Cautious Hero – 06 – My Precious Porter

Following Leviae’s declaration that Eruru is to be sacrificed, things move very quickly and Eruru heartbreakingly comes to resign herself to dying for the caused, absent any words of protest from Seiya. But when the time comes to cast herself into the abyss, Seiya grudgingly says the words he deemed unnecessary earlier: he’s not about to let his precious baggage carrier die.

Leviae had the food and drink at the banquet drugged so Rista and Mash are paralyzed…but the ever-cautious Seiya vomited up everything her appeared to consume, and challenges Leviae to a fight. Leviae transforms into a Dragon God Mode, and a time limit is set to the battle in the form of of Eruru’s necklace, which will kill her in three minutes time.

The battle is another back-and-forth affair: Seiya weilds Dragon Killer (made from more Rista hairs, plus Eruru and Mash hair), Leviae activates Ultimate Wall, Seiya eats a bag of Speed Seeds and Double Wields Dragon Killers, Leviae takes minimal damage, Seiya backs Leviae onto a precipice.

Leviae drops Ultimate Wall and activates Dragon Breath, Seiya counters with Double Wind Blade, Levia pretends to give up, then reverts to offense, but Seiya pushes her over the ledge, and because he destroyed her wings just prior to Ultimate Wall, she plummets to her death.

Eruru is spared, and a new sword emerges from the abyss, which Seiya embues with a drop of Eruru’s blood to produce Igzasion. But Rista confronts Seiya later about it being a fake; he created a big song-and-dance to put the Dragonfolk at ease, and thus ease their withdrawal.

But the party’s troubles are far from over: Seiya lacks the ultimate weapon, the entrance to the Dragon’s Den is blocked by some kind of military force that doesn’t look the friendliest, while the Demon Lord and his underlings are confident the Hero will be no threat to them.

The comedy, so dominant in the training episodes, takes a firm back seat to drama and action, and despite not knowing Eruru for long, it was impossible not to empathize with her plight and hope Seiya did the right thing, which he did. It’s also encouraging that he can say something like “it’s gonna be okay” and “we’ll figure something out” with regards to the Demon Lord; his cautiousness is looking less psychotic and more prudent by the day.

Cautious Hero – 05 – Heaven Hath No Fury Like a Goddess Scorned

With Mash all healed up and Seiya agreeing to let him and Eruru carry his stuff, Rista deems it time to head to the Dragon’s Den to recover a powerful new weapon. Seiya insists on making a stop to the Divine Realm first so that his new assistants can train a bit. After the torture of Seiya, Cerecus is happy to have a normal student in Mash, though Eruru doesn’ t make any progress with the fire goddess Hestiaca.

As for Seiya himself, he almost starts a fight he might not be able to win with goddess of destruction Valkyrie; thankfully Aria is there to calm the “exhibitionist” down. Instead, she introduces Seiya to the war goddess Adenela, whose disheveled appearance gets more and more girly as she falls deeper into love with him, only to be callously rejected, sending her into a fit of rage. Thus, Seiya has now proven a “goddess-killer” in two very distinct ways.

Seiya says sayonara to the Divine Realm, and the party begins their first real quest together, to the Dragon’s Den. Rista learns the hard way that he won’t let her peek at his true levels (the fake-out “1’s” even turn and poke her in the eye!). Mash and Eruru may be useful insofar as they can sense when they’re getting closer due to their dragon blood, but Seiya doesn’t let them actually fight any monsters on the way.

Instead, he simply relies on his “Automatic Phoenix” to instantly destroy any monsters under Level 30 within a certain radius. Mash can’t get close to any monsters, and the Phoenix even rudely knocks down one of Eruru’s fire arrows! Just when the two dragonkin think they can be of help by opening the gate to the den, Seiya simply smashes through it with his sword.

Inside they find a magical circle, and after Seiya tests it on a lizard (bemusing the people on the other side), the party uses it to transport to the remote Dragon Village. There they meet the…ahem, Mother of Dragons Leviae, who shows Mash how to turn into a dragon to boost his levels.

When Eruru asks if she can do the same, Leviae casually tells her that won’t be necessary, because she has a different role: that of Igzasion, the mightiest of weapons. That, of course, means sacrificing her life, something clearly Eruru doesn’t want. As for Seiya, his stone face doesn’t give away much, but could it be he wouldn’t be particularly enthused about Eruru dying?

Cautious Hero – 04 – Hairy Solutions to Hairy Situations

We pick up right where we left off, with Seiya categorically rejecting Mash and Ururu. He could be a little nicer about it, but the truth is he is far beyond them in power and they would slow him down. But for some reason, when Rista gains wings and tries to catch up to him, he takes his foot off the gas and comes back for her.

Sure, he then accelerates so fast her boobs pop out, but it seems he had a change of heart about having her around just minutes after saying he “so didn’t need her” any more than the Dragonkin. Did he simply appreciate the effort she made to chase after him? Or just remember that she as a goddess can still do things he can’t, like open portals?

In any case, Seiya arrives at the site of the advancing undead army and uses not one but two Meteor Strikes to eliminate them all at once. When he appears fatigued, Rista lets him lean on her, but she’s annnoyed when he states he’s actually very far from having used up all his MP.

With Seimul safe, Seiya holes himself up in room at the inn, mastering synthesis, in particular making use of Rista’s stray goddess hairs to synthesize a powerful sword, but wanting her to provide one thousand more hairs to make more; Rista for her part is not prepared to go bald!

Then they get a delivery: a looking glass through which the Heavenly King Deathmagla presents a captured and tortured Mash. When Mash is defiant rather than begging for his life, Seiya decides to rescue him and defeat Deathmagla in one trip.

After using his goddess hair-infused sword to slice off Deathmagla’s hand through dimensional planes, he quickly withdraws to the Divine realm where the ten or so seconds before Mash is killed is stretched out to fifteen or so minutes, using that time to brusquely ask an amused Ishtar to open a portal to Mash’s location.

Once there, Deathmagla claims to have prepared for every contingency in creating an invincible boss in Dark Firus. But detail-oriented as he is, Deathmagla can’t hold a candle to Seiya’s preparation, as the hero uses previously-unseen high-level blunt abilities and an ice-element bracelet (again, synthesized with Rista’s hair, making her wonder if she has a hair loss problem).

Whether it’s turning back for Rista in the air or choosing to rescue Mash so he can carry his equipment, Seiya seems most motivated by those who demonstrate maximum effort, as he does. With only two Heavenly Kings and the Demon Lord remaining and Seiya’s continued exponential growth, Rista seems poised to save her first world…barring something unexpected.

Cautious Hero – 03 – The Goddessizer

While Ristarte is enjoying tea with fellow goddess Ariadoa, Seiya barges in to announce he’s not leveling up as fast by simply working out. Rista hopes this means he’s finally ready to start fighting monsters, but Seiya, ever cautious, still thinks it’s “too risky.” Aria suggests a compromise: if Seiya trains with a god, there’s no risk of dying, and he’ll level up faster.

Seiya’s all for it, and Aria introduces him to the stubborn Divine Blade, Cerceus, who certainly looks like he could take Seiya on. Rista leaves the two to train without checking in (knowing it angers Seiya), but each day she finds Cerecus in the cafeteria at lunch, looking more and more defeated and demoralized.

It gets so bad that she finds Cerceus hiding behind racks of nori, and learns that Seiya is already over three times stronger than him, but insists on training without breaks or sleep. When Seiya finds him and forces him to keep training , Rista can’t save him, as she’s summoned by the goddess Ishtar (who for the record is arguably less smokin’ hot than the Ishtars of DanMachi or Fate/Grand Order).

It’s both strange, sad, and funny to see Seiya, a human, reduce a god renowned for his prowess and doggedness in battle to a sickly, (relatively) emaciated god who’s lost the will to carry, look at, or even mention a sword. When Cerceus tells Rista her hero is sick, Rista’s grave, knowing look says it all. Still, Ishtar says Cerceus, who was once himself a human, is getting valuable training from Seiya.

Ishtar’s news for Rista was about an imminent attack from the Demon Lord’s armies the next town of Seimul in Gaeabrande. Rista and Seiya are to head to the town’s central church to meet his two allies, the mage Eruru and the swordsman Mash, both Dragonkin descendants. Since the enemy is undead, Seiya tries to buy one thousand vials of holy water to prepare, but grudingly settles for ten.

Seiya suddenly pours some of the water on the priest who introduces his allies, and that priest is revealed to be undead himself. Still, Seiya chops him into pieces without anyone even seeing him move his sword. Before he proceeds to “mop up” with a massively destructive fire spell, Rista just barely manages to get the two allies and a nun to safety.

When Seiya and Rista take a look at Eruru and Mash’s stats, Rista is encouraged, despite the fact they’re only level 7 and 8, respectively. Seiya is less enthusiastic, declaring the two are so not needed. You’d think he’d at least want them as porters for carrying more holy water…or human shields!

Kemono Michi: Rise Up – 03

Runaway Dragon-Girl and her attendant (vampire?) Carmilla join Rise Up!’s main cast this week. One of them gets a body slam and the other tries to eat Genzo’s dog Hiroyuki… before declaring she wants to spend the rest of her life with him. (the dog, not Genzo)

Beyond that, Genzo’s farm/petshop is coming along but he’s gonna run into money trouble sooner than later. (That dry petfood is expensive!) and there are only so many heroes that can call Genzo “Demon Beast Killer” and get knocked out, so Shigure can ‘discover’ and pawn the equipment they leave behind. Yes that’s still happening and it’s still hilarious!

If you are familiar with Rabujoi, you know I run out of review-steam when I run out of new things to say about a show. Rise Up! is one of the first good shows to reach that mark this season — it exudes charm and it’s comedic timing is masterful and I love watching it. However, that masterful timing and formulaic comedy sensibility is the only thing I have to say about it?

To that end, I will probably wait until episode VI to give a mid season review, and maybe an end of season wrap up after that. It is absolutely worth watching each week, and looks on track for the top 15 of my Isekai Ranked list. No need to ramble on about it in the mean time.

Ascendance of a Bookworm – 03

Bookworm Here! I’m just making nice baskets during the winter, failing at papyrus, inventing pancakes and crochet to make my older sister a pre-baptism hair ornament, and correcting math errors at the guard house! Everyone around me is starting to notice… how this is different from the Myne I was before but what evs? At least there was some character building around me this episode…

As generic Isekai go, Bookworm’s choice to show things being made, and explain process, elevates it from the mayonnaise-eaters at the bottom, but not by much? Coupled with Myne’s father’s miss-reading Myne’s feelings for Otto and the awkward conversation about marriage that followed, and the episode gets a pass. The framing and scene blocking were good too.

Better than Prodigies in a 6/10 sort of way.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! – 02 and 03

In need of money, the prodigies deploy their merchant and ninja to the neighboring city. No surprise, the city happens to be squeezed by an evil merchant who’s monopoly does not provide $200 when you pass GO. No surprise, this presents no obstacle to Merchant, who’s use of mayonnaise and consignment-based trade deals quickly turns the tides in team genius’ favor. Though it takes an unnecessary cliffhanger and loli-cat-slave-girl purchase to complete!

Meanwhile, Elm village now has aluminum tools, plumbing, and even a public bath. BEWBES! Also the mayor and his hunting party are attacked by ‘the Chief,’ who looks something like a bear and a pile of rocks. Then evil knights show up and burn down the village. BUT NO ONE IS HURT!

If Choyoyu! were an office lunch, it would be 7 sandwiches from a corporate food service fulfillment center. Like each sandwich, the each cast member is different, theoretically adding variety. However, I have never witnessed anyone willingly eat the tuna-salad option, nor does anyone really enjoy soggy bread and from the factory meat slices. Samurai and Doctor-chan are like tuna-sandwiches, having no impact beyond ‘I am also soggy and sitting on this plate’ and the rest of the cast does not fare better.

While I was momentarily interested by the idea that all religion has been banned in this alternative world, by a survival of the fittest empire and possibly in response to the last time 7 heroes visited… that same empire is stocked with generically pure evil, shallow villains. Peasants commit treason simply by acquiring gold, for example, is just beyond silly as evil excuses go.

Also, liquid oxygen is typically-361.8°F. So yeah. Not a good idea to inject into an injured person’s body. Great job on the medical science side of things too.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! – 02 (Second Impressions)

Off to a rocky start, Mile settles on “It’s a family secret” as her default answer to Mavis, Reina and Pauline’s probing questions. This does not sit well with the other girls, nor does Mile’s attempt to lie about her backstory by telling them a tall tale… which turns out to be the narrative of the kingdom’s current best selling book. Fortunately, Mile is ‘saved by the bell’ and the quartet heads for their first orientation.

Mile continues to fail at her life goal of low-key living, while succeeding by every other measure. During armed evaluation, she one-hits her opponent for snarking on her flat chest. During magic evaluation, Mile intentionally mimics Reina’s fire spell, but at half-output… only for that to backfire too. Reina’s spell is a custom spell, and being able to cast it after only having seen it once, is beyond comprehension!

After an awkward tea-time interrogation, the girls choose to party-up for the first group assessment: kill 10 horny rabbits, the lowest level monster in the kingdom. To Mile’s consternation, this task proves difficult, as Reina and Mavis’ skills emphasize strength over speed and accuracy. Mile’s solution? Put on a turtle-house master beard, and go old skool dragon ball training montage on her team mates’ assess.

10 dead bunnies later (and a few surprise stone golems) and Mile’s team is the only party to clear hunter prep school’s challenge. What’s more, Mile’s fears that her secret re-life and genius skill rating would prevent her from making friends are proven unfounded. Mavis is inspired by Mile’s demonstration of human potential, Reina finds Mile’s practical examples quite helpful, and Pauline quietly takes note of magic x merchant-trade opportunities.

Little do they know, the B-Rank adventurers they beat last week have been sprung from prison and are will, no doubt, be looking for some payback later in the season…

As a specimen of the reborn in another world with great power (as a reward and not to defeat a global threat) Isekai sub-genre, WNwHdtIyn! further distinguishes itself by forcing Mile to face conflicts her broken power level cannot immediately resolve. Namely, making friends and overcoming her anxiety about being too good in the first place. It’s this anxiety, coupled with Mile’s slightly selfish touristy nature, makes her infinitely more interesting as a main character than other examples of the sub-genre.

Where Mile and Smartphone’s Touya both go out of her way to help and share her skills with strangers, Touya has no motivation beyond “being a good guy.” Toya literally jumps into a conflict between people in a dark alley without knowing what’s going on because… girls? At least Mile has met the inn keeper’s daughter, and formed a report, before being swept into the search for kidnappers.

TL;DR Mile’s character has faults, which grant her nuance. This makes her more of a person and less of an empty proxy for viewer escapism. Considering how played out Isekai escapism is at this point, WNwHdtIyn!’s choice is the right one.

Ascendance of a Bookworm – 02 (Second Chance)

This week Myne rides an older boy while pondering being ridden by his younger brother. Also, she’s thinking about parchment and how to get her dirty peasant hands on some. Also she invents shampoo from an avocado fruit. Also she faints while a pig gets slaughtered for her winter sausage. Also she gets a fever again and flirts with the solider who works for her father that is teaching her to write.

Bookworm’s slice of life where nothing of consequence happens format plays out like a run-on sentence. It’s almost watchable, if I’m honest, largely thanks to ongoing character introductions and world building, but Myne remains a barely likable character. We did not learn anything more about her past this week, nor has she recognized the impact of hollowing out her host vessel, nor does she entirely care about anyone around her. She just wants her god damn books and, even though we know she will eventually get them, each moment we wait until she does, will feel like an eternity.

Cautious Hero – 02 – Is This Really Going to Work Out?

First off, while the promo art shows six other characters, I’m glad the focus stayed with Ristarte (AKA Rista, or Listarte/Lista) and Seiya. Nothing worse than introducing a bunch of new characters before we’ve had a proper amount of time with the core duo. In this case, it behooved the show to maintain that focus for their first “town mission” scenario, start to finish.

Seiya flees Chaos Machina to his hut in the Divine Realm to continue working out, even as Chaos beheads one townfellow and threatens to behead Mina’s dad. Things get a bit awkward, pacing-wise, as Rista tries in vain to urge Seiya to get moving.

I really shared in Rista’s frustration during the scene leading up to Seiya’s logical-sounding rebuttal.  Not only does it seem absurd for a hero to just keep doing push-ups while people are dying. When she prepares to storm out, calling him a terrible hero and a coward, he makes his position clear: if he goes in half-cocked and gets killed, everyone in the village—and possibly the world—die anyway. So he must be perfectly prepared.

Seiya seems to be proven right when in the battle Chaos Machina constantly unveils previously-hidden, increasingly more powerful forms to counter his leveling up. But once Chaos transforms into a kind of Bahamut ready to smash him into dust, Seiya blocks her strike with one hand. Turns out the stats on Rista’s scan were grossly underrated due to a “Fake-out” ability. Seiya had more than enough power to defeat any form of Chaos from the beginning!

Because he’s so overly cautious, at least one innocent man died needlessly. Things get worse when, after eliminating Chaos Machina, he repeatedly burns the charred remains—little more than scraps of charcoal—with his hidden abilities, setting all of the town’s shops (and some of its people) aflame. You’d think he could move the collected remains somewhere where there wouldn’t be such horrific collateral damage, but Seiya’s caution only applies to his own survival. More so than Goblin Slayer, Seiya’s an unrepentant bastard.

That’s just one way he’s not quite the hero Rista hoped for; he’s got all the stats but none of the…heroism. Before leaving town, Mina’s dad offers some money as thanks, but Seiya demands all his money…and after burning half the town, too! She also has next to no power when it comes to where they should go and what they should do next; she thinks they should move to the next town, but he demands they return to the Divine Realm so he can work out more…and so they do.

Cautious Hero’s second episode lacks the novelty of the first, but is still both fun and watchable. I appreciated its willingness to let its simple character dynamic play out. Now I imagine it will rinse and repeat with a new and more powerful foe, introduce more characters, or both. I’d say it’s the right time for a new face or two. Otherwise, Seiya being ruthlessly condescending to Rista while spamming enormous fire spells on nothing but dust will get stale.

Kemono Michi: Rise Up – 02 (Second Look)

Between his heroic pro-wrestler muscles, love for animals, and need for cash, Shibata Genzo clears a dizzying number of guild missions this week. Unfortunately, Shigure and… whoever that demon ant is… are the only people who know Genzo’s latter motivations and he is quickly dubbed “Demon Beast Killer” by his fellow guild members. That does not go well for them, of the walls of the guild, in hilarious fashion!

As with last week, Rise Up’s humor is elevated by how straight it’s played. Genzo’s behavior may seem random, but it sticks to a nicely defined character, and that character plays off of Shigure’s limited morality very nicely. However, the contrast truly works because no one else is strange. From bankers to adventurers, the NPCs of this world react to weirdness in a believable way: they are cautious, confused, or simply don’t understand what Genzo is even saying. This interplay makes the limp bodies hanging from the walls and NPC commentary while Shigure steals a downed adventurer’s sword even funnier.

Genzo’s character continues to develop too, this week showing how he thinks of Orcs as basically human. Maybe he gets along with them even better, since ‘speaking with his fists’ resolves his Orc quest pretty quickly. The match itself was rendered quite nicely. Naturalistically may not quite be accurate… but it has a grounded feel. It’s probably what you wresting fantasies looked like, if you had them in your youth?

As a comedic, hero-style Isekai, comparisons of Rise Up and Cautious Hero are inevitable this season. To me, Rise Up gives us more insight into what everyone is thinking and feeling, and also keeps the action more grounded. The result is a bit more plain looking, with fewer opportunities for vivid color and over the top character designs. However, I laughed more often with Genzo and crew. (though not quite as loudly)

In closing, there’s something really nice about how different the character builds are from typical anime. Genzo has a brick wall thickness and weight that further sells the ‘realism’ angle. Heck, even Shigure looks like a muscled adult.

If ratings were simply how happy a show made me, Rise Up would score a 10! Its dedication to well told jokes carries it predictably through. Sure, that predictability limits surprises but it absolutely deserves your attention.

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! – 01 (First Impressions)

12 years ago Kurihara Misato was a Japanese high school girl with good grades and no friends. She died pushing a younger girl out of the path of a speeding car cliché amd a god-character offered to re-born her in another world +plus give one gift. Feeling her grades contributed to her lack of school friendships, Misato opts for ‘being reborn with totally average powers.’

Misato’s final request is processed more literally than you might expect and “Mile” is born with power equal to her fantasy world’s mathematical mean. That is, exactly half way between the strongest living creature (elder dragons) and the weakest. To Mile’s mild annoyance, that pegs her 6,800 times more powerful than any other human…

Didn`t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! proudly announces what it is from the get go: a completely self0aware reborn in another world style Isekai, featuring a fourth-wall-breaking protagonist who is eager to share her absurd experiences via narration. From her amusement over the gimmicks of her new world (magic is actually thought translation via nano machines!) to screwing with the NPCs (pretending to get her hand eaten by a lifeless gargoyle) Mile and the constant monolog are there to explain the hours away. The result is oddly welcoming and a pleasant reversal of fish-out-of-water Isekai standards.

While you could be excused for groaning about a fifth Isekai running this season, this show is cute and chuckle worthy. Misato was no jaded Tanya the Evil, but there’s just a little snark to how she see’s her new fantasy world, and how she describes the characters living there in terms more familiar to us. (The fire mage is totally a tsundere) In purely Isekai terms, the vibe is enough to make it enjoyable to watch. Far more than Bookworm or Prodigies.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World! – 01 (First Impressions)

The seven best people in the world are Japanese high school students, which Choyoyu! desperately tries to sell us via 5 minutes of contrived intro cards before plunging said prodigies into another world via plain crash. Shortly there after, an elf french-kiss-feeds the first boy to awaken so goat milk stew. As prime minister of Japan, he takes it in stride.

Still desperate, Choyoyu! flashes forward a month to the prodigies all physically recovered and integrating into the elf-and-beastman town. Except the dialog feels like ‘we just arrived’ dialog, swerving awkwardly from exposition about seven heroes of fabled legend, to the introduction of mayo into the fantasy realm. Then the evil knights show up and are quickly defeated.

As the fourth Isekai to air this season, Choyoyu! had a stiff competition for eyeballs. Between the low energy cast, lower shelf visual style, and loveless story construction, it doesn’t have much going for it. At least the cast has working cell phones. And a nuke. So I guess that may turn into something later down the line?