English Dub Season Review: By the Grace of the Gods Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Ryoma Takebayashi is a young boy with powerful abilities when it comes to taming creatures called slimes. But he’s got a secret: he’s really a 39 year old office worker who was reincarnated into a new world by the gods. He’s content to live in the forest tending to his slimes for a while, but after healing an injured traveler, Ryoma decides to set out with some new friends on a journey to grow his skills and use his power to help others.

Along with the Jamil family, Ryoma joins a guild, becomes an adventurer, and eventually opens up his own laundry service. He’s good at everything he tries, but he can’t help but feel like the Jamil family is being too kind to him. Despite his reservations, he grows fond of the family — especially their young daughter Eliaria. Which makes it all the more painful when it comes time to part ways.

Our Take:

By the Grace of the Gods is a show I would recommend to almost nobody. In some respects, it has all the trademarks of a typical isekai show: a reincarnated protagonist learning his way around a brand-new fantasy world. But despite having opportunities for excitement, By the Grace of the Gods is probably one of the most boring shows ever created.

It starts with the characters. Ryoma is annoyingly perfect. He succeeds at everything he tries, and never comes up against an obstacle he can’t overcome. He’s always cheerful, never moody, and is cloyingly clever. When the protagonist of the show is this flawless, there’s no progression, no conflict to overcome, and no drama to any of his scenes.

And none of the other characters have much flavor to them, either. Pretty much every other character in the show defaults to being a Ryoma cheerleader, praising him for his super powered abilities while also being amazed every time he does something right on the first try. Eliaria is the other child protagonist, and she’s every bit as precociously perfect as Ryoma, except it usually takes her two tries to master something.

The plot of the show is pretty basic isekai stuff. From moving to a town to joining up with an adventurer’s guild, Ryoma follows a standard path. There are deviations, though, like when the show just randomly has Ryoma clean out the public restrooms for an entire episode. It’s not good so much as weird, but it’s one of the stand out episodes just because of how unexpected it was. The plots for other episodes include things like battling goblins in a cave (much less exciting than it sounds) and Ryoma opening up a laundry company, which is another oddly specific storyline that’s more head scratching than entertaining.

The production quality does the show no favors, as character designs are generic and lifeless. The animation never gets flashy — not that there’s any action to highlight the animation quality. The English dub is fine, but Ryoma is given a high-pitched squeak of a voice that only exacerbates how annoying he is. The supporting cast members are better, but there aren’t any stand out performances.

By the Grace of the Gods is a show that does the bare minimum to provide entertainment to viewers. It has characters and a plot, but that’s about all the good stuff you can say about it. If you’re a fan of isekai shows, there’s not much worth checking out here. If you like fantasy stuff, there’s not enough action here to satisfy you. The only people who might be interested are those who like seeing slimes doing laundry.