English Dub Review: Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life “When Ryusei Met Meteor; The Witches of Oz “
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Ryūsei Narukami is shut-in enjoying his life without a job, but is secretly a reincarnated Demon Lord. When the hero who defeated him, Meteor Hanaori, barges into his home and picks a fight, he decides to get a job as a teacher…at her all-girls school. Now the two must try to make peace while trying to escape rumors about them and the increasing presence of supernatural encounters around them.
OUR TAKE
I should have known it wouldn’t be too long before I got assigned another goddamn Isekai. Although this time, it’s more of a reverse Isekai, where instead of normal people getting transported or reincarnated in a fantasy world, it’s fantasy characters being reincarnated here. Naturally, this is a subgenre that has plenty of examples, most notably The Devil is a Part Timer, wherein the main character is a former Demon Lord who decides to get a job at a fast food restaurant while his old nemesis who killed him, a beautiful woman, suspects his is up to no good. Sound familiar? Except in this case, the animation’s not as good and the would-be couple involves one of them being a high schooler, adding just a bit more ick to the proceedings. Although to add to the wrinkle, Ryusei and Meteor actually have the same name in terms of meanings, so maybe that’s something? Well, for these first two episodes, it doesn’t appear to be acknowledged, as the first episode is just about establishing the predictable premise and the one note cast of cardboard cut outs, while the second is mostly just shenanigans while introducing a couple more eccentric characters with magical abilities who turn out to be witches, as well as show there are some monster sightings that might be linked to our two reincarnated leads, which sucks for them because neither of them have their respective magical abilities anymore.
Like most other Isekai shows, I’m basically coming into them kicking and screaming and my bar for them is on the floor, but I’m open to being surprised as we continue. What I’ve noticed so far is that Meteor Hanaori, who will henceforth be referred to as Hanaori because that’s in the title, seems to be quite one-sided in her aggression against Ryusui, who was just chilling and enjoying normal human life until she broke into his house to instigate the plot. But even though Ryusei has gotten off his ass and gotten a job, he has a kind of a vague and emotionally avoidant view of his past being an undead master of demons, while Hanaori is getting the chance to re-examine her previous life as a hero and finding it was a lot less illustrious than she remembers. Furthermore, their dynamic as hero and villain seemed to be more of Ryusei placating her attempts on his life, even though she apparently eventually killed him. But then how did she die? Well, I guess that’s something to explore in the remaining however long this season will run. My money’s on another ten or eleven episodes, but I’ve been wrong before.
