Back to TheDeedsOfMen's Profile TheDeedsOfMen's Profile

I must be pretty far from the target audience because many people seem to be enjoying this show a lot while it isn't working for me at all, sometimes for the exact same reasons. I had my suspicions when reading the synopsis, but they are not always reliable and people were spreading hype about this. Here is the main problem:

If everything is perfect, then nothing is interesting.

Everyone loves the protagonist for being cute and overpowered.

Everyone is perfect friends with everyone else. No conflict to be seen here. Never have I seen an MMO community that is so perfectly friendly. Even in terms of light-hearted ... anime series, the friendliness is strangely perfect.

Every character agrees on everything. There are no arguments, not even relatively friendly ones.

Every character is pretty much only playing the game for the sake of playing itself. Their goals beyond that are not explored.

Every line of dialogue is limited to what is immediately happening. Nobody tries to think hard about anything. Nobody tries to be witty or play around with words in any interesting way.

Every joke is carefully formulaic and predictable. People falling over at random. People scared of spooky ghosts. The protagonist being really overpowered, which is repeated in a similar way multiple times in every episode.

If you are trying to argue that this show is a parody because of the excessive focus on cuteness and overpoweredness, it would be an incredibly tedious method of parody because every episode ends up doing the same routine. Parodies should play with the tropes in more creative ways.

Normally, this is where I would deliver a long rant, but there is actually very little to say about this show. It is so simple that I have very little to go on about, aside from the simplicity itself. There is nothing to work with. I get it; there are many people who actually like this and don't want to analyze it beyond what it immediately delivers. No hard feelings about the show, but I won't lie about being entertained when I'm not. This show made me neither happy nor sad, neither angry nor amused. I simply got bored. I will just hope for better luck next time.

If you are not yet wearing your beret, maybe now would be the time to dust it off.

One of the side effects of splitting the season into four-episode sets is that I get to review them on their own. This particular set of episodes happens to be stacked with important plot points and dialogue. This is where several premises are overturned. Basically, it means plot twists of pretty big importance, and they also make a lot of sense in-universe. Furthermore, because of the selection of episodes, many of the problems that were present in the other parts are conveniently absent. Pacing is now slower, in ... part because it was slower in the source material to begin with.

There are great character moments here. Oberstein delivers a strong performance, as expected. Reinhard has to re-evaluate his principles. Lynch gets to mock self-righteous people and notions of honor. The scenes with Yang and Trunicht in episode 4 are also very detailed, actually much more detailed than in the OVA. Democracy, is it really that great? The scene in episode 1 between Konev and Rubinsky is in the original novel but was not present in the OVA. It was a shame because Konev is absolutely on fire there, but now they have included it. Even in general, the dialogue gets into political philosophy even more than usually.

Episode 4 draws some great parallels between the events in the Alliance and the Empire, both in terms of the narration and the direction. Maybe the addition of the Earth Cult right at the end was a bit hasty, but they need to properly appear eventually because their characterization has always been too scarce in general. Incidentally, this version is more faithfully reproducing the novel's dialogue on the potential consequences of organized religion.

Meanwhile, a few anime-only lines from the OVA are missing from this one. Some of them did add a nice touch. I can understand choosing to stick to the source material, but what is relevant is whether the work is improved or not. The losses are not life-threatening though.

The already big visual budget has been put to even better use than before. Artemis' Necklace looks very detailed. At particularly dramatic moments, fleets warps in and out in a well-choreographed manner. If you really dislike CGI, your mileage may vary, but at least it isn't on the cheap side. There are also other interesting artistic decisions. After big explosions in orbit, Heinessen at night is lit up for a few brief moments. Earth looks more ravaged and barren than in the OVA. They are also paying attention to the music quality. When the plot gets dramatic, suitably dramatic music is played. The ending song is fairly memorable, and the voice actors are working very hard for their salaries.

For how many years they will keep producing this? It seems that they are not short on budget, at least. If they adapt the novel fully, we'll probably be waiting here for eight more seasons. It is definitely an anime for the patient viewer. I don't mind playing the long game though.

What I expected: a somewhat decent mystery story.
What I got: a largely episodic slapstick comedy.

Somehow I don't think the brutal murders and cheerful slapstick comedy go together very well. It is like they are trying to fit two different shows into one, and the end result feels like an incohesive mess. For instance, the characters may be investigating a serial killer who murders women in a particularly brutal way. Then they proceed to goof around and act in wacky ways around the corpse. How am I supposed to feel here? Amused? Sad? With the tone doing 180-degree turns within seconds, who knows?

Not every case ... is equally savage, but the comedy usually still doesn't work. Why? Because it is too simple and repetitive. The same jokes are repeated over and over again until they are run into the ground. They were obvious enough the first time; they are even more so on the twentieth. Often they are character quirks that appear like clockwork whenever particular characters appear on-screen. The comedy is also very conventional. It doesn't challenge any established norms. It loyally adheres to the long-standing model of slapstick in its most blatant and obvious form, shouting at the audience with a megaphone: "This is a joke! Get it?" Yes, I get it because I have seen it before so many times.

It doesn't help that the show has adopted a heavily episodic style with unrelated cases, random villains of the week, and significant pacing problems. It becomes very difficult to care about anything that is taking place on-screen. Sure, let's have a mystery show that is usually episodic. How will that work out? I'll tell you how. I won't care about the victim, the culprit, or any of the random bystanders. Besides, the mystery isn't much of a mystery when we know barely anything about these one-episode wonders. If you like drafting theories of who did it and why, there isn't really much incentive or even enough clues for that matter. Sometimes the culprit only appears near the end of the episode. Yes, there is an overarching plot, but it moves along slowly and with inconsistent pacing.

Here is what an episode might look like. First, some crimes are happening: murder, theft, etc. Oh well, time for people to act in a wacky way, wearing silly clothes, falling over, throwing objects, comically chasing each other for far too long, and blushing at the mere sight of girls. Then back to the murders. But enough of that, let's have people get sexually harassed. Then we go through the facts of the case in the form of... traditional Japanese entertainment? What? Looks like we caught the villain of the week. Then onwards to the next episode with a mostly unrelated case but the same formula. Repeat the same process.

This has been done to death. It has been run into the ground. There is only so much you can do with this repetitive slapstick comedy. Imagine a circus that visits your town every week. It seems flashy at first, but then you realize that every week the clowns, the animals, and the trapeze artists perform the same tricks. Every single week. How many times would you visit the place? This also easily grinds the pacing to a halt. Okay, so there are some differences between episodes. For instance, there is the gangster who makes ludicrous poses and speaks like a madman in every situation. There is also a bath house episode that features Sherlock only wearing a censor bar and a bunch of people in animal masks because... I don't know. Maybe it is some Japanese cultural reference that is meant to be funny.

The one-episode characters are largely forgettable, but the regular cast isn't much better. Sherlock solves cases with semi-blind guesses that happen to be correct. He perfectly guesses the motives of the culprits based on insufficient evidence and profiles them based on superficial features. I suppose he is prone to this in the original novels too, but it goes even further here because most of the cases are so short and there is so little evidence available.

Speaking of Japanese culture, Sherlock delivers case summaries with rakugo, a form of traditional Japanese entertainment. The show treats this as though it is funny, but the punch-lines are simply that some of the characters in the presentation (who are distinct from the "real-world" characters in the show) are dumber than others and slower to figure the case out. This is apparently funny because... I don't know. Misconceptions can be funny, but they need to be constructed in a wittier way than "ha ha ha, you don't get the case" and then proceeding to explain the case. It also doesn't help that it is so random. Sherlock is artificially presenting random characters in an in-universe performance that deals with a case about other random characters who only appear in a single episode. Now, I am the first to admit that I am not the foremost expert in rakugo, but based on my layman knowledge it is usually supposed to be funny. Maybe I am not exactly the target audience here.

The show also features other detectives, but they mostly exist to be Sherlock's foils that lose to him over and over again. And they also exist for character quirks and related jokes, of course. The neat freak detective is obsessed about cleaning and feels insecure when women are around. The former mafia thug detective is all brawn and no brain and is desperate for any attention from women. Etc. Mrs Hudson owns a bar where the detectives hang out. She happens to be a trans woman who acts in a flamboyant, over-the-top manner and sexually harasses people. (The trans characters in the show are usually very stereotypical, and the show seems to assume that they are either inherently funny or weird in some allegedly interesting way.) Watson is mostly a comic relief and exists to make Sherlock look smarter. (I suppose the latter part is loyal to the original novels.) Lestrade is even more of a walking joke and barely appears. Moriarty is a high school kid who is friends with Sherlock and slow to develop. Jack the Ripper is mostly not comic relief, but being a typical evil, brutal serial killer isn't any better. Irene Adler is one of the better characters by being competent but not over-the-top ridiculous, though she is used for generic, predictable fanservice jokes sometimes.

Even generally speaking, so many characters in this act as though they are horny 24/7. See a girl? Instant blush. Speaking with a girl? Awkward, over-the-top reactions with mumbling and arms flailing. Or even better, literally getting a hard on. If you have seen anime or fiction in general, you have probably seen these jokes before, maybe hundreds of times. I don't mind a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes, but not if it means reducing most of the cast into generic comic relief. It is fine to be comedic, but it shouldn't be as lazy as this.

It wouldn't have to be this way. If they wanted to make more of an effort, they could have gone in a number of directions. One idea with potential would be black comedy that involves morally questionable topics. To clarify a bit, there is a difference between applying black comedy and sprinkling unrelated light-hearted comedy among serious events. Kabukichou Sherlock does the latter. It features murders and other crimes that are treated as serious while throwing in unrelated slapstick comedy. I would have preferred deriving laughter from the potentially evil actions themselves. Crimes can be funny, but they have to be committed for a suitable reason and with sufficient build-up. For instance, you could have a comedic sociopath who is doing it for reasons that are at least remotely relatable but still lacks a firm moral compass. Bonus points if he is relatively chill about it. Then you point out that the action is kind of dodgy without actually sounding preachy about it. But here we usually have generic scumbag culprits with thirty seconds of characterization or complete monsters that are portrayed in the most over-the-top disgusting, ugly way imaginable. The rest of the culprits have motives that are flimsy, nonsensical, or unrelatable.

By the way, the show feels like there is a need to repeat over and over again how the eastern part of the city (where the detectives are based) is a city of neon lights, chaos, and endless crimes. A few times would have sufficed. Speaking of the city, there is apparently a Berlin wall between the western and eastern side, and passage through it is tightly regulated. When did we suddenly cross the Iron Curtain? I think we deserve more of an explanation here. This wall thing could actually provide material for jokes if used right, but of course they do not even try. (Or if they did, it is so out of line with their usual approach to comedy that my mind did not register it.)

I guess this show just wasn't meant for me. The jokes don't land or deliver. It gives me the impression that I am not in the target audience at all, and that is probably the case, but the marketing should have been more honest then. I wasn't expecting jaw-dropping mysteries, but I was expecting something with a bit more effort. Even when there is mystery, it falls flat because it is impossible to care about the outcome, the deductions are more like guesses, the constant tone swings ruin the mood, or the culprit is driven by nonsensical motives. They should have called this a slapstick comedy from the start, though it would have still been ruined by the inconsistent tone and the sheer repetitiveness.

Trolled. Hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Jebaited.

If you read the synopsis and thought, "This story is about fighting against monsters in an underground dungeon," then I guess I can't blame you. That was more or less my initial guess as well. While I thought that the events would eventually advance further, I believed that at least the genres, themes, and narrative structure would remain at least somewhat loyal to the idea of a conventional battle gauntlet survival struggle. Then I actually started reading further and quickly found myself wondering "What even is this?"

The initial assumption had been reasonable, given the synopsis. After all, that is what it sounds ... like, and usually the synopsis is a good indicator of what will actually happen. It makes perfect sense for you to assume so because it would almost always be the right call. There are good reasons for this. Authors want to make sure that the audience understands what they are walking into. In the rare case that the story is meant to be unconventional, there are usually clear signs that you should keep an eye out. Then the story is openly marketed as an unconventional experience, for instance as a particularly confusing mystery novel. But not always. Sometimes we walk in completely clueless. How meta, come to think of it.

Returning to the assumption about the synopsis, and you probably saw it coming after my intro, but there is a problem: it isn't what it seems to be. The synopsis is technically not wrong, but it makes you expect a battle gauntlet against monsters in an underground dungeon. While such fighting does in fact take place, it isn't really the main substance here. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. The plot, characters, themes, dialogue, narration, and general tone are all different than what one might expect. Even some of the genres were surprise additions, and this novel sure seems to incorporate many genres. The author must have had a good, long laugh when writing this. All the way to the bank, possibly. You really can't trust anything these days. I suppose you should always stay alert because those pesky authors keep coming up with new trolls or at least remixed versions of the classics, but I argue that I was merely being genre-savvy. Stories like this don't usually happen in isekai light novels. Actually, they don't usually happen in literature, period. My initial guesses would have been accurate in almost every instance. It isn't a bad thing though. I don't mind getting trolled as long as the trolls have been constructed well. It is only welcome that now and then people shake me awake with a fresh take on things.

Strictly speaking, it is not uncommon for novels to deviate from their alleged premises in various ways, but it usually happens in a more conventional manner. You probably know how some novels start off with a decent premise, but the author has no idea how to continue beyond it, so it devolves into random aimless filler or an uninteresting repetition of the same generic plot devices over and over again. By the time you get to volume 10, you are wondering why you keep reading the stretched-out, meandering doorstopper that obviously isn't going anywhere. However, in this case the story deviates from the premise by actually delivering a cohesive plotline. And not just any plot but something a bit different for a change.

Here the plot has strong continuity and a low amount of filler, and it moves along at a steady pace that is neither rushed nor painfully slow. It is worth noting that actual effort went into the transition from the web novel to the light novel. They added scenes, viewpoints, and various details, most of which were a good addition. A few scenes were cut, but for the most parts their replacements better convey the main substance. The dialogue and narration have been beefed up as well. Also, the plot was clearly planned beforehand. The author has set up early elements that deliver their payoff much later, and even many of the small details look like they were carefully placed for a reason. Seemingly trivial lines can turn out relevant in the long run. The decisions made by the characters have actual consequences and they usually can't hand-wave them away. One of the lessons here is that the structure of the plot matters. It really does. Events should not simply happen for the sake of filling pages but to actually play a role in the overall narrative.

It is not all about the plot on its own though. The cast of characters is surprisingly large, and they are very generously given viewpoints. And I really mean that. A volume often contains viewpoints from half a dozen people, and even the minor characters manage to get at least a few pages here and there. Sometimes multiple characters get viewpoints right after each other in the same scenes, and it can be pretty amusing to witness their inner monologue in those cases, especially when their perceptions, personalities, goals, and ideologies are entirely different. They may severely misunderstand each other's intentions or launch thinly-veiled jabs at each other. Place mutually antagonistic characters in the same room and try to hold a meeting, and interesting things may happen.

I like the morally grey characters, scheming, uneasy alliances, and temporary ceasefires for a common goal. The relationships between the characters seem to vary quite a bit, and whether they are good or evil is often pretty unclear and may depend on the situation. Incidentally, the protagonist is not a generic hero by a long shot. She is not an unequivocally altruistic person who helps everyone in need. Instead, she can often be selfish and vindictive as well. She can also be fairly ruthless and anarchistic but isn't too edgy or stoic about it (in terms of internal monologue, at least; how other characters interpret her may differ). Of course, not all the characters are equally interesting. Thankfully, some of them may seem boring or generic at first, but they too often end up playing different roles than initially expected. At the very least, the presence of outright annoying characters is relatively small. Another thing I noticed is that most of the characters do not hold self-defeating "villain speeches" in which they explain their plans. Instead, they keep their cards close to the chest. It is for them to know and for you to find out.

Overused RPG and isekai tropes and literary tropes in general are pointed out on occasion, but rather than simply make a note of their existence, this time it carries more weight because the story diverges from them more clearly than most. Instead of "here is the trope, but we'll adhere to it anyway" we have "here is the trope and we are doing something else instead." The in-universe technical explanations can get unnecessarily lengthy sometimes, but the characters at least tend to comment on them in witty ways, and they are usually sufficiently relevant for the plot.

All in all, a breath of fresh air that caught me by surprise in many ways. Well played, well played.

Nothing brightens my day like a nuclear blast.

Well, actually, it isn't the blast itself. Simply adding nuclear bombs does not make something good, at least unless you happen to be AI Gandhi in Civilization. For the rest of us, it is about how they are used. Death is easy, interesting conflict is hard. You could demonstrate endless slaughter on-screen and still have a boring show on your hands. And the interesting part need not be about the person who launched the missiles in the first place.

Thematically, we have the good old utilitarian moral dilemma. You know what I'm talking about: Would you actively sacrifice ... people to potentially save even more? While not a very original idea, it was implemented in a plausible and impactful way. It might warm a philosopher's heart at least a little bit.

That said, the biggest payoff for the event will take place... you guessed it, in the next set of episodes, so make sure you are comfortably seated because you will have to wait even longer. The story in this is so long that even the swift pacing isn't enough to deal with much of it here. Actually, one might argue that the plot is moving too fast already, and I think they would have a point. In this set of episodes, it is easy to notice a few scenes that were shortened compared to the OVA and a few scenes that were prolonged or added altogether (which were in the original novel but not the OVA). The original novel is still the best option overall, by the way. Aside from the obvious events, there is some interesting narration that couldn't plausibly be fit into the adaptations.

The other main storyline is also interesting thematically. There is a lot you can do with people who try to correct political corruption and social flaws with drastic measures. Roads paved with good intentions and all that. What is the worst thing that could happen? While not exactly original as a general concept, it is rare to see it play out in a relatively modern setting and with political manifestos like these. It is also rare to witness the characters actually debate the issue and the not-so-cheerful outcomes that follow. That said, time constraints are a problem here as well. If I was the author, I would spend many more pages (and episodes) in these parts, but I suppose I will have to take what I can.

Here we have the series staple of "democracy is broken," quite justifiably, judging by the events. While not terribly rare as a concept, usually fiction does not focus on the point quite so much or debate it at such great length. Broken democracy seems pretty difficult to fix though because every attempt also seems to result in disaster, as demonstrated on-screen. It is kind of ominous, really. If you follow politics even occasionally, you can notice that the idea of broken democracy is as timely as ever.

Some of the side characters are not portrayed in the best way possible. Braunschweig is supposed to be incompetent, but he goes a bit overboard. The same with a few of the other nobles. Falk is still too crazy, but he thankfully doesn't waste a lot of time here. Most of this was in the source material too, so we can't blame the adaptation crew for it. Meanwhile, some characters who might have seemed irrelevant suddenly play a bigger role, and some characters get to take the most of their limited screentime. Merkatz always seems to leave an impact in these parts.

Baghdash only gets about four minutes (actually, that is a decent amount), but we learn his always timely wisdom of "A man's principles are his means of staying alive. If they get in the way of staying alive, one need only get rid of them." Actually, that might warm a philosopher's heart too. It warms my heart, at least.

Is there some kind of epidemic of butchering isekai source material going on? Well, here's another example.

So here's the idea they came up with: let's take the light novel and butcher it into an unrecognizable form. Now, I don't usually endorse the "They Changed It, Now It Sucks" line of thought. I don't demand them to follow the novel to the letter, and change by itself might not be a bad thing if the changes were positive. However, that is not the case. Instead, most of the changes were terrible, with only a few exceptions.

First things first: they skip much of the protagonist's backstory and ... the early events. Yes, you read that right. Why bother showing the backstory when you can just move on and not have a clue about past events? They barely get a mention early on, and the audience will have to keep waiting for short flashbacks. I suppose it would be possible to improve the pacing of the early parts of the novel, but this is not the way to do it. I also don't mind non-linear narration, but it doesn't serve a purpose here. Instead, they go straight for the comedy, some of it exclusive to the anime. Here is the thing though: Many of the jokes works better when you spend more time developing the characters. Why? Because they are heavily based on their personalities and backgrounds. With so much of it skipped, we don't really know the people on-screen all that well.

And there are additional problems with the comedy itself. For instance, there is now also an anime-exclusive villain who only exists to be comically evil. And by comically evil, I mean the "I'm evil in a generic way but also wacky, so it's alright" variety, not the actually funny kind. On top of everything else, she is for all intents and purposes a pedophile who kidnaps young girls to set up a harem to surround her (she literally uses the word “harem,” by the way). Related to this, there were even a few awkward jokes about the idea of children being sexually assaulted, one of them depicted with an athletic jump onto a bed. My favorite. This is allegedly funny (the show thinks so). She doesn't openly endorse it, but at that point there is barely any difference. Now, doing evil things can be funny, but there should be some at least remotely relatable motives to them and a more interesting personality to match. I also find it more clichéd than anything. If they want to establish a character as evil in anime, kidnapping young girls with sexual intentions or undertones is the go-to solution.

What else does she have?
An obviously evil smirk? Check.
A bunch of generic evil henchmen? Check.
Pointlessly explaining her evil plans? Check.

There you go. The standard "joke" antagonist for your enjoyment but not actually amusing, of course. This is not funny comedic sociopathy, this is being a clichéd evil villain, no matter how wacky they are. I look forward to more of these new random nobodies.

Speaking of which, the design choices of the bandits and various thugs are pretty bad. I assume they were going for parody by making them look evil in an incredibly generic way (evil smirk, very ugly, etc.), but the end result is almost indistinguishable from what they are trying to parody. It is difficult to parody generic evil villains by making them even more generic evil villains because the original idea (the target of the parody) was already close to the extreme.

The design of the nanomachines has been completely overhauled, and now they look like some kind of cat-like animal spirit with the letter 'N' on his forehead. This is obviously some kind of cheap ratings grab. Not to mention, they act as a single entity, his manner of speaking has been changed, and he is now also providing exposition for some reason. And then there are the other side characters who were cut or replaced with generic evil henchmen. Many of them didn't get sufficient development in the novel, but they were usually better than their replacements. Rest in peace. There was one good addition: that one guy in the graduation match running away without fighting. I give credit where credit is due.

Along with the characters, many events are skipped or browsed through at breakneck speed, along with most of the introspection by the characters. To some extent, it is understandable because of the difference between anime and novel formats and limitations in episode count, but this is relatively rushed even for an adaptation. If you liked the scientific content, most of that has been skipped as well. The parts that remained are narrated more awkwardly. Also have fun with additional out-of-place fanservice. The novel had some boob jokes, yes, but now they are more frequent, in more out-of-place scenes, and more awkward thanks to the visual design.

Furthermore, the jokes are often explained too much. While this also happens in the novel, the problem is greater here, mostly because of visual decisions that result in over-reactions to every joke. I got the punch-line on my own, thank you very much. No need to spell it out. Some of the better jokes are yet to appear, so maybe there is some hope, but they might find a way to ruin them too. Wouldn't surprise me at this point.

[Spoiler Warning]

How to write a generic over-the-top evil villain: have them kidnap a young girl and try to rape and torture her in the most awkward manner imaginable.

That is what the local feudal lord does here. The scene is presented with all the glorious fanservice involved. (Disclaimer: Not really all that glorious, to be honest. I'd rather recommend looking away from the screen.) Of course, he always wears an obviously evil smile. How else would the audience know that he is evil? They also make him look as unattractive as possible to really drive the point home in case someone slept through most of ... the episode and missed it. They might as well just have him say "Ha ha ha, I'm evil" and save us some time.

These over-the-top evil nobles are also obviously racist, scoff at the poor peasants, steal their hard-earned money to the point of starvation, and send their thugs to loot, kidnap, and murder the populace. They also enslave cute children because why not? Got to earn their evil credentials. With villains like this, the protagonists adopt the role of generic heroes who solve all these problems. They feed the hungry, free a slave, rescue the kidnapped girl, etc. They also build an outdoor bath because generic fanservice is a top priority. On top of everything, the protagonists try to avoid killing the obviously evil villains if at all possible. Sure, let them live. Makes total sense. Many of the enemy foot soldiers are not granted the same courtesy though.

One of the main points of the premise is that these kids are in high school, yet they are the world's most skilled individuals on each field. So instead of one overpowered isekai protagonist, we have seven. However, the difference to the norm is that they were already overpowered on Earth. Think Danganronpa but on steroids. Yes, you read that right. Danganronpa apparently isn't over-the-top enough with its unrealistic powers, so move aside. Here are the truly overpowered high schoolers. The first episode opens up with an awkward presentation of our protagonists and their special abilities in a list-like fashion. They are declared the best in the world, not that we see much of their actions on Earth. We are told of it, not shown. Also, in Danganronpa the abilities are often (though not always) treated as over-glorified hobbies, kind of a joke. Here I am not so sure.

The "main" protagonist is the Prime Minister of Japan. Yes, you read that right as well. This kid is the prime minister while still in high school. He was elected in a direct election... somehow. That's not how the job of prime minister works. He is also skilled at using guns and martial arts for some reason. I thought each character was supposed to have one special ability. If they are also strangely good at random other things, it ruins the point. I guess I don't mind, but why establish their special abilities then?

What are his super-politician powers about anyway? What is a genius politician like? I suppose a person who can best increase his popularity among the public, organize his allies, and choose the correct strategy for future elections. Is he like that? Yes and no. He is indeed portrayed as the team's leader and strategist, and at one point he presents the idea of negotiation instead of brute force. However, while he does not commit outrageous mistakes, he doesn't put together any particularly interesting strategies either. Strategizing for this group is relatively easy anyway because they are so overpowered that they can brute force through most problems. He also delivers a few small speeches in which he stands up for the people, but this is an incredibly low bar when the villains are outrageously evil.

To be fair, he does not manage to gather a large harem, so he evades the fate of the most outrageous harem leads. Still, a few girls seem to love him, and we get to see some deep mouth-to-mouth action at least. (No, it didn't look that great. Looking away from the screen wouldn't hurt here either.)

The inventor seems to focus on robotics and related machinery, as well as AI, but if her intelligence is "several centuries ahead of her time," I would expect more impressive things, actually. She can also deploy more conventional technology from Earth, which is pretty much enough to curb-stomp the medieval thugs. She conveniently brought her nuclear mini-reactor along, and it survived a plane crash too. Also, she has an AI that doubles as a bear mascot for the group and a source of bear puns. Un-bear-able! (Yeah, I didn't find that funny either. Sorry.)

The businessman seems competent enough, even though not quite as cunning as hyped. He isn't too annoying either. Despite still being heroic, he is at least snarky on occasion. Having a hand in 30 % of all monetary transactions on Earth is ridiculous though. I hope they weren't trying to be serious with that one, but you can never quite be sure.

The magician can do all kinds of miscellaneous things like fly around, detach his head, and teleport people. How? I don't know. I guess you don't even need magic (the actual fantasy variant, not magic tricks) in another world if you have someone like him.

The journalist is a ninja who can glide in the air and do other, less specific things. It is great for information gathering, but I have no idea about the quality of her articles, if she ever wrote them. Should have simply called her the best ninja instead.

The doctor can cheat death... somehow. She seems to be doing fairly normal medicine but far more effectively for vague and unspecified reasons.

The swordswoman can easily dispatch a giant monster and any number of enemy troops. She is allegedly capable of deflecting bullets in midair. Probably the most standard ability of all seven as far as anime is concerned.

I am confident that this league of heroes can curb-stomp any other generic villains that head their way and save the world once again. Power to the people! They kind of need it when the local nobles are as evil as this. I would have liked to say that maybe we can derive some cheap laughs out of watching this debacle, but some of the scenes were presented in such an off-putting way that even that might be difficult.

This movie (or rather the four episodes that constitute it because that is the format I was watching) sets the stage for future events, but most of the payoff will have to wait until future instalments, such as the next two movies. This obviously applies to the plot, with the political schemes and such, but also to the thematic elements like the political philosophy. It is playing the long game, the very long game.

That said, the weak points of democracy and its slide onto a dark path are still very visible here. It is also a prologue of how heavy-handed attempts to fix it ... may result in even worse consequences. Those who fanatically believe in their own righteousness may end up committing deeds that betray their alleged values. The real-world relevance is obvious enough, and there is little attempt to hide it.

There are small differences to the OVA, but the main substance is more or less the same. True, some plot points are dealt with fairly quickly, but I refreshed my memory by re-watching the corresponding episodes, and the differences seemed pretty minor. Actually, the original novel also skims through some scenes pretty quickly in these parts, so it is a problem for all of them, not just this incarnation of the story. They all rush through some details, very often the same ones. There is also a need for the plot to move on though, so there are limits to how much can be done. Sitting here for decades would be problematic too.

The characters are their own individual people with distinct personalities, and it shows. I like that even Arthur Lynch, while portrayed as cowardly, receives just enough humanity to make him relatable to a degree. And that is really one of the strong points of the whole series: that not everything has to be clear-cut, black-and-white good vs evil. Still, it deserves to be said that some of the morally dodgier characters tend to have more cunning-looking portraits, for instance in the ending. In the case of Rubinsky, it kind of suits him though. Some characters are recruited suspiciously easily by other factions even though they were fighting just a moment ago. You'd think people would be more cautious. Of course, if you are familiar with this series, you also know that these recruitment events won't always pay off, so it is not as though it always works. As always, with a cast the size of a phone book, not everyone can get enough screen-time, but many of them will eventually.

"2D" space war tactics of the day: Why would you try to siege the enemy fleet by setting a circular formation around them? Why wouldn't the enemy simply turn their ships up or down to leave? To be fair, a sharp turn upwards or downwards would expose their weaker sides to enemy fire from all directions. In previous battles, this has been shown to be a bad idea. Also, your main guns would point in a direction without enemy ships, so you wouldn't be able to use them. Keeping that in mind, for similar reasons the enemy ships would be reluctant to do sudden turns to the sides either, so there is no need for a complete circle. A loose semicircle should suffice, and they use them now and then in the series, so why not here? Come to think of it, I wonder if there would be any way to redesign the ships to better respond to attacks from all sides, but there might be some in-universe technical limitations.

The visual production budget must have been ‒ if not galaxy-sized ‒ at least pretty decent for this one. This also includes the CGI, which is thankfully not on the cheaper side. Some of the backgrounds look pretty nice. For instance, I like Heinessen at night, and they show enough background characters so that it doesn't look barren. The reflective surface of Iserlohn also makes a brief appearance again. In general, the locations look relatively realistic but still with enough character not to make them overly bland.

The characters look pretty detailed and distinct, and it looks like some effort has gone into their designs. The ending also goes out of its way to display the large number of characters, just like in season 1. They went to the trouble of drawing a distinct look for so many, so might as well use them, right? The voice acting is on point. Apparently, some people think that Hilda's voice actor does not fit the role, but I didn't find her voice particularly annoying.

For a patient viewer, the movie delivers a steady package that is proceeding on rails. The pieces are there, the foreshadowing is there. The political philosophy is there, though it also takes its time to build up alongside the plot. There is very little outright filler. Events seem to happen for a reason. It is hard to even identify any major side-paths from the main plot and the main substance. The movie does not commit any outrageous mistakes or resort to the cheapest forms of sensationalism. The subdued approach can itself be divisive among the audience though.

Arifureta is a work of art. Let me present a few examples:

- skipping hundreds of pages of source material in a few seconds,
- skipping important character development,
- skipping the protagonist's entire backstory,
- skipping the "summoned into another world" event in the first place,
- harem power fantasy with girls falling for him immediately,
- harem antics that take up most of the screen time,
- an edgelord protagonist who still acts as a hero and saves his waifus and the local towns,
- trivially steam-rolling any threat with his OP abilities and only minor planning,
... - generic edgy dialogue with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face,
- generic and forgettable villains who get maybe a few minutes of screen time,
- other side characters in the same situation,
- spending too much time on generic fights against random monsters, and
- very low visual production standards.

That's right; Arifureta ticks all the boxes.

You might think that the parts about skipping hundreds of pages in a few seconds, the protagonist's backstory, and the "summoned into another world" event are an exaggeration. They are not. When they adapted this from the light novels, that is what they decided to go with. Hajime was a different kind of person before turning edgy, but they only portray it on-screen for a few seconds in short flashbacks. These flashbacks also quickly mention that the class of high schoolers was summoned to another world, which you'd think would warrant more attention. So there are a hundred pages down the drain. There are also later points when even longer sections of the novel are condensed into a few seconds in an awkward summary. A few hundred pages? Skipped just like that. Aside from these obvious parts, many small pieces of character development also disappear off somewhere. Don't worry though. Much of the harem content and fanservice still made it, and some lengthy boss fights against random monsters go on for quite a while.

In fact, I believe that this anime is on to something. Who needs the protagonist's backstory anyway? The audience doesn't need to know who he is or how he ended up in the situation he is in. Who needs any bare minimum of world-building? Who needs characters expressing their personalities? What truly matters is cute waifus and edgy one-liners. Narrative cohesion? Plot? Characters? Interesting content? Understanding what is happening on-screen? Those are for pretentious elitists, smug critics, and people who read the source material beforehand.

I did actually read some of the light novel, and it has some serious problems too, most of which remain in the adaptation as well. First of all, even the premise is misleading, and not in a good way. You might think that Hajime is a ruthless, morally compromised anti-hero, but this isn't entirely true. He sometimes acts in an edgy manner, but it is mostly superficial. In practice, he very consistently ends up playing the role of the knight in shining armor who saves his waifus from generic villains. And his harem is recruiting ever more waifus, so this keeps him very busy. Sometimes he ends up helping random civilians too, which earns him the favor of... you guessed it, even more waifus. What Hajime lacks in actual moral flaws, he makes up in sheer edginess. His mannerisms, fighting style, choice of words, and attire all scream edge. The black suit, the eyepatch, the mechanical arm, the occasional twisted smirk on his face. His arsenal of guns, grenades, a motorcycle, etc. This is the most superficial way of being edgy. The anime isn't even trying to hide it, sometimes outright calling him an edgelord. It doesn't help enough though. Rather than actually write Hajime differently, they made him a generic heroic harem lead and tried to cover it up with superficial changes.

Hajime does propose some morally dodgy things on occasion, but he will backpedal in a few seconds or the people around him will easily talk him out of it. More than anything, he seems to behave strangely. He talks to people in an edgy way and is often rude but then saves them anyway. A cunning, pragmatically oriented ruthless person would do the opposite: they would sweet-talk people into working for them and only backstab them at the perfect opportunity. Hajime takes the worst of both worlds as far as his personal gain is concerned even though personal gain is what he often claims to be after. Also, his edgy lines are not even very imaginative. For instance, he might say in very simple words that he kills his enemies or doesn't care about other people. He has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face. I don't mind characters being a bit edgy. In fact, I prefer anime on the edgy side if the alternative is being too bright and cheerful. There is a right and wrong way to do it though, and I'd prefer if they expressed their edge with a bit more nuance.

Hajime may deliver some edgy lines and act grumpy, but you can always count on him to save the day. It is superficial. There is a difference between being ruthless and being edgy. I give Hajime some credit for being willing to kill his obvious enemies, and I suppose that alone makes him more ruthless than many other protagonists, but that is as far as it goes. He still generally goes around helping people and coming to their rescue at the last second. True, he weighs his personal gain as well, but he still usually ends up helping for only a moderate reward. This is aided by convenient circumstances. Hajime is routinely placed in situations in which helping other people is rewarded. This is made easier by the fact that he quickly becomes overpowered to the point that none of his opponents can touch him, so there is little risk involved. At worst, he has to spend a bit of ammo. Moral dilemmas? Who needs those? Generic villains routinely arrive to pick a fight with him and often go out of their way to threaten his waifus, so what else would a harem lead do? There you go, interests neatly in alignment and yet another innocent town saved. Even better, he rescues children abducted by evil-looking criminals. Even when it is not beneficial for him personally, Hajime sometimes manages to convince himself to act altruistically for some reason. Almost like his earlier character development never happened. You know, the development much of which was skipped anyway. Hey, look, it almost makes sense now.

As noted above, Hajime gathers a harem of girls who want to sleep with him. A real shocker there. An isekai with a harem? Who would have thought? The anime isn't trying to hide this either and the light novel even less, explicitly calling it a harem. Thankfully, Hajime isn't too dense, so he is also aware of the affections aimed at him. I guess I'll give him credit for that too, but it still doesn't make the harem antics different enough to be interesting. You can probably guess how this works. Hajime helps a girl like a knight in shining armor or otherwise demonstrates his heroics while delivering a few edgy lines with maybe a touch of sweetness mixed in. The girl falls for him on the spot. Then repeat the process for the next girl. No buildup necessary, just join the harem right after your introduction and immediately try to get into Hajime's pants. This approach to romance is truly touching and tugs my heartstrings.

Hajime does actually sleep with some of them, so it isn't entirely left at the level of tease. (Of course, he does not do it on-screen, so don't get your hopes up if that's why you're watching.) Good for him, I guess, but it still doesn't make the harem interactions interesting enough. The harem antics really bog down the show because almost all the dialogue revolves around them. The personalities and life goals of the girls are almost entirely defined by their love for Hajime, and they barely speak about anything else. As always, the true battle is not the action scenes but the waifus fighting over Hajime's affection, reducing him to a fairly typical harem lead who awkwardly stands there as the girls bicker and argue. He is aware of the situation and may deliver a few edgy lines about it, but mostly he sits back and listens. So much of the dialogue in the entire show focuses on arguing over who can gain access to Hajime's pants that it is easy to forget that other topics ever existed. Some of the harem members manage to find enough common ground to share Hajime's love, not that it helps the dialogue.

Many of the side characters receive outrageously scarce screen time to the point that we barely know them. Hajime has quite a few classmates who were summoned with him to this world, but only a few of them receive any kind of attention and even then it mostly revolves around their relationships with him. Good luck remembering more than a few of them. This also applies to many of the locals, including the antagonists. The demon generals only manage to show up briefly, and the evil gods don't even bother to appear in person. I wouldn't blame anyone for forgetting that they exist. Their motives are so poorly fleshed out that they are reduced to generic villains.

Some of the other villains have slightly more of a presence but only slightly, like maybe three minutes instead of one. The light novel was already stingy on the screen time allocated to villains, but the anime is moving at such a breakneck pace that it's a "blink and you'll miss it" situation. The motives of these people can be described as crazy people doing crazy things because the author couldn't come up with anything compelling. Also, the villains tend to wear obviously evil smiles, a few tiers more evil than Hajime's edgy smirk. Why? So that the audience knows that they are villains, duh. How else would they figure it out? By the way, they don't get proper backstories to flesh out their motivation either.

Now that we have dealt with the good (?) and the bad, it is time for the ugly. There is the matter of low-quality visuals, whether it is the lack of detail or CGI. For starters, when it comes to the characters, there is often a distinct lack of detail especially for their faces. This is especially true of some side characters. The background visuals vary between bad and decent. Some of the landscape didn't look too terrible, though still not great or anything, but even then it looked blurry sometimes. Of course, there is also a decent amount of in-your-face fanservice, but that almost goes without saying. Then there is the infamous CGI. I don't usually mind CGI, even its less impressive iterations, but this time even I have to admit that it looks cheap. It ranges between "that stands out in an odd way" and "I don't want to look at the screen anymore." Were they operating on a shoestring budget? Apparently, the anime initially got postponed because of horrendously low quality and another studio ended up working on it, so this version is allegedly the better one.

It is kind of poetic, actually. A man with no backstory fights against people with no backstory for reasons that are poorly established while the visuals make you want to look away anyway.

"It's the American dream, you know!"

If a gate opened to a magical fantasy land, which would be the likely outcome?

A) You are summoned as a hero and must defeat Generic Evil Overlord #21,576 with the help of your newly found godlike powers and a harem of people desperate for your love and affection.

B) The people from both sides engage in awkward coexistence and cultural exchange, featuring racism, guns, pornography, drugs, theft, prostitution, humanoid trafficking, terrorism, rampant consumerism, and cats.

By the very nature of their premises, cultural commentary and social issues should be natural topics for isekai series. After all, isekai is supposed to be about ... travelling to other worlds, and the obvious thing to do would be gawking at the different cultures like a confused tourist. However, very often these issues are neglected almost entirely, with series instead choosing to focus on arbitrary godlike superpowers and harems the size of a phone book. This begs the question: why bother with the whole "transported to another world" setup in the first place if all you are doing is the same old story of harem antics and generic villains? Even though it has its faults as well and is far from perfect, Cop Craft at least manages to avoid that fate.

In this case, I suppose "reverse isekai" is more accurate because the story takes place on good old Earth. Kei and Tilarna, who are from different worlds, team up to form a cop duo who fight crime in a city populated by both Semanians and humans (or the Doreany, as called by the Semanians). The city is on an island in the Pacific that was originally Semanian soil and was transported to Earth by a gate that happened to open between the planets.

I wouldn't mind seeing reverse isekai more often because it is refreshing to have Earth as the setting once in a while. This show seems to agree because it goes ham on Earth culture. The dialogue showcases cultural references from Earth and can often be witty. It is worth noting that both species consist of individuals with clearly different personalities and interests. The Semanians are definitely not a Planet of the Hats, a species with a single defining feature shared by almost all members. They are simply individual people, just like humans. Many of the Semanians have adapted to life on Earth remarkably well. If it wasn't for their slightly different appearance, I would often have a hard time telling them apart from humans. Tilarna, who is a noble and only recently arrived, initially seems out of touch with not only humans but many other Semanians as well.

Another pop quiz. If visitors from another planet arrived on Earth, what would they be after:

A) natural resources,
B) humans as manual slave labor, or
C) porn magazines.

If your answer was C), congrats. Apparently, even the boring, low-quality ones are worth a fortune in a fantasy world that has almost no photos. Incidentally, the shops on Earth are allegedly too well stocked in general, making it difficult to choose items.

"Do you know the name of Earth's God? 'Money.' Simplest thing in the world, right? I've converted to its religion, too."
A Semanian big-time criminal says so.

Given that the protagonists are in the police, particular attention is given to due process. There are rights and obligations that protect citizens from arbitrary police action but also make it more difficult to convict criminals, even when it is obvious that they are guilty. Tilarna, the alleged knight of justice, criticizes this pretty frequently. "Is this the justice of your world?" and so on. Search warrants? What are those? Beating up suspects? Just another day at the office.

Racial tensions are fairly often portrayed in isekai series, but this time they are more eerily similar to our current political discourse. A hard-right politician, Tourte, has a central message of "live by human rules or go home" and he wants to deport Semanian criminals (after revoking their citizenship, I suppose) in large numbers because many of them are involved in crime. One of his ads is saying "San Teresa first," and his supporters are holding signs of "ET, go home." Another character argues that the Semanians are "invading" Earth without even knowing it themselves simply by staying here. Meanwhile, calling the Semanians "aliens" is considered racist in some circles. We also get the "all the options on the ballot are terrible" view on democracy because the other candidates have other problems.

However, some of the attempts at ethical and political arguments are left unfinished. For instance, at one point Tilarna is arguing with Tourte and saying that the island was originally Semanian soil, while Tourte argues that it is now on Earth, so it belongs to humans. A more effective argument against Tourte would be that it is up to chance who is born where and thus which people are deported. It would force Tourte to argue harder, but Tilarna does not present it. There is also a lot of untapped potential when it comes to the social issues here, and I feel like the screentime could have been used a bit more effectively to highlight them in a more varied way. The ending also tries to downplay how volatile the political situation is, which seems like an unjustified 180-degree turn from some of the previous episodes.

The show also has other problems. One thing I'd prefer is a more cohesive plot. Some of the cases are not directly linked to the main plot. There is still some thematic cohesion and connected details, but tying the different cases together more strongly would definitely be a good idea. I can barely remember some of the one-episode antagonists. The worst offender by far is a sequence of 1.5 episodes (episode 8 and a part of 9) that focuses on generic slapstick comedy and some particularly off-putting fanservice scenes related to a particular scifi plot device and a cat. It is based on a freak accident and is dragged on for far too long. It contributes basically nothing to the main plot or the themes either. This part felt so out of place that I feel like I have to specifically mention it. Fanservice is far from rare in anime, but this was far more awkward than usually.

Kei and Tilarna often have good banter going on about Earth culture and related topics. Their chemistry is pretty solid and also varied enough, though Tilarna's excessive Tsundere side can be hit-or-miss in some scenes. Some of the side characters such as the other cops and the informant guy also get some witty lines, but many of them are still starved for screentime. Meanwhile, the main villain gets barely any screentime or development and is left at a somewhat generic level. If you forgot that he existed and got an "oh right, that guy" moment near the end, I won't blame you. The side villains somehow get even less, and I can't even remember their names.

Additional world-building wouldn't hurt, for Earth but especially for the Semanian planet. Could we at least step on Semanian soil (not including the island) a few times and see first-hand how they live? It is not as though isekai must take place in only one world. We learn some aspects of Semanian society by second-hand testimony, but that is no substitute for witnessing the place for ourselves. Apparently, there was initially a war between the two sides before they could reach an agreement on the land, but the war is only mentioned in passing.


The opening song is called "Paradise City" with pretty catchy music. The video features a superficially cheerful city full of neon lights, but it quickly becomes obvious that it is full of gunfights, people armed with guns in general, and also car chases, explosions, etc. A true paradise, alright. This is the kind of naming I would use too: sarcasm.

The ending song, "Connected," has Tilarna singing while the video highlights the mixed, blurred culture that has been born out of the coexistence of the two species. In this instance, some of the artwork is pretty great, such as some backgrounds of the city and the rain effects.

The stylistic choices are a mixed bag. I like some of them. San Teresa looks like a fairly typical large city on Earth: not very posh but not a total slum either, sometimes with additional neon lights. It showcases both the prettier and uglier parts of life on Earth. Notably, the cars look old-school and a bit of thought must have gone into their designs. On the other hand, there is occasionally awkward-looking fanservice that does not quite fit in the situation. Usually it is within tolerable bounds, but the filler episode I mentioned is a serious offender, and I am not saying so lightly.

What stands out is that the quality of animation for the series overall is clearly lacking. Aside from lazy-looking motion sometimes, it sometimes get so bad that the characters are speaking with a still frame on-screen. No mouths moving or anything. Some action scenes also end up looking like a series of still slides, kind of a PowerPoint presentation. I can only guess that the studio must have been running on a shoestring budget, forced to cut corners whenever even remotely possible.


The setting has great potential. They should simply focus even more on its strengths. Do more world-building, visit the other planet as well, showcase the different cultural aspects more. Don't try to brush aside a tense political situation that you hyped up just before. Have the main villain actually appear onscreen now and then. Avoid PowerPoint slideshows. And drop the worst of the filler and the most off-putting fanservice, of course. I really wanted to like this show more because the setting is great and the dialogue is witty sometimes, but then I remember some of the questionable parts, and my heart sinks.

I wish they were allowed to build a McDonald's on the Semanian planet. I think it would do well.