The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Arifureta - From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 3

Hajime and his assembled crew of allies board an airship and head for the next labyrinth to conquer. A brief detour to the Hoelscher Empire is necessitated, and it looks like it might be a longer stay when they come across the remainders of Shea's beastman family. The Empire is enslaving the rabbits and other races for nefarious purposes, and everyone is now, naturally, looking to Hajime for help. Hajime's been spurned enough times in the past, so will he stick to his main mission and not meddle in this world's affairs? Or is he actually just attached enough to Shea and her people that he'll step in to offer assistance after all?

Arifureta - From Commonplace to World's Strongest Season 3 is based on the light novel series by Ryo Shirakome with illustrations by Takayaki. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

Props to ARIFURETA's third-season premiere for immediately answering the most burning question I had going into it. Obviously Hajime's now-huge coalition of classmates and allies wouldn't all fit into his Hummvee, so how do they get around? Right, he can just spawn a huge airship to fly them around in. This show's always worked best when it goes for the most blunt, indulgent escalation. That shows in what the debut for this third go-around does right as it gets underway, while conversely being reflected in the parts the show still struggles with.

For one, the bigger status-quo shifts mostly seem to be working in ARIFURETA's favor. Adding Kaori to the party for the second season was smart because it brought over someone who knew Hajime pre-edgelordification and didn't take him fully seriously. So now, with his teacher and a bunch of his other classmates along for the ride, the guy's catching even less of a break for his indulgences. It's irreverent in the face of this story's overpowered fantasy to see our eyepatched hero getting into sitcom-level verbal spats his peers over what a doofus he is, and that's good—it continues to humanize Hajime beyond the embittered wish-fulfillment he started out as.

He should have more people he can share some good-natured razzing with. Showing how far Hajime and everything around him has come is important in this case, because other elements from way back at the beginning are returning to fuel ARIFURETA's next arc. Remember Shea's whole family of bunny people that Hajime inadvertently trained into a cabal of bloodthirsty warriors? They're back, and are involved in resistance against this Hoelscher Empire that's going to be the antagonistic force for the foreseeable future. The bunny barbarians getting a bit more time to breathe with their schtick works better here than it did back in the early first season, where it was more of a punch-line than anything else. Seeing them sit around arguing about which chuuni-ass nickname suits Hajime more goes on a little long, sure, but I'll take the show having a sense of humor about itself over its old too-serious overtones.

That does creep in just a little bit in this premiere. The initial question of how much Hajime cares to help the enslaved bunny-people prompts a conversation between Kouki and Shizuku about Hajime's simmering angst and what he had to prove with his power. It's a distraction that the audience doesn't need, specifically because Hajime's arc had already been tread so thoroughly, as well as because these characters are right back to riffing on Hajime's excesses just a couple of scenes later. The build-up of Shea's worries works a little better, even as the bunny-girl has always been the butt of comic relief otherwise, and at least lets the inevitable reveal of Hajime being a big ol' softie about rescuing her people land in an appreciable, if expected way.

Mostly though, this is the fun version of ARIFURETA back, embodied by a demon-eyed bunny man plotting some harebrained scheme at the end, and the opening's very welcome promise that my favorite thirsty necromancer Eri will be back. It means if you're still on-board with ARIFURETA after its impressive comeback tour in the previous season, you'll be right back at home with this continuation. It's too far into its own out-there weeds to bring in any newcomers, I think, but worth continuing to watch for anybody who stuck it out in those rough early days.