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"I Parry Everything: What Do You Mean I’m the Strongest? I’m Not Even an Adventurer Yet!" is a prime example of wasted potential and a lackluster attempt at crafting a captivating fantasy tale. While the premise had promise, the execution falls flat due to the main character, Noor, who can only be described as an overpowered idiot. While being an overpowered idiot isn't inherently bad this novel takes the trope of an oblivious, overpowered protagonist to an entirely new level of frustration, to the point where reading it becomes a chore.

Let's start with Noor. It's as if the author decided to combine the worst aspects ... of an overpowered character and an idiotic protagonist into one bewildering mess. Noor's inability to grasp his own power defies logic and common sense. The secondary characters aren't much better. They see him as some tactical genius that's always one step ahead and while I do like characters like Cid from Eminence in Shadow or Mia Luna Tearmoon from Tearmoon Empire. The difference between those two and Noor is that Mia and Cid actually have charm and can actually think, Noor is about as close to braindead as you can get. A nice example I can think of is in volume one when Noor enters the castle of the kingdom he lives in and meets the king, he doesn't even realize he's meeting with the ruler of the country he lives in.

This novel subjected me to a narrative that treats Noor's obliviousness as a never-ending punchline that was never funny in the first place. This novel's potential is drowned in its own sad attempts at humor, leaving me wondering how something like this can even get published. I'm normally one to binge read volumes but I found myself having to take frequent breaks because of Noor's stupidity.

Save yourself the frustration and invest your time in literally anything else.

Aoi Yuuki straight up carried this adaptation on her back.
As someone who's read the light novels I can say that I was certainly looking forward to this show when it was first announced but when I saw that Millepenseewas doing the adaptation and the director who butchered Berserk was coming back to do this show I approached it with cautious optimism.
However for the first half I was pleasantly surprised by a good turnaround by the studio and director. Then the 2nd half came around and by god was did it get worse every week.

Story: Our protagonist Hiiro Wakaba and all of her classmates are ... killed, then reincarnated into a fantasy world. At first glance the story seems fairly generic, not to different from something like Arifureta. However our protagonist is reborn as a spider while everyone of her other classmates are reincarnated as babies. I saw way to many people get confused with the timeline switching between Kumoko's side and the humans side and quite frankly I don't get where the confusion came from.

Art: The art and animation is where I have my biggest complaints. While the first 12 episodes were fine and good to look at everything else after that become progressively more unwatchable each episode you go. Episode 22 and 23 are just straight up some of the worst animation i've ever seen. It's like the studio saw how good they were doing and thought that going back to berserk 2016 levels of animation would be a good idea.

Sound: Nothing really to write home about except the Openings and Endings. The openings are great to listen too and the endings are sung by Aoi Yuuki herself like by god the ending themes are some of the best i've heard.

Characters: There are 3 good characters that don't make me cringe in this adaptation. Kumoko, Ariel and Sophia the rest are fodder as far as i'm concerned. Every character on the human side of the story besides Sophia are really just there for us to see that they're all useless and worthless in the face of Kumoko. Which is a shame because I did genuinely enjoy some of the human side in the light novel.

Enjoyment: Personally i really enjoyed this anime when Kumoko, Ariel or Sophia were on screen, everything else... Not so much.

Overall: Overall I would wholeheartedly recommend the Light novels over the anime but the anime has Aoi Yuuki voicing best spider so i can't complain too much. Just remember the show become more and more unwatchable as is progresses. Not that it's bad it just physically pained me to watch episodes 22 and 23

Oh God this was a train wreck.

Story:
The first season of Isekai Maou had actual stakes, characters I cared about and very timely ecchi scenes that didn't usually distract from the main plot but it feels like all of the good from season one was thrown out in season two for whatever reason. Going from saving Rem and trying to stop the demon lord from being revived to a stopping the corrupt church plot with nothing to get me invested in it. Why should I care about this? Because some hot nun who's completely insufferable to watch? yeah no thanks.

Art:
The art is what you would expect ... from a cheaply made sequel trying to squeeze as much cash as possible out of the franchise. Still images with blurs galore. The fight scenes are laughably badly animated almost to the point where they're better than any comedy the show could try to force out with the millionth breast bounce which is fitting since that's probably where most of the budget went.

Sound:
The sound is unremarkable, nothing stands out at all. Also the OP and ED are so bad that I skipped them every time.

Characters:
While the first season was a good blend of comedy, Ecchi and action season two has none of that. Diablo feels like he's actually regressed as a character this season, Rem and Shera are relegated to background characters with little to add to anything (aside from Shera's tits bouncing every time she moves) and the new characters they introduce are actual garbage. I swear I didn't think any character could be as insufferable to watch as Lumachina, every time she's on screen she's either crying, screwing things up, being used for fanservice or all three. The end of episode 8 cemented her as my least favorite character, the second any adversity comes her way she just starts crying. Discount Aqua was fine though.

Enjoyment
I did not enjoy this show. The plot was predictable, the fanservice was jarring, the characters sucked. Seems like every other male character besides Diablo and Emile are just bound to betray everyone at the drop of a hat. Would you believe I called Battuta being evil the second he appeared on screen? Frankly I felt like I forced myself to watch this show.

Overall
Personally I don't think this season should even exist. It only exists to attempt to squeeze out any little bit of money that could potentially be made. Coasting off the coattails of the first season all the while having none of the strengths the first season had. Making every good character a shell and making every new character completely insufferable.

The best part of 5-toubun has been animated for everyone to enjoy. Well mostly everyone. While this show does animate the best part of the source material the inevitable sour taste of the ending of the manga still lingers in the background with each episode.

The best part about this season is the development of the best characters in the whole series Nino and Miku. Nino going from an intolerable tsundere to being the most fleshed out and real character in the whole series. Miku going from a shy introvert who's confused about her feelings to someone who's still a shy introvert but is able to ... face her feelings for the Mc head on.

While this season would be good under normal circumstances if you've read the source material you'd know that everything that happens in this season doesn't matter in the end. Mainly because the other 4 quints were used as plot devices and filler to make the mangaka money without developing the actual bride because of "muh mystery manga".

Overall if i didn't read the manga i would have liked this season but as a manga reader who hates the ending of the manga with a passion because it takes all the development we see in this show from Nino, Miku, Ichika and Itsuki and throws it in the trash, i can't recommend wasting your time on what is basically filler content to fill chapter slots. Because the actual winner is a background character with little to no organic development.

As an anime only watcher - 7/10
As a manga reader - 3/10

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time on this. I wish I could get the time I spend reading this series back.
There are two possible reasons that this series went downhill and they both compliment each other. 1. The writer had no idea how to explain away all the BS he tried to pull. 2. He got lazy and just said screw it.

By god this series was a train wreck. Start was generic but it picked up the pace towards the middle and there are point where i'd considered giving this manga a 10/10 but the last 3rd and ending drag this ... series all the way down to a 3.

Oh my god the ending... While this series was really good up until the sisters war arc ended the same cannot be said for the chapters after or the climax of the manga. Glass reflection once said that the ending is paramount to a story, In the case of this story where everyone was guessing, making theories and trying to put together clues to figure out who the bride would be the ending felt hallow and unsatisfying no matter who you supported along the way.

Closure for each girl is nonexistent. A few of the characters even regress back to their undeveloped selves by series end. Having it be implied that each sister still harbored feelings for the MC after 5 years of him dating their sister is laughable. The losing sisters even want to go on the honeymoon with the recently married couple, You have got to be kidding me. I feel sorry for Itsuki fans most of all because her supporters got a giant slap in the face because of this ending, if you read the story you understand what i mean.

The series in some parts is a straight up 10/10 for me but the ending comes along and invalidates most of it anyway. Romantic progression was thrown in the trash, character development was thrown in the trash, hell even the MC just stands around and act like a trophy for the festival arc and beyond.

Don't get me started on chapter 119 as it is the worst chapter of the whole series by far, instead of tying up loose ends the author decided to make a date chapter where the MC proposes after most likely getting a concussion and the quint he's on the date with accepts it... on the first date.

The wedding is especially insulting to read. As a Nino fan i couldn't help but be very angry at the final 2 wedding chapters. As the author takes all the hints from the wedding and just gives them to someone else. "Oh the bracelet could mean something?" "Just make it vanish from existence."
"Nino mentions she wants to get her ears pierced before she gets married? Meh." and so on and so forth.

So in the end i couldn't send this series off with a tearful goodbye but rather a reluctant send of where i feel like the series could have done so much more but the author just didn't have it in him i guess. Also kinda BS that Miku got more closure than the actual bride. Do i hate this series? No. Am I very disappointed in how it ended? Yes. It didn't matter who the bride was to me as long as she deserved it but some half assed one sentence development and a terrible date chapter don't really scream "She deserves it" to me. So the series goes from an 8 to a 1.