English Dub Review: Isekai Cheat Magician “Beginner Adventurers”

Overview:

Caravans have been attacked coming into town.

Our Take:

The team’s first ranked mission is to find information on some thieves, namely thieves that are stealing some fruit. In the constant attacking and sacking of caravans, these attacks have raised price of fruit in the town significantly, enough that the price for three fruits were raised to one. They decide to stake out a bar, and run into some assassins on the way. It turns out the two have been trained well, and defeat the assassins without much issue.

Muller reappears, and she has grown more fond of the duo. She even takes them on as partners in a party, which is something she admits she isn’t very used to doing. While we haven’t seen too much of Muller, I can believe this from her- she does have a lot of pride, but she is soft around them, especially Rin.

For the story, it’s okay. I don’t see anything wrong with it; the two leads play off each other quite well, and they seem to be pretty competent. Nobody makes wildly bad decisions, and the story does seem to be progressing without spending too much time on filler, such as training arcs. What happens is logical, and possible happenings are presented to us, so they’re not coming completely out of left field.

I am quite aware that standards in the animation industry are often horrendous. Animators work long hours, often overtime, without very much compensation to match their efforts. Episodes tend to be done on a week by week basis, and crunch is so common that it’s absurd. The industry is aimed at pumping out content constantly, regardless of whether their employees have the ability to do so or not. I am aware of this, but the animation here is just straight up terrible. I don’t exactly fault the animators, as not everyone can be from studios that focus primarily on detail and movement like Ufotable, but this is pretty atrocious to watch.

It’s not the worst animation I’ve seen, and if this were a slice of life, then it would hardly be an issue. However, this is an action-based isekai, where combat and magic spells are supposed to be part of the charm. The movement all looks clunky and stiff, and this makes the fight scenes incredibly tiresome to watch. Kind of a shame how some things turn out.