The series is rather mid. One of the redeeming qualities is "Sandbox mode". In the game you are able to craft and cook, using legitimate knowledge within a game. The players can interact with complicated npc's and so forth. There are supposedly endless possibilities to explore which the players can affect.
The 12th episode ruins a lot of this. Mind you, I have not read the manga or anything, so I am unsure of things beyond the anime. Earth receives a bow which will most likely be the weapon he will eventually start using, instead of something crafted. Earth is damaging a very rare relationship with perhaps the most important npc which also happens to be a super AI Queenie. Earth will most likely reconcile with her, however, the incident will remain as a scar on their history, if not the creator of the show/manga decides to ignore that aspect, which then represents their inability to create a story which has causality, showing their inept creativity and storytelling.
Earth is an absolute asshole. Earth supposedly made his character bland as to not stand out or attract attention, this was motivated by the fact that he has very little time to play, HOWEVER, this means that he already had the mindset that he was going to cause a lot of attention or at least deluding himself that people would want to interact with him. Later he ends up being interacted with anyway, and he fully welcomes it, with no resistance, which is extremely contradictory as to his supposed intentions. Earth also does many things that attract attention, of which he intentionally decides to do, such as the cooking, it could have been very easy to refuse, especially since "he doesn't want any attention" he could have also made the food very poorly aka weaponizing incompetence as to make them go away, which he doesn't do, which is contradictory. Earth only seems to do things with other people when it suits him, such as the power rangers, he could have rejected the invitation, yet he decides to go with them anyway, yet when Zwei and the gang asks him to join their guild, so that they can ask for help, he refuses, literally admitting "I want to be able to do what I want to" as in, not needing to help others, even though they have been helping him.
Queenie is very kind and cheerful, she also seems to like Earth, Earth constantly pushes her away, in addition feeling joy when she distance herself from him, which must be sad for her. Earths reaction to the warrant is disgusting, the fact that he has been constantly around her and knows what type of person she is, the fact that she has shown at multiple occasions that she wants to respect his "privacy" like when she had ordered people to treat him normally, he should have known that there was a proper reason. The fact that he "got angry" (ohhh~ scary~) when he saw the posters and walked all the way to the castle (or ran however long that takes) without calming down even a little bit or actually trying to think about it is insane, not to mention he doesn't even allow her to talk is ridiculous. Damn right he is childish, not even here, but all the time. The fact that he tells her to remove the ring is really stupid, everyone on the game is already aware that he has had it and that he has had special interactions, then he immediately afterwards uses them to fight the dragon. It is also the cherry on top when it comes to contradictions that he "seals" the ring because "No SpEcIaL PrIvILiGeS~" yet the dragon armor and literary spirit bow is fine, he replaced an items which gives him some abilities but more importantly serves as communication to Queenie, for fucking armor and a weapon.
There is probably a lot better ways to describe/write/formulate this comment, especially if I took the time for it, but I think I got the main message across if not only my opinion. There are many ways to make protagonists, however I feel like my favorite type of protagonist is the ones where you can relate to them somehow, if it be the interest they have, background, ideals etcetera. I cannot relate to Earth. I feel ashamed when I contradict myself, I don't lash out on people close to me, because I am the one who actually gets hurt from it due to regret, I don't choose things in order to avoid attention (especially if I believe them to make a disadvantage for me) and I cannot understand the appeal to reject benefits. Benefits and rewards are never wrong, if it doesn't hurt someone else and if you do not grow arrogant and or greedy, the whole main protagonist "I don't want to get much attention" is so fucking edgy/cringeworthy, its like in dnd when the rouge is at the corner of the tavern concept they "don't want attention". The fact that he worries so much about the whole attention thing really just displays his insecurity for how people perceive him, if it really is that much of a problem for him, I find it difficult to believe that he'd be playing that game as much as he has.
This comment has been very hastily written and I'm sure that there isn't a very clear "red thread" to follow and I apologize, this is ultimately me ranting. The last episode was very annoying and it really left a bitter flavor for the whole show, I don't usually comment on these things (this is my first ever comment on a discussion on MAL) but it really lifted a weight off my chest reading the other comments here, so I thought I should add mine, in case someone wanted to work off, of the points I brought up and or correct me (for example the manga readers, god bless ya).
My rating on this anime is honestly 4/10 and that only because I liked some characters such as Queenie and the concept I brought up at the beginning of my rant, otherwise it'd be 2/10. |