Content Warnings: suicide and gore, mild fan service
What’s it about? In a world where magic and fighting abilities are determined from birth, Ein was born with the lowest ranking power called “appraisal.” Ein tries to improve his position in society by becoming an adventurer, but he’s constantly physically and verbally abused by his teammates. Eventually, his “comrades” abandon him and he decides to kill himself. Luckily for him, a goddess saves him, which inspires him to keep on living and become a hero.
I recently just finished watching Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Despite some of its flaws, it reminded me what the fantasy genre is capable of in the hands of a good writer. The jump from Frieren to this premiere was jarring because it’s an annoying reminder that we don’t have many good fantasy shows in comparison to the sea of mediocrity that we get every season. While this series definitely has a heartbeat and decent animation to prevent it from falling apart, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be anything different from the usual power fantasy stories with overpowered male protagonists who’ve been cosmically wronged through no fault of their own. For the time being, I’m grateful that Ein is a sympathetic character who we can root for before everything gets handed to him by a goddess and inevitably gets a harem of women to follow him.
At first, it’s easy to feel sorry for Ein since not only is he constantly abused throughout the episode, we also spend the first few minutes watching him commit suicide. I highly suggest to our readers to proceed with caution since I know this can be triggering for many people. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ein decides to get revenge against every cartoonishly evil character that has ever wronged him once he develops his powers. While I like revenge stories as much as the next person, I need more substance than the protagonist potentially going on a killing spree against cardboard cutouts. It might not even go in that direction, but the only times I’ve seen overt characters like Ein’s abusers are in revenge shows where the protagonists relish their gory deaths. It’s also important to mention that the series is extremely violent and bloody. Ein’s body almost gets maimed to death by monsters, and it frankly isn’t pleasant watching things get consistently worse for him.
It’s unfortunate that for the most part, this series follows the usual script found in most power fantasy stories. In the hands of a better writer, the show could’ve absolutely explored the daily challenges of most folks born into the bottom of a class-based society and how they found ways to create supportive networks in order to protect each other, but Appraiser can’t think of anything that interesting. That’s probably the only nice thing I can say about this premiere since it, immediately, loses any goodwill I had by focusing in hard on the goddess’ chest. The opening theme clearly shows the rest of Ein’s party will be sexualized, which is on par to the usual offering seen in mediocre fantasy shows.
I’ll pass on this one folks. Do yourself a favor and watch Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End or Delicious in Dungeon. I’m wondering when the onslaught of mediocre fantasy will end?? I understand wanting to turn your brain off sometimes to escape reality, but at a certain point we deserve more fantasy stories that put in at least a bit more effort like I Parry Everything! Maybe I’m just asking for too much.
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