Content Warning: Mild fantasy gore
What’s it about? Light aims to be the best adventurer of all time, only the Skill Fruit he eats during a coming of age ritual sticks him with a less than stellar skill. However, a near death incident shows that his dreams might not just be dreams, but a reality he can achieve thanks to the power of fruits!
So right off the bat, we’re truncating Bogus Skill «Fruitmaster» ~About that time I became able to eat unlimited numbers of Skill Fruits (that kill you)~ into Bogus Skill because that title is absolute nonsense, even though it tells us the basic plot line: someone is gonna get a skill that lets them eat hella fruits. I’m talking oranges, lemons, bananas, durian, muscat grapes…you get the point. Hella fruits for incredible skills, though in this case, they look like toxic sumo oranges crossed with meyer lemons.
Still, as with all fantasy series starting a black-haired boy and his blonde best friend, we must start at the beginning. After all, no rags to skilled riches stories would be complete without seeing a young man get shafted by society. So let’s dive right into the start of new protagonist Light’s adventure!
Episode 1, “The Only Ingredient,” starts with a bright-eyed youth named Light walking along with his friend Lena. Together, they look toward the future and most importantly, getting a skill. In this world, skills are capital “S”, marking the future that you may, or may not, want. And after a very bubbly opening, we find out just what type of lives Lena and Light may be able to lead outside of their rustic everyday existences.
What ensues is a rather solemn ritual around Skill Fruits, which grant one, and only one, skill that you carry with yourself for the rest of your life. Only there’s a catch: you can only consume the fruit you eat during your ritual. Eating a second one to obtain a new skill, or even if you don’t like your current skill, means certain death. Truly, getting stats in this world is a one and done event: just hope you get something actually useful if you want to be an adventurer.
Immediately, Lena gets the awesome sounding Saint Sword skill, marking her as a chosen member of society. Of course, Light gets…the ability Fruitmaster, which lets him harvest en masse and also cultivate unique fruits. From my POV, that’s pretty neat; but of course, Light wants to be and adventurer, not a farmer. Still, the system is pretty clear: one fruit per person.
Or is that the case here…? (It is most definitely not.)
As far as fantasy series premieres go, this is your bog standard, pretty neutral premiere. Light is a quippy youth, Lena is a sweetheart that leans toward being a love interest from jump, and the foundational storytelling is pretty self-explanatory. You’re not likely to leave this premiere with a lot of questions outside of, “What next?” because it’s pretty standard execution. That’s not bad, but it’s also not necessarily compelling or good. It’s perfectly neutral, which is a fine thing to be, but it doesn’t necessarily make Bogus Skill something I want to invest a lot of my time in this season, even when there’s looking to be an odd mix of slim pickings all around.
Where things have the potential to become interesting is Light’s ability to take on multiple skills. The obvious answer is that he’s going to immediately start swinging a sword for the adventurer’s guild, but it’s my sincerest hope that this actually becomes a more robust story that isn’t solely about him abandoning the fruit orchards for adventuring glory. Given the midpoint twist on Light’s second skill, I feel the series is going to go more the action route than Light becoming a complex character, but you know what? That can have its own merits too.
Overall, Bogus Skill «Fruitmaster» ~About that time I became able to eat unlimited numbers of Skill Fruits (that kill you)~ is perfectly fine, avoiding some of the more gendered tropes tied to having a female best friend and a younger girl as companions. I found this immediately refreshing because it demonstrates that you can have a decent, if completely fine, premiere set in a fantasy world that doesn’t operate on weird sexualization. In fact, this should be standard, which makes it a bit upsetting that I have to mention how pleased I was to see a show have a normal one.
I don’t know that I’ll be returning to this once I get past three episodes: I think I’ve personally had my fill of guys swinging swords in other worlds, even if they start there. I’d rather buff out my watchlist with shows that push me to question the medium more, and Bogus Skill isn’t doing that for me. That said, I’m glad that this adaptation exist: as someone who thoroughly likes and loves light novels and manga, I’m always glad to see them hit the digital screen, even if I’m not interested.
Ultimately, this is a show that’s all about simplicity: it’s relatively low-stakes right now and seems to be going the path of being your routine fantasy series with a bit of its own twist of stats and skills. Don’t expect this to be a feminist favorite: rather, set your expectations where they are and give it a try if you’re looking to have a simple fantasy series to turn your mind off to.
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