particularly in that it's one that, in universe, usually isn't accessible by humans. Nakumo only manages it because he happens to find a really powerful healing potion early on that helps him survive the first time it happens. It's a really interesting way to level up and diversify, and it lends a lot of in-universe legitimacy to how he becomes so OP. (It actually feels diagetic, rather than 'oh, the god/summoning process/reincarnation process just automatically grants those powers", which is the case in most modern Isekai series. Nothing wrong with the Deus Ex Machina method, per say, it's just nice to see some series switching it up!)
What if we just went back to Earth together?
A thing I've seen in other Isekai shows that feature a protagonist determined to return to their original world (looking at you, Shield Hero) is that usually, they just accept that they'll have to abandon any friends/allies from the Isekai world. This is the first series I've seen where the protagonist just goes "Whelp, I don't see why you can't come too?" and I love it. Why leave poor Yue behind in this world where she has no one but Hajime, when he can (theoretically, maybe, no reason not to try to!) take her with him?!
Fanservice Thoughts
As always, I don't care for female fanservice and am dubious of harems. That said, there are always degrees of both things, and for this space I intend to talk about how much or little these elements bothered me for this show!
Female Harem
The harem element in this show is actually pretty mild by my reckoning, and easy to ignore. The main character definitely acquires a full-on classic harem of attractive girls who all seem to be interested in him, but so far there doesn't seem to be any time devoted to things like them fighting over him (which is the number one thing I dislike about both female and male harems).
Excessive fanservice
Hoo boy. The fanservice levels in this were almost enough to drive me away, honestly, and allthough fanservice is usual one of my main complaints, I also generally have a high tolerance for putting up with it. (If you enjoy fanservice, feel free to take this section as endorsement! To each their own). Both the opening and the ending make clear that this show is leaning in heavily on fanservice involving the main female characters, some more than others. I've definitely seen worse, but this does lean really h
Yue: "Loli" fanservice in particularly is kind of squicky for me, and while yes, the fact that the character who looks underage is actually an immortal vampire does legitimately help, this is still by far the worst of this show's fanservice for me. Just because her nudity is displayed artfully, doesn't erase the fact that it's intentionally sexualization of a prepubescent body and thus inherently uncomfortable for me.
Bunny Girl: I like her character in theory but her character design is just. Literally fanservice seems to be the entire point. It's a bit much.
Kimono Girl: I don't like the shiny/rosy skinned boobs look, but at least she's not as egregious as Bunny Girl, or any flavor of loli like Yue?
The high school girl contingent: Thankfully, the two main female characters from the high school group are pretty light on the fanservice, except for a few scenes in the ending sequence. I actually feel like on average, this show does a good job of making the sword-fighting girl look attractive without being excessive about it. (And she's a badass! Always a plus for me.)
There is a lot more exposition in ep2, if you're trying to decide whether or not you want to watch this, I'd recommend watching the second episode as well before making a call.
Things I really like
Some of this will be repeating things I've already mentioned, but, in no particular order:
Nakumo's skill set
Sure, he becomes traditional Isekai levels of OP pretty quickly, but I find both his initial skill set and the way he does most of his leveling quite interesting. His main original power is transmutation, which he quickly realizes is really only limited by his imagination. It's a great Macguyver-type power, in that he can make use of almost anything in his environment and turn it into weapons or gear at will -- as long as he has enough time to practice, he can create incredibly complex items from nearly scratch. For example...
Magic Guns!
I don't mind guns as a weapon in action series, and I actually really enjoy them in fantasy, because I find the anachronism and comparative overpowered nature of the weapon interesting! Particularly when said guns are used primarily against monsters, rather than humans.
Monster Eating
The primary method by which our protagonist levels up is by eating monsters. Each new monster he eats gives him a crazy stat boost and some of that monster's skills. I find it a really interesting system, particularly in that it's one that, in universe, usually isn't accessible by humans. Nakumo only manages it because he happens to find a really powerful healing potion early on that helps him survive the first time it happens. It's a really interesting way to level up and diversify, and it lends a lot of in-universe legitimacy to how he becomes so OP. (It actually feels diagetic, rather than 'oh, the god/summoning process/reincarnation process just automatically grants those powers", which is the case in most modern Isekai series. Nothing wrong with the Deus Ex Machina method, per say, it's just nice to see some series switching it up!)
What if we just went back to Earth together?
A thing I've seen in other Isekai shows that feature a protagonist determined to return to their original world (looking at you, Shield Hero) is that usually, they just accept that they'll have to abandon any friends/allies from the Isekai world. This is the first series I've seen where the protagonist just goes "Whelp, I don't see why you can't come too?" and I love it. Why leave poor Yue behind in this world where she has no one but Hajime, when he can (theoretically, maybe, no reason not to try to!) take her with him?!
Fanservice Thoughts
As always, I don't care for female fanservice and am dubious of harems. That said, there are always degrees of both things, and for this space I intend to talk about how much or little these elements bothered me for this show!
Female Harem
The harem element in this show is actually pretty mild by my reckoning, and easy to ignore. The main character definitely acquires a full-on classic harem of attractive girls who all seem to be interested in him, but so far there doesn't seem to be any time devoted to things like them fighting over him (which is the number one thing I dislike about both female and male harems).
Excessive fanservice
Hoo boy. The fanservice levels in this were almost enough to drive me away, honestly, and allthough fanservice is usual one of my main complaints, I also generally have a high tolerance for putting up with it. (If you enjoy fanservice, feel free to take this section as endorsement! To each their own). Both the opening and the ending make clear that this show is leaning in heavily on fanservice involving the main female characters, some more than others. I've definitely seen worse, but this does lean really h
Yue: "Loli" fanservice in particularly is kind of squicky for me, and while yes, the fact that the character who looks underage is actually an immortal vampire does legitimately help, this is still by far the worst of this show's fanservice for me. Just because her nudity is displayed artfully, doesn't erase the fact that it's intentionally sexualization of a prepubescent body and thus inherently uncomfortable for me.
Bunny Girl: I like her character in theory but her character design is just. Literally fanservice seems to be the entire point. It's a bit much.
Kimono Girl: I don't like the shiny/rosy skinned boobs look, but at least she's not as egregious as Bunny Girl, or any flavor of loli like Yue?
The high school girl contingent: Thankfully, the two main female characters from the high school group are pretty light on the fanservice, except for a few scenes in the ending sequence. I actually feel like on average, this show does a good job of making the sword-fighting girl look attractive without being excessive about it. (And she's a badass! Always a plus for me.)
No comments:
Post a Comment