The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat – Episode 1

Content Warning: human trafficking, fanservice, mild gore, plane hijacking

What’s it about? The world’s greatest assassin spectacularly dies “two days from retirement,” but rather than fading into the ether, a goddess promises him a renewed life in a world of swords and sorcery. In exchange for a second chance at life, he takes on “one last job” as Lugh, the noble assassin.

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I love stories about cool emotionless dudes who’ve been conditioned to be the perfect assassin since childhood, slowly showing humanity by growing attached to the women in his life. No, this isn’t Hitman Absolution, this is *takes a deep breath* The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. (Jesus, that’s a long title)

But for all that’s touted about the titular assassin, we see very little of his handiwork in the first episode, because we start en media res during a slave auction.

Our first look at a girl in the show is of her hip. Her buttcrack peeks from the open hole of a skimpy grey dress. A maid does her makeup and we see nobody’s faces. 

The show is going for artistic, perhaps, but it’s also clearly focused on objectification. As the nobles all wear masks, the unmasked girls are only largely seen from the neck down. The added fact the show takes its time to describe to the viewer that, indeed, the girls are all teenagers, like 13 and 14 years old, made me immediately ask: oh no, is this one of those slavery isekai?

I wished every gross dirtbag in the room would die.

Good news.

Everyone gross dies.

Yeah, okay, I can get behind this. If only Lugh were reincarnated as the Gun Hero in a different anime.

That said, while we do get a pair of young girls mowing down a gaggle of pedophiles and their personal guards, the camera stays fanservice-heavy. While I do appreciate Tarte’s ability to stab a bunch of dudes with a spear and magically speed-load her revolver, I really wish she didn’t have to remind everyone what color her panties are every time she reaches under her skirt.

Similarly, Lugh’s assistant Maha is staking out the carnage from afar; but, conspicuously, we are treated to a solid shot of her smooshed-up boobs resting on the ground. My spine felt that discomfort because I know that’s not how one should ever read a book in bed.

Luckily, the fanservice isn’t quite there once the story shifts to the “real world” portion in the latter half of the episode. Instead, we focus on the grizzled assassin, whose best character description I can come up with is “grizzled veteran two-days from retirement working on one last job with the new kid.” I’m interested in him. He doesn’t seem like a bad man, as far as killing machines go, but his second chance at life will really need to help him develop something beyond being the human equivalent of a angle grinder–which I assume will happen.

The show wants to drip style, making a nod to James Bond’s Quantum of Solace by naming its first episode “Quantum of Trust.” The fight scenes are high energy, and the Assassin, although gruff, admittedly is pretty cool, along with the girls. There’s even little bits of clever attention to detail, like how all the magical spells people recite in the show are just reversed and modulated audio of normal words (and thus read as reversed words in the subtitles).

Aesthetics alone won’t be able to carry this show through. I have a feeling the panty flashes aren’t going anywhere, and I’m inclined to ask how distracting the fanservice will be. The second episode will make or break the series as it starts actually telling a story.