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EP. REVIEW: I'm Quitting Heroing


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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3450
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 12:08 pm Reply with quote
I like the show in concept, but execution is... not quite what I'm interested in.

It seems like the show priorities are (in order):

1. Establish how awesome Leo is (cause he's just so awesome at everything!).
2. Fan service
... massive gap...
3. Be a fun workplace show with a fantasy twist.

I could maybe overlook episode 1 since its just the start, but episode 2 clearly showed its priorities.

We start with Leo just bursting in the general room, followed by this creepy slow pane over her sleeping just to have Leo show off his awesome magic. We then get this long lore dumb about magic reactor work just to have Leo, once again, show off how awesome his magic is and how regular limitation don't apply to him. The message of delegation is completely lost since its not clear it would have been possible to delegate the task without Leo (who is, once again, just too awesome guys!).
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:34 pm Reply with quote
This one isn't that good, but it's inoffensive enough to skate by so far. The MC is the typical OP Chad, but unlike an isekai where you basically have a deliberate incongruence between the person in their original world and their new world to explain in an indirect way why they're OP, Leo's setup is just so lazy.

As a result, his activities likewise seem very lazily structured. We never get a remotely decent explanation as to why he was in Shutania's room first thing in the morning. He makes a big deal about how he was demonstrating how efficient it was to delegate responsibility, but he spends all that time lazing in her office remote ogling her chest, instead of going about the rest of the castle and seeing if there was other work he could get started on, start planning, or anything remotely productive. That doesn't even get into the fact that without even really knowing her well he assumed that 1) she never considered or attempted to delegate tasks to anyone (which as the review points out is utterly improbable for an army of this alleged size), and 2) that she wouldn't have understood if he simply explained his idea to her. Heck, the very fact that her and the generals were even interviewing in the first place meant she clearly understood to some extent the what and how of delegation of work tasks.

It feels too much like the events of Ep 3 will not carry very far right now. It's a step in the right direction, but it's very easy to see it fall back off after this.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1574
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:38 pm Reply with quote
Three episodes in and I can safely say I'm enjoying this one so far, but then again, I enjoy almost every show I watch, so that's nothing new. I don't mind Leo being presented as "the best", though that probably has everything to do with my just not caring whether or not a character is a Gary Stu. His jerkass attitude in some respects is definitely amusing, and made the populace's ostracization of him sting a lot less than it would have were he more a potato than an oversized radish. (I wouldn't be surprised if the ostracization was partly because his party went back to the capital after he abandoned them and started spreading word about how much of an ass he is.) And I'll have to contest the idea of fanservice being a higher priority than the workplace elements. Sure, you had Shutina in her nightie and some literal male gaze in episode 2, but nothing has been obviously cheesecakey, let alone straight-up ecchi. Even Lily's gimmick about wanting to marry Leo right here and now is way less sexual than I could feasibly see it being in the hands of a different writer. Any LN adaptation with waifu-looking characters that gets at least one TV-PG-worthy episode in its first three clearly doesn't have fanservice as its highest priority.

Out of everything in Yuuyame, though, I'm most curious about the world itself and how it came into being. It looks and operates like your typical medieval fantasy realm, sure, but there seems to be this running implication that instead of existing separate from our Earth, it sprung up as a result of some cataclysm that affected our Earth. The very first scene taking place in what looks like a ruined Tokyo, the vine-covered structures throughout the royal capital that look like abandoned office buildings, the chamber in which the Philosopher's Stone is held looking like a cloning lab, the pie charts and bar graphs in Leo's initial presentation to Echidna... They're obvious hints, yeah, but I'm still interested in seeing what the show does with it, if anything.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3564
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:57 pm Reply with quote
Takkun4343 wrote:
Out of everything in Yuuyame, though, I'm most curious about the world itself and how it came into being. It looks and operates like your typical medieval fantasy realm, sure, but there seems to be this running implication that instead of existing separate from our Earth, it sprung up as a result of some cataclysm that affected our Earth. The very first scene taking place in what looks like a ruined Tokyo, the vine-covered structures throughout the royal capital that look like abandoned office buildings, the chamber in which the Philosopher's Stone is held looking like a cloning lab, the pie charts and bar graphs in Leo's initial presentation to Echidna... They're obvious hints, yeah, but I'm still interested in seeing what the show does with it, if anything.

About that (Warning, obvious spoilers!) spoiler[Your deduction is right on the mark, it's Earth, in the future. MC is a 3000 year old combat android built to fight demons that invaded Earth from their world at some point in the future.]
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:45 pm Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
Takkun4343 wrote:
Out of everything in Yuuyame, though, I'm most curious about the world itself and how it came into being. It looks and operates like your typical medieval fantasy realm, sure, but there seems to be this running implication that instead of existing separate from our Earth, it sprung up as a result of some cataclysm that affected our Earth. The very first scene taking place in what looks like a ruined Tokyo, the vine-covered structures throughout the royal capital that look like abandoned office buildings, the chamber in which the Philosopher's Stone is held looking like a cloning lab, the pie charts and bar graphs in Leo's initial presentation to Echidna... They're obvious hints, yeah, but I'm still interested in seeing what the show does with it, if anything.

About that (Warning, obvious spoilers!) spoiler[Your deduction is right on the mark, it's Earth, in the future. MC is a 3000 year old combat android built to fight demons that invaded Earth from their world at some point in the future.]


Gotta say, that's one of the dumbest plot threads I've ever seen in my life. I'm a little more interested now just to see how they do on working that into the overall narrative, but a part of me feels like it's just plastered on "what's the craziest thing we can come up with" type plotting.
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Yttrbio



Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3670
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2022 12:48 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Echidna's reveal that she only wanted to heal the land and take care of her people makes for a strong motivation that is easy to root for.


I don't find the her motivation easy to root for. She is talking about an invasion and conquest, after all. Even if she doesn't want "unnecessary" killing, there's plenty of killing necessary in an invasion, and given that she had to personally restrain her troops, there's no doubt that plenty of unnecessary abuses would be heaped on the subjugated when she's not around.

Her motivation is basically "our domestic problems can only be solved by invading our more prosperous neighbors," which is the excuse every mass-murdering expansionist dictator has given. And Hero seems to know that the philosopher's stone isn't even going to solve her problems, which makes his support of her even more questionable.

Hero's motivation is even more pathetic. Some humans hate him and don't want him around, so he goes to join the Demon Queen... who hates him and doesn't want him around. The only difference is that she doesn't owe him gratitude like the humans do. But "some of them weren't grateful to me, so I'm going to support the invasion and subjugation of their entire race" is pretty weak as a motivation. There's maybe an interesting story here about soldiers returning from war to an ungrateful public, but this show doesn't seem particularly interested in seriously engaging any of that. I guess there's still time, but the fact that Echidna's goals were presented so positively makes me doubt they're really going to explore it.

I do hope the season wraps up before they get to executing on any of this, because the setup for the next episode is the reason I am enjoying this show: weirdos interacting with each other.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11591
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2022 1:13 pm Reply with quote
So I'm not clear on what happens if Echidna gets the Stone. Do all the good things it did for the human lands get undone? Does all that depend on the Stone to keep going? If so, then I think Yttrbio's objections have some merit. But if the humans can remain prosperous now without depending on the Stone, even if they don't want to put in the extra effort not having it might require, then that changes the equation. It becomes more like one country refusing to share the benefits of clean, safe and non-weaponizeable nuclear energy with other countries just to maintain their hegemony. If their realms remain separate, it could have just been a matter of borrowing the Stone for awhile to work its miracles, but the humans weren't on board for that, which also would make them look bad. So I wish they'd made it clearer whether the Stone just heals the world (and lets you run wild since it can just keep undoing any damage) or powers it. If it's the former, I think Echidna would be the better temporary steward of it.

There's also the throw-away line about Leo having used a different Stone in the past. Where is it? If there's still more than one out there, that also gives Echidna's side more validation than just turning the tables on her enemy (who she doesn't really see as "enemy" so much as "opposition" to universal prosperity).


Last edited by Gina Szanboti on Fri Jun 10, 2022 9:24 am; edited 1 time in total
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Yttrbio



Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3670
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2022 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Echidna seemed to be of the opinion that the humans will suffer if she takes the stone, which is why she didn't think she could ask, so regardless of the truth of the matter, I don't find her sympathetic. Whereas the hero seems to be saying that the both Echidna and the humans are just plain wrong about what the stone does (which makes his silence about it even more atrocious).

I also don't really think "gimme" is justification for war.
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 671
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2022 1:47 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
So I'm not clear on what happens if Echidna gets the Stone. Do all the good things it did for the human lands get undone? Does all that depend on the Stone to keep going? If so, then I think Yttrbio's objections have some merit. But if the humans can remain prosperous now without depending on the Stone, even if they don't want to put in the extra effort not having it might require, then that changes the equation. It becomes more like one country refusing to share the benefits of clean, safe and non-weaponizeable nuclear energy with other countries just to maintain their hegemony. If their realms remain separate, it could have just been a matter of borrowing the Stone for awhile to work its miracles, but the humans weren't on board for that, which also would make them look bad. So I wish they'd made it clearer whether the Stone just heals the world (and lets you run wild since it can just keep undoing any damage) or powers it. If it's the former, I think Echidna would be the better temporary steward of it.

There's also the throw-away line about Leon having used a different Stone in the past. Where is it? If there's still more than one out there, that also gives Echidna's side more validation than just turning the tables on her enemy (who she doesn't really see as "enemy" so much as "opposition" to universal prosperity).


Leon literally says that the stones don't do what she thinks they do. It will not save her kingdom from the issues it's suffering. It's a technological marvel, not the supernatural marvel its name implies.

It is heavily implied that the stone is tantamount to a battery, so removing it would be about the same as if you went to your nearest power plant and shut it down. The one Leon used, assuming they bother writing so much detail, was probably used up. Even assuming that there is more than one stone, and that humans just didn't want to share. There has been no indication via the story that she even asked. As she told it, she heard about this stone, decided to invade the human world to get it. If she had asked first, if there was some story about how hard she tried to get them to offer some help, etc., it would be incredibly unnatural for her to not say so in that conversation as part of her story of why she went to war. Again, the writers seem to be sloppy about connecting their general ideas with the detail needed in telling a story, so it is possible that is what happened. But even then that doesn't somehow impart a right to invade someone else and just say, "oh, well, we tried not to kill too many while we robbed you".
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Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6583
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 2:21 am Reply with quote
Posts deleted.

@ thadec - you're placed on moderation for being an alt for a moderated account.
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mfojmep



Joined: 19 Sep 2009
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2022 7:13 pm Reply with quote
Episode 6:

Who would have thought that...



What a huge reveal!

No isekai this time, sorry.
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Penrhos



Joined: 09 Jun 2021
Posts: 169
PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2022 11:50 am Reply with quote
So as it's now become post-apocalyptic what's the betting the "Stones" are some sort of Power source or AI.

Reveal felt a bit Meh - so the MC is some kind of human/demon replicant....
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11591
PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2022 1:25 pm Reply with quote
I didn't get the impression I was supposed to be all "GASP!! *Shocku!!!!* OMG! He's not human! Holy Cow! The pathos!" over the reveal. I just felt pretty much like he does about it. "Huh. Ok, that's kinda cool. That explains a lot." So I don't see much point in putting off the reveal.

This just doesn't seem to be the kind of series that's aiming for big twists and shock. The Demon Lord is nice. Her minions are nice people. It almost feels more like Cute Demons Doing Cute Things, with some salaryman tropes/life lessons, plus some bigger action thrown in now and then to liven things up.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3819
PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2022 9:37 pm Reply with quote
I may be miss-remembering, or it may be due to the slower pace / release schedule of the manga, but regarding the timing, I thought that this reveal happened a bit later. But yeah, it always felt like more of a "ah, that explains some things" rather than "OMG, no way!"
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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 3971
PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2022 10:03 pm Reply with quote
Penrhos wrote:
So as it's now become post-apocalyptic what's the betting the "Stones" are some sort of Power source or AI.

Reveal felt a bit Meh - so the MC is some kind of human/demon replicant....


That was pretty much clear in the beginning of the first episode considering that it shows what was the remains of Tokyo.
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