English Dub Review: An Adventurer’s Daily Grind at Age 29 “Rirui and Anyango/First Love’s Outcome”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Rirui and Anyango

Rirui makes friends with an aspiring young dwarf craftswoman, Anyango.

First Love’s Outcome

Hajime and Rirui explore a dungeon that’s due for demolition before meeting a new acquaintance.

Our Take:

Hajime has saved one child from a slime, so what’s stopping him from rescuing one more?  One of the episodes, “Rirui and Anyango”, has him and Rirui helping out an orphaned dwarf named Anyango, who’s eager to become a blacksmith.  Although like Rirui, Anyango has much to learn to make her dream a reality, including surviving in a dungeon.  Afterwards, the episode introduces us to the show’s depiction of spirit magic, with Rirui hoping to learn it to impress Hajime.  Unsurprisingly, this stems from Rirui’s jealousy towards Hajime for being overprotective of Anyango instead of her, which led me back to my concern about the direction of the duo’s bond.

Her jealousy not only appeared in this episode but also in the second one, “First Love’s Outcome”, which has them confronting the Dungeon Destroyer, Sekihime, a Medusa-shaped species.  Through Rirui’s Concubus skill, she created an alternate reality in which Sekihime could open her eyes without turning people to stone, leading her to fall in love with Hajime.  I can understand that Rirui’s envy is supposed to be one of the show’s running gags, but the fact that she can transform into a young woman makes this context more discomforting than sweet.  Hajime’s perversion regarding his request to touch Sekihime’s butt also didn’t help make this case any better, though her reaction was admittedly amusing.  That and Rirui and Anya acting like “soul sisters“ should be enough to tolerate their unusual yet somehow questionable dynamic for a while longer.