Dec 25, 2024
I am tempted to contrarily write how Danmachi outshines both Re:Zero and Konosuba as the straight Isekai/MMO with viewer insert MC fantasy series that is pleasurable to watch for those easily bored by both genres (and not 14 yr old boys). But it is really the case that the show just does not settle down into a specific genre. The first season certainly seems most like Konosuba except as stacked as it is designs and some tropes of a very haremy romance, how it bounces off Bell and how 75% of the time the accent seems more on the jealousy and insecurity of Hestia. Then
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there is a good deal of scheming amongst leaders of the other Familia, the reason for which only becomes apparent in the anime in the Hot Springs OVA.
After both how flirtatious but also unexpected aspect of the romance the story of the first season is a gradual revel of how Bell becomes relatively for powerful so fast. But again how it happens both correlates with the suddenness of other OP MCs but his abilities remain surprisingly just adequate to the final level of the the first season. In fact, Bell's skill level includes a shoneny aspect where he can bring outsized power when he is at the very end of his energy. A character calls it the ultimate hero ability, that of the killing blow. But at least in the first season it remains a question whether he is up to the task.
Ultimately, Danmachi remains unsettled about what path the show wants to take in the Isekai/fantasy-harem/MMO road. It is more about RPG conventions than Re:Zero but it is more simple and sincere about romance than Konosuba and there is no denying that the fanservice is unmissable. So, is it ordinary and trashy or at best a guilty pleasure? Without knowing whether the source material like Musho ko Tensei actually is the source of tropes worn very thin by successors, I think Danmachi as a series is playing a longer game than the average wish fulfillment anime. The confusing thing is that the show wants to take advantage of the tropes even as it sends them up. One thing that makes it especially confusing but also interesting is that the PoV is really not Bell's, especially when we glimpse opinions and even scheming amongst other factions. It does seem like the threads will come together at the end, but the series from the beginning does give a sense that there is more going on in the world.
Ultimately this 12 (or 13) episode season is very uneven, but but in a way that the peaks and the troughs, the wit and the trash, are very good. In the presenting and then mocking the harem aspect it is Peak. But those episodes are not quite enough to make the show incredible or, yes, as good as Re: Zero and Konosuba. But its rep is such that it does not create the problems of expectations. I think for the show to reach a peak it will have to lean into the darkness of the world. There seems to be some comparison between the rivalry of the families with how the Archbishops in R:Z are the real antagonists in the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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