English Dub Review: Kemono Michi: Rise Up “First Student × Pain in the Butt”

 

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

A hunter named Celes barges into the pet shop, begging Genzo to train her to fight in order to get back at other hunters who harassed her. Genzo refuses at first but changes his mind once he finds out she’s part beast herself, as she has lizard scales on her midriff. She soon gets taught in the ways of the wrestler, going back to face her bullies. This leads to a full-blown formal skirmish which inspires the guy loaning Genzo money to throw a tournament with more money as compensation for it.

OUR TAKE
Huh, I really thought we’d be carrying on with that Joanna/MAO storyline from the last couple of weeks, but…nope, not even mentioned this time. I guess this upcoming tournament could give us the opportunity to get back to it but it seems like an odd time to put it on the back burner.

ANYWAY, onto this episode, which introduces a brand new character!…who I immediately have mixed feelings about. See, the big novel hook of this series is that Genzo isn’t a typical Isekai protagonist. Rather, he only finds fascination in animals and demon beasts as opposed to the usual adventuring fare, and so isn’t attracted to conventional things that type of character would be. And while it’s true that we’ve had fan service like characters in the show so far, it’s usually done in jest and with a clear personality overriding them being just eye candy. But now we have Celes, who comes in looking like a total hottie and is JUST ENOUGH of a demon beast that Genzo is totally into her. It’s basically the textbook definition of having your cake and eating it too, which is kind of a shame to me that the show felt the need to default to this, especially since it seemed like we had found a good balance with our main four.

Then again, it’s not like it’s the worst thing the show could do, and because of it, we’re moving into one of my favorite types of anime storylines: The Tournament Arc. Given that this is a comedy show, I don’t expect it to take up more than one, MAYBE two episodes. But it also gives the characters a chance to get into interesting scenarios depending on who they’re paired up with. Dr Stone just recently did what I thought was an excellent subversion of a more typical tournament arc, and while I don’t expect Kemono Michi to be nearly as clever, I think there’s plenty of room to work with to make it both interesting character development, a playground to mess around with the usual tropes, and just a chance for some good comedy. And as I’ve said, it’s a great time to bring MAO back in to face off against Genzo in the ultimate rematch. I really believe that where this next episode plans to go will ultimately pay off, and this show hasn’t let me down (that much) yet for me to get concerned much!