English Dub Review: Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious “This Hero Is Too Self-Serving”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Seiya still refuses to leave the Divine Realm until he’s stronger. Aria suggests that he train with a God whose specialty is combat — this way, Seiya will level up more easily. Aria, Rista, and Seiya all go to “Divine Blade Cerceus,” who is a master swordsman. Rista leaves him to train with Cerceus for a few days, but every time Rista asks Cerceus how Seiya’s training is going, Cerceus seems more worn out and defeated with each day. In under a week, Cerceus confesses to Rista that Seiya has beaten him down — both physically and mentally. In that short amount of time, Seiya had become three times stronger than Cerceus, but still demanded more training. Cerceus snaps and throws his sword into the divine ocean, unwillingly being dragged off by Seiya.

Meanwhile, Ishtar calls Rista in for a meeting. She tells her that she and Seiya need to go back to Gaebrande immediately, as the town of Seimul is to be attacked by a horde of undead. Rista forces Seiya to apologize to Cerceus before leaving, and they go back to Gaebrande. Once in Seimul, they visit the local church, where Seiya spontaneously pours holy water on the head priest, suspecting him to be a zombie. He is correct, and Seiya kills him (then blows up the church for good measure.)

There, Seiya and Rista meet Mash and Elulu — a warrior and mage with dragonkin blood — who wish to help.

Our Take

Okay. The joke is old.

Seiya’s way of being overly practical and…well, cautious, is obviously meant to subvert the narrative of young heroes who dive heart first into every adventure they’re thrown into (ala, Every Isekai Ever.) However, the over-practicality of Seiya has worn off as a joke, and when the joke is peeled back, it seems that there is nothing likable about him as a character. In the last episode, he destroyed a town and then stole money from commoners, and this episode, he physically and psychologically tormented a god who chose to help him on his own volition. He’s selfish, self-serving, and doesn’t seem to have any emotional stake in anything that happens. This makes him very boring to watch, and his and Rista’s interactions are getting very repetitive, very fast.

Every episode so far has virtually been the same plot: Rista says, “Seiya we have to go do something!” Seiya says, “No, I’m being cautious.” Rista says, “Oh, you detestable rascal!” Then the audience laughs track plays. The art style is still really pretty to look at (especially the designs of the Divine Realm) but the plot really seems like it’s been going nowhere fast.

With the introductions of Mash and Elulu, maybe the dynamic will finally feel stirred up. They seem like interesting characters, but that could also be due to the fact that the main two are getting stale. Two kids walk up and claim they’re dragonkin? Already way more interesting than Seiya.

At this point, the show would be more interesting if it were simply a show about the lives of the goddesses and gods in the Divine Realm because the concept of a setting like that beats out a one-off anime protagonist joke.