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[series:4872#628] | ||||||
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(Eight episodes watched): You can guess where this is going, as I did. A mysterious masked solo adventurer, who has come to be known as 'The Executioner', shows up and makes short work of the Hellflame Dragon using remarkable skills and a secret weapon. This is the basic joke at the heart of this comedy isekai series. Problem is, it didn't strike me as all that funny. In order to be funny, something has got to make sense in an unexpected way. But a lot of things about this premise don't make sense. Where did Alina, a bureaucrat, acquire fantastic skills and a priceless magical weapon? How is she able to crush a supposedly almost indestructible 'relic' with her bare hand? She must have somehow gotten ahold of a 'Dia skill', a divinely bestowed super-ability. But how would an office worker who emphasizes that she wants nothing but to be free to enjoy herself when off the clock do that? And if she could, wouldn't she make far more money as an adventurer (or simply by selling the weapon) than she does at the guild? It is a joke which is only funny if you don't think too much. But, Alina is likable, and I sort of wonder where the story will go from here, so I'll probably watch episode two. The artwork of this show is definitely better than average. In episode two a jerk adventurer puts Alina in monetary trouble, and the head of the adventurers guild figures out the connection between her and The Executioner (as the silver-haired guy did in episode one). Yet something was definitely missing from this show. I felt neither excited nor particularly amused by the unfolding story. I guess this series was meant to be primarily a comedy but it just isn't all that funny. I can't think of any jokes that made me do anything more than smile while watching the episode. Nevertheless I watched episode three for the sake of the plot. Alina wins a bet with the guild leader who promises to leave her alone. But the discovery of an all new dungeon promises to swamp her with paperwork and overtime, so she agrees just this once to join the esteemed Silver Sword adventuring team to go check this place out and stabilize the situation. Another jerk adventurer creates a problem and as much as she would like to relax, Alina knows that her fellow adventurers are liable to wind up in deep trouble without her. One thing that is definitely unusual about this show is that the main and strongest character is a girl. Usually Isekai series go to great pains to keep the girls subordinate to the guys. What happens in episode four was pretty easy to predict: The three members of the Silver Sword adventuring party find themselves completely outclassed by a 'Dark God' they encounter, but Alina rescues them. In isekai series in general I think the system of Ranks kills a lot of potential excitement; the rules are that a D-ranked adventurer would be a fool to challenge a C-ranked one, since it would be almost impossible to beat him. But in the real world capablities are not so widely spread and pure luck plays a major part. Anyway, Alina is looking forward to then upcoming 'Centennial Festival', but someone has been spreading rumors of an artifact that bestows Dia skills. These rumors have caused a surge of adventuring and likewise the paperwork that goes with them, and this threatens Alina's time off. It seemed to me that the basic premise was getting a little tired, and I had little idea just where the main plot was going--like, what is the main conflict, or won't there be one? Alina joins the Silver Swords to search for the rumor mongers and they catch one of them, Aiden, who turns out to be someone pink-haired Lululee knows. The bad guys seem to believe that this story isn't just a rumor at all, and maybe they are right (but why are they taking the trouble to act as missionaries for it?). When I started watching episode seven I found that I had largely forgotten what had happened in episode six a week before. Lululee is troubled by Aiden's accusation of her being a 'murderer', though it seems her sin was simply failing to heal injured party members fast enough to keep them from dying. Alina enjoys day one of the festival until some idiot interupts it with a magic attack on the crowd. She learns that Aiden's still-at-large compatriots are trying to awaken a 'Dark God', which can't be good, so she reluctantly agrees to help put an end to this plot rather than remain at the festival. In a dungeon they see 'Heinz' do just as he had planned, though this Dark God does not have the frightening look one would expect. Also, something about a 'special quest'. I was somewhat confused about just what was going on, or maybe I should say about why the author chose it as part of the story. Episode eight is mainly about the fight between Silver Sword and these two twins. Lululee plays an important part and becomes convinced that she's not a murderer after all. I, however, was confused and somewhat apathetic. Last updated Tuesday, March 11 2025. Created Friday, January 24 2025. | ||||||||
