English Dub Review: Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious “This Reaper Is Just Too Invincible”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Kilkapul sacrifices himself, his wife, and his son to summon a reaper to destroy Seiya. The reaper’s stats are mystically indeterminable, so Seiya forces Rista to create a portal to the Divine Realm. The gang escapes, but the reaper is able to travel to the realm on its own. All sorts of gods and goddesses try to stop it, but it seems that even gods can’t do anything about it. Seiya then gets the idea to solicit Valkyrie to stop it. They do this by luring the reaper into destroying one of her paintings, and this causes her to use her Level 999 power to kill it. When her regular power doesn’t seem to work, she uses the highest power she has — the Gate of Valhalla — to lock it away for eternity. Seiya, seeing how strong she is, immediately sees her as someone worthy of training him. They have some double entendre dialogue about going back to her place and “training,” and they do just that.

When the gang finally goes back to Gaeabrande, they see a legendary hero, Wohlks Roseguard, one-hit kill an army of demons. However, they learn he is cursed to spontaneously transform into a baby at any given time.

Our Take

Honestly…sure. Why not. What else was to be expected?

The tonal imbalance of this show is insane. Who is this for? The show isn’t afraid to get gorey, clearly, but as soon as it puts the effort in to make something serious, it yanks us right back out. Sure, some people will say, “that’s the joke,” but how long did they intend the tonal bait-and-switch to stay fresh? For example: Kilkapul revealing the decapitated heads of his wife and son could have been Fullmetal Alchemist levels of dramatic. They seem to think the show won’t be funny if they commit to drama sometimes, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Also, real talk? Maybe it’s because this series is secretly just an amalgamation of some writers’ kinks. It seems like every other goddess we meet is a sex freak in some way. This episode alone was riddled with S&M and even “infantilization.” Sure, that second one wasn’t the sexualized version, but they seem to be coincidentally trying to hit every single weird base they can in this show.

On the bright side…Valkyrie’s voice actress performed well, along with Rista who is always fantastic. Plus, Seiya’s chemistry with Valkyrie was semi-heartwarming? They have no respect for anyone and only care about power. Truly, a perfect match.