English Dub Review: I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! “The Pale, Immortal Ruler”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Team Clover continues exploring Achromatic Darkness, but are nearly killed by Thunder Pike’s interference.

OUR TAKE

I’m covering this series for the week, meaning I had to catch up with the dub episodes pretty quickly and…well, this another one of those pure wish fulfillment and/or power fantasy shows that I’m surprised isn’t just an Isekai. Heck, the fact that it isn’t is about the only thing going for it. The main fantasy here is “what if you quit your job/friend group to hang out with a bunch of cute girls, but your old boss/friend kept making an ass out of himself and being a terrible person, thus further vindicating your decision to leave and join your group of hot girls that all have a crush on you”. And yeah, that’s basically the overarching theme of the show so far, as Yuke has just been hanging out with these girls who all love him right away and make him their leader, while Simon of Thunder Pike, the group Yuke was part of at the start of the show, somehow cannot rub two working brain cells together to understand that Yuke doesn’t want to be a part of that group anymore. Rinse and repeat, only every attempt also causes Simon to become more deranged and unstable, leading to today’s episode where he tries to make Yuke sign a contract to hand over his new guild, Clover, to Thunder Pike to make up for Thunder Pike saying some racist shit about Dark Elves or something.

I really don’t think there’s a single thing about this show that I can recommend, and I do not envy the person who has to regularly review it. It is some of the most boiler plate wish fulfillment nonsense pitched towards people who seem to be consumed in their own delusions and believe they are the underappreciated good and handsome guy with multiple instant followers who are all hot and talented and love him instantly, while those who ran afoul of him will eventually reveal themselves as horrible, incompetent, and dangerous assholes. There aren’t really any characters in this show in the traditional sense, just cardboard cutouts with functions that are made to fulfill this fantasy. Yuke is always in the right and can do no wrong, his teammates all love him basically unconditionally and will never need him to grow or change, and his old teammates are all bastards unless they turn on Simon, in which case they’re kinda good I guess. Ugh, pass, next.