English Dub Season Review: I Parry Everything Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Noor (Sean Patrick Judge) arrives at the royal capital, dead set on achieving his childhood dream of becoming an adventurer!

Our Take:

I Parry Everything is an anime adaptation of a light novel series written by Nabeshiki and illustrated by Kawaguchi.  It is directed by Dai Fukuyama and written by Shigeru Murakoshi, with the animation produced by OLM.  Chikako Noma designed the characters, while Tatsuhiko Saiki composed the music.  The opening theme, “Ambition,” and ending theme, “No Gifted,” are performed by the music group Utahime Dream.

Every adventurer has that one particular skill that makes them unique from the rest.  One can destroy everything with a single hit, protect people and themselves with incredible defense, and even cure any injury imaginable with their healing magic.  This peculiar adventurer has enhanced one specific skill that not only trounces others but also unintentionally makes him a force to be reckoned with: countering.  Besides offense, deflecting attacks is the way to gain the upper hand and expose the opponent’s opening.  But what would happen if you enhanced your parrying skills to the highest degree?  The answer is I Parry Everything, the latest OP-skill anime series involving protagonists wiping out their enemies with their seemingly “worthless” ability.  But here’s the twist: this adventurer is downright clueless about his heroic potential.

Consisting of twelve episodes, I Parry Everything follows Noor, a man residing in the isolated mountains who dreams of being an adventurer following the death of his parents.  Unfortunately, his lack of talent and skills prevented him from achieving that reality, resulting in him practicing his basic skills to grow stronger.  He finds that he’s grown much stronger in his parrying skills while also becoming unintentionally strong with his basic abilities, resulting in him becoming an F-rank adventurer.  Amid him doing odd jobs, Noor used his parrying to defeat a mighty minotaur and save a girl named Lynne (Annie Wild), who happens to be the princess of the Kingdom of Clays.  This puts the socially awkward adventurer in an inescapable situation where he helps Lynne defend her kingdom from the Magic Empire of Deridas led by the tyrannical King Deridas. 

Regarding OP-related anime, it’s always crucial to have an overwhelming protagonist whose personality is as charismatic and uncommon as their miraculous power.  While it can be fun to watch an underestimated hero exceed expectations with their overpowering ability, it can also become increasingly tedious if their arcs and personalities are anything but powerful.  If portrayed correctly, it can become a fun, thrilling, action-packed anime that often parodies specific action-fantasy narratives in other movies and shows.  One-Punch Man was a superb example of having an unstoppable protagonist with a personality: Saitama, an unorthodox superhero bored from a lack of challenge due to defeating enemies with just a single punch.  I’m still waiting for the anime’s third season, by the way.  Of course, I can’t forget about the recent example, Mashle: Magic and Muscles, which transformed an overpowered, yet magic-less, young man into a likable goof.

I Parry Everything introduced us to yet another OP protagonist in the form of Noor, an F-rank adventurer whose parrying technique surpassed even the strongest of enemies.  However, his personality residing with his skills was anything but bright.  Noor’s isolation in the mountains for fourteen years resulted in him lacking any social cues and common sense as to what was happening around him, leading to some amusing misunderstandings about him by several people.  One of them is Lady Lynne, who hails him as her inspiration to grow stronger after Noor saved her from the minotaur in the first episode, leading to her being his apprentice.  Noor also has high self-doubt as he doesn’t see himself as a hero and constantly mistakes powerful monsters for basic-level enemies despite his ordinary skills being superhuman oddities.

Noor is not just a misinterpreted “hero” of the story but also the anime’s running gag.  He constantly attempts and fails to clear up misunderstandings made by the residents of the Clays Kingdom and occasionally forgets people’s names, notably Gilbert (Joe Daniels), the captain of the Spearman Corps.  However, his actions often come from his generosity and empathy toward others.  One example of this is his kindness toward Rolo, a young Demonfolk boy discriminated by those around him, although Noor is unaware of the boy’s true purpose.  While everyone is skeptical of what Noor is up against, especially regarding Rolo, his kindhearted nature usually wins them over.  Sean Patrick Judge provided the voice for the gullible yet highly skilled adventurer, and I must admit that he didn’t do too badly.  Noor had that subtlety and tenderness in his voice that resembled his approachable nature and even his honest personality, and Judge did a suitable job reflecting this OP protagonist.

That was one of the merits that I Parry Everything could offer, with the other being the visually pleasing presentation from OLM, Inc.  I wouldn’t say it’s as good as the studio’s other works, like Dark Gathering, but I will say it’s not mundane when it comes to the action scenes and backgrounds.  As for everything else, it basically follows the typical fantasy OP structure we’ve seen in other anime that gradually wore thin with its premise.  It’s mostly enjoyable with the right mindset, especially when it comes to its humor, but from a critical perspective, I Parry Everything didn’t pack much of a countering punch to elevate its concept and supporting characters from its repetition.  Most episodes have a monster-of-the-week storyline involving Noor battling a specific opponent to advance the main plot, including the Goblin Emperor in “I Parry a Goblin” and the Dragon of Calamity in “I Parry a Dragon”.  It can be fun watching Noor parry through every enemy he comes across, but the novelty wore off by the time I reached “I Parry an Army” due to the lack of tension and stakes provided in Noor’s battles.

In short, I Parry Everything is a mildly amusing counterattack that occasionally parries my boredom with its presentation, protagonist, and hit-and-miss comedy.  However, its approach to the repetitive narrative and supporting characters struggles to reach beyond the skills of a low-rank adventurer.  If it continues with a second season, I hope it’ll provide something exciting to match Noor’s parrying skills, especially since another war is coming to the Clays Kingdom.  This should serve as a serviceable watch for those who are into the OP subgenre, but I wouldn’t say it’s among the strongest of the bunch regarding its execution.