English Dub Review: Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious “I So Don’t Need Any Allies”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Seiya gives a “hard pass” on Mash and Elulu accompanying them on their quest because they’re too low-level for him. Mash is insulted and storms off, leaving Elulu to go and find him. Seiya also decides to leave Rista in the dust, not keen on having any allies at all. Rista chases after him using her godly flight ability, and when he finally lets her catch up, she suspects that he’s softer than he lets on. He then fires a giant meteor onto the oncoming hoard of zombies, solving the problem.

The next day, Elulu finds Rista and Seiya in an inn. She tells them that Mash is missing around the same time a magic mirror is dropped off for Seiya. In the mirror, Deathmagla — one of the Four Heavenly Kings and general of the undead army — has Mash captive. He’s been torturing Mash this entire time as revenge for Seiya destroying his army. Luckily, Seiya had invented a “dimensional blade” using some of Rista’s magic hair. He cuts into the mirror and slices Deathmagla’s handoff. In the little time, they have, Seiya and Rista transport themselves back to the Divine Realm, where they ask Ishtar to open a portal to Mash’s location.

Once they appear, Rista heals Mash while Seiya battles Deathmagla. Deathmagla summons a monster named “Dark Firus,” whose defense is over a thousand…however, he gloats about how exactly to destroy it, and Seiya does just that.

Our Take

What exactly are we supposed to be feeling while watching this show?

The tone is all over the place. At its heart, its an action-adventure comedy, but then we have these really dark moments thrown in, like when Mash is being meticulously tortured in this episode. Like, throat-cutting, tooth-pulling, bloodied pliers in a basement type imagery. It’s not the first time the show’s been dark, of course — the previous villain had no qualms with bloodshed. The show just seems very picky with when it decides violence is dark. It was all fun and cartoony games when Seiya burned down a village and destroyed a church, so what is with this tone consistency?

Speaking of Seiya, it’s obvious that the running gag is that he’s always prepared for every situation, every time, but how on earth could he have “calculated” this happening? He’d never even met Deathmagla before this moment. Plus, him whipping out overpowered items that he just happened to acquire off-screen is…cheap. It’s not even the funny kind of cheap, especially because the joke is so old already.

Also, it’s obvious Deathmagla is supposed to represent all villains who have a monologuing problem, but all it did was build the previous suspense up (Mash being brutally tortured) for nothing. It wasn’t funny, it was just…again, cheap. This show has a real problem with that. It desperately wants to turn character tropes on their heads but has no idea how to do it. It winds up just making more of the very characters it’s trying to make fun of.

The only saving comedic grace in this show is Rista’s voice actress. She’s genuinely funny when she diversifies her voice. Seiya occasionally does the same, but so far, if they’re aiming for comedy, Rista’s their only hope.