「伝説の撃墜王」 (Densetsu no Gekitsui-ou)
“The Legendary Ace”

Ah Plunderer, it’s funny intro’ing this right now when I probably could’ve back in early December (episode previews for the win! Or something like that), but school work is hard and I’m incredibly lazy so here we are now enjoying the latest anime titillation. I know this one will be splitting opinions hard and frankly it’s not hard seeing why, because when you lead off with the lewd, it only goes downhill from there.

As indicated back in the RC Preview, Plunderer is a straight take from the once prevalent action-fantasy script. We have a world of cookie cutter misfits wrapped up in a world changing plot whose truth may be currently hidden from us, but whose reach is definitely not underemphasized. For Plunderer the key of it all are Counts, numbers located somewhere on your body (giggidty) which represent a specific action or event. Do things which meet that action (e.g. walk a certain distance) and your Count goes up, fail to do so (or do something opposite) and your Count goes down. Count goes to zero? Well it’s tentacle evil hand to the Abyss time. Anyone with a modicum of anime experience can tell you where this is going overall, and that’s before we get to the matter of Count-based social standings and special duels for reapportioning Counts between people. Is someone, somewhere, abusing this system with the intent on monopolizing power and control? You can bet on it.

The inevitable crack in this system of course lies in our girl Hina (Honnizumi Rina) out to find the legendary Ace (or Baron) and her helpful savior—and wholesale pervertLicht (Nakajima Yoshiki) who just so happens to be more important than initially apparent. Both these characters are completely sticking with their respective tropes, although Licht will definitely be the more divisive considering he takes the usual “comedic relief” and ratchets it up to attempted rape. While this archetype usually mellows out as the story gets going and we learn who the true villains are, Licht definitely is at risk of wearing out his welcome before then considering the intensity of his nature and the cutie pie wholesomeness Hina is evidently aiming for. Is it enough to completely ruin the show? Not necessarily, though Plunderer arguably leaned too hard on intended humour over substance in its introduction.

I expect things will balance out once we get into the explanation of Ballot Holders and white stars and Hina’s role in it all next time, but Plunderer certainly is a bit of wait and see. It’s got everything needed to stand out from the crowd, but needs some glue to tie it all together. Just have to find out what next week brings.

OP Sequence

OP: 「PLUNDERER」 by Miku Itou

Preview

21 Comments

    1. How about 1 billion? Mark my words for that’s a number we’ll see near the end of series whether it’s the anime or manga. Still hoping this is just the 1st set of 2-cour like Rising Shield Hero, Fruits Basket, for example. But I’m watching this despite the feeling of an ominous anime pacing of 2nd half because of Jail Murdoch. In truth, he’s one of the best supporting characters that he becomes a scene stealer of the series given his conviction’s emotional strength is an iron fist (literally) that only punches the bad guys and knock full sense of his comrades.

      RK
    1. I’m betting there will be 1 billion at end of the series (whether it’s the manga or here). But let’s not get our hopes for this anime adaptation. After all, I still can’t get over Tokyo Ghoul’s disastrous mistake…

      RK
  1. I spoiled myself looking at the later chaps & boy! The author could’ve started with a bit of shadow-foretelling: blood drippong down from a long sword & young-looking people looking at the swordsman horrified while looking batterred as if they got slashed many times.

    In any case, I hope non-manga & too serious viewers don’t give up after this episode because it will really get Re: Zeroed (term for looking obnoxious/ridiculous bland humor when in fact is hiding the bloody darkness beneath) in later episodes. I’m not kidding especially when you thought the timeline in this episode is medieval.

    RK
  2. I really couldn’t get into this. The segments of Licht getting his ass beat were unfunny & Hina’s multiple segments of people pretty much sexually harassing her (from Licht & Davi). Even if some of the time he was trying to look at her number, I feel like her number even being there was just so you could have more fanservice. This was just awkward to watch and feels so dated.

    Misa
  3. Checked this out because I saw tentacles. So, really not miffed by Licht’s perverseness. But really ended up questioning why is everyone trying to get in between Hina’s legs. Couldn’t be all about those numbers right?

    For a moment I really thought Licht increases his number by getting beat up. Better to get it from the ladies right? Good incentive to do all that pervy stuff too. Didn’t notice he had a negative number that time.

    Speaking of numbers, aren’t they a little unfair? It’s possible for them to go down, but it’s near impossible for people like Hina. The cook makes a bad meal and her number goes down, the one that walks just need to walk. Both of them can lose numbers if tricked to a wager.

    theirs
    1. Yes and yes! Unfortunately the recent episode (https://randomc.net/2020/01/22/plunderer-03/) got many people (based on the reviews I read on Reddit) put off by the Hero not having any redeeming qualities and the female side character is just too stupid to distinguish between creepy love and consensual love. Then again, this is an ecchi genre and the author is male.

      Not that all men are shameless perverts, but this was categorized in a shounen manga magazine so if non-manga/anime fans are judgmental that the male readers are the kind society must reject them, then I’m hoping there’ll be some comments from some male readers/viewers that they too are uncomfortable with the fanservice.

      I’m still surprised it’s manga series still moved on forward without getting axed because year 2016 was changing the whole world’s view on consent. Anyways what right I have as I’m contradicting myself because I’m one of those patient people who’s still waiting to watch the future episodes for those (ahem!) ugly history.

      RK
      1. So far, a male reviewer has criticized the fanservice which proves that not all real-life men agree with the sexual harassment jokes (even if it’s featured in an ecchi anime): https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/plunderer/episode-3/.155691

        Also correction: the movement started to gain momentum in 2017 (not 2016; apologies for my fact-checking mistake)

        But to be clear, I don’t personally hate the author. Not that I forgive him that he started his manga in a misogynistic manner, but I can’t help but love the character development I the later chaps; I guess he learned his lesson that in his later volumes, the female characters aren’t sexual objects and they become more complex with their beliefs in what is justice; well there are some moments that involved with sexual jokes so I just hope the anime won’t feature them since they can cut or change that suits the viewers but I guess I have to keep being patient and hope some of those gags are cut down for comfort viewing.

        RK
  4. To clarify, this should be under the tag: Romance / Action / Comedy / Drama / Apocalypse /

    Then for the people who are into romance, Yes, he picks a specific girl, is this a harem? partial, but there will be a lot of pairings later on.

    Is it isekai? This is something you should watch if you’re into this 😀

    Red

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