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It was surprisingly hard to get all six characters in one shot. |
Endro~! is the kind of anime-original heroic fantasy series you’d think Studio Gokumi would make, when they’re not making a hard swerve into despair ala Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. It’s fluffy, it’s funny, its art is all pastels. Its characters are relentlessly cheery, and its overall outlook is optimistic. It’s adventuring with all the corners sanded off, all the blood sanitized away, and everyone happy at the end of the day. It’s fantasy adventure meets slice-of-life, with the world only ostensibly in the balance.
That’s a good show! Director Kaori—who directed Yuyushiki before this, which had sharper comedic timing but was very much in the vein of what Endro~! ended up being—did the moment-to-moment comedy stuff well, the show was pretty, the seiyuu were overly-chirpy (but that’s what was asked of them), it all worked. That would have been a solid B series … but what we got was a B+ series, maybe an A- depending on your preferences. And that leap all came down to how the series managed characters and growth.
Yes, B to B+ isn’t a large leap. This series is still what it is. But it’s better than it could have easily been.
The key is Mao-chan-sensei. She wasn’t the only character done well—I appreciated how much time was actually spent on Rona-hime, who could have been a one-note princess/fan girl/stalker joke character, but actual time was spent on exploring and humanizing her, even if she never grew much beyond a two-note character. (That’s better than one!) And the Hero Party girls all had their quirks and personalities, but they stayed largely static throughout the series, mostly because they lost their memories until halfway through episode 11, which means they didn’t have much room to grow until then. But they did by the end, coming to a new conclusion about how to interact with the Demon Lord by the end that they didn’t come to in their previous life. Chibi-chan was even a decently applied chekhov’s gun, since she never appeared in the prologue of episode one, though there was still a fair bit of get-out-of-jail-free feeling to her.
It was Mao-chan-sensei, though, who got all the growth. Who went from trying toi destroy the heroes, to revealing her loneliness, to panicking about losing her cushy new life, to throwing it all away to defend Meigo in the final episodes. Where Yuusha is the heart of the story, Mao-chan-sensei is the soul, for it was her who experienced most of the growth and change. And yes, Kuno Misaki is voicing her with her patented stuffy loli voice, which will annoy some. But you know what? She did the actual acting well, Mao-chan-sensei came across as endearing and loveable and intensely lonely, so cheers to all involved sez I. Her portrayal, and the added depth (however limited) to the other characters didn’t elevate the series much, but it did elevate it some.
Endro~! was a pleasant little series that gets low-key touching by the end. If you’re down for some fantasy slice-of-life, you could do a whole lot worse than Endro~!.
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I’ll admit, I found Endro much more entertaining than I thought going into the series. Yeah, a few episodes were misses, but Quest/JRPG parodies definitely made the series fun. Story-wise, it was very predictable, but in my opinion, well executed. I’ve seen much worse. It helps to have an all-star cast of voice actors. If anything, it was a warm-fuzzy series that falls under the cute girls doing cute things genre with endearing moments sprinkled here and there.
Overall, Endro was a great series to put on after a long work week and just relax to.
Are you sure you would classify Chibi-chan as Chekov’s gun? Chibi-chan was more of a Deus Ex Machina element if you ask me.
Ugh, meant to say Dragon Quest
I ain’t going to get into too many quibbles about the trope definitions, because dats boring. I called Chibi-chan a chekhov’s gun because she was place on the proverbial mantle—she was introduced way earlier—and, after the way she swallowed that evil god and also how Meigo-chan was acting very un-golem-like after being spat out, it all retroactively makes sense that she’d have the powers she does. Not enough to make it something most of us could possibly anticipate had we given it the thought, but it wasn’t a total asspull at least.
The show really was a hidden gem. A nice unwind anime to relax with.
Also in regards to the picture, the girls demand to know why didn’t you watch our show this season!!!
It was a hidden gem. More then a few LOL moments each week. I especially liked Mei and her obsession with Cartado.
I give it an try
I only saw the last episode:
It is nice and comfy. and Fantasy Slice of Life that do not take itself very seriously. If you need something “sweet and sugar and want fantasy on the top” then you got right with this anime
The Demon Lord Fever episode is a classic, IMHO!
Things got a little muddled in the middle episodes, but the
last two episodes were strong with the spirit of the series.
This is why dubs should be outlawed. No way could an English
dub evar truly capture that VA’s spirit and character.
Her VA was one of the strong points of the entire series.
I thought it was funnt that her “true” form was the loli and
not the other way around…
Gonna miss this silly series.
Everything about the art to the characters in this show hit the right points for me and the last episode had multiple moments that made me laugh. Anime of the season for me and I’m certainly going to miss it
Y’all aren’t the only ones to be thinking that this was a good one: there’s a surprising amount of depth to Endro! despite its fluffy and easy-go-lucky manner, as well. All this in mind, despair and grimdark is garbage if there’s no higher purpose to it, and Endro! shows that a series can do just fine, even excel, without it.