So I’m a big fan of Isekai anime. It’s truly one of my favorite genres despite all its flaws. To be honest, sometimes I love them because of those flaws. I know that no matter what, there’s going to be some hero, bro is going to be overpowered as hell for one reason or another. Maybe he’s max level, maybe he has a cheat skill, or maybe he just has a harem. Ok, well, he’ll always have a harem.
Point is, they’re very consistent. You always know exactly what you’re getting. As I’ve called it before on the blog, it’s the comfort food of anime for me. You always know what you’re getting, and you still enjoy it. It’s nostalgic. Then it’s also like fast food. Tasty at first bite, but ends up being bad the more you think about it, but you eat it anyway. Pick your poison. And I happily drink that poison up.
I often find Isekai trash to watch in the background as I pay attention to other stuff, and recently I wanted something a bit longer, so I started Arifureta, which was up to 3 seasons. It’s a series I’ve heard of before, and I like the design of the main character, Hajime. So I started it and, boy, is it something. But it’s also nothing at all. Like, it’s exactly what you’d expect from everything I said above. It’s still ok, though.
So Arifureta starts with at least a decent first arc. So all these students, including their teacher, got transported to this world to fight some stuff for the gods who are actually not the best dudes out there. Shocker, I know. Anyway, they’re all doing their best to be heroes, including the actual dude who became THE hero, but we don’t really focus on him much until later. Our main guy, Hajime, gets betrayed by one of his classmates after he saves them and is sent to the bottom dungeon they’re exploring.
He gets him arm tore off and goes through some rough shit but eventually decides to eat the monsters there which turns his hair white, grants him powers, and also makes him a giant asshole. I assume that was more the betrayal rather than the food, though. So he explores the bottom of this place, makes some guns, gets a vampire GF, gets overpowered as hell, then sets out to find a way to get back home. Really good first episode, truly. I’m not joking about that.
But all that’s like the first 6 episodes or so. Then we get to where I immediately started to like the series less. As soon as they leave, we get introduced to Shea, this bunny girl who is destined to become a part of Hajime’s harem, like literally every single female in this series. I’m serious. This is one of the worst examples of a harem I’ve ever seen. Bunny girl, vampire, dragon, normal student, freaking teacher, every single girl can and will fall in love with him and have that be one of their only personality traits no matter what. Fate decides it.
This is already basically the worst of trash isekai. Overpowered main character. Female characters that exist just to fuel a harem, but at the very least, the overall premise of the plot is kind of fun. This guy hates this world and the suffering it put him through, so all he wants is to escape back home and doesn’t care about anything that happens. He’ll kill, cheat, and do whatever it takes to get back home. It’s like you’re seeing the sidequest to the main story going on basically.
I like that Hajime is an asshole and does whatever he wants to protect who he loves. What I start to like less is when he starts having character growth. So, I like character growth, but there is a point where it can betray the expectations you have of the story and characters, and this is something that Arifureta is really bad with. It has bad character growth.
I actually didn’t mind the harem much in Arifureta for the earlier seasons. Yes, I can dislike it as a plot device and dislike how it reduces the characters to horny love interests, however, Hajime was very clear the entire time. He loves Yue, his vampire GF, and you can GTFO if you don’t like it. It’s taken seriously enough that there are entire bits of character development around Hajime very firmly saying to his harem, he will never love them like he loves Yue. He’s so honest and firm, and it makes me not mind the harem as much because it seems like the writer still knows where the story should go and who he’ll be with, using it to help build resolve in the other characters.
This is already two big expectations set up very early on. One, that Hajime is a character who loves Yue more than everyone else for pulling him out of despair, and two, he is willing to do whatever it takes to return home with her, even if it requires him to do what other protagonists would not. That’s a pretty good start to an Isekai, I’d say. However, they wanted this growth where Hajime slowly opens up his heart throughout the series, but in doing that, they lose everything it should be.
By the time season 3 rolls around, not only has Hajime pretty much fully gone good guy, being liked by basically everyone and gaining now even more than a handful of love interests, but he also goes back on his word. Part of him opening his heart again and being honest with himself, involves admitting another girl is special to him like Yue is. And Yue is, of course, fine with this because she’s supportive and all that jazz.
I dislike harems as a trope, yes, but if you are going to have one, at least own it. Don’t set the expectation early on, even having character development built around the fact that Hajime only loves one person, only to 40 episodes later completely go back on it, giving every female character renewed vigor that they might have a chance with him, making them all even more hopelessly bad characters than before.
All these characters, with the exception of Hajime, Yue, Shea, and THE hero Kouki, all have about as much depth as a kiddie pool. And it makes it even worse when all of their desires, resolve, and character arcs all revolve around either loving Hajime or dealing with accepting feelings for him. It’s tragic how every female character literally exists just to throw themself at him. And 3 seasons in, he then becomes even worse by accepting that and undoing like all the work to that point, and confirming everyone’s unhealthy reliance solely on this man who has been rejecting them all this time.
Hajime was fine at the start. He was unique in the way he approached the world and firm in his beliefs, only to have later character development make the story and character really flat. He grows soft and in general becomes much more of a generic hero, with like a touch of tsundere. I won’t say I hated Arifureta or anything. I would still say I liked it, but I also wouldn’t recommend it over other things for all these reasons. It’s prime Isekai trash. It’s what you expect. The most typical 5/10 you ever did see. But what’s sad is how it seemed like it could have been more.
I know Arifureta is fairly well-liked, but I also understand that the source material is supposedly way better. That’s why I have nothing really against the series. It made me think, and I like things that make me think. It uses character development in an interesting way I haven’t seen many times. Where moving forward feels more like backward. I appreciate what it made me think. Still, though, it’s kind of meh. Had fun regardless. I still like Hajime’s design. That’s my takeaway.
