(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of yet another light novel series about teenagers being trapped in a videogame-like heroic-fantasy world.
Characters
Haruhiro, our point-of-view character, woke up one day in the land of Grimgar, without any memory of his past (or why he sometimes thinks of meaningless words like “mobile phones”). Together with the dozen or so teenagers who were with him in the same situation, he’s quickly brought up to speed by the predatory gay (sigh) innkeeper : they’re now all new adventures, here’s your starting package with your license and just about enough money for room and food while you get basic training. Have fun grinding the mobs !
Renji, the most strong-headed of the group, takes with him the most competent-looking half of them, and they apparently are making a pretty good start. But this show isn’t about them. Instead, it’s about the leftovers :
– Manato, the level-headed guy who seems like the oldest of the bunch by a bit, becomes the de facto party leader and suggests they all take different Jobs so they’ll have a balanced team. Cleric seems like the perfect match for him.
– Ranta is the brash jerkass who always gets into futile spats with everyone, but isn’t that bad a dude really. Of course he’d take Black Knight, although of course the level-1 armor must have been a disappointment.
– Moguzo, the big guy who’s really a softie who loves cooking, got to be a Warrior (i.e. the tank of the party).
– Yume, the tomboy, became a Hunter despite being unable to hit the broad side of a barn with her arrows.
– Shihoru, the shy big-breasted girl, got to be a Mage. Now, he only she could manage to actually finish an incantation…
– and Haruhiro became a Thief, as Manato figured they’d need one, and that didn’t sound too bad.
Now, after a week of training at their respective guilds, they’re ready to adventure and finally loot some mobs ! Or, er, be driven away by a couple of goblins, aka the weakest monsters around. Despite outnumbering them three to one. They completely suck, both individually and as a team. But, er, surely they’ll get better with trying, as well as better picking their fights ? (Like, maybe only the one goblin, if they can find such a loner ?)
Production Values
Wow, pretty backgrounds ! The animation ain’t bad either. The fanservice level was relatively tame until (1) the Thieves Guildmaster showed up and (2) Ranta started to rant about Shihoru’s huge knockers, which hopefully won’t be a regular occurrence.
Overall Impression
You know what ? I quite enjoyed this, despite not being a fan of the genre. Maybe it’s because it’s discarding most of the “power fantasy” aspects, with the heroes starting at the bottom level and having yet to win a fight by this first episode’s end. This also gives quite some room for world-building and laying out the team’s dynamic ; aside from Ranta, they’re a rather pleasant bunch I could see myself wanting to watch more of.
I’m giving this a few more episodes to see where it goes.
