English Dub Review: Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time Episodes 1-4

Overview:

Women keep throwing themselves at Peter.

Our Take:

Peter Grill is very obviously an anime made for straight men. It’s a comedy harem male fantasy story, and it’s the kind that you turn your brain off to watch. It doesn’t have a lot of weight to it, so it’s a much more lighthearted watch.

It’s a more comedic and raunchy spin on the typical harem anime, which is fine. Harem anime tend to be more palatable if the ridiculousness of it is highlighted, and it definitely is here.  It does have its funny moments– I thought the part where one of the guild women informs Peter that Luvelia is in danger, only to show him her buff men pinup collection instead of information on the monster was a good comedy moment. Overall, I thought the humor in the fourth episode was played off quite well, because this is a situation that Peter legitimately doesn’t want to be in. He’s been hexed, and his hex puts him in awkward situations (bowing and looking humble when greeting the townspeople when he’s actually trying to hide himself was another funny moment). The fourth episode overall I think was pretty good comedy-wise, at least for the material that it is, because it was

I enjoyed the first three episodes a lot less because it involved a cheating storyline and not very well done. The orc sisters want to sleep with Peter, despite Peter being engaged and committed to Luvelia, and he has an affair with them twice. He acts despondent about it but… cheating doesn’t work if the person in question was really, truly uninterested. He may act like he had no choice, but they didn’t assault him. It was his own free will. No sympathy there, so the humor didn’t land as a result. Watching it just made me feel bad for Luvelia, especially because Luvelia is genuinely into Peter, and he betrays her trust like that. This is probably why the fourth episode works much better in comparison, because even if Peter sleeps with another person, he really doesn’t want to do it, so it makes the hijinks of him trying to avoid it as much as possible more genuine.

It’s still not a show I’d say I enjoyed– I’m really not its target audience, at all. If I was, I could see how I’d be able to have fun with it.