First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「TIT FOR TAT」by MYTH & ROID

「この勇者が傲慢すぎる」 (Kono yuusha ga goumansugiru)
“This Hero is too Arrogant”

With lazy summer days now over and fall thoroughly in full swing (did I mention it snowed here? Because it just finished snowing here *sad face*), it’s time for yet another season of anime and oh boy are we starting things in style—alternate world style. In case the RC Preview wasn’t clear enough it’s isekai ahoy for the next little while, and what better way of bringing in yet more wish fulfillment than with the best variety of all. Gentleman, say hello to Shinchou Yuusha.

The first thing to note about Shinchou Yuusha is that’s it’s all comedy with nothing in between. We start off for example with the usual goddess/priestess summoning a hero from another world to help save a different one, with the guy naturally coming from Japan because reasons. Except we’ve got no ordinary goddess, and the hero is, shall we say, less than ordinary. It doesn’t take much after all to realize our main girl Listarte (Toyosaki Aki) is both a) scheming; and b) useless, with a healthy dose of Konosuba Aqua-isms to really ram home the point (and damn does Toyosaki Aki deserve some praise for that voice acting). All she cares about is moving up the heavenly ranks and doesn’t care which hero slaves away helps her with the task so long as it’s quick and painless. Then we got hero Ryuuguuin Seiya (Umehara Yuuichirou) who takes all the usual male MC tropes—and thoroughly trashes them. OP powers and the fame and fortune of saving the world? Not worth the effort for this guy, because apparently even with all that strength the dangers are many and death barely a stone’s throw away. Or, well, something like that.

Beyond characters and their banter/chemistry however, the key for Shinchou Yuusha (and likely its main selling point) will likely be its overall parodies. This episode alone for example had us hilariously go from self-aware poking at isekai popularity in Japan to outright smirking at the genre’s propensity to featuring only Japanese protagonists (which to be fair is entirely expected for Japanese works). Even Seiya bucks the trend of isekai male protagonists by not only having a rational (if over the top) stoic personality with zero sh*ts given, but featuring one hell of a physical figure and mindset to boot. Don’t expect this guy to be the new Kazuma to Listarte’s Aqua, we’re dealing with a wholly different (anti)hero archetype here. While currently unclear how well the comedy will keep working or how fresh it will remain after a few more episodes (I imagine Seiya and Listarte in both personality and actions could start quickly wearing on some people’s nerves), considering we’re already facing down demon girls capable of physically crushing Seiya (and useless goddesses), I imagine there’s plenty of entertainment yet to come before this one is through.

Shinchou Yuusha may not wind up being the next Konosuba when all is said and done, but you certainly don’t need to look further this season for your next big comedy fix.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「be perfect, plz!」by Riko Azuna

30 Comments

  2. Source LN author mentions in their afterwords that Seiya is modeled on RPG players who take the max-out grinding approach to gameplay (ie. those who max out their stats as much as possible before doing game quests).

    Also, Seiya’s personality and Rista as the POV main character appears to be a parody of webnovel isekai story-writing conventions; where the summoned hero MC is usually described as an average-looking/built nice guy (better for reader self-insert) who serves as reader POV, and the summoning goddess as the enigmatic entity who may have a longer game in mind.

    Here, the goddess is the eager if naive open book who’s the POV; Seiya’s the attractive but rudely paranoid hero who we know little about personally.

    zztop
    Reply

  4. The humor comes not so much from the hero being overly cautions (not paranoid, because you can’t be paranoid if they really are after you), but people’s “WTF” reaction to the hero, especially Listarte.

    LoliHat
    Reply

    1. Oh yeah it’s going to come down hard to the nature of Listarte and Seiya. I don’t know yet how well it will work over time though because both due to personality will be divisive, and the second their chemistry/actions grow stale the whole thing starts cracking. Will be an interesting watch that’s for sure haha.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  5. https://randomc.net/image/Shinchou%20Yuusha/Shinchou%20Yuusha%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
    Listarte: “Suzuki… Yamada… Sasaki… Satou…”
    Me: “Last one currently being handled by a certain useless water goddess.”

    https://randomc.net/image/Shinchou%20Yuusha/Shinchou%20Yuusha%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    So does this make her the equivalent of Iudex Gundyr from Dark Souls 3? “Nothing but weak monsters” my arse, Chaos Machina’s dangerously genre savvy! Also, I could’ve sworn I’ve seen this “Four Generals” setup before… Ah, from Sentouin, Hakenshimasu!/Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (Or was it Gurren Lagann?) As for the seiyuu followers, did I just hear Chiaki Takahashi?

    https://randomc.net/image/Shinchou%20Yuusha/Shinchou%20Yuusha%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2038.jpg
    Ah, I see Seiya is a proponent of the “Joestar Family Secret Technique”… (Nigerundayo!) XD On a different note, I can’t help but still hear Seiya as the titular Goblin Slayer. Heck, Seiya also has moments of crazy preparedness, too–like in choosing to buy three sets of armor or stocking up on multiple items.

    Other thoughts:
    – I can’t help but wonder whether Listarte being assigned to Gaeabrande (an S-Rank difficulty world in need of saving) is actually a plot by other gods/goddesses to get rid of her. (Kinda like how the gods/goddesses in KonoSuba allowed Kazuma to take Aqua.)
    – And I thought the starter town would (again) look like the one in KonoSuba (and Kenja no Mago, and Isekai Cheat Magician). But it looks more like a town from last season’s MILFsekaiOkaSuki.
    – Using high-level skills on a mook monster… Overkill much? (Also, just one of those skills is already equivalent to Megumin’s Explosion spell!)
    – From friendless Yunyun to exasperated goddess Listarte… (Toyosaki-san, gambare!)

    If the MYTH & ROID intro didn’t already give it away, Shinchou Yuusha is a Kadokawa-produced work. By that metric, it’s already another shoo-in for Isekai Quartet season 2 (man, the cast for the next season is gonna be big). After wanting to see OkaSuki‘s Medhi bully Aqua, now I also want to see a competition between Listarte and Aqua to see who’s the most useless goddess. Anyway…Shinchou Yuusha is gonna be interesting.

    Incognito
    Reply

      1. @Dude: Even when Yuuichirou Umehara’s not playing Goblin Slayer, some Goblin Slayer-esque quirks still show up in Seiya. (Crazy-preparedness, buying a sizeable stock of useful items, and making sure an enemy is dead.)

        Incognito
        Reply

  6. I guess I’m in the minority for disliking the humor, huh.

    Maybe my expectations are part of the problem. When I first saw the title, I was hoping for an extremely analytic schemer whose dedication lets him resolve situations no one else could imagine solutions for, saving his true strength as a trump card. Instead, I got a rude misanthrope with no concept of how caution can apply to human relationships too, and no interest in asking questions or learning anything. And horny Aqua.

    Player
    Reply

    1. Aqua in heat? Sign me up for that show. This world needs more of the best goddess.

      As with some others here, I feel that the comedy well could run dry quickly so they do need to figure out how they’re going to develop the show or it will turn into something one-dimensional. But I’m willing to cut them some slack while they set things up. And while I thought Toyosaki did a good job with carrying the load, I don’t think they can keep that up indefinitely.

      Mockman
      Reply

    2. Don’t worry about the humour, it’s going to be love or hate just due to its nature. Personally I got quite a few laughs out of this episode, but I can see why plenty would be turned off byn it, and that’s before we get into any issues with longevity and creativity. This one will be heavily dependent on execution and we won’t get a full read of that for a few episodes yet.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  7. I’ve been let down by a lot of Isekai shows and luckily this season has some that are promising, and this one is is possibly going to be my favorite out of the bunch. I Loved everything about the first episode, from the comedy to those facial expression and even the animation was great, but what really sold me was Seiya, not just for being overly hilarious but…. well for those muscles as well, definitely eye candy ^///^ Will be sticking around for this cautious ride lol

    https://randomc.net/image/Shinchou%20Yuusha/Shinchou%20Yuusha%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2039.jpg

    KisaChan
    Reply

    1. Hah I can see why, it’s not often girls get such a male isekai MC in both form and mindset to fawn over 😛

      And oh yes the facial expressions are perfection, Listarte already has too many reaction image worthy faces and we haven’t even hit episode two!

      Pancakes
      Reply

  8. It’ll be interesting. The comedy will wear thin after a while
    because there’s only so many gags that you can do with the premise.
    But it’ll be interesting to see of they can parley the characters
    in the way KonoSuba did with its characters, where the characters’
    faults became an asset in their own unique way.

    When he ran at the end of the episode, it seems like that was really
    the best move even though it was presented as a gag. So maybe his
    overly cautiousness will allow progression in the S ranked world.

    Toyosaki Aki’s amazing voice acting makes the episode so far, we’ll
    see if this can hold my attention for 12 episodes. Good start though…

    mac65
    Reply

    1. The comedy will wear thin after a while because there’s only so many gags that you can do with the premise.

      And this isn’t the only isekai show this season that’s going to have that issue. I guess there are just too many of the damn things these days so they are going for more and more bizarre USPs (Masked Pervert, I’m looking at you).

      https://randomc.net/image/Shinchou%20Yuusha/Shinchou%20Yuusha%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2037.jpg
      Is that “MP” for Mammary Points?

      Angelus
      Reply

      1. To be fair it was a natural progression. When all the low lying fruit has been claimed you have to try for the next easiest ones, and Konosuba pretty much showed that isekai parodies, satire, and otherwise ridiculous mashups are still a largely untapped field.

        Pancakes
        Reply

  13. I’m surprised he didn’t point out that the Goddess is likely immune to poison thus making her eat it as proof is pointless for poison detection. This hero is gonna die if he keeps slacking off like that.

    Also… is that you Neeba? (Tower of Druaga)

    Goodwill
    Reply

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