Synopsis
This is the story of a young boy named Nike who wants nothing more than to live a leisurely life. But as news of the Demon King’s rise came to be, the king called for all hero volunteers to defeat the powerful being. This leads to not only Nikes parents forcefully tucking him into the role but also being literally launched to wards the witch’s house where he meets the witch in training named Kukuri and it is here his journey truly begins.
The Good
Once in awhile there is that one anime that takes on a more classic approach in art style such as the one being used for this series and it brings a rather refreshing view to the work. The fact that the first episode began in a pixelated form with a narrator telling the story added a rather original and comedic touch to the episode and the transition to the regular art of the series worked rather well.
Looking at the episode as a whole, the world building was done in a quick and easy to understand format. The characters are interesting in their own way as well; in these types of stories you usually get a young man eager to pave his way to a hero’s path, but here you get the exact opposite and add to the fact that he is somewhat of a dunce ties in a rather fascinating character that steps out from the norm.
In the comedy side of things, the episode was able to take most of the cliche moments and make it work for them such as the “rival hero”, add a magical reading artifact, a funny prop and the scene sets itself up quite well. Overall, the art, story and comedy are all pieces of classic anime work and were executed quite well.
The Bad
As interesting and refreshing as the art styles slipped into the episode, the animation work could have matched up better. With the pixelated moments of the episodes, there is not much but it did work out, but with other scenes such as the gathering of the volunteer heroes, while was made to seem like they were part of a background or something as a part of the scene to make it larger than it is, but it made the background characters seem stilted and awkward in the end.
And looking at the art changes that occur in the episode, moderation is a key thing that could have been implemented in that aspect. There is only so much face art changes and slipping in of cute girls that stand out from the main art before it creates a little too much chaos in the episode.
The comedy while simple and easily worked itself out, could have used a little more work due to some of the repetitiveness of some jokes such as the people rejoicing fro a hero or the characters having there less than intelligent moments. Overall the animation and comedy portions of the work could have been done better and a little moderation could have been implemented.
Conclusion
From what the first episode has show so far it seems like the series will be a fun ride to join in on. There are many classic themes and concepts to enjoy with the series but at the same time there is only so much that a viewer may handle before the shifting art style and somewhat anticlimactic animation becomes a turn off for them. If you’re looking for a simple looking series with fun parts and good comedy then this is the series to look for.
Rating: 6/10
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