「工作員、派遣します!」 (Kousakuin, Hakenshimasu!)
“Spies Will Be Dispatched!”

Gentlemen (and ladies), say hello to explosions. Mystical explosions. Magical explosions. I cannot believe they’re not Megumin explosions. Or, you know, the next logical step for Konosuba-esque isekai. That’s right, Sentouin Hakenshimasu is now here to grace us with its comedic presence, and just as suspected in the RC Preview, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Per the preview linked above, Sentouin at heart is simple: evil organization conquers the world, and rather than rest on its laurels, sends off its best and brightest to continue the adventure on other worlds. Literally. It’s pretty much a “real world” isekai in the sense the poor and unfortunate (and thoroughly perverted) Agent Six (Shirai Yuusuke) and loli cutie pie android Alice (Tomita Miyu) don’t really have a way home after getting teleported into the great blue yonder, but the likes of Zvezda and Overlord are I think very good comparisons for this premise. For Sentouin it’s not so much about any alternate world shenanigans as much as the comedy which can be derived from it.

In terms of specifics as well, Sentouin shouldn’t prove too surprising. Besides Agent Six pulling the mature Kazuma route (if dick festivals count as mature) and being perfectly – and hilariously – foiled by the deadpan, wholly uncaring, and totally not Terminator Nep Nep Alice, the evil organization Kisaragi is typical Akatsuki Natsume in being outrageously over the top. Well, at least if you don’t count clothing. How does one acquire Evil Points and obtain items in exchange for them so far from home in a device no one knows works? Beats me, but you can never go wrong trusting monocled pipsqueaks with a taste for the dramatic – 100% success rates guarantee it. As long as you keep the childhood friend far away from the controls of course.

And as for the world Six and Alice find themselves in, well, let’s just say this is where the fun begins. Besides the fantasy trappings courtesy of paint by numbers medieval kingdom and local wildlife that all but hint towards pulling a reverse “saving the world” trope out of this conquest hat, we also have some pretty blatant suggestions pointing towards this fantasy running closer to reality than expected. Tanks; magical mechanical water boxes; the inability of the kingdom’s finest to use magic; I’m half expecting at some point for the situation on this particular world to turn into some ridiculous (yet hilarious) version of Stellaris primitive enlightenment gone wrong. Which wouldn’t disappoint me in the slightest. Considering who actually runs the kingdom and lead knight Snow’s (Kikuchi Sayaka) open embrace of predatory capitalism, something tells me there’s lots of comedy to derive if things go that route.

While Sentouin is unlikely to appeal to everyone given the humour at work and isekai trappings, this one is definitely worthy of some attention if you need a laugh or two this season. No idea if I’ll wind up covering it yet, but without a doubt I’m down to seeing just what the next couple of episodes bring.

 

Preview

22 Comments

  1. This show is what happens when you take the concept behind KonaSuba and Kemono Michi, ramp up the degeneracy to eleven, and then add a kilo of crack cocaine.

    I look forward to many, many more “evil points” being obtained.

    1. Probably the first 2-4 same as other adaptations, with chopping determining the exact amount. I don’t think anyone is expecting this to leave off on anything other than a cliffhanger or anime-original ending.

  2. Every creator generally has series he’s good at making, and series he’s bad at making, but usually the series creator is bad at making does not get an anime adaptation, especially adaptation that gets hyped up with promos. This should not have been made, instead we could have had another season of Konosuba, but no, i guess we have this burning pile of leftovers.

    MONSTER
    1. To be fair the reason this got an adaptation, just like Kemono Michi, is that Konosuba wound up being so damn popular. Also don’t think we’re not going to get a third season of Konosuba, it’s just a matter of time before that happens.

      1. Its weird how studios continue to make shows which sell like garbage but ignore hugely successful ones. You’d think studios would be lining up to produce more seasons of something like Konosuba which broke 10k a volume at retail, but apparently not. Very weird.

        Not trying to sound negative but I’m sure you’re aware of the large number of shows every season which sell sub 1000 units at retail, some of which may only sell 300-500 lol.

        Lyfe
  3. Waited for the anime version of Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! for two fricking years. And it’s finally here.

    Short impressions:
    – Astaroth and Belial… Textbook “Evil is sexy”. That being said, the implied sexual tension between No. 6 and Astaroth is simply…*chef’s kiss*…delicious.
    – Guess I can think of Agent No. 6 as a grown-up “Corpo Kazuma.” (With cyberware and other combat implants, to boot!)
    – Casting Miyu Tomita (Gabriel, Crimvael, Mitori Kouzaku) as snarky android girl Alice was spot-on. (Though hearing Alice refer to herself as “high-spec” immediately reminded me of Roboco-san.)
    – They even used Megumin’s “Explosion” leitmotif for that shout-out?! Even better!

    Agent No. 6: “D**k Festival!”
    Me: “Woo! Yeah baby! That’s what I’ve been waiting for!”

    Definitely wasn’t disappointed by the premiere–Akatsuki-sensei‘s brand of humor, those reaction faces, and even a bit of fanservice–nothing amiss. Looking forward to (best girl) Grimm and how she’s voiced by Minami Takahashi next episode (seeing her in the preview was nice, though). And one last thing…

    “♪ Chichi chichi oppai, boing boing! (Boing boing!) ♬” (Well, got Parco Folgore’s legendary ear worm stuck in my head thanks to a brave pettan memer/s**tposter who made a parody video featuring the Hololive Board Memb–)

    *A monstrous, death metal-sounding, yet feminine “NEEEEEEEEEEEE!” could be heard from a distance*

    YAB– *OFFLINE*

    Incognito
      1. I was excited to see the “D**k Festival” scene animated ever since Joey (The Anime Man) mentioned the line in the audiobook recording for Bookwalker (and upon reading the scene in the manga). It’s Akatsuki-sensei‘s brand of “crossing the line twice” humor that really hooks me in–at least when it hits the bullseye. (Looking at Hataage! Kemono Michi, but it can be argued that they released Kemono Michi as an anime first to make Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! look better. That and/or Kemono Michi had more content to animate than Sentouin at the time, but enough digression.)

        I only stopped reading the Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! manga at the last upload in 2019, but I guess I’ll be doing some re-reading now that there’s new translated chapters uploaded.

        Incognito
  4. It was funny, but this first episode didn’t reach the hilarity levels of Konosuba.
    The “Explosion” joke didn’t work for me, as it was too obviously *haha, laugh now* in your face.
    Konosuba funny faces are hilarious, while these here…not so much.
    Agent six has yet to show that he’s a match for Kazuma, this includes the voice actor performance.
    So yeah, I’m a bit disappointed as I had hoped to laugh more. Hopefully, the next episode will turn it around for me.

    boingman
    1. It’ll likely turn out similar to Kemono Michi IMO, a show that should ideally be judged independent of related works, but one which will unfortunately be compared to them at every opportunity.

      Personally I’ll be satisfied if this one can keep the comedy decent and characters fun, but we’ll need a few more episodes to get a better read on that.

  5. I agree. Everyone has been saying that if you like konosuba you will enjoy this. Well thats not the case for me, I laughed once. I couldn’t stop laughing during konosuba.

    HighGuard
  6. 100% success rate guaranty indeed.

    Still not as hilarious as Konosuba, but at least Agent 6 still gets his just deserts, unlike Kemono Michi. I think it’s rather unfair to compare them, though it’s probably inevitable.

    A few observations:
    – Agent Six’s arm defrosted rather quickly while walking to that teleportation device.
    -Requiring weekly reports is rather strange since it seems like the three leaders can just watch it on the monitor.
    -Japanese is interpreted as bla-bla-bla by the locals?

    Of course the point that almost slipped by after seeing Belial’s rear end. Is it actually possible that the one way to stop the evil organisation from taking over the world is by ratting them out to their parents?

    theirs
  7. The first episode didn’t leave me a great impression, I’ll continue watching but it’s not funny as Konosuba.
    The male lead is kinda annoying and his voice doesn’t fit at all the character imho.

    Chris

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