I can't believe my eyes to tell you that authors will keep trying to hem the exact same premises that does too similar to other works, with the only difference being that of how fast the progression will take that affects the enjoyability as a whole. Such is the case for novelist Rokujuuyon Okazawa's Kaiko sareta Ankoku Heishi (30-dai) no Slow na Second Life a.k.a Chillin' in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army, which is just Fall 2021's Shin no Nakama in a somewhat alternate storytelling setting that at the end of the day, is a rather mediocre retelling and is inferior on the heartwarming charm that said series has that I still remember to this day, even almost a year later. And all of this makes me want to re-watch Shin no Nakama again, that's how subpar average Kaiko Sareta is.
I am not going to beat around the bush: the story plot and setting is the exact same as Shin no Nakama, only if you replace the MC with someone that's much older, that happens on the opposite side of the spectrum with the same aftereffects verdict of getting fired from the group, and everything from then on is how it would be dictated the same for a 1-to-1 refresh. Seeing the same storyline twice now, NGL that I got a little bit of hesitation that it would turn out to be what I remember from Shin no Nakama, but let's persevere on. The MC, 30-year-old Dariel, is actually a pretty decent helper on the Demon Lord's Army's side, aside from the same OP-ness that LN series like this love to extrapolate that fact. The stepson of Granverza, one of the four Demon Kings, unanimously gets fired from the somewhat incompetent stepbrother Bashverza, just for one insanely stupid reason: Dariel is magic-less. Down but not out, the encounter with a woman in the forest fleeing from a monster attack, Marika, provides Dariel with the second life that supplements his "new" journey of wandering aimlessly, of being the protector of their small but sizable Lux Village. Since then, Dariel has never looked back at the second life that he feels was graciously granted from a trivial decision made, because he is actually the servant (or aide rather) that holds the Demon Lord's Army altogether as its dependable secretary, that getting fired from there and spending his time chillin' in his 30s, isn't an entirely bad prospect at all. If anything, the Demon Lord's Army stands to lose one capable and talented demon (that for the longest time, is actually human, that explains his zero compatibility for magic), and the person to blame for that mishap is the General himself: Bashverza.
Being voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (which he has done the role for Mushoku Tensei's Rudeus Greyrat), I'm sure that you can already tell that there is some level of ecchi involved, especially with the lead female Marika herself, being the typical large boobs girl that's the closest to Dariel's level as an adventurer if he simply didn't exist to begin with. That, with his sudden appearance, Dariel slowly beginning to get a foothold of Marika's Lux Village and identifies his role for being there, both as an upcoming adventurer and having a major role progressively as its official mayor, this second life was what he wanted and more, seemingly at first glance. But this becomes clear that the conflict between humans and demons is a never-ending battle, and his inclusion earns the disruption from fellow people around him in many ways.
The next probable up-and-coming adventurer to protect Lux Village, Gashita is a young man that's jealous of Dariel when he first appeared onto the scene that immediately, his position as the protector of the village gets compromised with the obvious jealousy. Knowing this, Dariel simply confides that he isn't there to compete with him, but rather with the patience in teaching him to become a dependable adventurer, earns the reliability and assurance overtime that results in a win-win approach. As do to the one adventurer that gets on his nerves fast, Fitbitan and his guild band of teammates don't like the fact that Dariel is suddenly taking over the operations of Lux Village faster than intended, so much so that Fitbitan's over-inflated ego causes them to begin the infighting, until the matter is resolved with the typical duel. But more so than others, it's the venerable colleagues and family relations that Dariel has always worked together with: the demon aide Rizet, the Demon Kings of Granverza and Zebiantes, heck, even the Hero's Party with its former hero Alantsil, that got to see firsthand of Dariel's transformation in the village, being more suited to the average commoner's life than one of servitude, and it shows that when he was kicked out by Bashverza, there is no turning back towards the Demon Lord's Army to have a better second life altogether. They may be picky about the choices that Bashverza has made to oust Dariel, but this I feel tied the bond much closer and better than ever before.
But of course, how can I talk about Dariel without talking about Marika, the woman who single-handedly changed his life all around. Remember last season's Noumin Kanren with son Al Wayne and his over-tender loving mother Lucia? This is exactly the same thing with the two here, which barring from all of the obviousl romantic interests made, is actually also a decent adventurer herself. But she's mostly known for being the support character towards Dariel, maybe too often with her loving tendencies for Dariel, especially with the huge Knocker boobs that Tomokazu Sugita himself displays his inner Rudeus of wanting more skinship and affection so badly, to the point of marriage and raising a family together. It's not all bad for the two of them, and what happened in all of this, I think it came out decent, but nothing surprising since this trope has been played too many times over.
The production of this show is also unsurprisingly average. Spearheaded by studio Encourage Films and its in-house director-cum-president representative Fumitoshi Oizaki, there is nothing that screams "Sakuga!" in the slightest sense, and for a 3rd-rate studio, I've probably expected this much, as opposed to the show that the studio produced before this (Deaimon) that is surprisingly wonderful to watch. I always held back on the belief that Encourage Films is trying to branch out to many genres and finding something that works, but while it has clearly worked for Deaimon, action shows like these are unfortunately the size of grated cheese that doesn't slice just as nice. It's just to be expected, that's all.
Even the music is average. Hinano and Akari Kitou's songs are surprisingly good...if you take into the context of the OP and ED respectively as a whole. Other than that, it's just average and forgettable as heck.
I would be lying if I said that I'd rather re-watch Shin no Nakama than this show, but the obtuse fact is that really, Shin no Nakama is much grounded and better than Kaiko Sareta in every other way. There's just nothing magical about this show, other than it being a copy-paste alternate variant of the same sub-genre that it came from, and it's forgettable at best. If you want to try this show, just try once, and never look back at how much time you'd lost at watching something that's perfectly mediocre, when you could be wasting time watching other better series instead. As for me, I'll retreat back to Shin no Nakama, thank you.
