English Dub Review: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest “Irregular”

Overview

Shizuku and the other students return to the royal capital. Their brush with death, and the dramatic re-encounter with Hajime Nagumo, has had different effects on each student’s mind. Hajime, now joined by Kaori, arrives at the Gruen Desert…


Our Take

The story continues where Season 1 left off with the entirety of Hajime’s class Isekai-ed and trained into fantasy/adventure heroes with their stint in the Neiligh Kingdom. “The Hero” Kouki has seen his fair shares of near-death in Season 1, so there’s cause for concern. Hajime and his rag-tag team of powerful ladies are also back, and now that Healer Kaori joins his gang in their expedition across the land on their Hummer-like Brise SUV retrofitted with weapons.

Also, saving a noble out stranded in the desert (Bize Feuward Zengen, the son of Lord Lanzwi of the Dukedom of Ankaji) and requesting adventurers Hajime and his gang to save his dukedom from an epidemic caused by deliberate sabotage, since Myu has to be sent back to whence she came from, Hajime has no choice but to follow along being a side quest. Though I do find some of the “harem” aspects during its proceedings come across as cringe-worthy in that Kaori still has feelings for Hajime, and Yue is trying to bait her into a lover’s feud which is the worst thing you can do in a life or death scenario…

Overall, this first episode for Season 2 does everything right that the previous season failed to do until the last few episodes. I thought the Opening song “Daylight” would be the highlight with Mindaryn but the Edn credits music “Gedō Sanka” by FantasticYouth is much more impressive. Also, the cold opening with the Goddess almost defeating Hajime at the start seems very intriguing. There is a huge improvement in terms of CG. But it’s not like it could get much worse than what we had before. On a personal level, I think it’s passable and hope it maintains that consistent level of quality till the end of the season.