English Dub Review: Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious “This Man Is Too Strong for Being So Old”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The gang watches as the Warmaster shifts into a useless baby. Rosalie, his daughter, rides in to care for them and huffily tells the gang to meet her at the castle later. They go into town in the meantime and later on, Rosalie asks Seiya to convince her father not to fight the Demon Lord. He has no problem with doing so, and goes off with Mash and Elulu to fight back the army — leaving the (now elder again) Warmaster to show her around the palace.

He brings Rista to a temple he built long ago to worship her, but this is a trap — he explains that when he initially encountered the Demon Lord, he felt awed and enraptured by his power. Thus, he wound up becoming a secret follower of his and reveals a weapon that would kill Rista and Seiya’s souls in all realms for good: the God Eater. Rista is about to be slain, but Seiya — suspicious of everyone — enters to save her. He and the Warmaster, now in demon form, have a fight to the death. For the first time, Seiya looks panicked. The gang is worried if he’ll make it out alive, but he uses everything he has to kill him — losing his arm in the process.

Rosalie tells her father she forgives him, and Seiya’s arm is repaired by Rista. Rosalie becomes the new ruler, and days later, Seiya uncharacteristically pitches that the gang has some rest and relaxation.

Our Take

Lots of firsts, here — mainly on Seiya’s part.

Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious tends to try to be a comedy show with an imbalanced tonal consistency. There will sometimes be a moment — whether it’s something gory, or something momentarily sentimental — that attempts to make the show into something more than what it appears to be. However, it usually goes right back into being a comedy (read: “comedy.”)

Lots of nonsense things happened in this episode. Is Seiya’s clairvoyance for anticipating certain scenarios nonsensical? Yes. Did it make sense here, even with this plot-serious fight? Still no. There’s no elaboration on why Seiya became cautious of the Warmaster, and there’s no elaboration on why he thought Rista was in danger. He also should have at least fallen down when he got his arm cut off, but he didn’t even react. He gives off big Gary Stu energy, which may be the point, but this show picks and chooses when it’s a parody of those tropes. Also, how is it that an herb salesman is a better healer than Rista?

On the other hand, though, it was so refreshing to see Seiya express genuine emotion. The panic on his face as he fought the Warmaster was something that was necessary to take him seriously and root for him as a character. He doesn’t seem sure, now. He doesn’t seem ready. In fact, there seems to be something going on with his mental state by the end of the episode. Why does he want everyone to stop and have fun all of a sudden? Could he be anticipating that there’s no way to win against the Demon Lord, since he almost lost to the Warmaster?

We’ll have to wait and see.