Oh no. Here we go again. Yet another isekai genre anime. Arifureta Shokugyou De Sekai Saikyou is another one of those abundant isekai series that tries to distinguish itself from other similar series in the genre but comes out as mostly the same (or worse, depending on your mood of the day). Uh huh. Wanna bet that the main character who is pretty average and normal, becomes overpowered and easily overcomes his obstacles with his ‘intuition’ due to ‘circumstances’? Oh yeah. You bet they’re going to throw in some harem trope as well. Which girls do not want to be with such badass powerful hunk? Yeah. Oh, you bet I wanna throw myself into his arms and be protected by this reincarnated tough guy. KYAAA~ KAKOI SUGIRU!!! <3. Oh yeah. Bring on all your isekai clichés! I’m gonna take them all! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Episode 1
Hajime Nagumo has it real bad. He has fallen real deep into the Great Orcus Labyrinth and barely alive. If you think seeing a killer rabbit is bad, wait till you see the killer bear eating the killer rabbit! Oh f*ck! It ate his arm too! Hajime runs as fast as he could and using his transmute ability to protect himself. Hiding inside some hole, it is the miracle of some holy crystal nearby that keeps him alive. Flashback shows his party were training hard to enter this labyrinth. Clips of Hajime getting bullied? Then when they first enter the labyrinth, somebody accidentally touched a trap crystal that transported them to a bridge on the 65th floor. A behemoth charges at them as they try to run for safety. Hajime tries to cover for Kaori Shirasaki and when everyone else has run to safety, the plan is the attack the behemoth to cover Hajime so he could run. However one of the blasts directly hit Hajime. The bridge collapses and he fell along with the behemoth. Hajime realizes he has been betrayed. Somebody in the party wanted him dead. Furthermore, previously Kaori warned him not to go as she had a premonition something bad would happen to him. Because he was adamant, Kaori vowed to protect him. But now Hajime is bitter that nobody is going to save him but since he isn’t going to die in this sh*thole, he just has to kill everything that gets in his way! Wow. Suddenly he turns from a wuss to badass? He uses his abilities and brains to trap monsters for food. However eating them, he starts to feel something inside him transforming. Sure it isn’t the case of food poisoning? Wow. Now he transforms into something more badass! He thinks it is because of this holy water that is keeping him alive. Not only that, his stats all jumped and now he has the ability to manipulate mana. So the more different monsters he eats, the more abilities he gains as well as his growth in stats. Heck, he even crafted a gun so this can turn into some shooting anime? Donner, that’s what he calls his gun? Then he goes to have his rematch with the killer bear and kills it and eats it. Tastes like crap but the victory tastes sweet! Since he can’t go up, he is going down. He is going to survive this and find his way home.
Episode 2
Eating the same monsters many times will not have any significant increase. So, variety is the spice of life? Back in Heiligh Kingdom, the king is informed of this tragedy but gives the gag order not to talk about this anymore. This puts Kaori in despair. Because she promised to protect him and when she was desperate to go save him after he fell, Meld Loggins had to knock her out. He can’t risk losing any more of them. Further flashback reveals Hajime, Kaori and their entire class were summoned to this kingdom as heroes. History has this world having 3 races: Humans, demons and beastmen. So now angels? Humans and demons were at war for a very long time but the demons controlled the beastmen to tip the favours in their scale. Humanity at the brink of destruction had to summon heroes from another world to save them. Kouki Amenogawa is probably a popular guy and probably loves playing the hero of justice. Can’t sit by and see a kingdom go into extinction, can he? So that’s why nobody listens to loli teacher, Aiko Hatayama when she tries to veto they can’t go on this dangerous adventure. Shizuku Yaegashi (Kaori’s best friend) trains as she too feel something is off. Noting Daisuke Hiyama is acting strange, this has her remember he was always picking fights with Hajime and Kaori always intervened. Is there some love triangle going on? Shizuku feels bad that Kaori is still reeling from the fact they couldn’t save Hajime. She continues to believe he is still alive. Hajime arrives at a place with a huge door. Must be something important, huh? But first he has to fight 2 giant guardians. After defeating them an unlocking the door, he hears a voice asking to be saved. Seeing a loli trapped in a cube prison, Hajime does what any sane person would do: Get the hell out of here! But the loli pleads she will do anything! Don’t be tempted! Get out! After all, he suspects she must be somebody dangerous to be sealed here. However she says the buzzword. Yup, she was betrayed and sealed here. As a powerful immortal vampire, one day she was told she was no longer needed and her uncle was to take over ruling. She was fine with that but they told her she was too dangerous and was thus sealed here since she couldn’t be killed. Hajime breaks her out from her prison. She wants him to name him since she doesn’t need her old name anymore. He calls her Yue. Because her hair and eyes glow like the moon. So it’s not Tsuki? Just saying. Suddenly something attacks and Hajime protects Yue from the incoming projectiles.
Episode 3
It’s going to take more than this giant scorpion’s stingers to kill him. He fights back but is not making any headway. This is when Yue sucks some of his blood as she lands some giant ball over the monster. But good for only 1 use. Although her next attack is weakened, with Hajime’s shooting skills, they kill the monster in no time. Hajime eats the monster as he explains why he didn’t abandon her and run. Yeah, it would be just bad for a guy to just free her and then abandon her. Remember, no betrayals. Yue explains the rumours that the labyrinths were built by Mavericks. They once tried to destroy the world but failed so they built labyrinths to escape and hence it is believed that Mavericks reside at the bottom of each labyrinth. With Hajime’s mana increased, he is now able to make a railgun rifle. Schlagen, he calls it, huh? Hajime also tells his betrayal story. Because of his powers as a synergist, his role isn’t suited for combat. Everyone said he was useless. They teamed up with the royal guards to clear the labyrinth and the rest is history as we know it. Though he doesn’t want revenge, he just hopes to get better and go home. Wow. Yue crying at his sob story? Okay. Even loli vampires have feelings. And since Yue also has no home to go to, he offers she could join him. Next scene, we see them being chased by… Dinosaurs with flower on their heads?! Actually, parasitic flowers. Killing them won’t be effective unless they take out the source. So when they final do, it seems this plant lady monster has gotten Yue under her command and forces her to attack Hajime. Somehow parasitic plants wither on Hajime since he ate too many monsters and has developed some immunity. Until Yue tells him to just shoot, he gets happy and blasts through and kills the monster. Now Yue is mad that he didn’t even hesitate to shoot?! Heh. He was reluctant at first because he knew she would be mad and he thought it was okay since she gave her ‘permission’. By the way, isn’t she a vampire and can’t die? Okay, still not good to shoot a loli. Hajime eats the monster but Yue now wants to feed on his blood. And she gets naked?! WTF is this reverse rape?! Trekking further downwards, they finally reach the 100th floor. You can sure tell something is important behind this huge ominous door.
Episode 4
They face off with a hydra. You can easily tell their coloured heads, each having their own roles and abilities. Like the white one heals, the yellow one defends, etc. Then there is the black one who hypnotizes Yue and plays her trauma of being abandoned by Hajime. Nobody does this to his loli so Hajime snaps her out. I think the deal breaker was the kiss on her lips. Because the second time it hypnotized her, all she needs to do is remember the kiss and she won’t be hypnotized! Damn, the kiss was so damn effective! Hajime can’t be hypnotized too because he is so hard bitten, he is afraid of nothing! Finally he is going to use Schlagen on the hydra and has Yue cover him. Though he manages to get a good shot, the final head fires at Yue. I understand why Hajime uses his body to protect Yue but… Isn’t Yue an immortal?! I guess nobody hurts his loli, huh? Hajime is fatally wounded. I’m guessing she is kissing him to transfer some healing potion is because she wants to kiss him. Could have just poured the bottle straight into his mouth… Then she wants to avenge him by using his Donner. Can she? Nope. Loli failed. Loli going to get owned again and that’s when Hajime wakes up to play the hero again. Yup. His loli must not be hurt. Can’t lose his beloved loli. With Hajime now having the ability to slow down time (or is he speeding up?), he makes his final move. He plants bombs all over the ceiling and in great timing shoots at them for it all to come crashing on the hydra. I guess the hydra has no more strength to get out from its crushed state. Hard fought victory. Well done. Meanwhile Aiko threatens a priest that she will stop using her farming ability if he continues to force students who don’t want to fight to continue fighting. He relents since he views her farming to be valuable. Finally. Somebody listens to her!
Episode 5
What’s this? Hajime and Yue naked in bed together?! Since Hajime is alive and kicking, I suppose he is alright but I doubt sex had any part in his healing. Yue reveals after defeating the hydra, the door before them opened and there is this beautiful underground garden. This could be the Maverick’s lair. She put him on the bed and let his holy water do the healing. Phew. Told you there was no sex involved. Exploring around, they enter a mansion in which the throne room sits a skeletal corpse. Hajime stands in the insignia to test if this is a teleport but he activates the corpse’s ghost! Actually, it is just a recording of Oscar Orcus. He is a Maverick who built this labyrinth. Meanwhile Meld and the rest head back down to face the behemoth once more. So monsters here respawn? Just like the bridge too? This time they are more coordinated, more powerful and more determined in taking down the behemoth. Orcus says that as a reward for passing his trials set in the labyrinth, he will give his power. Just don’t use it for evil, okay? Hajime then feels like some ancient magic spell being imprinted into his head. Also some memories about the truth about Mavericks. They’re not bad guys but liberators. I guess we’ll have to wait for later to hear this. So it seems Hajime has the new power to do some creation magic. Add energy to raw minerals and give them special qualities? Holy crap. That sounds like becoming God! After burying the corpse, Hajime realizes that there are lots of things he can learn here. Hence, delaying his journey back to the top. So with his new magic, he is able to create lots of new things. Like his new prosthetic arm. More cool weapons. More cool vehicles. Only imagination’s the limit. Forget that cheesy fanservice scene of Yue trying to do something to Hajime in the bath… So after 2 months of learning and getting what they can, it’s time for them to head back up. Their goal now is to find other labyrinths because each has their own ancient magic to learn. That way, he might be able to find a way to return home.
Episode 5.5
Eh? Recap episode?! Well, if you didn’t pay attention to what happened previously, Hajime nicely summarizes up some of the important events that has happened so far. Pay attention next time so we don’t have to waste a week of recap episode! Or maybe the production should just buck up… But at the end we get a new scene: Some stupid sexy bunny girl, Shea is waiting for someone to pop up. Better hurry because she almost got eaten by a dinosaur!
Episode 6
Just in time. A grand entrance for Hajime and Yue. With Shea so glad to see them, the duo pretend not to see and walk away. But Shea is begging for them to save her village and even tries to use her sex appeal. I guess she has never died before since she is confident her bustiness beats Yue’s flatness! You know Hajime is in a bad mood when he easily kills the dinosaur! Persistence is key so with all that bugging, Hajime is willing to hear her out. Although beastmen cannot use magic, she is the rare type who can. She has clairvoyance and some of her magic is that only used by monsters. As Because of that, she was kicked out of her tribe but a small group and her family followed her. However they are too weak to survive on their own. In her clairvoyance she saw them saving her family. Hajime is still not interested seeing he gets nothing out of it. Shea thinks she can be their guide to the Great Tree. Anyone who approaches it will lose their senses. Only natives can navigate through. Yue has some heart and has her tag along. Upon arrival, Hajime gets down to business by killing the monsters threatening the bunny people. Yeah, using Shea as bait. With the bunny people wanting to get stronger, Hajime trains them. Shea has her bouts with Yue but you know who always ends up tops. Hey, take it as a learning experience. At the end of the training, those bunny people are now bloodthirsty savages! OMFG! Where did those cute flower loving people go?! Arriving at the Great Tree, there is a monolith that bears the same design as Oscar’s. From what I understand from Yue’s deciphering, if they get 4 more symbols from other labyrinths, they get the power of generation. Wow. Time to go dungeon raiding. Yue wants to come along because she loves Hajime and also she technically beat Yue in a duel. She hopes that by working hard, she can change the future and not have any regrets. Her family will stay behind since Hajime might come back and he might need a guide then. Whatever the boss says.
Episode 7
Hajime and co find themselves at the labyrinth of Miledi Reisen. The deeper they go, there is this cheeky bratty voice trying to annoy them and play pranks and tricks on them. Usually, Shea bearing the brunt of most of it. It gets frustrating enough that the labyrinth leads them back to the first room! Finally they find the room where Miledi supposedly resides. So this giant knight is Miledi? Hajime is forced to answer her questions of his goal and intentions if she is to answer his. Too bad she didn’t keep her end of the bargain and won’t tell if she has the ancient magic she wants. Miledi looks down on them and I’m guessing that’s why she lost despite being so powerful. Nothing like a little teamwork to take down the giant. Shea getting the lion’s share of finishing her off. Before Miledi disappears, she sends a warning to Hajime since he is going to raid other labyrinths. They are the real bad guys so it is going to be tough all the way. Because one day he is going to be the God Killer. She believes his decision will make this world a better place and hopes he will live as freely as he chooses to. On the way out, they stumble into the real Miledi. Just a little pipsqueak, huh? Why does she remember me of Mario’s Shy Guy? Still as bratty, though. Nothing like a little beat down to show her place. It seems the only magic she has pertains to gravity in which Yue is most suitable. Not enough, Hajime tries to loot her but she flushes them out. Because Shea is not breathing, Hajime administers CPR. Yue jealous… Horny bunny’s feint to give Hajime a good French kiss! Then when they try to rent a room at an inn, Yue and Shea argue who should share a room. It ends with Shea declaring she wants to sleep with Hajime and let him take her virginity! I think the whole town heard that… Oh Shea, Hajime is going to f*ck you alright. Not of the sexual kind, that is.
Episode 8
Ilwer Chang, the head of Fuhren Adventurer’s Guild would like Hajime to undertake a quest. Will Cudeta, the son of a count has gone missing after he and his group when to the northern regions for survey. He wants Hajime to rescue them. In exchange, he promises to get him out of any trouble with the guild. He also agrees to Hajime’s conditions of making them status plates and doing anything else they ask for. They arrive in a town that coincidentally Aiko and some of her students are here to help with the farming. In the restaurant, Aiko realizes this is Hajime because his girls keep calling his name. I guess a teacher knows best despite Hajime looking totally different. She confronts him but he tries to pretend she got the wrong person. Although he admits, he continues to ignore her. Aiko might be small but she is persistent as she keeps bugging him. Shea should shut her mouth and not saying ambiguous things like she is Hajime’s girl and he stole her first kiss. Ai wants to lecture him but Hajime continues to ignore. Sensei, your threats mean nothing! And then the knight accompanying Aiko lost his patience. He tries to tell off Hajime for being rude and then continues to badmouth Shea as a beastman. When he crosses the line, Hajime shoots and wounds his shoulder. Try again and die. He tells everyone he won’t tell anything that has happened or going to happen to him. Just stay out of his way. Later that night, Hajime visits Aiko’s room. He tells her the true history of this world. After the Age of Gods, the world was plagued by war. A group of people came with an intent to stop it and the people believed them as God. But God were just using them as pawns and everything was just a mere game. Hence a group of heroes called Liberators united to stop them. However they failed because the people tricked by God rebelled against them. They can’t fight back against the ones they sworn to protect. Now labelled as Mavericks, they were slowly taken out and the survivors scatter and hid in labyrinths. They prepared trials and those who overcome them will be granted their powers in hopes they will use it to defeat God. Though, Hajime doesn’t care about this world and just believes labyrinths are the key to send him home. He also reveals the truth that his ‘death’ wasn’t an accident but one of her students had intention to kill him. Next day as Hajime prepares to leave, Aiko wants to travel with him and hear more stories. Knowing how stubborn she is, he relents. But is his bike enough to take her and the students? Instantly he creates a Humvee!
Episode 9
Arriving at the site, they see huge footprints. Trekking further into the cave, they finally find Will cowering. He claims a black dragon wiped his team out. When Will feels bad he only survived, here comes that lecture from Hajime about being a wuss. The moment they leave the cave, the black dragon attacks them. Time for Hajime to strut his stuff. Because the black dragon keeps targeting Will, Hajime has to find a way to attract its attention. Just be more powerful! Eventually he manages to bring it down. And now here comes the mind blowing part. Because a dragon has scales on its body and is hard to penetrate, logically it is weak in places without scales. And that place? Hajime shoves a pole down the dragon’s ass!!! OMFG!!! SO BRUTAL!!! The dragon screams in pain in her silly voice! She pleads for mercy and will explain everything. Just take that thing out! Too bad Hajime wants her dead and keeps shoving it in!!! OMFG!!! SO BRUTAL!!!! She mentions that it was not her intention to attack Will. Some shady robe guy casted a spell on her and made her go violent. She will accept her punishment but only after he gives her a chance to repent her actions. Unfortunately Hajime doesn’t care and continues this painful ass penetrating act until Yue points out if he kills her, he will be breaking an important rule. He takes the pole out in time before her mana runs out as she reverts into her human form. Yeah, imagine that pole ripping apart her ass… Don’t want to see that kind of horror story. And was she orgasming while he took it out of her ass?! Introducing herself as Tio Klarus of the dragonborn clan, she further adds the shady robe guy’s intention is to unleash an army of monsters upon the town. Hajime’s drones picked up about 60,000 monsters on their way but no shady robe guy among the ranks. Will hopes Hajime can do something about it but Hajime won’t because the deal was only to bring Will back safely. Also, it would be better to go back and warn the town. Tio sounds like a pervert as she hints she wants to come along with them so Hajime drags and treats her roughly. This new sensation… She’s loving this new awakening?
Episode 10
When Aiko hopes Hajime could do something about the invading army, he points out the irony that she always places her students first but now she is asking him to risk his life. True, but she also doesn’t want to see innocent people in this world die. I guess he can’t disobey sensei’s words so I take that as a yes he is going to help. He makes preparations and turns the village into a fort. Some boring moments of certain people talking to him before the big fight. But ruined by Tio because she’s just being a masochist trying to rile him up so she can get a bigger orgasm from his harshness. As the enemy nears, Hajime gives a rousing speech that makes Aiko into a goddess. As long as she is on their side, victory will be theirs! And now we see Hajime and his harem easily take out the horde with magic or modern weapons. When they run out of ammo, it is up close for melee combat. I guess they’re so cool that some monsters even retreat. Heh. Number mean nothing. Heck, Hajime even confronts the shady robe guy and easily brings him down! His identity turns out to be Yukitoshi Shimizu, his (former) classmate and one of Aiko’s students. Aiko hears him out why he is doing this. Apparently he isn’t being acknowledged. So he went up north and stumbled into some demon clan. They acknowledged his power and made a contract with him to kill Aiko. Doing so, he will be recognized as a hero. Aiko tries to talk to him that what he is doing is wrong but also promises to protect him. But Shimizu didn’t have a change of heart. He takes Aiko hostage and wants Hajime to hand over all his weapons and secure a way out for him. Hajime won’t do it. I mean, taking Aiko back to the demons, they’ll still kill her, right? He even dares him to kill her. Suddenly, a sniper shoots Shimizu. Thanks to Shea, Aiko is spared although Shimizu’s poisonous needle got injected into her. The culprit escapes (not before Hajime fires a wounding shot). I just wonder why can’t Hajime pour his healing potion into Aiko’s mouth directly? Must he give it via his mouth? She is cured and wants him to help Shimizu too. After he tried to kill her? Hajime asks if Shimizu is his enemy. Fearing death, he pleads his fealty to him. Hajime shoots him dead! Aiko is in distraught but Hajime stands by his policy of not showing mercy on his enemies. As Hajime leaves, his comrades know that Hajime was just playing the villain. Shimizu would have died anyway and Hajime killing him is to ensure Aiko will not blame herself over her student’s death.
Episode 11
In this shady city, Hajime knows something is going on but will not get involve. Unless they want to make enemies out of him. Next day, he goes out on a date with Shea. In the aquarium, there is this human faced fish, Lehman who can talk. WTF, did the guys bond over Hajime’s tragic story?! Because they realize it is partly their fault that Lehman got caught after they were flushed out from Miledi’s labyrinth, they feel guilty and release it. Not sure how they did that but I’m sure nobody would stop badass Hajime from it. Lehman warns them that he saw a mermaid being kidnapped and being sold. After all, this city is the hideout for some organization in the slave trade. And then they stumble upon that said mermaid, Myu. Somehow she escaped. After cleaning her up, the plan is to leave her with the authorities so she can go back to her family. However, Myu doesn’t want that and wants to be with Hajime! Will his harem increase? Hajime isn’t fazed and leaves this screaming loli with the authorities. But shortly, the authorities got attacked. Not only Myu is kidnapped but a warning message to also bring along the bunny girl. That’s it. You’ve pissed off Hajime. Now all of you are going to die. So he starts busting every suspect to dig out whatever info they have that will lead to the big boss. The city is going to be destroyed at this rate… Just in time before the auction to save Myu. Yup, the jerk boss continues to abuse her so she could scream and entertain the people but Hajime shoots him dead! And then he lets Myu watch the fireworks as all of the baddies’ hideouts get decimated by Yue’s power. In the end, Myu wants to upgrade and call Hajime from onii-chan to papa since she doesn’t have a father. Yeah, she throws a tantrum that she wants him to be her papa! Now the rest of his girls want a baby…
Episode 12
Hajime and co return to the capital to hand a letter from Ilwer to Loa Bawawis. Just then, Kousuke Endo barges in, pleading for help or else all his friends will die. At first he is shocked that this is Hajime before him. He must be desperate enough to think that if Hajime somehow survived and become this badass, he must be one powerful tough mother. Yeah, please help. Endo narrates that Kouki led his team deep beneath Orcus. They were shocked to see monster blood everywhere. Is there another monster hunting monsters? Then showing up before them is a demon babe. She offers them to join their side like one of theirs did. Kouki declines and since demon babe views them as useless, she summons monsters to kill them. The monsters are tough so Shizuku suggests Endo using his stealth ability to sneak out to the surface and get help. When Suzu Taniguchi is fatally wounded, Kouki becomes mad. He wants to fight back but Shizuku slaps him to his senses. Retreat is the best answer. Endo returns to Meld who is protecting the teleport device to the surface. Meld has to fend off a monster so Endo can return safely. As Kouki and co make their retreat, some of them think to join forces with the demon side just to survive. The debate rages on until they see Meld get killed before their eyes. Enraged Kouki powers up and slices through everything. Could have killed the demon babe had not his consciousness made him realize he is going to be a killer. Shizuku takes over but she too gets wounded. So now Endo is pleading for Hajime to save their friends. But hold up. He doesn’t consider them friends. Oh brother… But you know… After all those flashbacks… So just when his old friends are seconds before being killed, Hajime drops in to the rescue. Missed me, guys?
Episode 13
Time for Hajime to show everybody how powerful he is and kick ass! Singlehandedly! No matter what tricks the demon babe throws, Hajime is superior! Of course, to show that he isn’t just a one man show, his harem also fight back monsters who threaten his former classmates. Everybody is in shock that Hajime is so different. Especially Hiyama whose guilty reaction hints us he might be the one who tried to kill Hajime. Because he was so sure that Hajime had died! Anyway, the demon babe tries to escape but Hajime won’t let her. Since she won’t talk, he deduces her goal. Believing the demons have achieved some ability to gain ancient powers if they clear the labyrinth, the reason she is down here exploring it. She warns him her lover will find and kill him. So be it. He’ll kill demon or gods who stand in his way. WTF Kouki tries to virtue signal and doesn’t want Hajime to kill her? Too bad, Hajime shoots her dead! Now we get to see Kaori so relieved he is still alive that she can’t stop crying. Amp up the drama by hugging him. I think Hajime’s harem might turn yandere for this. As Hajime leads them out, Kouki still tries to virtue signal. But Hajime doesn’t give a damn and even threatens to kill him if he gets in his way. You scared now? Better shut up if you know what’s good for you! Once reached the surface, Kaori has finally decided. She wants to come with him. Because she loves him! Unfortunately he rejects her because he is already in love with Yue. Even so, she still wants to come with him. Why do girls like her always get that confidence they can change men like him and see them their way? And so begins Yue-Kaori rivalry that they are going to show the other why their love is much greater for Hajime. Oh boy, Hajime’s toughest battle is still ahead… Next morning, Kaori says goodbye to her friends and leaves with Hajime. I guess Shizuku doesn’t want to come and intrude in this harem. Love > best friend? Hajime drives his Humvee and his girls are arguing over this sitting arrangement… This is not even the toughest battle yet.
Special 1
Hah! You thought this is going to be a hotspring fanservice episode, right? Not exactly! While Hajime’s harem is ready to get into the bath, they stumble upon Yue’s diary and read it. After all, they’re curious to know what that vampire loli thinks about them. They’re not pleased that the first big part of the entry only consists of Yue and Hajime. Well, she’s his first girl, right? So she’s like their senior. The first other girl in the entry is of course Shea. Yue didn’t mince her words to call her a pathetic useless rabbit and all. While they’re mostly mockery, there are a few lines that express her respect and admiration in some ways. Despite all that’s being said, in a way Yue still holds some value in her. Yeah, bunny girl so touched that she cried. Then the rest of the other girls are like just briefly skimmed true like Tio the pervert, Myu the child that probably prompted Yue to really want to have a baby with Hajime (yeah, 5 pages dedicated to wanting his baby!), and of course the recent addition and perhaps the biggest rivalry to Yue, Kaori. Basically, Yue views herself as a woman of high standards and unparalleled to the rest, blah, blah, blah. Indelicate act of reading one’s diary is put to a stop when they realize angry Yue is behind them. Feel the wrath of the punishing woman!
Special 2
You thought the bath episode wasn’t enough, huh? Well, here comes the real hotspring fanservice episode! Kaori is trying to force everyone to listen to her story on how she first met Hajime. Basically to score some brownie points but don’t get your hopes up. Anyway the first time she saw him, despite being very weak (unlike now), he helped apologize for a grandma and her grandson by prostrating himself before heartless punks. After all, only the strong can use violence to resolve things. At that time, Kaori felt helpless but also struck by the sheer humility and strength Hajime showed. It was ever since then she started watching him. Like a stalker? Then the rest of the girls, Yue, Shea and Tio also tell how they first met Hajime. Basically a short recap with recycled scenes of their first contact. I don’t think Hajime wants Myuu to hear Tio’s story of how he punched the pole into her ass!!!!!!!! The awakening of the love! So basically everybody is in love with Hajime but are too proud to admit it. It’s a secret, you know. All this embarrassing talk is over because Hajime signals it’s time to get out. Yeah, the rivalry has only just begun…
From Common Clichés To World’s Crappiest
Woah. OMG. How the f*ck can this series get another season?! You know, I thought bad isekai animes will never get a sequel. But maybe I’m wrong. Everybody else loved it or whoever sponsored this sh*t decided to throw in more money so that they can have the budget to make another season. Yeah, I read that this show was delayed up to a year before being released and it could have been even worse had they delayed it further. I just wonder if these people now how to cut their losses. Uh huh. We’ve invested so much in this and we just can’t give it up! No matter how bad it turned out!
I have this feeling that this series is trying to be dark and badass like Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari. You know, a seemingly okay and ordinary guy becoming bitter and distrustful because of the unfair persecution he faced. Then because he put in his own effort, hence his overpowered abilities are justified. Unfortunately here doesn’t feel the same. Just the fact that Hajime has been ‘abandoned’ and gone through sh*t, from what I see all the hardships he went through to become badass feels like a flimsy excuse to become an overpowered character. Remember, Hajime just suspected that somebody betrayed him. There was no outright proof. And even if that was true, it wasn’t like everybody betrayed him, right? Only one or maybe two. Then he decides to put a blanket assumption that all of them are bad. Yeah. Real badass there. Feels like some weird excuse sh*t to turn him into a badass character who seemingly doesn’t care. And as for how he powers up by miraculously defeating monsters and eating them, oh yeah, that feels like some weird excuse sh*t to power up his character the easy way. It wasn’t the kind of real hardship sh*t that the shield hero went through.
Therefore the story and plot for this season feel boring and out of place. It’s like they’re all over the place. Sure, Hajime having his goal to return to his world and in order to do that he must raid labyrinths and get ancient magic spells. That is generally what it looks like. But when you sit through and watch each of the episode, honestly they are somewhat boring and doesn’t really make you feel like you want to root for Hajime. Firstly, he is so powered up and you will know that he will somehow find a way to overcome it. Even if he is in a pinch, he will surely find a solution. After all, he is overpowered and it would be a slap in the face if he couldn’t. Why make him so overpowered in the first place if he couldn’t solve the problem?
This isekai world also has its own lore and legends and it was briefly skimmed through about the war between humans, demons and beastmen. Also some insights about the labyrinths and Mavericks but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe that is why they need another season and I hope they can flesh this out better. Because this season sure doesn’t feel like our summoned heroes being summoned to fight against the demons at all. And the demon clan whom the humans are supposed to be fighting mainly against with, they didn’t even show up! Only mentioned during Shimizu’s time and then finally one of them popped up in the penultimate episode. And then she died. Good riddance. Oh well, I’m sure the demons will come looking for Hajime instead of him looking for them once he becomes powerful enough to be a threat to their goals.
So it’s like Hajime travelling from place to place to find labyrinths but he ends up accumulating a harem instead. Uh huh. This is what it typically feels like the plot for this season. Not just your average harem but a monster harem. I thought having a vampire loli was going to be his only companion. Why do I have a feeling Yue is a discount version of Monogatari Series’ Shinobu? I didn’t expect to have a dumb busty bunny girl to follow him. If double trouble wasn’t enough, they have to add this sick perverted nympho dragon lady to the mix. And even so I thought that was the end of it. F*ck! Now they added a loli mermaid to the pack and with her playing his daughter, Hajime wholesomely embraces his role as her father! Like, WTF?! Oh yeah. No matter how badass a guy is, to increase his badass status, he must have his own harem of hot chicks. Oh Hajime, you feeling so badass and proud now? Now, with Kaori joining the pack, she is the latest addition to his ever growing harem. She looks like she has the potential as she has jumped the queue of the pecking order to be a Yue’s rival. The only human among the monster girls. This is going to get messy. I don’t think loving Hajime for a long time would be a valid argument against Yue but we’ll see. Screw Myu being his daughter. Let’s have our own baby! Haha. Not sure if I want to see that cheesy cat fight moment.
Therefore there are a few cheesy fanservice moments in the series. I guess they want to make us giggle with all that sexual innuendoes but more than often it makes us roll our eyes. Like Shea being just a simpleton, hence the way she straightforwardly says certain stuffs to Hajime can be really ambiguous. Is that why she is blessed with big tits? Only when Tio joined the troupe, she becomes the masochistic nympho and Shea’s retard sexiness is nearly forgotten. And then some naked bathing moments in the earlier episodes with Hajime and Yue. Is this supposed to be their bonding moment? Oh well, if you’re the kind interested in flat washboards, be my guest…
The only time when the plot got interesting was when Hajime killed off Shimizu. Even if Hajime is just tough badass, I didn’t expect him to really kill especially one of his own kind. You know, goody-goody heroes can’t take lives. Says the unwritten law of the reel code. Oh right, Hajime isn’t your typical goody-goody hero to begin with (he did after all kill a human slave trader to rescue Myu). And seeing how much he has done to get this far, it shouldn’t be surprising that he would resort to this. Hence this is the only darkest moment of the series. Still, not enough to change my overall sentiments for this series. It still sucks.
The characters themselves aren’t inspiring nor are they intriguing. With Hajime being able to do almost everything, it is like as though he is just one step away from being God. And because he is not, I guess there is your flimsy excuse to show that he is still human. Still has a human heart. Had he not, he wouldn’t even give a damn and not do all those rescue missions. Maybe he is just acting tough upfront and deep down inside, he doesn’t really want what happened to him to happen to others. I hope. Perhaps Hajime is just not sure if he should help. The dilemma of whether he should go or not. That is why his harem played an important role to help him make the decision. They didn’t say outright that he should help but you can tell from the tone of their voice (“I will do whatever Hajime wants to do”), you can tell that is pretty much a plea that he should help.
Because now Hajime instead of looking like a genuine badass character, at this rate he just looks like some guy playing chuunibyou or something. Nobody says anything about this particular change in his character because his harem also twisted in the head and view this as pretty normal. Yeah, my conspiracy theory says that he is just putting up all this tough act because he really wants everybody to notice him. At least he got the attention of a few girls. Now that he is so badass, he has to keep up his charade and continue being a badass. Heck, it’s better than his original wuss personality. Now you know why girls like such bad boys, huh?
While we see Hajime taking his adventures to various places, the other classmates who were whisked away to this world felt like they were being ignored. They lack a lot of back story or whatever that is necessary to make us care for them. It is like as though they are extra unimportant characters to begin with. I guess that is why there is another season and hopefully they will be given more fleshing out especially some of the main ones like Kaori, Shizuku and Kouki. But as far as this season is concerned, they do not even matter and the final arc having Hajime somewhat reuniting with them feels like a reminder that, uhm, we came from the same world and that we are still friends? Okay. Not. Kouki trying to be a jerk with his virtue signalling (that kind of goody-goody heroes don’t exist anymore!) and Shizuku forgoing any potential yuri with her best friend. Whatever. Seeing how powerful and awesome Hajime is, don’t you think at least the rest of the classmates should want to follow him too? I mean, to get back to their own world? Gee, not sure why they decide to stay back. I’m sure trying to be considerate and not ruin Hajime’s harem isn’t even on the plate. Aiko could have been an amusing teacher because of her small stature and her stubborn persistence to look after her student can be annoying as well. It’s a good thing they didn’t turn her being ignored into some sort of a running joke. That would be disrespectful to a teacher, wouldn’t it?
The action scenes are mediocre at best and it’s like just the reason needed to show off and showcase Hajime’s overpowered abilities. Sure, it isn’t that he could come up with a weapon that is instant kill, he just needs to figure out the right strategy and all first. Of course putting up some drama in between. To also show Hajime is not alone, that is why his harem are made to become his assistants. Yue’s lightning spells, Tio’s dragon abilities and Shea swinging her giant hammer around feel like these girls need to do some exercise themselves and lessen the monotony of Hajime doing everything himself. Hey, it’s a harem teamwork. Wohoo! Go, team Hajime!
The art and animation are also pretty mediocre. The worst of the lot being the CGI animations of the monsters. Those are horrendous! Maybe monsters are supposed to look ugly but I didn’t know they were looking this bad. Like that hydra and that chimera monster that demon babe summoned. Because many scenes are located in the labyrinth, they are pretty dark and sometimes I would be straining my eyes to see things. So if this is their idea of hiding the bad CGI effects, too bad I spotted them. Still horrendous. The human characters, I thought they have this one kind look on them like the female characters they have this one kind cute looks on their face. And Hajime in his badass looks, I thought he was taken after Dr Black Jack or something. I wonder if Yue is taken after Monogatari Series’ Shinobu. Because you know, blonde loli vampire. Just more subdued. This anime is jointly animated by Asread (Mirai Nikki, Minami-ke, Shuffle) and White Fox (Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, Steins;Gate, Akame Ga Kill, Goblin Slayer). Yeah, these studios could have done a lot better with this one and leaves much to be desired.
Voice acting, I guess Youko Hikasa takes the cake as Tio especially when she goes into that nympho mode. Imagine if Seitokai Yakuindomo’s Shino been sexually charged up to a dragonborn level… Then there is Yui Ogura who is eternally specialized as loli characters and is no different this time as Myu and also Tetsuya Kakihara as Kouki although he is no Fairy Tail’s Natsu here. The other casts are Toshinari Fukamachi as Hajime (Clause in Hataage! Kemono Michi), Yuuki Kuwahara as Yue (Tooru in Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon), Minami Takahashi as Shea (Megumi in Shokugeki No Souma), Ai Kakuma as Aiko (Itsuyo in Val x Love), Saori Oonishi as Kaori (Aiz in DanMachi) and Yumiri Hanamori as Shizuku (Seth in Radiant). The opening theme is Flare by Void_Chords featuring LIO while the ending theme is Hajime No Uta by Dracovirgo. Nothing really special.
Overall, this is another one of those ubiquitous isekai genres with an overpowered main character that is just boring and bad. However, because it is announced that there is going to be a second season, hopefully in this sequel they can better flesh out the stories and the characters since there were basically none right here. So you can say it’s unfair to say it is bad because such developments haven’t been shown yet. But you know what they say about first impressions… Yup, even if there is a remote chance the next season would be better, this doesn’t hide the fact this first one was just terrible. I mean, there are lots of supposedly funny moments but they turn out cheesy if you think about it. Like Shea being written as a dumbass character with tits and who could forget about that part when Hajime stuffed a pole into Tio’s dragon ass!!!!! Yeah, it was funny at first but looking back at it now, it was just embarrassing. It’s the same thinking I had about snuffing out the life of this series but that’s the problem when you decide to give things a second chance. It could come back and bite you in the ass. That’s when you turn from the world’s biggest badass to a common wimp.
Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe! 