Three More Fantasy Series — First Impressions

The flood of new fantasy anime continues this season, no fewer than three debuting today. Because I don’t have too much to say about any of them, I thought I’d tackle them all in one post.

Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku Shidai

An overworked accountant is accidentally caught up in the summoning of the Holy Maiden — a Japanese high school girl — and sets out to work for the royal accounting department. Hard to break the workaholic habits of his old life, he quickly finds himself knee deep in trouble, trying to solve the department’s inadequacies as the eye of the ambitious prime minister falls on him… A solid first episode, but to call the animation and character design ‘adequate’ is to over praise it. This is a series I’d only watch for the plot, to see how our hero tackles his workaholicsm as well as the economical and political problems he wants to fix. There’s also a bit of unresolved (romantic?) tension between him and the head of the Third Royal Guards, the improbably named Indolark.

Maou no Musume wa Yasashi Sugiru!!

the Demon Lord Ahriman has a problem, one big enough to stop his world conquest: his daughter Doux is just too, well, . To fix her and have her become a cruel demon worthy of being his daughter, he puts her in the care of his right hand demon, Jahi, who vows to turn her into a respectable demon. At first she believes the Demon Lord was just too soft on his daughter, but it quickly turns out she has bitten off than she can chew, as Doux’s kindness was something she was born with and worse, rubs up on everybody she comes into contact with… How much you’ll like this show depends on how much you’ll like Doux’s voice, as it’s a very particular kind of little girl cuteness. Most of the fun is in seeing Yahi dealing with Doux stubborn, innocent refusal to not be kind and how frustrated she gets with it.

Yuusha Party ni Kawaii Ko ga Ita node, Kokuhaku shitemita

Yoki is isekaied into a fantasy world about to be overrun by a demon lord. As you might expect, he’s overpowered, as you might not expect, he’s just another mini boss of the Demon Lord, the first the Hero Party will face. He quickly overpowers them but then finds out their healer, Cecilia, is just his type and falls in love immediately. After a few months of the Hero and his party getting defeated over and over again he makes a deal: he will let them through if they leave Cecilia behind, so he can confess his love. He does so but she turns him down (what do you expect from cornering a woman you’ve been fighting for so long) as the Hero finally defeats the Demon Lord. Now he’s an adventurer but Cecilia is worried that his great strength will make him a pawn in the new power struggle to fill the political vacuum the death of the demon lord left behind… Okay animation but a bit of a slog to get through this first episode leaves me unsure whether I want to watch more of this.

While watching these three series I realised I’d read at least some of the manga version of all of them, but none of them left much of an impression. Of the three, Maou no Musume wa Yasashi Sugiru is the one I most like to watch more of. There are enough good series coming out this season that I don’t really feel the need to watch mediocre ones just because they’re mildly entertaining or I’m curious what’ll happen next.