English Dub Review: The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made “Final Evolution! Naked Beauty”

Overview (Spoilers Ahead):

Saria becomes even more love struck with Seiichi. While running from Saria, Seiichi explores a dungeon. He battles Dark Lord Xeanos and Saria protects him. This leads to Seiichi falling in love with her, winning the fight, and Saria turning into a human.

Our Take:

Love is weird and this episode is certainly an example of that. Saria still wants Seiichi to marry her, which is where we left off on the last episode. She’s already acting like a housewife and she explains that she learned to talk by reading books. She also explains that if you eat 11 fruits of evolution, you die. That seems random, but maybe there will be a more in-depth explanation down the road.

Seiichi tries to avoid Saria by heading into a dungeon. Here, he meets Dark Lord Xeanos, whom I don’t remember being mentioned in the slightest, and almost dies. That is, until Saria comes from out of nowhere to protect him.

She’s on the brink of death and Xeanos talks a lot of smack about her. This enrages Seiichi and he easily defeats Xeanos. His backstory is explained and then Seiichi goes to comfort Saria. He confesses his love to her and they look like they’re close to kissing. Then Saria magically transforms into a human because…of love, I guess.

Then a character who goes by “Mr. Sheep” comes in and rewards Saria with a dress and Seiichi with a helmet. Mr. Sheep sends the two back outside and that’s all we get from that. I’m assuming Mr. Sheep will play a bigger role, but I felt like his introduction here was very lacking.

This episode didn’t do much for me. I’m already sick of Seiichi gaining every skill imaginable and being overpowered. He has a dull personality and he has nothing to offer.

I also do not feel the chemistry between Seiichi and Saria. Seiichi confessing his love feels rushed to me. Sure, they spend some time together and talk, but there’s not much substance there.

Dark Lord Xeanos just feels thrown in. It’s like we’re automatically expected to care about the character and his backstory, but I really couldn’t get invested in it.

Finally, I don’t like that there’s no reasonable explanation for Saria transforming into a human. It was pretty obvious that would happen, but it seems like it should be a big deal. Seiichi just immediately accepts it and doesn’t even think of questioning it.

The episode does explain a few more things about the world, which is a plus, but otherwise, it feels messy. It’s not completely awful, but it’s definitely a step in the wrong direction.