English Dub Review: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest “The Best at Being the Worst”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Nagumo shows up to save his old classmates from certain monster-related doom, ala Cattleya. Cattleya initially doesn’t take his threats seriously, but after seeing how easily he eliminates her monsters, she starts to become intimidated. Yue guards the classmates, Shea heals the fallen, while Tio and Myu take out the weaker monsters. As Nagumo effortlessly slays the hoard of monsters, his classmates look on in awe and disbelief, unable to grasp that the student who was once bullied is now a ruthless killer.

Nagumo defeats Cattleya and gathers that Cattleya is a demon who managed to harvest the power of ancient, magical monsters by clearing a great labyrinth with other demons. He also figures out that she’s not the one in charge of the demons. Nagumo kills Cattleya as she speaks about her loving, provoking sympathy from Kouki, who resents Nagumo for taking a life. The students then see that Nagumo is neutral evil aligned, and that he truly no longer has human sensibilities.

They exit the labyrinth. Since Kaori had already apologized to Nagumo for being unable to protect him all those months ago, she also confesses her long-time feelings for him, and asks to join the party. This provokes competition from Yue, who agrees to her company so that she can prove her feelings for Nagumo are stronger. Before they leave, Nagumo gifts Shizuku a sword made from the strongest metals, and the gang sets off once more.

Our Take

This series was doomed from the start. It’s a bad thing when one of the most “impactful” episodes of a show is still filled to the brim with static character development, horribly sexist depictions of female characters, and rushed pacing. A season finale is supposed to be full of climactic elements, but the “climax” of this season seemed to be a face-off with a previously unheard of villain, and, of course, Nagumo gaining another girl to his harem of women who are all inexplicably in love with him. For real — the episode literally ends with the girls talking about how one day they’d love to sit in the front seat of their vehicle like Yue does. Like dogs.

One thing that the finale did right (or, as right as it could have been, considering the abysmal pacing) was have Nagumo’s classmates start to recognize his inhuman soul. It’s clear that the monster meat had changed him from the inside out, considering his lack of emotion.

Speaking of lack of emotion — Cattleya’s “humanizing” moment from this episode (and last episode) that featured the fact she had a lover was really poorly written. She should have elaborated on it more, or had some larger form of emotional moment with Kouki so that the impact would have…actually had impact.

Finally — it’s obvious that Nagumo had formed new obligations on his journey, but man was it such a dissatisfying thing to see that Hiyama didn’t get his just desserts. Seriously — Nagumo is an abusive a**hole toward the people who love him, and threatens murder towards practically everyone he meets, but somehow didn’t feel like confronting Hiyama? Why? There wasn’t even a single exchange between them.

It all just confirms one thing: this series was a waste of time.