Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou

The ordinary life of 17-year-old otaku Hajime Nagumo is disrupted when he and his classmates are summoned to a fantasy world and tasked with saving mankind. While his classmates are gifted with impressive abilities useful in combat, Hajime is belittled for only gaining an inferior transmutation skill that lacks any real offensive power.

During an expedition in the Great Orcus Labyrinth, Hajime is betrayed by one of his classmates, plummeting him to the bottom of an abyss. Though he survives the fall, Hajime is faced with menacing monsters and misfortunes that send him spiraling into a grim nightmare. Desperate to live and return home one day, he resolves to fight for his survival—only to meet an imprisoned vampire he names Yue, who is also seeking to escape the labyrinth. Taking an interest in him, Yue and a few others along the way accompany Hajime on his journey to find a way back home, while steadily transforming from commonplace to the world's strongest.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nagumo, Hajime Main

Fukamachi, Toshinari Japanese

Yue Main

Kuwahara, Yuuki Japanese

Shirasaki, Kaori Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Clarence, Tio Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Haulia, Shea Main

Takahashi, Minami Japanese

Myuu Supporting

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Yaegashi, Shizuku Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Riiman Supporting

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Hatayama, Aiko Supporting

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Sonobe, Yuuka Supporting

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Fukao, Satoshi Producer

Soyama, Takashi Producer

Reviews

Jun 6, 2025

AnimeExplorer21

Recommended

Lately, I've found myself falling into this deep rabbit hole of isekai anime. There's just something wildly entertaining about ordinary people being thrown into fantasy worlds with magic, monsters, and way too much responsibility. One random evening, a close friend of mine, who usually gets my taste right, suggested Arifureta. I’d heard mixed things before — some people hate it, some love it — so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But hey, I gave it a shot.

And… it was surprisingly good.

Not masterpiece good, but like, "yo, this is actually kind of fun" good.

The show kicks off like your typical isekai - a whole classroom ... of students summoned into a fantasy world to become heroes. Except it immediately swerves left when Hajime, our MC, gets betrayed by a classmate and literally dropped into a hellish labyrinth. That betrayal hit kinda hard, even though I saw it coming. Something about the way he just broke - mentally, physically, emotionally - it stuck with me. It made the tone shift real fast, and honestly, I liked that.

One thing I really appreciated was how the show explored how trauma changes a person. Hajime doesn’t just “get over it” - he adapts, evolves, becomes something else. The dude literally starts eating monsters and crafting guns underground just to survive. That whole transformation arc was probably the highlight of the season for me. It wasn’t subtle, but it was raw. Felt like a "when life breaks you, either die or rebuild yourself into something stronger" kind of message, and that’s powerful in its own way.

Now, yeah - the animation in early episodes was kind of rough (CGI rabbit gave me nightmares, no lie), but it did get better as it went. The fights were flashy enough, and the weapons Hajime makes have this cool, overpowered vibe that just feels satisfying to watch.

Yue. Man. Yue. She was the perfect balance to Hajime’s edgelord persona. Their bond felt oddly real despite how fast they connected. What really stood out to me - and I don’t say this often in harem-type anime - is Hajime’s absolute loyalty. Despite being surrounded by potential waifu material (Shea was adorable, Kaori sweet, Tio... uncomfortably kinky lol), he makes it clear Yue is his one and only. That moment when Yue smiled, fully knowing she didn’t need to fight for his love? That hit. It was wholesome in the middle of all the madness.

Also, shoutout to Myuu, the little kid they rescue - she was too cute and kind of grounded Hajime in a more human way. Gave me a break from all the explosions and edgy stares.

That being said, the pacing was all over the place sometimes, and some plot points felt like they were just thrown in for shock value. There were also a few ahem unnecessarily lewd scenes (looking at you, Tio) that kind of pulled me out of the mood. But I guess that’s just part of the package with these kinds of shows.

By the end of season 1, I was genuinely curious where things were heading. The final episodes gave that "next chapter of the journey" vibe. Hajime and his group were moving forward, not just physically but emotionally too. It wasn’t a groundbreaking anime, but it definitely gave me a good time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 23, 2025

Smurfflinger

Mixed Feelings

A lot of people like to constantly point out the fair art at best and the insane fanfare. No one really points out how well the show gives you a good set up of everything you need to know with only basic information. The show gives the viewers the benefit of the doubt that they are not completely stupid. And giving you a full insane detail for the whole story would not only make this show unnecessarily long but boring and insulting to those of us in the world who can fill in the blanks because we aren't complete morons.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 29, 2025

RemanTheArchean

Not Recommended

It's like Solo leveling, but it's a harem isekai. Also, it had a lobotomy. The animation is worse, the power fantasy is worse, and the plot is worse.

Now, Solo Leveling is one of the best power fantasies out there, so "worse than the best" leaves a lot of headroom to be at least decent. But this show doesn't even manage that. For starters, the tone is all over the place. My preference for shows are ones that are "serious but not grimdark". This series manages the impressive feat of being both above *and* below that mark at almost all times. It starts off excessively dark ... and angsty, with lingering scenes of suffering and wallowing in misery as the protagonist Hajime acquires his powers. Then the bunny girl shows up and starts acting goofier than Jar Jar Binks, and out comes a parade of low-quality gag comedy. The tonal whiplash is quite severe.

Action scenes take up much of the screentime, and they're also quite bad. The animation in these is quite sloppy as many people have mentioned, and it was enough to be consistently distracting. Worse, though, is that it's not at all clear how powerful Hajime is as he progresses. At first it shows his level and skills he's acquired, but it quickly forgets about this aspect. Then Hajime's powerlevel seems permanently stuck at the level of "generic shonen protagonist" where he always wins no matter what, but he's only moderately stronger than many of his opponents so the fights end up dragging and occasionally are filled with that fake shonen tension. There's plenty of moments where the show is doing that shtick of "oh man, he's really in trouble, pinky promise!" that ring completely hollow because of course the protagonist isn't going to die in episode 9 or whatever.

A lot of the fun of a power fantasy, especially one where the protagonist starts out very weak, is in both showing the supporting characters how far the protagonist has come, and in smashing adversaries that underestimate the protagonist. Solo Leveling does both of these very well. This show only does a little of the former and flubs it most of the time anyways. Part of it is that Hajime is a totally unlikable jerkass, and part of it is in how perfunctory and brief these scenes are. Bafflingly, the show would rather spend more time on unfunny gag comedy or terrible CGI than on a critical component of its central premise.

The show does have some small redeeming qualities, like how Hajime is actually willing to kill his enemies unlike most anime protagonists, and his flippant attitude is occasionally funny when its subverting tropes. But these aren't nearly enough to save the series, and I tapped out after a single season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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