The story is a slippery devil. Is it a hero show? Or perhaps a power fantasy isekai? I don't really know at the end of the day. I have some guesses, but overall that's all you can really do is guess. Our MC Cid Kagenou trains hard and all the time so that he might fight injustice from the shadows. Initially he has some success as a low tier trash man, removing bandits and thugs. However his dreams, training, and ambition eventually net him a butt-load of power and influence that he now uses to fight real global threats like the Cult of Diablos. Unfortunately that's where some of the confusion begins. Cid seems to believe that he made the Cult of Diablos up in order to sound cool, meanwhile they do in fact exist and his words have spawned a shadow organization whose sole purpose seems to be to fight them.
Honestly this show seems to be solid, but I cant tell if someones yanking my chain. A chuuni MC with incredible powers and story akin to irregular at magic high, and stupidity akin to Ainz from Overlord. The frustrating part of the experience for me is there is no follow through. Our MC has a harem, I guess? Yet he doesn't interact with them. He becomes popular at school based on dumb luck, and after an episode or two the plot moves forward and we are supposed to just assume that his "mob characteristic" are the leading factor that these people seem to forget that he exists. Some characters seem to become main characters, and others that seem important simply disappear. The dude has a sister that simply vanishes for most of the first season even though she likes her brother and they go to the same school. Normally that might seem problematic, but the writing is well crafted enough that my guess is that the story will bring itself around and we will see everything in the end.
Art isn't bad. Fight scenes are basic and a little lack luster, but there are some sharp visuals for the rest of the show.
The characters are all interesting just by how the story is being told. Our MC is an overpowered protagonist but he refuses to be that. So we get to see him mess with the world and drag the other characters into the messes that would normally take the highlight. The tough and crazy strong princess character is going to compete in a fighting tournament, but of course our perspective will follow Cid...I wonder whats going to happen. In a way I find this frustrating as the overpower protagonist is supposed to move the plot forward and skip all the usual drivel of "I need to train", or "with the power of friendship". Unfortunately we trade that tripe for him telling us how hes going to pretend to be a background character. It's funny, but slow and frustrating when interesting stuff is happening all the time. The anime is bloody and twisty, it makes you want to see what happens next. I guess I was just disappointed with the how it was handled. We need answers, we need these characters to show us who they are, we need some connection to the story. In Overlord when Ainz fights it is a battle that we can understand the value of. We see the plans forming, the mistakes hes making. In this show we simply go from one event to the next with very little to explain what the hell we just saw and why it happened. I don't know who these characters are, who they want to be, what there connection is to the story, what the story is even about, whats happening in the world, or what these characters do in the world. I just watched 20 episodes, I was conscious the entire time, wtf happened?
Overall the anime was interesting, but it really needs to drop the bass. We are being edged with action and situations but we are no nearer the sweet release of understanding. I certainly hope the second season will be more enlightening. If however the show continues in the same vein I'm afraid its a bit of a dud. Overlord, Irregular at magic high, and dozens of those dollar store isekai do this but better.
