What Is To Be Hero X About?

Imagine a world of superheroes. We can do that, we know Marvel and DC comic worlds. But instead of these heroes just having powers their powers are stronger the more people love them. That is the world of To Be Hero X. And Hero X is the hero who is most loved.

The show is all about those heroes and the ones who are in the top 10. They all want to be Hero X or at least will be taking place in the tournament to see who will become the new top ranked hero. The show is all about their stories and how they got there.

And I won’t go into more detail than that.

Who is To Be Hero X For?

Firstly, I do want to comment on fan service in this, because that will determine some of it is for you or not. But really, I like to do that all the time because people’s tolerance levels are different. There is very little fan service in this show, and it is never dwelt upon if it happens.

I think that this show is for people who are up for some fun animation. But there is more to the show than that, this is a show that is for people who want that slower build into characters and to delve into them at a deeper level. Is it heavy with plot, there is a lot of story throughout that connects to the whole, but it is also very focused on the characters.

What Didn’t Work For Me?

It is a bit jarring the first time you finish up the story with one character. Mainly because you get to like the character and then you move on to the next one. This is not a bad thing, but it is somethin to be aware of when going into the show.

It is also a bit tricky to keep track of the timelines and when it falls into line with certain characters. Generally you can make sense of it, but they reference events that might be occurring at a different point in other characters stories. And they do a solid job of giving you dates for things, but that is still a lot to remember.

What Worked For Me?

The animation on this show is amazing. And it should be, there are a ton of different studios working on this anime. And it shows in the different stories how there is different animation that is used. They are done to tell different and unique story beats and character stories. And there are some bonkers fight and chase scenes that use animation really well.

I also like the stories. Not all of them resonate with me quite as well, but how they intersect is really interesting. And the vast majority of the character stories are ones that I really enjoyed and I could connect with the characters. Each of them is unique as well and deals with some interesting things that unfold the larger story.

And without going into spoilers, I think the overall plot is interesting. This idea that the more people love you, the better hero you are is really interesting. And it has some very questionable implications to it as well that they dive into in the show. And where it ends, I think that is interesting and it makes me ready for a season two. I think there is a lot more world building that can be done around the main plot. But I suspect season 2 is going to focus a lot on the tournament.

Final Thoughts on To Be Hero X

This show definitely caught my interest throughout the whole show. I think the animation drew me in, but the plot and the characters really kept me there. It takes a bit to figure out everything that is going on in To Be Hero X. And I would say, there are elements that make me want to rewatch it right now to pick-up on some of the bigger story implications that I might have missed. To me, that is the sign of a good anime to watch because it kept me engaged and keeps me wanting more.

If it was one consistent animation style would it be as good? I think it would be. This is not an anime with style over substance but with the lead of BeDream making this and the animation partners, it rocks. And that is something else I didn’t mention but I feel like I always want to listen to the music both the opening and ending credits, but also the music in the show. The amount of time and effort that went into this show is very impressive and makes for a great show visually and story wise.

To Be Hero X is one of my top new anime this year. And you know from the last anime round-up that I have watched a ton of anime this year. So it is sitting pretty as a favorite.

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The Plot of Summer Time Rendering (No Spoilers)

As it says, no spoilers in this section. You’ll just some synopsis of what you can see in that first episode and the theme of the show.

Shinpei is returning to his home island after going away to study in Tokyo. He hasn’t been back in two years, but when his friend passes away, one whom he’d grown up in her home after his parents died, he returned for the funeral. He didn’t plan on staying long. But on his journey there he has a bad dream that something is wrong. And when he gets there, there are a lot of things that tip him off that something isn’t as it should be. Is Ushio’s death really an accident or is there more going on?

What Doesn’t Work

I’m going to say that the end isn’t a 100% smash success for me in this series. It is still very good, but based off of where everything started and the twists and turns along the way, I’d have loved one more flashback element to it to just really flesh out the story and motivations.

I also want to say that I found the dub not completely consistent. By that I mean I think they got good voice actors doing the work for it. But how the audio comes across from some of the voice actors isn’t quite as consistent as I’d expect. It’s more of a situation where it sounds like one or two of the voice actors weren’t in a room where it was as well padded for sound as needed.

What Works

This is a time looping story, you get that right away in the show. And it uses it to great affect. It reminds me of something like Steins;Gate that way which I really enjoy that one as well. This one has some solid twists on it as well. It feels like it’s telling it’s own unique story as well.

The characters are very solid as well. I think that the main three characters, Shinpei, Ushio, and Mio are all well done. And the supporting character work is very good as well. The story does a good job of building up those supporting characters and while Shinpei and Ushio are the main characters with the most screen time, the rest feel like they impact the story a ton as well. Especially Hizaru is worked well into the story and given a lot to work with for those supporting characters.

Another aspect that I want to touch on is the mythology weaved into the story. I think that it was just great and really fleshed out the island and the superstitions there. I want to say that it gave me a Stephen King type feel in some of what it did with the mythology. Though, it did a better job of building it more and creating something that felt like there was a payoff in the end. While that payoff wasn’t 100% landed, I think it worked really well.

Who is Summer Time Rendering For?

If you like something that is a mystery, mythological, and spooky while still having emotional moments and heart to it, this is a solid show for that. I won’t way it’s a direct comparison, but there are elements of what the story does that remind me of Stranger Things. The question of who knows what is happening and who believes the kids is important to this story. And it also has that unsettling feeling that you get from Stranger Things and Steins;Gate.

My Final Thoughts on Summertime Rendering (Spoilers)

First off, I did really enjoy the show. My issues with it are minor. In particular with the voice work. I think that it was well done, it was just not mixed or recorded quite properly. Though that element of it does give it an unsettling feeling as well. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like there is too much empty space and you can just hear and feel that. Which, in a lot of the ways works with the story.

The Time Travel

Let’s talk about the story as well. The time travel is well done. I said that before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. But it works for the show. And I love how it works. The system is simple enough, Shinpei getting the power makes sense. It is the idea that this is a closed loop in some ways, while the world is still changing in others. The end is always decided but it works because you don’t really feel that until the end.

The fact that Shinpei has to die to reset the loop is great for the story as well. And when Ushio and Hiruko start traveling with him as well, that is an added element to the story. Especially with Hiruko it really ups the tension when we as the viewer start to understand that Hiruko is now so tied into the time loop.

Finally with the time travel, I like how the loop shortens every time. That means that Shinpei becomes more and more limited as to what he can change. When it stays longer, like in Steins;Gate it plays around more with the depressing and hopeless feeling aspect of it. But in Summer Time Rendering with the shortening loop you feel the stress and the tension more as more and more events become locked into place.

The Mythology

Since we’re talking about Hiroku/Haine, I think it’s great to talk about the horror and mythology that the story creates. This idea of these shadow people. Haine creating some to really save the island originally but it not just being that. That now these shadows copy people and are used to replace people is really interesting and horrifying. The tell for if they are are a shadow or not also works really well. The idea that the shadow doesn’t care about the “body” but they don’t want people to touch the shadow is great.

And the idea of Haine and how she came from this other land out of time is interesting as well. This idea that she lived in the ocean for a long time after crashing to Earth and only when she beached herself as a whale did she become a “god” so to speak. But at the same time while she is the god of the island, she is also just a little girl. And seeing those interaction with Hizuru really change how you see Hiroku/Haine.

Final Grade

I really like this type of anime or show. I don’t want to watch the likes of it all the time. But when I’m in the mood I really enjoy something that just leaves me feeling unsettled. And while it ends good with just little fragments and memories and people reconnecting, it doesn’t feel like that’s a big miss from the show. Nor does that make a ton of sense. It’s kind of like how most seasons of Stranger Things end with them “winning”.

And the journey along the way for Summer Time Rendering is just so well done. And, yes, I’m saying it again. The time travel just works so well and it sells me on the show. Another example I could give of this great and unsettling time travel is Dark. Summer Time Rendering isn’t as dark as Dark, but I think there are times it is as unsettling.

My Grade: A-

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Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

It’s a pretty standard Isekai as far as the main elements of the storyline goes. Our protagonist was a nobody in the real world. Due to events in his life he lives basically as a shut in never going out. One of the rare times he goes out he sees that a girl is about to be hit by a truck, pushing her out of the way, he gets hit, dies, and is given another chance in another world.

Being reborn into the other world he starts out as a baby, but a baby with the memories of a man, and well, that leads to some weird situations as he does things that a normal baby and kid wouldn’t do. It also means that he’s able to pick-up on magic in the world surprisingly easy from a young age.

His adventures do follow a plot, which I won’t dive too deep into here. But also track along with his life and his growth as he’s trying shake his past from the real world.

A Bit Too Horny

I made light of this in the beginning, but Mushoku Tensei is a very horny anime. And that does mean fan service. It also means that some of the plots are really led by that idea. It’s a bit of a mess at times because of that. And it can at times detract from the story that the anime is trying to tell. There are some real heartfelt moments in there, some of them even the horny moments.

It is one of those things that is very worth knowing about the anime, though. The first episode really gives the tone for the whole show and it does continue throughout the whole thing. It tones down at times, but like I said, there are plots about horniness or sex in the anime that continue for multiple episodes.

Simplicity of Plot

Another thing to note is that this overall plot is not that complex. They weave in some elements that bring a bigger narrative into it. But even that is not that complex and is not consistently a major part of the show. Mushoku Tensei is almost more of a slice of life adventure anime than a grand epic story. But there is an epic story hanging out in the background. It is just not something that is touched on all that often.

This, I think, makes Mushoku Tensei a good popcorn anime or a good half paying attention anime to watch. If you miss part of an episode, it isn’t that big a deal. If it’s just kind of on in the background, again, not that big a deal. And I like for some anime to slot into that range.

Earnestness of Characters

I say that about the plot and the characters often have pretty simple motivations as well. But the characters are enjoyable, which is important for an anime like this one. If they are annoying, unless that it done with a specific goal in mind, it’s harder to just keep watching.

Because of the earnestness of the characters, you feel for them. Even when they are doing dumb things, or when their main motivation is sex, there is an earnestness about it that makes you want them to succeed at their goals. It isn’t to say that they provide a lot of emotional depth and punches, but more that it just feels good when they succeed. Sometimes that is what you want, especially for the plot type and depth of Mushoku Tensei.

Final Thoughts on Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

This is a fun anime. It reminds me of the level of depth that I expect from something like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. That one has more action and more plot arcs to it, but it’s that lighter fluffier side of things with a nice mix of comedy in it. However, Mushoku Tensei is not going to be one that I highly recommend to people. There are better anime out there to watch.

But, if what you are looking for is a lighter anime to just sit back and enjoy the ride, multitask, and get a fun story, sure, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation does a good job as that time of anime. And when I started watching it, that is what I assumed it would be, and I definitely enjoy it for that. So know what you are getting into, and it’ll probably be a fun time. Also, once I’m done, probably not one that I’ll revisit, but sometimes you just want popcorn, nothing wrong with that.

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The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Plot

Devils are trying to take over the world and the strongest sage, well, he is doing his best to hold them back. But out of the four crests, his is the weakest for combat. When the hordes and threats have been driven back. He takes the opportunity to cast a spell to reincarnate himself to come back stronger with a stronger crest to be able to defeat them once and for all.

That is how Mathias Hildesheimer is born. He is powerful, he has the crest he wants, but he needs to still grow in power and training to get back to the point where he wants to be. However, the world has changed a lot since he was alive before. And now his crest, what he knows to be the strongest is considered to be the crest of failure.

Why It Doesn’t Work

We’re deviating from the normal format. Mainly because I don’t have much good to say about this anime. Visually, I think that it is good, not amazing but certainly not bad. And the voice acting is fine. I think that a lot of the characters are fairly annoying, but the voice acting is acting them as written, not adding to that affect. But otherwise, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is not good.

I guess to say one more nice thing about it, I like the premise, but it flubs it. I’m going to be comparing this to two other anime that I’ve watched, the first being Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and the other Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Came to a Starter Town. Why, because The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest does some things they do, but not as well. It’s more like The Wise Man’s Grandchild.

Mathias Hildesheimer

Let’s start out with the main character. I’ve mentioned that the characters are a bit annoying and he tends to be the worst. Mainly because for him, everything comes easily. There is no struggle with his character. Sometimes he fights a demon that is tougher, but only in the finale and maybe in the finale do you feel like there’s any threat to him. Otherwise he is just over powered.

Mathias always talks about how he needs to become stronger, but he’s already the strongest person alive. It might be true to some extent to get back to his power level, but it doesn’t seem like it’s much lower. In fact, in the finale, he defeats the boss without that much trouble, granted he needs a weapon to do so, but the danger, then feels contrived.

So he shows up to a school to learn and prepare. But he’s stronger than the teachers, he knows things that the teachers don’t know. And generally he just ends up being the teacher for everyone. Characters need a struggle and he has none. I guess his struggle is that he’s kind of clueless with the girl who likes him and he likes. But that also doesn’t make sense, he has his memories of a previously lived life. Was that not a part of his life? And if it wasn’t, why is romance a part of his life now?

The Comparison

So, I said that I was going to compare it to two other things. Let’s start out with the kid from the boonies, Lloyd. This does the same trope in some ways. The kid from the boonies near the last dungeon, you grow up there everything is hard. Monsters are hard to fight because it’s a high level town. So he goes to the starter town and he’s the most powerful. But to him, or for him, he can’t believe it. He doesn’t realize his power. He’s weak in his town, so now when he’s the most powerful, he doesn’t get it.

Compare that to Mathias, he is always the best out there. He knows he’s the best out there. He teaches teachers how to do things that were common place in his original time. Lloyd is struggling to fit into a new town. He’s struggling with realizing his power for what it is. Mathias is just the best there is, and he steps in and runs everything.

Then there is Bell from Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon. Bell is a sweet heart, and someone who wants to get better and stronger. And he does so quite quickly, but there are always people stronger than him. I compare it because both Bell and Mathias are kids, but Bell is learning his powers. His struggle is to get stronger. Mathias never has that struggle. Even though that’s supposed to be part of his character. He is already strong.

The Premise

Finally, let’s talk about the premise, because I do think that it’s interesting, but the show or story misses on it. What happens, as I keep on harping on, is Mathias reincarnates to get a better crest. He does so and it takes a little bit but he regains all his memories. And he is just as strong, or nearly, as he was before, now with a better crest.

The problem, as I keep on coming back to as well, is that there is no character development. He’s instantly the strongest and mostly who he was before. He is just that as a kid. What would have worked better and they keep on hinting at, would be a struggle to get stronger. Have him know he should be better and get frustrated because his body can’t do what it used to do. Let Mathias struggle when he tries to do too much and it fails. Make there be problems for him, not a problem that is always resolved by the end of the episode.

The Comparison

Let’s compare the other premises, this time let’s start with Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and that story. It’s about Bell, who is a low level adventurer under a low level god, trying to improve. He’s always trying to push himself to be better because he wants to catch up to Aiz, one of the strongest adventurers because she saves him and he falls in love with her. But he doesn’t think he’s strong enough for her to even notice him. He has motivation and a struggle.

And with Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Lloyd’s struggle is that he doesn’t know what real life is like. And he doesn’t know how to balance his powers. He is amongst the weakest in his town, but it’s high level. So he struggles with actually being powerful, what his powers can actually do, especially in his town. And he just struggles with what normal life is actually like and the fame that comes with it.

The plot and Mathias in The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, he knows he is the strongest. And everyone treats him like that. He isn’t pushed to be better, it’s just something that automatically happens. And there isn’t much need for him to get better. So he doesn’t have a struggle to improve. And he doesn’t have a struggle of dealing with life. So the motivations for the plot, they just aren’t there. It’s a story that doesn’t give you a good reason as to why it is being told.

Final Thoughts

I am disappointed. Like I talked about in the discussion on the plot, I think that there are elements that could have made a solid story. But those don’t really matter because Mathias is good at everything. And more so because Mathias doesn’t fail. Bell fails. Lloyd fails, though mainly just at life stuff. In both cases neither of them are perfect. Mathias is kind of perfect and he doesn’t fail.

I don’t think that there is a reason to watch this. It reminds me, in some ways, of the stories where the main character is an edge lord. Those are about the viewer or reader kind of getting wish fulfillment of being a bit bad and edgy. Mathias is wish fulfillment for the viewer or reader if they want to be good, but also be the most powerful. And it is a shame, because it could have been more.

Finally, I think a lot of this might be somewhat intentional, which is also disappointing. The plot level of this is very low. The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, feels like it’s trying to target people who are new to anime. However, it does so by dumbing down the story so much and removing all danger it’s a bad story.

To do one last comparison. Harry Potter doesn’t really get in trouble when he does bad stuff. There are fun elements to the story and world, but great writing, it’s not so much that. Versus Keeper of the Lost Cities, it is a constant struggle for Sophie, she gets in a lot of trouble and there are real consequences for her and those around her. I wish it was more like that.

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The Plot of Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

Tomozaki is a high schooler who thinks that life sucks. It’s a lousy game where there’s nothing fun and eventually you die. But Atafami, a Smash Bros like video game, is amazing, in fact he’s the best person in Japan at the game. When the second best player in Japan wants to meet up with him, he agrees. Turns out that it is the most popular person in his class, and she’s not pleased that someone who would be so serious about the game would treat life like a trash game.

She convinces him, not that life isn’t a trash game, but that it’s maybe worth checking out to see if it is. And she also agrees to teach him how to get better at the game of life, level up and gain XP as it were. It’s not easy, but is it going to be worth it for Tomozaki, a bottom-tier character, to try and become a normie?

Anime vs Light Novel

I want to talk about this as an anime and as a light novel. Like I said, I just finished reading the light novel. I think one thing that the book doesn’t do that the show does, is a bit of the fan service. Now, there is fan service in the books with how some things are written. But obviously in a visual medium, they can show more of it whenever they want. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki is not that heavy on fan service, really, but it is there. And in a book it’s easier to gloss over as well as compared to the anime.

The differences though, are minimal at best. Basically everything that happens in the light novels happens in the anime as well. And a lot of things are done word for word. Definitely means that you don’t need to both watch and read it, kind of. I do think, at least for myself, I process things differently when I’m reading versus when I’m watching something. Mainly, you can spend more time on a section while reading, which is one advantage. There are some scenes with Tomozaki and another character, Fuka Kichiku, that go fast in the show and slower in the books, for the better.

What Doesn’t Work?

This section is actually going to be blank. If I were to knock it for anything, it’s that it doesn’t need the fan service in it really. Some of it makes sense as there is a romance element to this story. But there are other times where it’s just weird, but most of the time it’s very simple to overlook.

What Works?

Firstly the characters are amazing in this. I’ve not talked about that many of them, but Tomozaki, Kichiku, Mimimi, Aoi, and the rest of the cast are well done. There are depth to the characters that you don’t see always in anime. But here, it doesn’t shy away from that. And I think the characters for the most part are really well done. You care about them and you see their motivations for what they do, and the motivations make sense. Yes, there are stereotypes but it all progresses the story and as you get to know them you realize that they do have depth.

I also think that the concept is really good. This idea that life is a game isn’t all that unique. But pulling it off where someone is helping a person try and level up is interesting. And just the ways that Aoi goes about getting Tomozaki to level up work. Like, not in a healthy way, but in a way that makes sense. If Aoi sees life as a great game, how does she take how she plays games and impose that on how life and the world works? And telling that story and how that different from how Tomozaki plays Atafami, it’s just well done.

Who Is This For?

I don’t think a lot of anime really transcend anime and go the public. And I don’t think that Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki is one of those, but it is close. I think it’s one that if you can get someone to sit down and watch it. Especially if they like high school shows that are live action, or the young romance type things, that is what Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki is in a lot of ways.

But if you are an anime and light novel fan, I highly recommend this one. I think that most fans will enjoy it.

Final Thoughts on Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

I really like this anime and reading the light novel makes me want to watch it again. It’s an anime that I started then stopped to start and rewatch with my wife because I knew that she’d like it as well. It just tells such a compelling story and that’s not something that happens all the time with anime and light novels. A lot of them tell stories that we’ve already seen or lean into tropes. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki doesn’t avoid that pitfall always, but it’s easy to overlook them.

And I am really excited for when season 2 comes out. There is a whole lot more story, I believe there are 10 light novels. I’ve read three. And while season 1 wraps up the story to a point where it wouldn’t need to continue, I want to continue. Which I think is the way to run a show like this. Wrap it up at a point where it can be done but leave me still wanting more.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this anime and light novel. I do think you can do both and get a different story experience which is great. And when I call it a romance, it’s not a sappy romance, but there is a good amount of romance in it. It also leans into video game culture, high school cliques and life, and more.

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The Plot

Well, you can guess some of the plot, a kid, a weakling in his village, sets out to the big city to become a soldier. Of course, his town isn’t a normal town, it’s a little town out by the last dungeon, the hardest one to beat, and he’s going to a big town that is basically a starter town in an MMORPG. Now, I say MMORPG, this world isn’t one. He wants to join the military to become a hero like from a book he loved growing up. Hijinks ensue as he gets turned away even though he is more powerful than anyone in the town.

Of course, being a bit clueless doesn’t help the main character, Lloyd Belladona navigate the city any better. He has to deal with being a bit clueless as well as then people out to get him. Eventually some of the things start falling into place for him to reach his goal, but will he ever not be clueless?

What Type of Anime Is This?

It is a straight up fantasy anime that also is a harem anime. If you aren’t familiar with the term harem anime, it means that the main character is surrounded by female characters. Much like Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, has a main character who is clueless about that fact. Lloyd Belladona being inferior and a weakling in his own town thinks that is going to be the case everywhere.

However, being a harem anime, that does mean that there is some fan service. Now, I will say, for being a harem anime, the fan service is a bit tamer than a lot of them. There is no nudity, because while the anime does make some jokes around that and the main character does see a few characters naked, the anime kind of targets a younger audience.

What Doesn’t Work?

This isn’t a earth shattering anime when it comes storytelling. I won’t put it as a major negative however. It does some fun things in terms of who is or isn’t a bad guy. The clueless Lloyd is fun. The humor works in it, but again, it’s more targeted for that younger audience.

What Works?

I like that the anime doesn’t do the normal heroes journey. Lloyd is fully powered up when he comes to the starter town. Compared to other anime like this where the hero grows in power, always able to just defeat the next challenge, Lloyd stomps everything. Lloyd is only weak in his head. This twist makes the show feel different.

I also like the trope of the clueless main character. Harem anime are very common, however, a lot of them just feel sketchy. Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town doesn’t feel like that. Instead, you get a sweet caring character who just wants to do right. Lloyd has little to no idea as to what is going on around him.

The bad guys work as well in this anime. I don’t think it’s a massive twist as to who the bad guys are, but it is a bit of one. The twists of the world are done well also, so you get an understanding of what is going on. But really, this anime is about the goofiness and humor throughout it. And that works for an anime with a clueless main character.

Would I Recommend It?

That’s a good question. I think that it’s a fun anime and that a lot of people will enjoy it. I don’t know that a lot of people will love it though. The story is fine, the characters are fun, and it works for what it is trying to do. I prefer Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon. However, this one does flip the script and skips the leveling up, which was a fun experience. So, yes, I would recommend this, but know that you will see a light romping anime, versus a heavier more serious anime.

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The Story

There is a giant dungeon in the middle of the town of Orario. It’s a place where adventurers can go and test themselves and grow their stats. However, you don’t get stats and you can’t become an adventurer unless you are part of a familia. These familia are headed up by gods and goddesses who have come down from the heaven to interact with their children. Bell Cranel is one such adventurer who can only find one god who will work with him, the goddess Hestia, because he is too small and doesn’t look like a normal adventurer. Hestia, also doesn’t look like a normal god and doesn’t have a familia of her own until she brings Bell into the fold. Bell, in the dungeon, encounters Ais Wallenstein, a top level adventurer from the Loki familia when she saves him from a minotaur and he falls for her. This makes Hestia very jealous but grants Bell a skill which allows him to level up quickly.

The Show

Season 1 vs Season 2

So, there are a few things to cover with how this show goes. Let’s start with the first two seasons, since that is what I’ve seen. There is a big tonal shift between the two seasons. The first season is all about Hestia and Bell and how Bell is growing into a hero. The second season focuses more on how the gods interact with each other and I’m not really sure we end up going into the dungeon at all. It is a bit jarring, and while there are parts of it that are still well done, it feels much more scattered in focus, which is a shame, because the first season left more to be explored in the dungeon and with Bell growing. I’m not sure if season three is more focused or not, but I will check it out when it’s dubbed. Season 2 also leans more into the fan service in a different way, I’ll talk about that later.

Sub vs Dub

Before watching the dubbed version of the show recently, I have watched the subbed version as well. The dubbed version is better between the two of them. However, I wanted to watch the subbed version and will likely continue with that in Season 3 now that I’ve watched dubbed because I am working from home, so I can put it on in the background. The dubbed voice acting is good for some characters, but for others is a bit stiff, which is a shame.

Fan Service

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is what is known as a harem anime. along with other things. Bell Cranel basically ends up surrounded for the most part by girls. However, he’s more of a clueless leader of the harem versus some anime where characters seem to realize that girls love him. Bell really only has eyes for Ais (pronounced the same) and a lot of the other girls have eyes for Bell. Hestia in particular wants Bell all to herself. And there is fan service because of that, Hestia wears small clothing and is buxom and the same can be said for other goddesses and adventurers as well. In the first season, there is a lot of fan service, but it’s done in a way that really highlights how Bell is such a pure character and only has his focus on Ais. In the second season, we delve into a story arc with Ishtar who runs the redlight distract of Orario and it is much more on display there in a way that is very different than season one. I felt like that arc really pushed it over the top in a way that it didn’t need to.

The Story

But with all of those things, is the story good. Season 1 is one of my favorite anime seasons of all time. They just do a great job of creating this main character who is so focused on becoming the best adventurer and becoming the strongest or catching up to Ais so he is worth her attention. And the interplay between Hestia, the other gods, and Bell is really good. The second season, like I’ve said before, loses some of that focus as the story expands. And the story jumps around a bit more. Now, the first arc in season two is quite good with the Apollo familia, but the subsequent two are less interesting. I want to spend more time in the dungeon and I want more of Bell and Ais, and Hestia complaining about Ais. I hope that season three, whether or not we go back to the dungeon feels like a more cohesive story.

Who Should Watch This Anime?

I do have some final thoughts on this. I have talked about how there is a fair amount of fan service. For that reason, Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? won’t be for everyone. I’ve enjoyed both of my watches of it, though, like I said, the second season wasn’t as good. I think that even with the fan service most anime fans will like season one. The anime has a heavy LitRPG type feel to it, and tells a good story in season one. If that season is just fine, then I’d skip season two. I’m not sure that I’ll ever go back and watch season two again, though I might depending on if more comes out for the anime and I feel like I need to catch up. But season one is good, season two drops off.

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The story starts with a young business man dying, and then being reborn in a fantasy world. There, he is raised as the grandson of Merlin Wolford. He learns about magic but not so much about common sense. When Shin, the grandchild, turns 15, the king of Earlshide recommends that Shin be sent to the magic school there to learn more about magic and maybe something about common sense.

Let me start by saying, this is an anime of two halves. The first half is a pretty traditional anime with an isekai. Shin knows that something is different and he can visualize magic in a different way because of what he knew from being science on Earth. The second half is something completely different. It goes off into an adventure of romance, fan service, and just being poorly written plus a weird storyline for the kingdom of Earlshide being under attack, and okay villains? It’s been a bit since I saw this, mainly because Kristen also wrote something up for Twin Cities Geek and you can see her article here.

I think that the story starts out with a fairly standard idea, they don’t really delve into the fact that he knows stuff from the Earth, and really that thread it kind of thrown away throughout the anime as it becomes less focused on that and more on the team of heroes being built up, some training montages, and fan service. Again, I think I’ll probably beat this part of it to death, they go off and spend time training, doing things that aren’t related to the fact that this team is probably the most powerful group of magic users in the land, more so than then trained adults, and they go off and have a training session because people dying isn’t that big a deal and because they wanted to. It loses the tone of the anime a lot.

The Wise Man’s Grandchild also lacks in character development. Merlin sends Shin to learn because he doesn’t have any common sense. In the end, Shin has maybe a tiny bit more common sense but not much. To put it in something like D&D terms, if Shin has a 6 in Wisdom to start, which is really bad and is a -2 modifier, he is maybe at 8 which is still a -1. He gets by on being able to manipulate magic with his knowledge of science. And the people he’s around don’t get much smarter either or have arcs of their own. This story could have done a lot with Shin learning and becoming a good leader, but that wasn’t needed simply because he’s always more powerful. There are other anime that have used that powerful trope well and they still have to learn, because as Uncle Ben would say, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

So, I’ve mentioned fan service, I’ve mentioned the story, I’ve mentioned the characters, do I recommend this anime. Nope, I don’t think it’s a good anime. If you were to stop half way through you’d have equally as good a story be just fine but nothing special. In terms of isekai there are so many anime out there that are better in the genre. The Devil is a Part-Timer, Overlord, No Game No Life, Sword Art Online, and Restaurant To Another World, and I don’t even love all of those. The Wise Man’s Grandchild is just a so so anime at the start and a below average one at the end. I’d skip it i I were you.

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Soma has worked with his dad at their little family diner his whole life. People love his dad’s food and his cooking as well and his dad is always pushing him to be better. Than one day Soma’s dad just leaves to go help a friend with his restaurant and tells Soma to transfer in and go study at Engestu Teahouse Culinary Academy, a top and fancy school in Japan. The problem for Soma is that he’s a transfer student and everyone else has come up through the ranks, so will his humble cooking background help him or get him into trouble?

Obviously, it’s going to get him into trouble, this is a completely absurd anime after all. He comes in with a brash and confident attitude not knowing what he doesn’t know. But that is kind of the charm of the show, it’s about Soma, who is an amazing cook but who will work harder than anyone else just to improve. He won’t let something stop him, he’ll instead spend the time and effort and be able to think on his feet better than everyone else. It’s an anime, so that’s not really a spoiler for it, it’s how most anime stories go. It’s how it makes its twists and turns work well and how they can have Soma struggle but also not just overcome everything instantly after he’s struggled.

The rest of the characters help make the show as well. You have a wide variety of students that are definitely stereotypes of what you’d expect to find in a very fancy school. It has a nice ensemble cast for it with Soma obviously being the lead, but there being a good number of other characters who fill in around him. Now, it does take on a slightly harem anime feel to it, but compared to a lot of anime that delve into that genre, this one doesn’t spend nearly as much time on that, and you have a much better diversity of male and female characters.

Now that I have mentioned that, I would be remiss to not mention that this anime has a lot of fan service. The whole idea of the food is that it’s so tasty and intriguing that it brings one to ecstasy which is shown in a lot of fan service. Now, again not just the female characters but the male characters as well. It does however, focus more on the female characters and there is more fan service from the female characters beyond that as well. I don’t appreciate the level that it is taken to at points, there is always a scene or two per episode, sometimes more, and they can just drag on a little bit, but I don’t feel like it ruins the anime, it eventually becomes something you gloss over while watching it.

Instead, I think this show stands more on the premise of it. The story is actually enjoyable, and it is interesting to see battles surrounding food which are almost edited like the style of Dragon Ball Z at times where a battle can take two episodes (or more), and in here you get that as well with intense cooking competitions. So it’s interesting to see the same trope that is fairly common for anime used in such a different way. And the arcs are good and interesting. You get to see character growth from a lot of characters, not just the main ones, and new characters are added in good ways to help drive the main story forward and the main character forward. Plus there is a lot of interesting and tasty looking food.

Overall, this anime isn’t going to be for everyone. I found it a ton of fun through two seasons, which is how much is up on Netflix right now. And the dub is very good for the anime. But there is a lot of fan service, and that will not be for everyone, and for good reason. I think that there’s a good enough show for me to get around it, but that is something that is on the edge for me. The food is fun and the whole show is very interesting. So if you’re an anime fan, it’s one to checkout, not a good jumping in point though.

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So in Sword Art Online, we get introduced to Battle of Bullets, a player versus player and eventually a free for all last man standing tournament. Now, we have an eccentric millionaire/billionaire who has decided that they want to spend their money to create a team version of that, and that’s where we hop in. Karen, her real world name, hasn’t ever felt like she’s fit in, mainly because she’s so tall. A friend of hers tells her that in online gaming she can be anyone she wants to be and so she starts trying out various VR games, and all of them make her tall, except eventually when she hits GGO. There, she’s a really fast little character with a machine gun. She meets a mysterious character, Pitohui, in game name. She seems pretty easy going, all about shooting things and always up for the next thing, but there’s something off about her. Karen and Pitohui are going to enter this tournament but Pitohui has a conflict and gets another one of her friends, simply known as M to team up with Karen.

That’s the basics of the story without getting into spoiler level details. I feel like this show is lacking a bunch in plot. Now, I’m a tall person, and I standout in crowds depending on where I am, and I can understand for some people why it would be a big deal, but also as driving factor for Karen’s character motivations and actions, it’s a little bit weak. Compare this to season 2 of SAO, the main character in GGO there is someone who is trying to overcome a fear of guns after having to kill someone in self defense as a child and going to PTSD whenever she interacts with a gun or an image of a gun in real life. And she’s found that in GGO it feels different and hoping it’ll help her overcome some of that trauma. That, compared to being tall. Now, not to dismiss the bullying and everything that can go on with that in real life, but for the stakes of the show, it feels lacking.

The other things is the character of Pitohui. She’s this awesome fighter who has a bit of an eccentric personality. Who she is in real life is supposed to be a mystery, it isn’t. And her motivations are again a bit weird. This is going to have some spoilers coming up here, so you’ve been warned, I won’t give away home she is outside of the game though. Her biggest motivation is that she’s trying to find danger and excitement in a game. All because she was supposed to have gone into SAO when it launched but hadn’t been able to, and once she realized it was a death game, she wanted to even more so. There are obviously people who do things because of the adrenaline rush that are dangerous, but her idea is to find a game that’ll give her the same feeling, and because of Death Gun from SAO season 2, she’s decided on GGO. I think that this could have been done more interesting, make it a more subtle part of her character that slowly unfolds over time, but you get it quite quickly, that tied together with the other “twist” doesn’t work all that well.

Finally, I think that the story as a whole is lacking. The characters aren’t as interesting and the plot feels like it’s been vastly simplified. The motivations are weaker, the character development is slower, and the stakes feel so much lower throughout, even with Pitohui’s death wish. I think with SAO they were able to delve more into the psychology of people and what makes them tick as well as some simpler plot lines, and in GGO they want to do that, but everything is done on more of a simpler laid out level than it was in SAO. With that, they are also trying to be clever about stuff and just not managing to pull it off. M, this really mysterious character, turns out to be kind of a bust in real life and a cliche when he’s finally brought in that way. They try and have a number of twists or more shocking moments, but overall it’s too telegraphed and nothing really feels surprising about it. It also tries to pack the story with more action than SAO did, and that was part of the charm of SAO, you got to see a few boss fights or a few fights that really mattered, but not all of them, here we have multiple episodes that stretch over the tournaments and they try and do some plot in them, but it’s mainly action.

So, you can see that I’m down on this. I wouldn’t say that it’s horrible, it’s just lacking. They had a lot of things they could have done with the story, character developments that they could have had, but instead it’s more your typical anime where it doesn’t handle anything with finesse, it’s just simplified down. Would I recommend checking it out, not really, again, it’s just lacking. Will you be upset that you watched it, probably not, it does have a few moments, but it doesn’t feel like there’s all that much going on, so good background noise type of anime, in my opinion.

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