Arifureta's beginning is terrible, there's no way to sugarcoat it; the first episode is so utterly cringe-worthy I really don't have any explanation other than maybe it was a discarded pilot that was accidentally cast instead of the real version. The next 3-5 episodes are also pretty bad, although they become progressively less so as the world fills out, mechanics and rules are introduced, and the world begins to take shape.
At episode six, the MC and his ever-growing harem emerge from the labyrinth and the story really explodes in terms of scope--so much so that it's like a different series entirely. I absolutely loathe flashbacks and feel they are a mechanic that lazy, uninspired, and just *bad* writers fall back on when they can't be bothered to detail their creations...but the first half of the Arifureta is so awful they probably should have begun on episode six and just flashbacked the first five. Yeah...they're that terrible.
I won't blab on about the story, because in all reality it's the same, regular isekai harem OP MC anime plot progression that's been done a dozen times already in the last four or five years. But I will never lose the conviction that being generic is fine as long as it's done very well, and it's done very well indeed here.
What really makes this such a great investment, in my opinion, is that the MC is absolutely not a little bitch. He doesn't have a high-pitched, effeminate voice. He doesn't avoid kissing or touching women. He's not obsessed revenge. Best of all: he kills his enemies. There's no ambiguity about it, he absolutely annihilates the people in his way, usually by shooting them in the face with his it's-totally-six-shots-guys revolver. I can't even estimate how many series I've seen where the MC forgives and forgets through the power of friendship magic how terrible people are. Nope, not here. This guy will blow their heads clean off. Nice.
I'm an adult. I like adult reasoning. Adults don't act like children, particularly in live-or-die situations. Sadly that's almost never shown in anime, because the vast majority is for children. But this one isn't. This protagonist emulates actual, adult logic in extreme problem solving. Again, nice.
Besides the first half of the show being just...yeah, the music throughout the whole show is wrong. Battle scenes are accompanied by some kind of smooth jazz/soft rock that sounds some guys at a 3am jam session in a sax bar when everyone is totally hammered and can't hear. It makes no sense. I can't explain why no one thought "hey, this music sucks really bad and I should tell them to stop." Oh well. Also, as a word of warning, the story is not complete, but in this case the second season is already in production so that's fine. There isn't really a "big bad" antagonist in a real sense so even if the second season gets canned the story itself isn't bogged down with a bad cliffhanger.
Most people gave up before the halfway point. If you can make it there and still have the willpower to go forward, I promise you'll enjoy Arifureta.
