Jun 18, 2022
Guys, guys, guys! I figured it out! I know what's wrong with this anime!
If you're gonna tl;dr this review than please just know that Shokei Shoujo is a criminally underrated show on MAL because it missed its international audience target by a long shot and I don't mean just the first episode twist that everyone who bothers to know his isekai is aware of.
Let me elaborate.
This show comes in a season packed with quality content and in an almost post-post-isekai era. It can't create anything new in the concept, we already have had self-aware isekais for years. It can't compete with hype for Kaguya-sama
...
or SPYxFAMILY and it failed to capture hearts of most people invested in regular isekai genre. I mean, I rated it highly but I don't think it comes close to the likes of Re:Zero or Mushoku Tensei and there is abundance, A B U N D A N C E of mid-to-relatively-good shows in the genre. You may ask yourself than - why should I watch it? Who cares if just another guy got transported and struggles to be the hero (or one-shots everything in his way)? The answer lays in subversion of tropes. And before you say "Ha! But it has been done a million of times already. Basically every isekai needs to come up with something new." I will say "Yes, yes of course. Who are you and why do you watch those shows?". And I mean it. Ask yourself those two simple questions because if your answer is along the lines of "because I enjoy seeing my unrealized fantasy in a cartoon form" or "I see myself as guy who starts with nothing but than BAM BAM PEW PEW latent (or developed) super powers and a harem" than Shokei Shoujo is not for you.
Hey look, it's even in the title. It says shoujo, doesn't it? Oh, so you might think because it was marketed as a yuri it may perhaps appeal to or target audience who likes to see relationships and love bloom between people of the same sex with all the emotional twists and turns? You're wrong. And if you came looking for this kind of action, this is not an anime for you. Although I have to admit, it's possibly the greatest shortcoming of the entire series - it fails to realistically capture female x female dynamics in any emotionally impactful way.
Fanservice than? Maybe it has some o t h e r kind of rabu rabu action? Again, wrong. You will 100% see many more panty shots in horror/mystery series like Summertime Render airing at the same time. Shokei Shoujo (in my opinion) is not even close to ecchi. Again, not for you ;(
Who is it for than? It's for you, dear daydreamer. You, the person who enjoys your properly established fantasy world with some thought being put into how power levels work. You, the viewer who prefers their anime with a seasoning of genre and trope awareness. You, the chuunibyou enjoyer of made-up class systems and magical explosions.
But beware! If you also fall into previous "not for you" categories, Shokei Shoujo is going to be mid at best. I can't stress it enough. This show's Original Sin is invoking fantasies to literally kill them first chance it has. It is the core of the entire plot as well. It's about coming to terms with not wanting to erase your dreams but having to live in a world where you have to submit to killing them.
So if you don't mind sitting through a show that has literally no self-insert material*, no emotional kick, little to no ecchi, but talks to your childish-yet-aware brain, be my guest. Watch it and you will be rewarded.
On a sidenote, if you need more of a hook:
+fights are not that predictive in terms of how they develop;
+music, especially the OP by Mili, is great;
+story is thought-through and centered around heavy world building;
+usage of known tropes (talking to you, Re:Zero and time travelling shows) has a unique twist to it;
+for once "going home" is the opposite of an end goal for characters;
+the apparent MC is not Saitama overpowered and needs to find creative ways to deal with opponents far stronger than herself.
Hope that now you are aware of how this show works and why people seem to rate it as they do. Give it a chance if you will. Maybe you're in the right headspace for the Executioner and her way of dealing with life.
* MINOR SPOILERS. Shokei Shoujo deals hard blow to male-centered ego not only in the first episode where a typical sigma-to-alfa protagonist is killed of. It goes great lengths to show there are literally no males in this fantasy world of any significance. There goes gender diversity through another window.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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