Anime: Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S Rank ni Natteta

I had this ridiculously unnecessarily long title under my radar for a while before it aired because it seemed like it would be cute, but I was also worried because, as other manga and anime before it, it could go down a perverse route at any moment, thankfully it didn’t and remained as it began throughout all of its duration.

There’s nothing special about the show, it’s a typical lighthearted adventure in a typical fantasy setting with a typical class system that makes you think that the characters are in a videogame.

Ok, there is a political plot, and there are powerful demons hidden somewhere affecting the setting in one way or another, but the first is resolved quickly and conveniently, while the second is hardly given much importance, even though it’s hinted that the main girl herself might be another one of those creatures as well, something that the studio seemingly tried to hide by changing a little her original character design.

So, there kind of is a plot and some drama, but honestly, the series is at its weakest when it focuses on that, as things are resolved easily and conveniently, so no attempt at a serious plot is believable nor very enjoyable, the show is at its best when it focuses on what the stupid long title tells you, how the main girl, one of the strongest characters in the world, as protagonists end up being a lot of the times, is a daddy’s girl that cares about going back to her father more than anything else, like saving the world or some shit. That’s why coup d’états can be taken down easily, antagonists are defeated almost instantly, and if they are children, they are forgiven instantly for everything they did, and reformed right away.

There is some action but honestly that’s weak as hell as well, very short, most of it is kept out of screen and from what I understand heavily shortened and altered from the source material, resulting in some really badly planned, storyboarded and scripted scenes, and since the main characters are so strong, they hardly face any threat. It doesn’t help that for a 2023 anime, the visuals in it just plain suck, very simple character designs, generic even for the girls, very inconsistent quality for the artwork, affecting even the models which go off very often, beautiful backgrounds that are unfortunately also affected at times, very bad motions even during the simplest scenes, very simple and uninteresting directing, and the special effects are just the worst, they look at least two decades old.

The audio is good, decent sound effects and ok voice acting, generic but fitting background music, opening and ending that go well with the overall feeling of the show, nothing much to complain or explain in details here.

The characters are very one note, they fit within an archetype when they appear and they stay like that for the whole series, at best they get a bit of their backdrop stories revealed but that’s about it.

At the end of the day this is a series you watch to casually relax with it, for its lighthearted adventure and laid back feeling, of seeing a strong protagonist being a daddy’s girl, as well as many other girls that for some reason all are needing of some fatherly love, whether because they lost their families or because, well, that’s just how Bel is, always charming everyone with his strength, sword technique, good manners, very respectful and understanding way of speaking, and always helping people, reuniting families, and taking care of children or teenagers. There is some underlying message about how no one is truly naturally evil, and that nurture and how we are helped to control our emotions and redo our lives define how we come out to be, even for the demons, thus making the anime standing on a middle point between the victimized ones from Helck, and the pure evil ones from Sousou no Frieren, both airing in the same season. Thus, the message adds to the feel good type of show it is.

If that’s up your alley, despite some very crude visuals, you might have a little good casual time with it, however, if you go into it expecting something like a plot or serious theme exploration or strong characterization in it, you’ll be completely disappointed by it.