I'm Quitting Heroing

Episode 5

I genuinely enjoyed this episode. Perhaps surprisingly so! I think what really struck a chord for me is how it actually approached a realistic problem with a probable solution, even if the results were within fantasy norms.

The central hook is that Mernes does not know how to communicate well with others. That is obviously a realistic struggle to have even for an experienced demon general, and it has a realistic root in Mernes' background with the Assassin's Guild. So far, it's all plausible setup and natural feeling consequences.

So our hero decides to help and offers—gasp—really strong advice!

I'm Quitting Heroing does a great job differentiating itself from the pack by actually feeling like a human being with life experience wrote it. Far too often the solutions in a lot of the recent fantasy and/or isekai shows I have been reviewing for seasonals have absolutely absurd leaps in logic regarding what normal human interaction looks like. Or they take opportunities like this to have the hero gloat over other characters, or have the characters prostrate themselves before the hero's superior skills, etc. Here though, our Hero offers reasonable advice: one way to learn about how to communicate with others is to do so in a customer service scenario.

Having worked plenty of customer service jobs myself, I can vouch for the fact that you learn a lot about people in those positions. You especially learn about the bad. A lot of the bad. But putting aside the terrible pay and poor treatment from customers, I definitely learned a great deal about how to react to others and try to read their body language, intentions, etc. Not only that, the hero uses an analogy that having a conversation is sort of like tossing a ball back and forth with someone. It's not a complicated metaphor, but it sure beats the usual response in similar works which is goes something like “Ah, the perfect response in situation X is to say phrase Y and you have solved people!” There's a sense that, gasp, people are complicated and interactions can be messy, so you have to learn to engage in the back and forth.

Also, there's Mernes in a maid outfit fighting anthropomorphic dogmen. If that's your thing.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

I'm Quitting Heroing is currently streaming on HIDIVE.