English Dub Review: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest “The Maverick’s Lair”

Overview

Nagumo wakes up in a bed with Yue. She explains that she pulled him through the 100th level door after they defeated the hydra dragon. On the other side was a luscious forest and said bed in the middle of nowhere. After getting up and exploring around, the two find a mansion, where the body of the Maverick lies sitting in wait.

Meanwhile, Nagumo’s classmates manage to make it back to the 65th floor of the labyrinth. They encounter the same monster which threw Nagumo into the depths — only this time, the team is victorious in slaying it.

The Maverick’s body appears to be a human skeleton. Nagumo steps into a transmutation circle, which activates a hologram of the corpse. The Maverick’s hologram introduces himself as Oscar Orcus: creator of the labyrinth. As congratulations for making it through his lair, he is there to grant said hero his knowledge and power. Nagumo then gains new powers, as well as an understanding that the Mavericks weren’t evil: they were liberators.

He and Yue stay in the mansion/woods for a while, buffing up with as many weapons/spells/equipment as they can. They also take the opportunity to have some R&R (with a hot spring scene included, of course.) They figure out how to use the transmutation circle to get back to the surface and begin to teleport — ready for whatever new challenge they may meet there.

Our Take

So like…when did this anime start to become fan-service-y bull shit?

The funny thing is that there’s no real answer to this question because the pacing of the episodes continues to be painfully quick. Nagumo and Yue’s whirlwind romance still seems abrupt and out-of-nowhere, but it’s also easy to tell that there was probably more build-up to it in the books. Bad pacing or not, though, it’s disconcerting to watch a character who looks 12 throw her naked body at a character with a fully mature design.

The reveal of the Mavericks’ true nature would have had more of an impact if they had actually shown how the Mavericks were liberators. Instead, we just get some throwaway line about how “the legends were wrong.” There’s no time to stop and actually ruminate on any advancements in the plot, because the audience is constantly being rocketed from one plot point to the next.

The pacing isn’t the only problem, though. Yue’s voice acting is starting to get a little grating (not that it already wasn’t.) Her soft-toned, high pitched voice seems to really only have one note, which makes it monotonous to listen to — as well as irritating.

Since Nagumo and Yue discovered that the other forms of ancient magic lie within other labyrinths, it seems like this show could additionally fall into the throes of a repetitive episode formula. If every single episode is going to be monster fighting, weird fan-service moments, and poorly paced storytelling, is there really even a reason to keep watching?

So far, the legends don’t say anything about improvements.