English Dub Review: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest “Worthless Rabbit”

Overview

Hajime and Yue finally make it to the surface, where they encounter a clairvoyant bunny girl named Shea who declares that they’re going to help her save her people from monsters. She also hits on Hajime and insults Yue, prompting discord. They fervently decline her air-headed advances, but when she tells them there’s no way to make it to the Great Tree without a guide (due to the fog) they reluctantly agree to help her.

Hajime slaughters all the monsters with ease, prompting the village of rabbit people to ask him to make them stronger. It’s also revealed that the rabbit people had left their home of Verbergen, in order to protect Shea, who was born with monster abilities. Hajime teaches the rabbit people the “kill or be killed” policy, even threatening them to become stronger. They learn to be ruthless killers to defend themselves, and additionally, Shea is trained by Yue.

Once Hajime and Yue get to the Great Tree, they learn that they can’t get inside. They decide to return to the tree when they learn more about its ancient magic — by clearing the other labyrinths. Yue also promises Shea that, despite their ill feelings towards her, if she managed to land a hit on her during a duel, then she could join them on their quest. She does, and she joins their party (while continuously being rejected by Hajime.)

Our Take

As a writer’s aside, it really seemed like there was a lot of hope for this show. It really did. The dungeons-and-dragons based world (the Wind Wall spell was even in this episode for crying out loud) seemed like it was genuinely setting up something connective, but in place of all the potential this show had, it seems pretty clear that all of this was a front for what it’s actually becoming — which is some weird harem anime.

There are not enough words to express what a bad character Shea is. She is the epitome of everything wrong with female characters in anime. The focus is clearly on her body, and not on her mind — and when we do see her mind, it’s dimwitted, provocative, and people-pleasing. She has the same high-pitched annoying voice that most English VAs give girls like her. She falls in love with Hajime — who does NOTHING but treat her like shit the entire time he knows her. He hits her, demeans her, and threatens to kill her whole family — yet somehow, she’s in love with him.

Speaking of Hajime — did he just, like, forget that he was supposed to be a hero? Where are his character motivations? Is he just a revenge thirsty sociopath who remembers none of his old personality? What kind of hero acts like this?

Despite how much backstory they’ve given Shea, none of her optimism or perseverance is enough to make her likable, because it’s buried under so much bad. The structure of this episode was just a bunch of montages because of how bad the pacing is, too. It’s not going to be an enjoyable ride with her in the party — but then again, it wasn’t too appetizing to watch Hajime flirt with his “800 year old” girlfriend, either.

Y’all want a good anime with a bunny girl in it? Try Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.