Let This Grieving Soul Retire – Episode 1

Content Warning: fan service

What’s it about? Krai Andrey makes a pact with his friends to become the strongest hunters in the world, but he immediately realizes he isn’t as strong and talented as friends and tries to quit.  Unfortunately for him, he has incredibly nice friends that want him to stick around, so they make him the leader of their team. Now it’s basically impossible for Krai to retire peacefully.

Listen, I’m just glad this isn’t an isekai.  Every anime season, I feel like I have clench my imaginary pearls and hope the genre’s many new entries are at least bearable, if not original.  I’m grateful that fantasy shows like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Delicious in Dungeon are rewards to many of us that have to deal with the constant array of mediocre fantasy and isekai titles.  The only unique thing about this premiere, is that Krai is very much aware he isn’t talented like his friends and doesn’t feel like he earned the right to be a team leader.  It doesn’t help that the poor guy is constantly stumbling into success rather than proving to everyone that he’s incapable.  

As a result, rumors about Krai’s “brilliance” have spread far and wide to the point that he can’t do anything to negate his reputation.  In terms of production value, the show actually looks decent, especially Krai’s character design.  It definitely captures his personality in the sense that he looks “cool” on the outside, but internally he’s completely exhausted and just doesn’t want to do anything.  The comedy about Krai’s circumstances speaks for itself and perhaps that alone will carry the show because aside from that, this premiere is boring with a capital B.  

The entirety of the premiere rehashed tropes and character archetypes often found in fantasy shows.  The only big difference is that Krai’s friends are surprisingly kind people that genuinely want ALL of them to succeed together as a team.  It’s been way more popular lately for team members in fantasy shows to be backstabbing jerkwads, leading the protagonists to become annoying edgelords, so this is a nice change of pace.

Perhaps the surprise twist will be that from his friends perspective, Krai is actually extremely talented in a non-traditional sense.  If that’s the case then I hope the journey towards that reveal is at least enjoyable to folks that decide to stick with this series.  Unfortunately, the treatment of the women characters is entirely on par with the rest of the genre’s worse offerings, since they are either disrespected by fellow hunters or overtly sexualized.  Tino’s character in particular tested my patience and it annoyed me how often the camera zoomed in on her butt.  Plus, hearing her call Krai “master” every time she spoke immediately made me tune out anything else this show has to offer.  

I’ll pass on this one folks! There’s better fantasy shows out there and with the Witch Hat Atelier anime on the horizon, I think we can wait around a bit for good things to come. 

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