Assassins Pride / First Impressions / Series Introduction

「暗殺者の慈悲」 (Ansatsusha no Jihi)
“Mercy of an Assassin”

With fall season now in full swing it’s time to start delving into the fun stuff. Well, at least if your name isn’t Assassins Pride. Personally I’m not sure if this one will ultimately count as one of the cool kids anytime soon considering opinions going and what we’ve seen so far, but it’s hard denying there’s quite a bit of gleam underlying that rough exterior. If there was ever a slow burner of the season we’re looking at right here.

At face value Assassins Pride is relatively straightforward. We’ve got our usual fantasy setting of magic and big evil doing evil things alongside the resident monsters while the rough and tumble protagonist does the usual in the pursuit of, well, the usual. Except it’s not really the usual and the fantasy is going places. It doesn’t take much to see the similarities between this one and Clockwork Planet when it comes to world setting for example (city state in a light fixture? Why yes I’ll have all that please), while magic is interestingly restricted to the nobility. This in part is the premise of the entire story, as our main girl Melida (Kusunoki Tomori) lacks that magical touch and thus has been called out as an unwanted imposter, a girl fit only to drag her family’s name down—something demanding immediate correction. The task fell to our main man Kufa (Ono Yuki) to execute, but as we all know stiff upper lip and cute face has an uncanny way of making even the most hardassed guy into a total buttercup. Yes, it has absolutely nothing to do with that perfectly flat washboard, I swear.

The interesting part with Assassins Pride though is what it’s not showing. It’s hard denying for example that promo material had Kufa and Melida looking awfully like Kirito and Asuna Mk. II, with basic premise not helping matters. It’s very good then (at least if you didn’t want that) neither of these two play towards those archetypes and instead stay relatively unique. Melida for example may be pure helpless girl for anything other than escaping from cousins (at least for now), but her gritty determination and refusal to give in definitely gives her a place all her own, while Kufa, barring magic prowess, never really breaks into Kirito territory—hell the guy reminds me more of Mahouka’s Magic Jesus Tatsuya than Kirito if appearances are all there is to it. Still early days yet mind you, but there’s plenty of room for our main cast to grow and develop into reasonably complex characters, especially when combined with the intriguing cat and mouse thriller aspect governing how Kufa will be approaching and dealing with this relationship.

It may be unclear just how Assassins Pride will unfold from here, but with plenty of things to discover and two interesting characters on hand you can bet this one won’t prove boring in the slightest.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「異人たちの時間」 (Ijin-tachi no Jikan) by Melida Angel (Tomori Kusunoki)

Preview

19 Comments

  2. Effectively, Kufa forced his _own_ Mana into Melida. Like starting a car with another car’s battery.

    It’s a bit sad that they rushed through the original so much. In the LN and Manga, doing this was a desperate final gamble, since training hard alone didn’t yield any effect. It is heavily implied that Melida simply doesn’t POSSESS mana capabilities. Kufa tried to force his own mana into her, and Melida almost died (he estimated her chance of survival to be 70% before she said yes), but she pulled through.

    It was actually a pretty touching scene – Kufa was staying at her bed the entire night while she was fighting the effects of the potion, and when he awoke, he saw her outside in the garden playing with her newfound ability. Completely killed in the anime. I’m not quite happy about this.

    Anyway, Kufa and Melida are completely different from Kirito/Asuna. Mahouka comes a bit closer, but still doesn’t really match. They’re unique characters in their own right 🙂

    Mentar
    Reply

    1. Oh wow I heard they slashed quite a bit from the start, but not that much. Adapting that would have significantly changed how both Kufa and Melida would’ve been seen, particularly regarding Kufa’s actions. Kind of disappointed they didn’t adapt that section to be honest lol.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  4. Is there anyone beside me old enough to recall Zero no Tsukaima for all these nobility with magic shenanigans, magically challenged but otherwise competent heroine without assets, generic quasi European aesthetic and ridiculous names?

    Perithron
    Reply

    1. When you put it like that I do see the connection, though Saito would’ve been a lot happier if Melida had abducted him instead of Louise.

      I also doubt Melida is going to have even that easy of a life…

      Aex
      Reply

  6. A bit of worldsetting missing from the 1st ep:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    zztop
    Reply

  11. Cold hearted Assassin to chivalrous knight in 20 minutes flat

    I dunno. the whole thing just came off very cliche to me. I’m still somewhat curious about the world so maybe I’ll give it another ep

    hjerry2000
    Reply

  12. -A mix of butler-assassin character and another damsel-in-a-(denial-of-)distress and that should “kill” some time to be enjoyable.
    -Hearing “my little lady” just reminds me of “small lady” from Sailormoon… it’s not offensive only lacks imagination?

    random viewer
    Reply

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