Assassins Pride

‘Age is just a number… and remember kids, It’s not incest if you say no chromo’ – Albert Einstein 1969.

Although hard to decipher from the title, Assassin’s Pride conveys the affectionate student-teacher affair that takes place between primary protagonists Vampir Kufa and Melida Angel. Their relationship is truly heart-warming and could very well be considered ‘#relationshipgoals’ until you realize Kufa is a legitimate borderline pedophile, but that doesn’t matter because the feeling is mutual and true love has no boundaries.

Our primary male protagonist Kufa Vampir definitely possesses some unique and original characteristic traits. These traits range from being a Kirito lookin' mother fucker, grooming ... young underaged girls and having high levels of proficiency when it comes to the sex offender shuffle. From his name alone, no one could have expected him to be half-vampire. Vampir Kufa is a full-time fucking clown who works in a circus alongside the other clowns who are all mentally deluded into believing they are assassins. One day Kufa’s ringmaster (who is completely oblivious to the fact that Kufa is a fully-fledged pedophile) commands him to set up a tent in an all-girls middle school in order to provide ‘guidance’ to an underaged blonde Loli, who is (to absolutely nobody’s surprise) the female protagonist.

Our female protagonist Melita Angel is completely and utterly useless, her biological parents are nowhere to be found and it’s pretty easy to see why considering every character that is introduced in the story seems to know how fucking useless Melita is. Much to everyone’s dismay, Melita is actually a hidden OP in the school and is able to instantly receive a power-spike by simply stating that she is stronger than her opponent/s. After spending the first day to analyze Melita’s situation, Kufa (being the absolute paedophilic mastermind that he is) realizes the vulnerability of Melita and commits ‘Michael Jackson’ on her without a second thought before proceeding to inject his ‘mana’ into her body within 24 hrs of meeting.

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, Kufa suddenly evolves from clowning around to utter degeneracy after agreeing to play ‘husband’ in order to aid Rosetti, a fellow co-worker with daddy issues. Kufa then breaks up with Rosetti smoothly with the one-liner ‘It’s ok we can still be brother and sister after this’ and continues to confide in his interest for children.

What is ‘Mana’ I hear you ask? No one really knows as the anime adaption chose to completely ignore the philosophy of mana and instead exposes the audience to ‘cutesy’, flirty and mildly suggestive dialog between the characters while at the same time failing to address the elephant in the room that is Kufa’s incestuous and paedophilic relationships.

In conclusion, Assassin’s Pride uncovers the most compelling and heart-warming love story you are ever going to find in anime. Witness the spectacle that is a 17-year-old Kufa utilizing the final year of his adolescence to manipulate and groom a 13-year-old Melida before his 18th birthday where he will be immediately convicted and shipped off to the nearest mental asylum.

UPDATED on 28/12/2019 (12/12 episodes completed)

FINAL UPDATE (28/12/2019) (3/10)

This anime is a great example of a show that had a lot of potential, but couldn't fulfill its expectations in the end. The story-telling is atrocious. I'm not sure whether the adaptation was just poorly executed, or the source material is actually that bad. The music, however, was very good. This show deserves a 3/10 for its shambolic character development and train-wreck of a plot. AVOID THIS ANIME. However, I strangely would like a season 2...

UPDATE 2 (13/12/2019) (4/10)

The story is slowly progressing, but the main aim of this show from the start doesn't link with ... the current arc/plotline. The story is in shambles, expressing poor story writing and overall weak presentation. Episode 9 is so edgy that it alone could be made into a hentai OVA. The show has no aim. It doesn't know the audience it is aimed at, most certainly, it doesn't know how to successfully push the plot forward in order to make all the pieces fit together. I hope the overall rating of this show drops below 6.

UPDATE (23/11/2019) (5/10)

Yup, I think I was wrong. The story has barely even moved, most episodes are very forgettable and the characters are actually undeveloped af. This is becoming a very average show. It's fine for now I guess, but after watching episode 7, I'm not sure if there is any reason to keep watching this. However, I will finish this anime anyway as there is no point of dropping it now. Plus, the OP and ED are a heaven to my ears. After episode 7, I'm giving this a 5/10. Now I understand why this is a 6.5/10 on MAL, and the score is probably going to drop over time.

I am ashamed of myself for trying to defend this anime at first. I guess everyone makes mistakes.

BEFORE UPDATE (31/10/2019) (8/10)

I think this is one of the most underrated anime of this season. This anime does not deserve the hate. I know the main characters sort of look like SAO characters, but surely this doesn't mean the anime is bad. The OP and ED are out of this world, definitely the best of this season, maybe even year? The story is unraveling quite slowly, and this may make people look away from this anime. However, the animation is pretty fricking good and the story, somewhat misunderstood by many, is quite simple. An assassin called Vampir is set on a mission to see if Melida Angel is from the Angel bloodline. This is shown by whether she is able to gain the class of Paladin, but most importantly whether she can unleash her mana (power). I don't want to spoil anything but basically, Vampir starts to love (as a daughter, for now, lol) Melida and abandons his mission, as he realizes his new mission is to protect someone he has truly begun to love (as a daughter remember!!).

The synopsis is basically this. Vampir is told to kill Melida if she is illegitimate. There is suspicion she is, so he tries to kill her. Beforehand, he sees her determination and begins to love her like a daughter. He abandons his mission. He has one mission only now: protect Melida from public opinion and truly change her social opinion but making Melida become someone that knowone expects.

Please try this anime out. Also, there has been some negativity in the community due to the rough and 'poor' animation in episode 1. Then apparently in episode 2, 'they found the animation budget'. Like stfu, the rough flow of the animation was mainly to express the phsycological state Melida was in whilst she was bullied in the scene (she was so traumaticed the world in her head slowly begins to move rigidly and unevenly, as any victim of bullying would experiance). I think a lot of people misunderstand this anime, and you shouldn't too. I think this anime i definitly 8+/10, and a mean score under 7 is shocking to say the very least.

I must have read the title of this anime wrong. Because let’s face it, this show isn’t so much about the pride of an assassin but more of how secrets are waiting to be discovered and protected. Watching Assassins Pride feels more like an action fantasy than a stealthy story. And from start to finish, it's an anime filled with nothing but mediocrity.

Let’s just say, this type of anime is very conventional in a realm of creativity. There’s the premise about how humans struggle to survive in a world of uncertainty. Society consists of commoners and nobles. Then, there are gifted individuals with the power ... of “Mana”, capable of fighting against the monsters outside of the timeless nights. Assassins Pride doesn’t choose to be original enough and the first episodes made less than favorable impression. I mean, let’s face it, Angel Melida is an underdog who has yet to awaken her mana and is often bullied at school. It isn’t until she meets Kufa Vampir where her abilities begins to show and trying to prove herself worthy of heirless noble.

As a fantasy anime adaptation, a familiar formula applies to Assassins Pride to those of similar genre. We have the academy used to train students to fight, characters with unique abilities to fight against monsters, and of course, relationships that develops among its youth society. While Assassins Pride isn’t a romance story, there’s undeniable chemistry between Melida and Vampir. The two are often seen together but in the beginning, Melida had to prove herself. It’s easy to see her as an underdog rather than a prodigy. Vampir’s impression of her didn’t manifest until she shows her determination. Melida’s determination to prove worthy of her name is a major recurring element in the show. She wants to prove to herself and everyone who she wants to be. This type of character personality attracts Vampir, so much that he withdraws his assassination attempt and becomes her mentor. Vampir himself is a mysterious individual who often hides his true attentions behind a façade. As an assassin, he’s clever at hiding his emotions and training has given him a great deal of experience. In many of the early fights, it’s shown that his battles usually go in his favor. However, Melida’s appearance in his life sometimes causes Vampir to show a different side of him. And throughout the story, it’s shown that he genuinely grows to care about her. As a matter of fact, Vampir behaves differently towards Melida than with other characters. Their relationships is a core part of the show that connects the two together despite having very different personalities.

What about other personalities in the series? Surely, we have Elise and Rosetti to bring out a different side of the story, right? Well, not quite. Elise and Rosetti are two other main characters although they enter the anime as prodigies. Elise is Melida’s cousin with a sisterly like relationship. But in the beginning of the show, their relationship is cold and it isn’t until certain events that their relationship improves again. On the other hand, Rosetti is a class example of ‘hard work pays off’. Despite being a commoner, she gained a reputable status through her talent and hard work. Unlike Elise, Rosetti is much more cheery and easier to develop friends with others. As some may guess, she develops a school-like crush towards Vampir. It’s the type of generic romance trope you can easily identify with poor effort in writing and story development. There’s even an episode where she gets Vampir involved with a marriage subplot to throw off her engagement. It’s safe to say, this type of writing can easily be discarded as junk.

On the other hand, I don’t want to say Assassins Pride is unwatchable garbage as there are certain elements to keep the viewers entertained. For instance, there are other schools in the Flandore and certain episodes shows the talents of other characters beyond the core cast. Melida’s fighting spirit is also a source of inspiration that shows anyone can be who they want if they try. It can help keep us entertained enough to see how far she can evolve as a person. Likewise, Vampir and Melida’s relationship is forged by trust and sometimes, we may ask ourselves how much they can really trust each other. Will Vampir someday really kill Melida or how long he can protect Melida from the truth? Certainly, Assassins Pride isn’t a thriller but this anime has the perk of carrying a level of suspense. The balance of comedy also eases the mood on occasions while not being too distracting; that is, if you enjoy watching girls having slumber partied and gossiping about each other’s love lives. But at the end of the day, this show is how you chooses to watch it.

EMT Squared is by no means a high caliber studio from their creative projects in recent years. From forgettable shorts to medicore slice of life adaptations, you really shouldn’t come into the show expecting any more from them. Assassins Pride’s artistic elements mostly comes with how it decorates its aristocrat society. Most of the characters are fairly well dressed including Melida. The school they attend carries a high value reputation and looks like a place where nobles would attend. The character designs are also decorates with uniforms that show their status. However, I do find the overall look to be peculiar with the cat-like eyes from the female uniforms. Doesn’t anyone else feel that’s too damn distracting? Vampir might as well look like a Kirito 2.0 in terms of physical appearance. Character reactions ranges from cartoony expressions to more serious and emotional segments depending on the direction of the story. Finally, some of the battles segments are distinguishable by the way characters fight. Remember, humans have Mana powers and it physically manifests in the form of colored aura. Sure, it’s nothing to write home about but is unique enough to show credibility to the plot.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you to watch Assassins Pride or not. That’s up to you. There’s too many anime like this every year where we watch the show and easily forgets about it the next few months roll around. Assassins Pride is an example of a conventional show using its fantasy content to sell a mediocre story. And honestly, it’s starts off mediocre and remains all the way to the end. All the way.

Assassin's Pride was painful. I'm not even sure it is worse than 2015's The Asterisk War which was one of the worst things I have ever seen then again. I don't compare trash bags to each other. The whole point of the trash bag is to depose the trash bag from your house to the trash bin not to compare how smelly they are otherwise the house would be smelling of garbage.

This is easily the worst anime of the fall 19 season, beating out the worst isekai animes of that season.
Am not even sure that this show was done by human beings.

Before I talk about ... the show's plot, let's immediately dive into this show's technical aspects.

This show looks like shit. This is a show that came out in 2019 yet it feels like I am watching a 2005 anime production.
The only decent thing about the visuals is the character's designs which are okay when they are not using the powers that make them glow as it just looks very bad.
Everything else from the animation, background scenery and the fight scenes are a mess then again. This show was made by the same studio that made The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar the worst Isekai anime ever made.

I honestly forgot this show had a soundtrack. This is one of those shows that a sizeable, amount of tracks yet it plays a handful of tracks over and over again.

The opening and ending theme were competent but nothing special. They are both enjoyable songs on their own right but they don't really stand out compared to other OP/ED from the season.

The original Japanese audio is serviceable and gets the job done as you expect.

Being a dub fan I had to check out the dub for Assassin's Pride. I watched the first 6 episodes of the dub, turned off my PS4 and I regretted the day when I had to listen to it. This is got to be the worst dub from Sentai in a long time. The voice acting is over-dramatic and stiff. The audio quality was hot garbage and ADR direction was atrocious. I honestly felt bad for Brittney Karbowski as she had to voice a garbage character like Melida.

Since I am done talking about the show's technical aspects, let's finally talk about the show plot

The plot/characters.

This plot is more uninspired than Jump Force story mode. If you have seen The Asterisk War, Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor and The Irregular at Magic High School then you watch Assassins Pride. It's lazy, uninspired and soulless.

What makes this empty shell of a plot even worse is how the writer managed to screw it up to a point where the show becomes unbearable. One of the main issues with Assassin's Pride is its inconsistent tone. When I took a look at the poster for Assassin's Pride I thought the show would be this engaging dark sci-fi action show, however more often not the show is a 12A generic action flick.

Sure it does have some dark elements in it, but they don't show up that often in the anime and even then the dark elements were poorly executed thanks to the shitty. The writing is dreadful from top to bottom. It feels like I am watching a really bad fanfiction from fanfic.net thanks to the number of cliches that it has that heavy plague of the show.

The selling point of Assassin's Pride if you can call it that is the romance between Kufa and Angel but the problem is that they have little to no chemistry with each other.

The characters are as interesting as watching grass grow. They are not engaging in the slightest. Am still shocked that I remember the characters cast names after watching the final episode of this ambitionless garbage fire because they were just so forgetful and poorly written.

Assassin's Pride is centred around two characters Melida and Kufa but the problem is that they are both such horrendous characters. Outside of their non-existent romantic chemistry, they are both boring, bland and irritating to watch. The bottom dog of the two is Melida because her personality throughout the series is inconsistent. She's meant to be this weak girl that will eventually get stronger, however, in certain scenes, notably in episode 2, she's a total badass that is able to defeat her foes.

She had a cool moment despite the fight being poorly animated and it's such a shame she reverts back to a weakening in the following episode where she relies on Kirito I mean Kufa. This happens frequently in the anime and it really annoying. There are no redeeming qualities to this character whatsoever.
She's a total failure of a female lead if I ever think of one.

Kufa is generic light novel protagonist 7830. Everything about him from design, dialogue and potato personality screams, laziness. The only thing that separates him from the countless generic light novel protagonist is he's a vampire and he's edgy and even then it doesn't really matter because the writing is dogshit.

The rest of the characters just exist for plot reasons and nothing more.

Assassins Pride is an end product of arrested ambition. It is a shell of anime that has no passion and soul. How can I enjoy a show like this when the writers have no ambition whatsoever? The only good thing about Assassin's Pride is the opening of everything from the writing, visuals, characters, plot, soundtrack and pacing is a disaster. This is without a question the worst anime of the season as well as being one of the laziest anime I have ever seen in my life. 
There's absolutely no reason to watch this show this unless you hate yourself.

*Reposted due to MAL's rules on preliminary reviews*

I am absolutely flabbergasted by the number of positive reviews written for this show (as of December 8, 2019). This show has to be one of the most uninspired, generic pieces of work that has come out in recent memory. I'm quite perplexed by how anyone can find this sorry excuse for an anime intriguing, and how this show was even green-lit in the first place. Not only do I think this show is absolutely horrendous, but it outright disrespects the viewer's intelligence and its a tragedy that anyone is allowed to even go near this filth.

I won't ... write a long winded review of me completely trashing this show and going through everything that is wrong with it, so I'll give you the gist of everything this show embodies:

Laziness.

This show is lazy. From the story, to the characters, to the character designs, to the art, and so on. Every single trope found within the medium of anime is shoved into this shit show, and it's difficult to tell if this abomination was supposed to be a satire on the medium as a whole given the amount of generic plot points and characters. Actually, scratch that because satire implies that humor is found within this show, which it isn't. The only people who can actually find this show entertaining are those who either haven't seen any other anime, or those who are looking for an easy self-insert type of show.

"oh no, sensei isn't paying attention to me :c guess i'll keep pouting until he headpats me :3"

"man i'm so untalented, i can't do anything by myself :'c. guess i'll wait for sensei to do it for me :> (or wait for the 'plot' to give me the power to progress through the current situation)"

"sensei talks to another girl?!?11?! <pout face> that makes me sad because he isn't talking to me :c :c :c"

The show goes out of its way to try and force this "romance" between the main two characters but it is the most awkward attempt at romance that I've seen in a long time. I can't explain the amount of times my jaw dropped at the absurdity that was on my computer screen, and the amount of times I wanted to just stop watching this show. The plot is completely uninteresting, and to dare call it 'mature' or 'dark' is straight up foolish. If simply showing blood or having a darker color gradients for the animation is considered 'mature' or 'dark' in the context of anime, then I don't want to watch anime anymore.

You may be asking, "iF yOu dIdn'T lIkE iT, wHy dId yOuu keEp wAtChinG??", or saying, "jUsT leT peoPLe enJoY thIngS mAN...".

Well I'll tell you why. I persevered through this abhorrent, dark stain of the anime industry so that I can remind myself of what a good show shouldn't be. If one only watches 'good' shows, how can one really know if they are good? You need something to compare to, and this show ladies and gentleman will be the example of what not to do.

But most importantly, I willed myself to finish this show to let whoever is reading this know to avoid this show like the plague and don't be fooled the the positive things people say about this train wreck. This show is, without a doubt, the worst show to have aired in 2019 and I am fully okay being the fool to finish this show to let you know that.

At least the OP is a banger.

While the art is pretty good it was genuinely the hardest watch I've had in a long time because random things kept happening and I was supposed to take them seriously. The ages are weird and the story couldn't completely focus on one thing that made sense. I can usually handle unoriginal anime but this was on another level. This is one of the few anime that might actually be a waste of time. It's not even funny bad it's just bad and that's coming from someone that can give the benefit of doubt. I only gave it a 2 because I watched it for ... the opening and art. If you make it halfway through this I promise it does not get any better.

Tldr: It's bad and the opening song + art got it a 2

Let's get this right : this anime is an insult to its viewers intelligence, and whoever made this is either an idiot, a money-craving scumbag, or both.
My money on the latter.
For starters, maybe you should better explain (or explain at-all) why the so-called assassin spares the little girl. After 12 episodes, I've still no idea. If it's because of love, then the very stoic protagonist should at the very least getting a bit emotional for us to understand that. If it's because of his dubious line of work, and doubts about his mission, then at least we should learn why this cause such ... a dilemna for him to abandon his mission. Forget that ! With just an incredible stupid catchphrase about his pride, his assassin pride (because, why, of course), that's it.
Save the girl, save the world etc ...
I think that monologue was there just to justify the need of an assassin in its story (hence, the title).
And expect the best when you will heard his full name. That's the best naming sense for this year.
At the very least arifureta was trying to accomplish *something* and was sufficiently coherent to try so.
But even the art is talentless, in this anime : for some reason (maybe the animators were in energy-saving mode), there's just no background sometimes behind the characters. Nothing. Maybe it's the illustration of a never-ending night, you see, but I think that's way too clever for the team behind this anime to have thought about it.
Now... if i were to give some praise, that will start with the good pacing of the anime : along the lines, this anime was rhythmed good enough to not crush every expectations in the very first episodes. It's a process - you see - your expectations are going to get crushed, that's for sure but ... slowly.
And another good point is the information release for the scenario : with a good pacing comes a way to maintain a seemingly suspense, good enough here to maintain the very stubborn viewers interest.
But actually, in all honestly, I will recommend NOT SEEING this anime at all.
Find yourself something better to do. That's going to be easy, trust me.

This anime makes me feel incredibly sad cuz it could actually have been pretty good, the ideas are all there, but they fail miserably on the delivery.

Every single character either loves or eventually adores the main 2, no matter what, in fact, even the characters that feel more antagonistic eventually get charmed, this is so serious that after the first time it happens you just know what you're in for.

The "villains" and overall antagonists cannot be sided with on a sane mind, they are so 1 dimensional that they feel like "bad for the sake of being bad".

The animation is pretty good (at least the ... creative direction is on point) but it falls flat on its face a lot, the girls outfits feel straight out of an ecchi when they really should not, and the MC outfit is so boring it makes me think about kirito (haha sao bad laugh now), it is a shame though, cuz everything else looks decent, not that's much to that "else" but from backgrounds to minor and even background characters the essence IS THERE.

But the worst part about this anime is the sexual undertones, i say this with all honesty, this feels like an Hentai where they cut out all lewd scenes and only left in the "plot" and some slightly more "iffy" scenes, this is legitimately the best summary of the anime in my opinion, Hentai without the lewd.
Every girl is flat and the ones who aren't get boob jokes, there are plenty of feet scenes, and all of the "romance" feels forced as hell, the writing room had no female on it cuz this is just not how women (and especially young girls) act, and i don't mean this in some creepy way or anything, legitimately no women ever, dead or alive has ever been this mindlessly ephatuated for someone as the main girl was for the MC and everyone else was for the main girl.

Also, pretty minor point but there are too many women and too little men (plus the little men that exist are either "evil" or "not good guys" in some way, only the oh so perfect MC-kun is pure of heart, this only adds to the whole hentai atmosphere i talked about before.

Overall i really don't recommend this anime, and if you want to watch it, watch it with friends and make fun of it or play a game where you guess the next line (trust me the plot is so basic you can guess lines with 80% accuracy)

4/10 will only watch again if i wanna copy background ideas

The concept for Assassin's Pride had potential, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I didn't particularly enjoy watching it and just generally thought it was bad. Production value aside (more on that later), the characters are weak, and the story is a mess. The only redeeming thing about this show is the occasional cute or funny moment.

I didn't find any of the cast to be interesting or engaging. The main characters are very lacking given their level of prominence. Each one has a specific narrative that defines their character (e.g., Melida the "incompetent talented girl": a talent by birth, but failure in ... practice), and the development that occurs as the story progresses does nothing besides reinforce these narratives. As a result, we have one-dimensional characters that travel very predictable paths. The character quality also extends to the relationships they form. None of which really add much depth to the story.

World building is another area that Assassin's Pride gets wrong. Core pieces of the world's lore, such as the current state of humanity, the city-state of Flandore, the caste system, and lycanthropes, are not explained in any depth (or at all, in some cases). As the show progresses, you'll forgot some of these elements were ever introduced given how unimportant they are to the events that take place. You could transpose the main events of the story into another world and it would barely make a difference.

There isn't much to say about the story. It consists of a few arcs that are largely self-contained. Rather than use each arc as a building block to construct the world's lore or a higher-level narrative, it felt more like they were just used as ephemeral platforms to launch specific character narratives to the next stage. As I was watching I found I kept wondering why an event was happening and how it related to previous and/or future events. The story does have some degree of continuity, but it usually feels more like aimless wandering.

The production value for this series was quite poor. The voice acting (Japanese) was decent. The art is generic, but otherwise decent. The animation is rather poor (simple and awkward). So much so that I would consciously notice how awkward it was while watching.

Summary:
A forgettable and boring story pulled down by dull and even downright irritating characters, this is an anime that you’ll have trouble enjoying. With bad fight scenes and a rough power system, even looking at this show as a generic power fantasy will leave you disappointed. The only way I would recommend this show is if you have fun criticising bad anime, but don’t be surprised when you’re checking how long is left of the episode.

Story: 3
Animation/Art: 3
Sound: 2
Characters: 2
Enjoyment: 2
Overall: 3

... Discussion:
“These days it almost seems like there is a seemingly endless sea of bad Isekai to choose from. But fear not! This is a fantasy anime, it’s not even Isekai. So it could potentially be better!” Those were my thoughts before immersing myself in this show. I wasn’t really expecting much, but I also didn’t think it could be that bad. I was wrong. But I’m here to tell you why it was that bad.

When first entering the show, one of the first things you’ll notice is that the main character has a striking resemblance to Kirito. If that doesn’t set off your warning bells, I don’t know what will. In fact, Kufa Vampir is a worse character than Kirito. When discussing his main personality traits, I would say he has three. One, he has a romantic relationship with Melida Angel, a 13 year old girl who is also his student (we’ll get to this later). Two, he is a half-vampire, which for some reason makes him stupidly powerful. Three, he sometimes tucks his tie into his shirt pocket. Kufa is a really forgettable and boring character, the equivalent of staring at a piece of cardboard.

But if Kufa is cardboard, then Melida is like if someone asked you to eat that cardboard. Melida Angel is one of the worst main characters I’ve seen in anime. Not only does she have barely any personality, but the traits she does have are bad. What I’m trying to say is that she’s actually a dislikable character, which is crazy because she’s supposed to be one of the main characters, the one that the viewer is supposed to cheer for. She’s the underdog, but you find yourself cheering for her opponents because it doesn’t feel like you want her to win. However, the worst part (and probably one of the reasons why most people wont watch the show) is her romantic relationship with Kufa. Melida is 13 and Kufa is 17, which is bad enough, but Melida is also Kufa’s student. I shouldn’t need to explain why this is horrible.

For some reason, the pacing in this show is extremely fast. I don’t even know why it progresses so fast, but there are so many things to keep track of each episode that it’s very difficult to keep up and makes the viewer feel overwhelmed. It adds to the feeling that the show is a rushed project without much substance. Worse, this rapid pace takes away form any character development and worldbuilding, meaning that parts of the show are left unexplained and the characters feel paper thin and weak.

One of the main reasons why people watch power fantasy anime is for the action. Even I will admit that it’s really cool to watch a character overcome bad odds with sheer effort and determination. Unfortunately, Assassins Pride doesn’t even do this. Because there is no training arc, none of Melida’s wins feel earned. It’s actually quite funny because whenever Melida uses a special attack there is a quick flashback to training that the viewer was never saw, and the show is like “this happened, deal with it.” It feels rushed and you are never satisfied when Melida wins. So, what about when Kufa wins? No satisfaction either, because he is such a powerful character that no one else has nearly enough strength to beat him and he never even breaks a sweat, meaning there is no progression and whenever Kufa enters the fight there is no doubt that he will win. This is not the way to handle an overpowered protagonist.

The animation and use of music in the fight scenes is really dull and the fight choreography is quite minimalistic. These types of shows usually have decent fight scenes, so I was expecting the fights to be alright when I was thinking about watching the show, but I found myself disappointed. The fights have no substance, are filled with bland characters and do not advance the plot at all.

If I had to pick one decent thing about the show, I would have to say that it’s the mystery arc. While it’s not hard to solve the mystery, it is entertaining to see the people in the town turn against the protagonists and see how they react. The mystery arc also adds a little to the worldbuilding and the overall structure of the show as well as adding a tiny bit more backstory to the overall plot and creating some new plot points that will definitely be used in later seasons.

Overall, Assassins Pride is not your generic power fantasy. It’s less enjoyable, less exciting, and honestly people who enjoy watching power fantasy shows will not even enjoy watching it.

I guess Assassin's Pride is a good enough example of anime being wasted potential. It's been nothing but a downward spiral toward the abyss. Well, it did catch my interest by the first episode, and I am a sucker for these underdogs kind of story, as I have said many times in the past. So I can't help being a bit open and positive to start off since in my case, it had all the ingredients to turn out a decent fantasy anime I could kill my time with. I mean its abundantly evident, AssPride is as cliche as you can get, but honestly, If ... there is entertainment to had, what points is there to be so brutally focused on such other useless things? But Instead, I was hit with disappointment which intensified as the episode went by. Thus It sadly ended up becoming a chore to watch this anime as a result, which was rushed to absolute oblivion, and the importance of context was thrown out of the window.

There are so many things that are lacking connection here, which makes no sense, and these things form a plot-holes, that could've otherwise be avoided. It's not too hard either, you just had to follow the source material - light novel or the manga that I personally took a small peek off. Since I knew if there is one thing I could count on, it would be the source material, and in some cases, manga doesn't fall that short either. So there was this one scene where Kufa, our main character, confessed to something slightly heavy, and the influence it made on me, I definitely felt it. It was real and felt truthful. While the anime took that same scene and made it feel so forced and uneventful. It's like the people behind this mess adapted everything as they would like it. No thought or consideration went into, the direction or the execution at all. Every arc felt random, and it was like I was watching, several episodes worth of content like I was meant to know the context behind it prior.

On top of that, all our character, the main for one Melida's development as well as power progress, was quick, and not efficient at all. She went from zero to a hundred way too fast, and we didn't have a chance to appreciate her growth properly. But the biggest issue is undoubtedly the terrible pacing. There were so many arcs, which would feel important and substantial to the overall story. Still, it was just cringe-inducing to watch, and I couldn't take it seriously one bit whatsoever. At least, there was still some few things that come out from this trainwreck of an adaptation. Because the art-style actually looked very clean for a short while and polished, it was so appealing to the eyes, I really liked the colour pallet they used here. Also, the animation had some decent sakuga in the beginning, the action bits were at the very least satisfactory to myself. Too bad, it didn't last all that long, as you could clearly see the downgrade in production over time. Until it looked like your where rubbing sands in your eyes, and it becomes an outright abomination of a derp fest, and started looking all stiff and iffy all over.

But if there is one part, I would give praise to AssPride it has to be the opening first off. It was something that I personally started out disliking, but it did grow on me tremendously, and now I love it. It's such a unique style which plays in all kinds of the way with the camera angles, and scenery. The song nicely complements it all and fits the overall song and visual properly. Opening prepares your soul and body for horrifying experience. While the ending is also quite beautiful and is a great way to heal your aching soul after a terrible episode of AssPride. It's too bad it's wasted on this absolute mess. Overall, I really don't recommend AssPride to anyone out there, and you can do so much better. Sure, there was some potential here, but the studio made sure to throw it in the trash before it even begins. You will not find your new next, generic fantasy here, only lots of horror and pain, which for me is finally over. I am so glad to be done with this trainwreck, and never again have to lose my common sense over it. It starts out with a decent start showing lots of promise. But each episode after that brings it closer to the abyss, until its thoroughly soaked in there, and it never tries to find its way back. Absolutely terrible, and a waste of time.

This whole show can just be summarized as the whole "m' lady" joke. Good to watch when you want to have your IQ be lowered by 50 points. At least the charterers looked ok and the magic was fine. I stopped watching when the main character was revealed as a vampire, EVEN THOUGH IT HAS IT IN HIS NAME. This anime is trash and not the good kind either. How can anyone write a real review for this that is positive? The only reason that this is long is that it has to be. Do not waste your time watching this

4/10. Why is there a ... whole character that is just a mix of Kirito and an incel?

The plot is good and that's it.
Then we have a storyline that just goes to fast and doesn't show nothing interesting.
I don't know why every enemy character when he first appear have to be damn laughing it doesn't make sense.
Some character actions are just lame, like the director not stopping the event even if she was warned about the attack, and when it happened she did nothing, why?
And the main character being as submissive to his employer doesn't have much pride as the title suggests, but in the last episode at the last minute some characters were forced to say pride to match the anime ... with the title.

I tried. I really tried to like this anime, but I just could not bring myself to care the slightest bit about any of the characters. It's generic, uninspired, and at times just lazy. There are few twists or surprises. Anyone could write a story based off of the synopsis alone, and it would be so similar to what you got that either could be used to predict the other. I doubt this show will ever get a second season, and the world is better for it.

Don't waste your time on this; 2019 has been chalk full of incredible shows you could be watching instead.

Why did I just watch this ?

I think I am going to be asking that question especially seeing as I have been hit by a bunch of anime with the same feel to them (Lord Marksman and Vanadis, Alderamin of the sky both come to mind, Izetta the last which). They all have slightly off fantasy worlds that aren't sufficiently well defined to disallow the authors from doing whatever they want whenever they want to. This isn't a problem if the authors don't abuse it. Unfortunately assassins pride really does like to pull stuff out of its rear end. It starts doing ... that early and snowballs

It isn't just magic/how the world wakes that Assassin's Pride is ridiculous about. The show's characters have next to no motivation. The Assassin is unbelievable as an assassin. He continuously acts in a completely random manner. Melita is a bit better but still ridiculous. Her progress is fundamentally unbelievable and she has nothing outside of her two motivations, but her motivation is at least believable. When you get to the supporting characters and villains it's just off the wall, at times it was so bad it was almost good.

Even though by the end of the first episode was over, you knew how things were going to go and and you never saw anything that shook you from that. The only real surprises are just how bad everyone around Melita is going to have their lives get so she can shine a little by comparison, and what the next amazing thing magic is going to do.

The show could have gone so many other ways. It could have been about the magical combat. It could have kept magic to a very limited and well defined role. Hell it probably would have been better if it just dropped magic altogether and just made Melita someone who was trying to master a family fighting technique and left it at that.

Instead it just cheaped out. Too bad.

The pride is of a assassin, but the rating is nothing to be proud of.
"Mexican Soap Opera: the Action Anime", I mean, Assassins Pride is overall a wasted potential. It starts ok but fails miserably to keep it, and so it becomes as boring as watching grass to grow.
I had hope it could be the best of the newcomers, however it soon turned for the worst of the year (from the ones I've seen). Yeah, even Arifureta (with that milk box-looking CGI) was better, as it was the classic "so bad it's good", so it was at least entertaining. AP loses its focus so ... quickly it becomes uninteresting.

You know an anime is bad when the only two love interests for the main character in an action and intrigue focussed anime are an underaged girl and his own sister...

The fight scenes don't look good, the characters are all simple with no depth, with the main characters being the worst offenders, the plot is lacking, weird and not cohesive at all and the dialogue between characters just feels unnatural.

The music etc. was a-okay but nothing to brag about and I actually enjoyed the show quite a bit, although not because it was good but because it was so horribly bad.

I cannot help but feel ... that the author/producers could've done a better job with the premise they had but they just chose to make the usual seasonal trash that you know and love/hate.

In for the premise, stayed for the trainwreck

This show is bad, don't watch it unless you can turn your brain off or genuinely are curious just how bad this is (like me, that's how I found this).

Review (after reading manga)

Idk what happened with this anime but i would not recommend to watch it. Having read the manga, it's not even a bad adaptation anymore, it is as if you are watching a completely different series. I definitely don’t recommend this show but i would definitely recommend the manga if you're interested.

The story is that Kufa Vampir, the main protagonist of Assassin's Pride faces off against the dark side of his task assassinating Melida. He and Melida fighting their fate together. The story takes place in the world where only aristocrats have the mana to fight the monsters.

The story is poorly paced ... and largely does not make much sense due to many time skips of important parts which are only present in the source materials.

A man is sent to work alongside the daughter of a noble, and if she is not up to the task, he is to kill her. As a young but hardened assassin, who has been fighting monsters since a tween.

Of course, we quickly see this boy basically move more towards the falling in love/lust with this girl, but showing it in how he teaches her how to protect herself, how e covers up the way she has no mana by artificially inserting(something many seem is unaware can happen somehow), and the girl starts going from zero to hero basically.

Chuck in wrangling for the ... future head of the noble house, jealous onlookers, a possible revolution all rushed into 12 episodes and the struggle to be accepted by her own family, I wanted this to be good.

Things just seemed to come to easy ability-wise, the characters were poor, and not linking the instructor and daughter are samurai despite the mention felt like a plot hole. Add to that with the world turning on her nearly, no one finds anything out, executes her successfully or finds her and her family rivals instructors secret makes it more annoying in time magic, monitoring and secrets being a struggle to keep are common as is like an eye is always watching or a tome etc.

You add the creepy instructor-student relationship on top where he happily touches her body and just gets creepy. So a story with a fair few plot holes, poor character, poor method of telling a story,

I found this show laughably bad, i feel like the reasons i liked it were the fact it was bad, i feel as though the writing for the scripts seemed lazy like making terrible characters by listing the goals and ideals in one go for no reason, i feel like "plot twists" didn't seem climactic or impactful at all and some of the animation was very sketchy like a character saying something in the present but the scene is showing a flashback. That being said i did like the intro and SOME of the characters design but like i said, the characters personalities didn't really ... shine, i feel like most of the show shows times where they suggest doing something that would make previous episodes and i feel my reasons for disliking this show go on and on, i gave it a higher rating than i think it has credit for since i like the fact it's awful and i haven't seen that many trashy shows as of yet to fully give this show an accurate rating.