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「強い相棒と賢い相棒」 (Tsuyoi Aibou to Kashikoi Aibou)
“Strong Partner and Smart Partner!”
And all is well that ends well. Unless you happen to be Grimm of course – warm tootsies in high summer are the worst. Yes, Sentouin mostly did as expected in its final act: Russell was defeated, the kingdom was saved, and Six and Alice are free to start doing as evil organization adventurers do and build a harem conquer the world. I’d delve into the intricacies of Tigerman going full lolicon (and I mean fully – that knock you hear is the FBI outside), Alice proving she’s an android first and foremost, or the fun of Destroyer and Chunchunmaru cameos, but I say the results speak for themselves. Sentouin did as Sentouin does and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Now onto those impressions!
Final Impressions
Sentouin is a funny series to look back on in hindsight. While undeniably separate and unique, it’s also a series coloured by the likes of Konosuba and Kemono Michi courtesy of sharing the same author. It’s fun, it works pretty well, but it’s also something I think whose strength relies heavily on what one watched previously. In short, a true and honest comedy with plenty of opinions to go around.
The big selling point of Sentouin in my opinion is its premise. Pairing an isekai setting with satirical evil corporation is simple comedy gold: everything from evil acts to quintessential isekai tropes and over the top characters can feature, mash together, and yield experiences different enough from the norm to be relatively unique. Natsume’s love and skill in parody and character creation arguably helps matters too, as everyone from Six to Snow, Grimm to Alice shows just how wacky and crazy you can make the main players while still keeping things relatively restrained. No matter how simple comedy may seem it in practice it can be stubbornly difficult to get it working right at times. Sentouin is easily one of the examples which keeps the engine going.
Conversely (and paradoxically), however, is how Sentouin stumbles in relation to that same humour. I don’t think it’s too controversial to say for how funny I found Sentouin that Konosuba still has it beat: Six for all his ribaldry has nothing on Kazuma, the Konosuba girls are still in a league of their own, and the Konosuba premise all but writes its own jokes. Admittedly a lot of this comes down to time (Snow, Grimm, and Rose for example only have one season’s worth of development versus two cours and a movie for Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin) and how better grounded this series is – i.e. more real-world focus – but I also think familiarity unfortunately didn’t do Sentouin any favours. Many who come to Sentouin will have seen Konosuba, and plenty will start comparing the two once their connection is discovered; it’s unfair to treat Sentouin with the same light, yet for better or worse that’s what is going to happen. While impossible to say how much better Sentouin would be seen without Konosuba as a reference, one definitely needs to be able to try and separate the two to arguably get the most enjoyment here.
Overall though, regardless of comparisons or other writing spiel, I think Sentouin did everything it had to. Plenty of laughs were had, every week was always looked forward to, and I’m quite happy I chose to pick this one up for coverage. It may not be the next great isekai comedy masterpiece, but Sentouin will certainly meet the needs of anyone out for a bit of lighthearted alternate world humour. And hey, who knows, we might even be fortunate to see a sequel to it in the not-too-distant future.
hot g/f https://randomc.net/image/Sentouin%20Hakenshimasu/Sentouin%20Hakenshimasu%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2038.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Sentouin%20Hakenshimasu/Sentouin%20Hakenshimasu%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
So hot, she could actually burn you to the ground. XD
This felt like a throwback to those old 90’s fantasy comedy animes like Slayers. Definitely has a crazy quality to it.
Slayers is actually a pretty apt comparison, if one slightly better in terms of PG13 humour 😛
Ah yes, the harem. One wants to be eaten, one wants to eat him and Snow is, well, Snow. If only Alice was…. No. Six should really start with Heine. XD
Heine deserves the good ending, she’s too pure at heart once you get through that demonic exterior XD
Heine is definitely pretty special. Best demon since Haqua. She should work on developing a good poker face though, if she’s gonna keep interacting with Six, although her lack of one is a signifcant part of her appeal.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. I know there is a lot of commentary comparing this show with KonoSuba (for the obvious reasons) but while they’re both misfit comedies, this show doesn’t really compare well. The characters here lack depth and just aren’t as charming as Axel’s young women are, nor are the relationships as well thought out. Plus, the Kisaragi ‘out’ only sort of works. After a while, it becomes uninteresting when the gang gets into deep trouble but they don’t have to worry because they can just spend evil points (even if they don’t have any).
That all said, I looked forward to each episode and enjoyed the show.
No. 6: “Why are you fiddling around with my underwear while I’m asleep? Are you curious about my giant wiener? Is that it?”
Alice: “I’m not interested in your Chunchunmaru. I was taking care of your body waste.”
No. 6: “Don’t call it Chunchunmaru!”
Could have been worse, Six… At least Alice had the decency not to doodle on your privates like Megumin did with Kazuma while he was unconscious.
Random thoughts:
– I know Kisaragi was the one that teleported an entire effing arsenal to No. 6, but that still reminds me of the old days where an anime character could store an entire arsenal (or a giant mallet) in some sort of subspace.
– Holy s**t, so Kisaragi has its own line of combat mecha?! (And it totally doesn’t resemble the Mobile Fortress Destroyer, I swear! /s) Though with Alice mentioning that she needed heavy machinery to assemble it (while No. 6 bought time by keeping Russell occupied), I’m gonna guess that ancient temple/ruins/giant mecha base had its own functional machinery used for maintaining that ancient mecha (the one Russell is using) and could possibly be used to assemble a new one. (Shame the rest of the mecha battle was an offscreen moment of awesome, though from what I could infer from Alice at the end, she was the Char to Russell’s Amuro, except Char won and actually had competent backup–for lack of a better description/comparison.)
“I’d delve into the intricacies of Tigerman going full lolicon (and I mean fully – that knock you hear is the FBI outside)…”
– This episode outright revealed that Russell’s a boy, so it’s more on the shotacon/otoko no ko side of things. Also, seeing Tigerman try to have his way with Russell reminded me of Kaiyari‘s resident “Cannon Hero”/depraved homosexual. (Ugh. Glad that Tigerman was content with making Russell wear a cute maid dress.)
– That younger-looking white-haired girl… Is she the actual Demon Lord? (The one Heine and the other Elite Four actually reports to?)
– Belial actually acting the part of a dominatrix… No face reveals from the “Chosen Hero” and Faustless of the Wind? Guess they’re saving that for next season.
– Oh God, Grimm’s “Ah***o(-like) face“… XD
– Gotta admire No. 6’s dedication to his (new) goal, though.
Final impressions:
NGL, KonoSuba was one of the funniest and funnest (if that’s even a word) anime I’ve ever watched in a while. So upon first hearing about Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! from The Anime Man, learning it was from the same author as KonoSuba and reading the manga version of the series, I was happy that Sentouin contained what made KonoSuba funny (and fun) in the first place: A crazy yet colorful cast of characters, excellently written mood whiplash, and a good amount of humor that fearlessly crosses the line twice. (Having Kemono Michi sputter out as it did may have also influenced why I wanted to see an anime adaptation of Sentouin.)
But looking back, KonoSuba really was a tough act to follow, and it’s understandable if one feels that Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! still pales in comparison to the former. That’s not to say Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! wasn’t funny and/or fun to watch–there’s still a fair amount of enjoyment to be had. And I’m pretty satisfied with it so far…at least until the itch for a new story arc (and a new season) becomes unbearable.
For now, I’m wondering if the manga version just got updated at the usual sites (if only to see whether it has new scenes or a new story arc, or whether it’s simply season 1 in manga form). That or check out the English dub (and maybe the Blu-Ray version of the episodes later on).
P.S.: And yes, there’s already an off-brand doujin (with translation) where Six plunges his Chunchunmaru into Heine’s sheath. (360473) ;^)
Yeah, it had its funny moment, particularly the “party trick” was a memorable piece of comedy. In fact I enjoyed it more than Kemono Michi. Could have done without the toilet humor though that was also on display in the final episode. Something that I dislike in “Full Dive” as well which btw. is a worse show in every aspect, so good job on skipping that one.
Now give me another season of Konosuba or Cautious Hero.
Thanks for the coverage.
It’s definitely better than Kemono Michi, although for me I disliked that one mostly as the wrestling premise never really clicked. And agreed regarding Full Dive, Sentouin had the similar taste in humour, but it wasn’t excessive with it and fit it in during appropriate moments; Full Dive was just down and dirty with no breaks. I admit I got some laughs out of it, but it wasn’t something I thought needed writing about weekly.