Halfway Point: Hagure Yuusha no Estetica

I didn't read the manga before the anime before this one, just to get a sense of what it's like for the pure-anime viewers.

I regretted doing that. I want to read the manga/LN as quickly as possible before I get madder at this series than I did at Horizon.

Also, the studio for this, Arms Corporation, is a relatively small studio that has worked with Rin Shin in, and I quote, "several productions which have an above average amount of fanservice".

sigh

NO. NOT MAVERICK. HE IS NOT JOHN MCCAIN. ROGUE. ROOOOOOOGUUUUEEEEEE.

The graphics. The proportions are pretty good, if a bit nondescript. The animations are decent though, as expected from a modern series that involves regular fighting. Overall, I had nothing to dislike about it. The eyes and duller colors are slightly resemblent of those in Steins;Gate. The lines are still a bit fuzzy though.

Neither the ED or the OP are very interesting. By that I mean the standard, composers-don't-care-about-creative-melodies, guitar + husky female voice song. I didn't bother to search their names. That should tell you enough about them.

The plot...

...sigh...

No gold coins

No shits given

The background (should you not be familiar with it already) is as follows: there are two worlds - one world in which random kids get sucked into and meet their Digimon partners gain supernatural powers (btw, this world is fantasy-based; castles and maids and shit, you know the whole deal - just in case you cared to know. The anime certainly doesn't care), and the other world where everything is normal Earth/Japan but slightly more futuristic. Everybody from the first world that manages to make it BACK to the second world after getting sucked in gets to keep their powers. Of course, everybody with these powers just has to gather at an academy where the powerful huehue and the weak QQ. The students are even sorted into different classes according to power level, Baka to Test style. The protagonist (Ousawa Akatsuki), fortunately, is a cool baller, has superpowers, and rumors surround him that he is "the true hero" and the "Supreme King".

HERO OF HEROES

I like this idea of having the hero be relatively powerful at first and then seeing how he hustles shit with his power. It's certainly much more interesting than "herp herp I'm weak Bleach main protagonist" into "derp derp I defeat God with my sword". In fact, this idea was more or less the saving grace of the few series that it was implemented into - the series most similar to Hagure Yuusha that comes to mind is probably Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou.

In fact, these two shows are actually almost identical to each other - the protagonist is gung-ho and powerful, prophesized to rule the world, gains a harem, wrecks a lot of shit that he shouldn't, gives little to no shits in terms of collateral damage (unless they're his friends GRAAAAAAARGGGHHHHHHHHHH) and fights the big bad evil organization (COCOON in Hagure Yuusha, CIM08 in Ichiban Ushiro). He has a pretty girl sidekick that has colorful hair and can do useful magic and is probably somewhat overly crucial to the climax of the plot, something that will be revealed in episode 11 of 12, no doubt. Also, there will be H-scene based OVAs. About 4~6 of them.

Actually, fuck it. They all have colorful hair.

So if I rub this girl's hair on my arm it'll drive away the mosquitos amirite

Oh, and there's a lot of nakedness + erotic fun.

Personally, the fanservice is so-so in Hagure Yuusha. Moaning and groaning like a zombie that needs to go to the toilet whenever an erotic situation occurs doesn't impress me, and neither do the character designs and blatant groping of breasts, to be quite honest.

Anyways, I digress. What I really hope is that this will pull an interesting/original story unique from what Ichiban Ushiro did, but I'm afraid Hagure Yuusha will just have the hero bash everybody in the monolithic organization until they give up their monolithic organizing. Furthermore, this evil organization was only alluded to in episode four, which means the studio has some a lot of damn hustling to do to conclude everything in a nice manner (unless this is a 24~26 episoder...? Can somebody clue me in on this? I'm too lazy to use Google...) Good luck, although I think I'll end up bashing you in the Conclusions post.

Recommendation: Watch it if you have a lot of time and want to watch something similar to Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, picking on bullies included free with the set. Else, don't. Actually, if you have no idea of the comparison, watch Ichiban Ushiro first. It's better, at least for now. But prepare your anti-fanservice shield. You'll need it.

Wrong.

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Here's a special OVA recommendation: go watch Maji de Otakuna English! Ribbon-chan - Eigo de Tatakau Mahou Shoujo. It's...so good. 4 minute OVA, please take some time to give it a whirl.

This is episode one right?