|
|
||||||||||
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent |
 Stretch
|
[series:4521#628] | ||||||
|
(All episodes watched): Why do the Gods like to design alternate realities to be so much like real world video games? My impression after watching episode one was that this show made little attempt to hide the fact that it is video game based, but that it managed to be fairly fun nevertheless. You are sort of being taught how to play similar games, which was kind of interesting. The bit about Goddess Melfina being flattered by Kelvin and therefore humoring him and basically being the voice of his game menu was sort of fun. Apparently he traded his memory for extra skills--I had had no idea you could do that. As usual Kelvin is an awesome magician, a 'summoner' in fact, which are very rare and sought after. He notices a blond half-elf slave girl who will pretty obviously wind up in his possession before long, much like the situation in the concurrently running Isekai Meikyuu de Harem o. It looks like the two of them and the red-haired girl abouve will form an adventuring party/harem or something similar. Kelvin summons his first servant, a light blue silly looking but dangerous bouncing slime named Clotho. For whatever reason I enjoyed episode one despite all the generic touches and look forward to more of this story. Contrary to what I was expecting, there is no additional mention of the half-elf in episode two and instead Kelvin recruits the heavily armored guy in the illustration above, Gerard, a 'Ghost Knight' or something like that. His abilities as a Summoner make this possible. His party is already pretty formidable, with himself, Clotho, and now Gerard as well. Gerard has a sort of a vendetta against some sorceror who once screwed him and the King he served over. I thought episode two was OK but not as much fun as episode one. Efil, the half-elf, is finally purchased by Kelvin in episode three. She is curiously grateful to have a new owner, almost as if she had been granted her freedom. I hope she won't be a tough female fighter yet be utterly submissive to him (that really turns guys on, apparently). Leo, the head of the adventurer's guild, has figured out that Kelvin is a Summoner but will keep that secret to himself if Kelvin occasionally handles difficult tasks for him. In episode five Kelvin and his team fight the dungeon 'boss' Victor. Victor starts off seeming utterly evil but with time it becomes clear that he was fighting for an understandable goal and you can almost feel sorry for him. In fact, it gets to the point where I found myself wondering why it was necessary to kill him at all. And also why the red-haired Sera (I think), whose bodyguard he was, doesn't mind teaming up with the people who took him down. Kelvin seems to treat life in this world as little more than a game, and tricks four 'heroes' into fighting him just so that he can test his skills and strengths against theirs. It must be just a game, because in the real world the swords that are being swung could easily kill him instantly if he made the slightest miscalculation (or he might accidentally kill someone who he has no real grievance against). But it just goes without saying that nobody good is going to get killed or seriously injured here. The lecture Kelvin gives his opponents was questionable at best. We are indeed fortunate that we don't live in a world like this one, where might makes right and only the strong survive. While watching episode eight the thought occurred to me that there didn't seem to be one overarching conflict to this show--like, 'will they defeat great villain ___'? The story seems to be mainly about Kelvin assembling a first-rate adventuring party. There are some lesser plot strands, like Gerard's desire for justice/revenge against the group that once wronged him. Melfina grants Kelvin the power to summon 'heroes' from other worlds (much like she did regarding him), and he uses it to recruit one more fighting girl. He has reservations about yanking someone out of their present life into a new one, but finds a way around this problem. Melfina does hint that there might be a seriously big problem on the way which Kelvin's team will be needed to defeat. Namely, there's another country that has been doing bad stuff, like kidnapping elves for sale as slaves. Kelvin and his team is given the job of investigating and taking down a S class monster as well. I was not thrilled by the results. The whole story is clearly far from finished at the end of episode twelve--indeed, it ends with the postscript 'The story continues'. I suppose I would not mind watching a second season; though nothing is radically original, there are unusual touches and the characters are likable. Last updated Thursday, October 12 2023. Created Tuesday, July 19 2022. | ||||||||
