Warning! Spoiler alert! *sigh* Do you even care?
Story
The premise was solid enough: after failling into a deep labyrinth, Hajiime becomes a badass adventurer and kills anyone who stands in his way to return home. Along his journey, he meets a group of friends that encourage his better qualities and prevent him from going off the deep end and becoming a cynical and bitter loner. Sadly, the show doesn't fully commit to that premise and instead goes on to fulfill every cliché associated with light novel anime. We've got an OP protagonist, a harem full of ladies that worship the ground the protagonist walks on and a bunch of worthless villains that exist only to be killed by the protagonist.
The beginning was promising enough and the relationship between Hajime and Yue seemed to be the show's emotional core, but once Arifureta passes the halfway mark, it falls apart and all of a sudden, Arifureta becomes obsessed with fulfilling light novel clichés. The comedy/drama balance is all over the place, with bloody carnage in one scene and happy-go-lucky comedy in the next. I've never seen such tonal dissonance since Taboo-Tattoo. Arifureta suffers from a serious identity crisis: it doesn't know whether it wants to be a straightforward power fantasy for its audience or a deconstruction of that. For the first half of the show, it seemed to be the latter; what with Hajime suffering horrible injuries and only surviving by the skin of his teeth; but by the second half, Hajime is easily conquering any challenge he comes across and his enemies cannot even touch him.
The end result is a show that tries to find a middle ground between fans of traditional light novel anime and fans of anime that deconstruct light novel tropes and conventions and ends up pushiing both away. It's too dark and gritty for fans of the former genre and too light-hearted and soft for fans of the latter. (3/10)
Characters
Even anime of the isekai genre needs characters viewers can care about and, unfortunately, Arifureta fails to deliver that. I don't know how am I supposed to feel about Hajime. Am I supposed to agree with his newfound cynicism or hope that he can regain some of his old idealism? The show goes back and forth on the person Hajime is supposed to be. One moment, he says that he won't lay a finger to help his former classmates, the next, he is risking life and limb to save them. One moment, he says he only cares about saving Yue; the next he couldn't care less if other women join his group. He says that he couldn't care less about what happens to anyone outside his circle of new friends, but those friends claim that Hajime is much nicer than he lets on. By the end of the day, we've got a protagonist that behaves strictly out of plot convenience rather than any consistent characterization.
Yue seemed like an interesting character in the beginning of the show. She was the first person Hajime came to care for after he got lost in the beginning. Unfortunately, whatever depth she had is quickly replaced by her obsession with being Hajime's wife. The rest of Hajime's harem are hardly any better. We've got a ditzy bunny girl, a masochistic dragon woman, a mermaid girl that, for now, only sees him as a father figure, and Kaori. She seems like the most normal person of the group and her resolve after losing Hajime does give her a bit of depth, but when she joins Hajime's personal cheerleading squad, she becomes flat and one-dimensional. Seriously, all these girls talk about is about how awesome Hajime is and how badly they want to bear his children. (3/10)
Art
The visual quality of Arifureta is a disaster. Everything on Arifureta looks cheap, lazy and done on a deadline. The character designs look... decent, but everything else is nothing short of atrocious. The fight scenes look awful, the CGI is laughable and dear Lord in Heaven, what is that horrible outfit Hajime is wearing? He looks like Fugil Arcadia! While I understand the animators have a limited budget to work with and can work themselves to an unhealthy degree to try to work within those confines, it feels like the show could have benefited from more time and/or a greater budget to help do it justice—otherwise, why tackle an action-heavy series at all? (2/10)
Sound
If there's one thing I liked about Arifureta is the opener and the vocal performances. The opener was amazing, I think it was the best thing about this show. Matt Shipman as Hajime was just… alright, but Tia Ballard did an excellent job as Yue. I know that she's often typecast as little girls, but let's face it, she wouldn't be if she wasn't good at it. I think the best performance of the show was delivered by Morgan Garrett. She did a fine job, considering the kind of character she was hired to voice. She deserves a huge paycheck because of this. (7/10)
Overall
Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a parallel reality where Arifureta is a good show that properly explores its themes and develops its characters in a natural and believable manner. Sadly, we don't live in it. I don't think any discussion for the worst anime of 2019 would be complete without bringing up Arifureta. What makes Arifureta's failure even more painful is that it could have been a good show, but it squandered its potential because of the aformentioned identity crisis and its obsession with fulfilling light novel clichés. How the heck did this show get a second season!? Maybe that second season will correct the flaws of the first, but I'm not sure. If you liked Arifureta, that's perfectly fine, more power to you, don't let me rain on your parade, but I didn't like it, plain and simple. (3/10)
