Am I Actually the Strongest? (Jitsu wa Ore, Saikyou deshita?): Isekai Anime Review (Mostly Spoiler Free)
What happens when another world's goddess gives a NEET (not in employment,
training, or education) a new life in another world but messes up his stats?
How does he survive; with overpowered ancient magic of course! Learn about the
pros and cons of Haruto Zenfis' journey from birth to young adulthood with a
quick anime review down below!
The Breakdown
Criteria
Grade
Summary
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
⭐⭐★☆☆
Slightly Substandard
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
⭐⭐⭐★☆
Slightly Above Standard
⭐⭐★☆☆
Slightly Substandard
⭐⭐★☆☆
No.
Summary Review of The Breakdown
Although the show has a relatively unique art style, it fails to
capture the eye with beautiful scenery, high tension action sequences,
or well timed visual jokes. Each episode also feels like it has an
absurd amount of graphical bloom, turning all the white up to a blinding
degree that stays present throughout the entire series. Despite the
funny antics at the beginning of the show, some jokes feel repeated
every episode, mainly centering around the laziness and overpowered
abilities of the main character. Voice acting in this show portrays each
character's inner emotions decently well, but fails to go beyond that.
Both opening and ending themes have fun upbeat tunes that are relatively
memorable, but backing tracks are extremely generic.
Overall, there's not much this show has going for it besides the
strange visual choice and is very much a "turn your brain off" type of
show. If you enjoy these types of shows or just want to watch something
with a lazy and overpowered protagonist, then go right ahead. Otherwise,
its best to spend time viewing more entertaining
experiences.
Animation
Produced by
Staple Entertainment, a company
founded in 2020, with Am I Actually the Strongest? as its second ever TV
show. Despite this, action scenes in the show, especially at the
beginning, have extremely clean flow; dramatizing hits and dodges to an
extreme and showcasing the potential this company has.
Criteria
Grade
Summary
3D
⭐⭐⭐★☆
Slightly Above Standard
Special Effects
⭐⭐☆☆☆
Substandard
Character Art
⭐⭐⭐★☆
Slightly Above Standard
Background Art
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
3D
Shockingly for this type of show, there are very few noticeable 3D objects, if any, in the foreground at any given point. The most obvious 3D object is usually Haruto's magic, which comes in the shape of a cube frame. Despite its obvious 3D-ness, it splits Haruto's magic away from everyone else's magic and represents his specialness in the world.
Special Effects
Most of the special effects come from magic or fighting effects. For the
most part, they are all handled nicely and add depth to the fight scenes.
However, the most glaring issue with the show is the horrendous coloring
with white tones throughout the entire show. Throughout each episode, most
character's skin tones look like they've been blown out with improper
settings when in broad daylight. Its impossible to overlook and takes away
the immersion of the world almost instantly.
Am I Actually the Strongest? Episode 5.
At the top of the frame, the whites blow everything out losing detail in the
background.
Character Art
Important character's such as Flay, Haruto, and Charlotte all have a
standout facial feature, their eyes. Each of them has wide, round eyes,
separating them from the rest of the cast who typically have much narrower
or smaller eyes.
However, despite the consistent drawings, an odd flaw where it sometimes
looks like the outline on a character comes off too strong, especially near
the end of hair, allowing you to visibly count the pixels of outlined
parts.
Am I Actually the Strongest? Episode 5.
Tips of Char's hair too darkly colored, sticking out sorely as an outline.
Background Art
Despite a wide arrange of varied backgrounds across different seasons, times
of day, and locations, the backgrounds seem to have a similar look to other
similar shows. Despite the main animation style looking incredibly unique,
the backgrounds can break immersion by feeling too cold and realistic
against the bright colors of foreground characters.
Am I Actually the Strongest?
Episode 4.
More realistic background sticks out against the bright colors of Char and
Haruto.
Story
A young adult NEET finds himself in another world, invited by a goddess
starting him over with a new life in a world of knights, magic, and an evil
demon king! Yet, due to a graphical error on a magic measuring device,
Haruto loses his comfy reincarnation life as the king's son and finds
himself outcast in the middle of a deadly forest. Filled with gags, magic
abilities, magic girls, evil societies and more, Am I Actually the Strongest? works hand-in-hand with classic
Isekai approaches to fantasy.
- Strong start with the first few episodes in terms of action sequences, gags, and storyline.
- Some characters have interesting backstories and jobs in world.
However the negatives of the story far outweighs the positives.
- After a character is introduced and had their turn in the spotlight, they typically end up forgotten or ignored for the rest of the series.
- One-dimensional character writing, everyone follows their set characteristics half-heartedly, typically breaking character for a pun
- Half of Episode 7 is a filler episode where nothing of importance takes place.
- Jokes about Haruto's laziness become slightly repetitive.
- Jokes about Haruto's magic become extremely repetitive.
- After a dramatic second episode, most episodes become slice-of-life style plots where nothing of major importance typically happens.
Voice Acting
With an experienced cast, character voices come alive, showing
enthusiasm for magic girls, despairing at going to school, and
explaining love for magic. Yet despite the amount of veteran talent,
no character sticks out as extremely memorable for their voice lines
or their conveyed emotions. Each character feels like a piece of
fiction or an
Isekai-style fourth wall-break, rather than someone truly living in that
world.
Am I Actually the Strongest? Episode 3.
Charlotte reacting to a Power Ranger style TV show like a typical
otaku.
Soundtrack
Between a fun and slightly memorable opening, Reset
Life? (リセット ライフ？)
by Lezel and a well animated but fairly generic J-Pop
song, Himi CHU★Pre-love Magic (ひみCHU★プリラブマジック), by Star☆ShiNew' (夜宙☆ShiNew'), Am I Actually the Strongest? has a slightly above standard opening and a standard ending. However,
both sound effects and backing tracks end up long forgotten,
especially when compared against the series' opening.
Criteria
Grade
Summary
Opening
⭐⭐⭐★☆
Slightly Above Standard
Ending
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
Background Tracks
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
Sound Effects
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
Have you watched Am I Actually the Strongest? Did you enjoy it? Hate it? Do you plan to watch it or plan to skip it? Leave a comment down below!
Thank you for reading!
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