Is Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest a good anime? No. Arifureta is a very bad isekai anime. Three main reasons why Arifureta is bad is because:

1. It lacks originality

2. It is very rushed

3. It has terrible animation

Summary

The premise of the show has Hajime Nagumo and his classmates transported into a fantasy world in order to save it from some sort of disaster that’s about to occur. In one of their expeditions, he’s betrayed after an incident involving one of his classmates shooting him off a bridge.

Hajime falls into the lower floors of the dungeon and that’s where he starts to change. Hajime is weaker than his classmates and his only power is simple transmutation. After being trapped in the dungeon for so long, Hajime gains the resolve to survive and kill anyone who he deems as his enemy.

Arifureta is an Isekai Anime

An isekai anime is a fantasy subgenre of Japanese light novels, manga, video games and anime. It involves a normal person from Earth being transported to, reborn, or trapped in a parallel universe, usually a fantasy world.

* Spoilers below *

Arifureta Lacks Originality

One of the main reasons why Arifureta is bad is because it’s not original and brings nothing interesting to the table.

The isekai genre has increased in popularity over the years, especially after the massive popularity of Sword Art Online (2012), one of the most commercially successful anime of the past decade. However, Arifureta doesn’t bring anything new or add any interesting elements that make it stand out.

Arifureta is exactly the same as every isekai anime out there. As a matter a fact, it has even worse execution.

For example, the main character Hajime Nagumo is too similar to Naofumi Iwatani from the Rising of the Shield Hero (2019). Just like Naofumi, Hajime changes drastically after being betrayed. He has the same aggression and anger at the world. The difference is that Naofumi has a good reason to be that way and it is built up properly. This is not the case with Arifureta. Hajime’s reason for his drastic change in personality is not executed properly.

Another similarity that Arifureta has with  the Rising of the Shield Hero (2019) is Hajime saves a cute vampire girl that is imprisoned into a crystal. It is very similar to how Naofumi finds a young demi-human girl named Raphtalia.

Alot of Arifureta’s plot is a blatant copy of the Rising of the Shield Hero.

Another isekai anime that Arifureta is similar to is That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime (2018). In That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime (2018), the main character, Rimuru,  discovers that he has been reincarnated as a Slime in an unfamiliar world. At the same time, he also acquires new-found skills, particularly the ability called “Predator,” which allows him to devour anything and mimic its appearance and skills. That’s one of the reasons why Rimuru is so OP. Hajime obtains a similar power when he is forced to eat monsters to survive and then gets their powers. It makes sense within the context of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime (2018) why Rimuru would have this power since he’s a slime. In Hajime case, it makes less sense. Hajime’s power is a copy of Rimuru’s predator skill.

Arifureta has nothing new to offer to the isekai genre and is a generic ripoff of other popular isekai.

Arifureta is Rushed

Arifureta skipped alot of content from the light novel, which is why it’s rushed and a complete mess.

Most light novel and manga fans of Arifureta have been critical of the anime for skipping so much content especially in the first episode. In order to better appreciate Arifureta, viewers need to get a better understanding of the world building within the fantasy elements of the anime. However, the production staff cut too many corners and it results in a disastrous first episode.

The first episode of Arifureta is horrible. First off, When Hajime is in the dungeon, it is way too dark. It  wouldn’t have been so bad if his clothes contrasted with the background colors. The anime could have conveyed this darkness using visual cues. It looks very unappealing.

Instead of focusing on the school life of Hajime and his classmates before the summon into the fantasy world, the anime started in the middle of nowhere and had the viewers catch up in very short flashbacks that didn’t give a good sense of whats going on or any information of the characters, or the world. They screwed up the cliffhanger that could have happened at the end of the first episode with him falling into the abyss.

There’s some important things that needed to be mentioned about Hajime and the girl that has a crush on him, Kaori, as well as the bully that also likes her too.

Whoever is the script writer for the Arifureta anime completely made a mess of the first episode.

We don’t even see how or when Hajime gets everything he needs to complete his character design, as we’re instead forced to assume what happened. The two month time skip in episode 5, the fight the classmates have with the enemies they had trouble with in episode 1, and the aforementioned incoherent ordering of events in the second half of episode 4’s big emotional action sequence serve as further examples of how bad the pacing and storytelling is past the first episode.

Nothing feels earned from any emotional standpoint due to both these storytelling reasons and the general lack of decent writing.

Hajime’s Character Development is Rushed

Hajime’s character development is so fast that there’s pretty much no room to improve his character.

When Hajime’s arm is cut off, viewers haven’t established any emotional connection to the character because there is no build up and the scene lose some of it’s impact.

Furthermore, Hajime does not really gain power by training. Instead, he attains power by getting really pissed off and eating monster meat. The Arifureta anime uses the concept of in-game stats and skill trees to show how much he’s leveled up, so viewers can understand how awesome he’s become. Hajime becomes an underdog to an overpowered, omnipotent character in the first episode.

In other isekai anime, there is some time that takes place before the main character becomes OP. This is not the case in the Arifureta anime.

Arifureta learns how to create guns, gains a bunch of abilities , and becomes such an unstoppable force in the first episode. Later, he conquers an entire labyrinth’s worth of monsters, and any moments of struggle are overcome quickly within the span of the episode to make him look even cooler.

After episode 2, no enemy is a challenge to Hajime. He and his party members are the only characters on the good side who’re not totally useless. Everyone else who’s not introduced as the enemy is shown to be weak. Then, Hajime will appear and shoot down the bad guys with little to no effort.

It is absolutely terrible and irredeemable writing.

Arifureta’s Animation is Bad

The animation in Arifureta is atrocious. The action scenes are very lack luster.

Every frame looks confusing. The cinematography is horrible. For example, in the first episode, the shots of Hajime seeing fight between the rabbit and wolf is off. Its hard to decipher the spatial relationship between the two monsters.

Later, a bear comes out and Hajime uses some unknown power that the audience has no context of and it looks horrible. It looks like he can manipulate the earth but the CG rocks that appear look awful. The CG is so awful and completely out of place. As a result, it’s hard to care about any of the fighting, especially the bits with CG skeletons that hardly interact with the characters. The designs of the monster were also very bad.

The visuals in Arifureta were some of the worst to come out of 2019.

How did Arifureta Get So Bad and Rushed ?

Arifureta was rushed because of production issues. Arifureta was initially suppose to be adapted by just White Fox, which is the same studio responsible for Re:Zero and Goblin Slayer, two of the most well known isekai anime in recent years. However, the production was delayed for more than a year. This is believed to be because of the author of the light novel being very dissatisfied with the character designs and storyboards. A different team with a different studio (studio Asread) had to step in. Unfortunately, there were still issues and it did not do the light novel and manga justice.

Hajime and Yue’s Relationship

Yue is a 300-year-old blonde loli vampire that was sealed away. Hajime frees her after she shares her story and how she was betrayed by her own people, something that resonated with Hajime.

Hajime never saw her as one that he could exploit, but rather one that is worthy of a teammate and a great support alongside one another. Yue eventually helps Hajime defeat alot of the monsters in the dungeon. Yue is a tsundere who is standoffish to everyone except Hajime. She gets the most onscreen time with Hajime

Hajime and Yue eventually develop a romantic relationship. She is happy to show her body to Hajime. They develop a great bond in the beginning of the series. However, more girls get introduced into Hajime’s party and it eventually becomes a harem.

Conclusion

Arifureta is a massive disappointment and the worst anime of 2019.

Arifureta is a 13-episode anime. This is a problem because it is based on a novel that ran for hundreds of chapters. It would’ve been better if it was 2 cours (26 episodes) so it would be an acceptable adaptation.

The episodes  suffers from pacing issues and there’s no emotional attachment to the characters, story, art style, or anything. Arifureta is an amalgamation of every bad idea wrapped up into one little package. This was a result of horrendous direction and a lack of planning.

To recap, the animation quality is atrocious. The character development is nonexistent. The storytelling is bland and the overall story is lackluster.

Character relationship seems like a wish filling fantasy rather than anything realistic or tolerable. People tend to call this type of show generic or cliché but this Arifureta is worse than that. It’s the fact that it is executed so horribly that it’s comically bad.

Arifureta is the worst anime of 2019.

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