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[series:4817#628] | ||||||
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(Rent- or Watch+) (All episodes watched): At one point during episode one I said to myself 'Ah, I think I see where this is going--another tale of a lowly adventurer who stumbles upon a way to level up rapidly'. A player's dream, basically. In several ways this reminded me of the premise of Solo Leveling--a minor adventurer is granted a fantastic opportunity and rather than being transferred to another world, another world has come to ours. Except here the story has a silly tack (I LOL'd at the scene of Kaito posing with the 'gun' he uses to hunt slimes). I thought at first that Kaito was simply playing a videogame, and could log out at any time, but it turns out that these dungeons are quite real and are closely regulated (with electronic surveillance systems, for one thing). Kaito has a female neighbor, Katsuragi, who frowns upon dungeon exploring though her father was a well-known one until he disappeared. Sylphy turns out to be midget sized but powerful (though her power doesn't come without cost). Definitely not as complex and intriguing as Solo Leveling, but I decided to watch episode two as well. It looks like Kaito will acquire a second 'servant' girl, this one with a demon motiff, and perhaps have a small harem. In episode two Kaito, since he now has a powerful escort, dares to venture further into the dungeon than he has at any time since his first attempt ended badly. And indeed he finds a second Servant Card. The latest member of his harem is Luceria, a demon girl who is arrogant, demanding and irreverent in complete contrast to Sylphy. I noticed that I was not getting any major surprises from the plot of this show; pretty much the usual 'Numerous girls accept a position subordinate to you so you must be pretty awesome' theme, though here it is handled in a sort of goofy manner which may be what most pleases me and keeps me watching. The character that most interested me, at least at this point, is Katsuragi, as I wondered why she had been included and appeared fairly often. What will happen when she finds out what Kaito has been up to? Supported by Sylphy and Yumeria, Kaito manages to level up fairly quickly and dares to enter floors that he had never tried before. The teller at the adventurers guild is surprised at the valuable artifacts that this previously hapless guy is now trading in. He is offered a chance to briefly join a team for a special quest, and finds it consists of three girls he had met once before, Airi, Miku and Hikari. Kaito manages to make himself useful to these experienced, wealthy and hot adventurers, and they offer him a place in their team. He is torn between this opportunity and his servants and reaches a compromise. While he had hoped to keep 'Sylf' and 'Yume' a secret from the girls, the team finds itself in a desperate situation that demands that Kaito summon them. Team leader Airi and the others find them to be both their saviors and incredibly cute. The plot of this show was not delivering any really surprising twists, and I wondered at one point what the justification for continuing to watch was, but again it must be the silly, goofy tone and the OK humor. At one point during episode seven my father happened to enter the room and I was embarassed by the silly, juvenile show I was watching. During that episode Kaito, Katsuragi and his two friends go to a recruiting event at Airi's prestigious school. Miku and Hikari are there too, and some of what Kaito has been trying to keep secret from Katsuragi about his antics in the dungeon leaks. Also, all three of these girls notice strange feelings they hold about him. Sylf and Yume were barely mentioned during this episode, but they play a key role in episode eight. The adventuring team encounters an unexpectedly strong opponent and again the two girls are needed to save them. This fellow, Bellia, has been appearing in the OP sequence since the start (I had figured he'd probably be saved for the climactic episode) and is defeated but he, too, winds up subordinate to Kaito (though he seems to take on an almost completely different personality). That was a bit of a surprise in a plot that otherwise doesn't hold many. More real-world time in episode nine, namely a study session at Airi's place. Also we get an idea of what Bellia is capable of. I had little idea what climax, if any, this show would reach. It is much more comedy than drama, after all. About the only conflict that remains is what would happen if Katsuragi learned to what extent Kaito has been decieving her about his antics in the dungeon. 'Hikarin' collapses at the end of episode nine and we learn that she has a serious illness which only Miku knew about. They had hoped to find a fabulous 'elixir' in the dungeon which can supposedly cure any illness, if it exists at all. The others pledge to help. Not exactly a novel plot twist, but whatever. I cracked up at Yume's comment to Bellia--"To hell with you!"--who she sees as upstaging her. Kaito drives himself to the absolute limit of his strength in search of the elixir, and has a close call when he's 'stampeded' by warthog-like monsters. In the final episode he finally comes clean with Katsuragi about what he's been up to, but since he's currently trying to help her new friend she doesn't mind too much. She gives him an idea--an idea which didn't make a whole lot of sense to me--about how the elixir might be obtained. Anybody can become a hero if they are fantastically lucky. Surprisingly, in the end Hikarin's problem is only partially solved, and Katsuragi's father is still missing, which suggests a second season might come along someday, though for now there's no sign of it. Nevertheless, for some reason I thoroughly enjoyed this show and almost always looked forward to another episode. Perhaps it was because there wasn't all that much sex and violence and instead it was largely about the friendship among the characters. Last updated Wednesday, October 23 2024. Created Thursday, July 25 2024. | ||||||||
