Review for Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious Complete Series

Introduction

For the last few years, I’ve been frustrated by Crunchyroll’s obsession with releasing isekai “lost in another world” anime in the UK, with such titles seemingly taking up half of their release schedule. It’s a genre that I’ve taken efforts to avoid, not wanting to be overwhelmed. These things happen in anime, cycles of creator obsession with a certain genre, but it feels that this particular genre has been overwhelming the streaming and physical release spaces for far too long now, much in the same way that comic book movies fill the multiplexes. And here I am, now reviewing an isekai title, the ridiculously titled, Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered But Overly Cautious. But it’s really an indication of my facility with procrastination. I’ve allowed my anime backlog to grow to such a degree, that I’ve stopped counting, and started measuring instead. I currently have one and a half metres of unwatched anime Blu-rays and even DVDs. And this particular collection is so old that it was released by Manga Entertainment of all people, a label that hasn’t existed in the UK for three and a half years at this point.


It’s a living for a deity; summoning heroes to save realms, and gaining divine status as a result. Ristarte may be a novice at this, but she’s already got a tried and trusted technique. She summons heroes from modern Japan, as they are most likely gamer otaku who already know the tropes and shortcuts of living in a fantasy world. Her next challenge is to save the world of Gaeabrande from a demon lord and their minions, and she finds a candidate with high stats to summon. The only problem is that Seiya Ryuuguuin is cautious to the point of paranoia. He’s the kind of gamer that will spend weeks maxing out his stats before attempting a mission, and he brings that attitude to his new world. What’s more frustrating for Rista, is while Seiya may spend all of his time training before trying something as simple as defeating a slime, he’s kind of hot too.


Twelve episodes are presented across two Blu-ray discs from Manga Entertainment.

Disc 1
1. This Hero Is Too Arrogant
2. Too Much For A Novice Goddess To Bear
3. The Hero Is Too Self-Serving
4. I So Don’t Need Any Allies
5. This Goddess Is Too Spooky
6. The Great Dragon Mother Is Too Sneaky

Disc 2
7. This Lady Knight Is Too Doglike
8. Neat And Tidy But Overly Nymphomaniacal
9. This Reaper Is Just Too Invincible
10. This Man Is Too Strong For Being So Old
11. The Truth Is Too Much To Bear
12. The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious

Picture

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious gets a 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p transfer on these discs. It’s a bright, colourful and vibrant comedy anime, so expect a familiar character design style, some nice world designs and a fair amount of detail. The animation is energetic and fairly detailed, and there is no visible sign of compression, aliasing or banding. It’s a fairly typical comedy anime.

Sound

You have the choice between Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround English and 2.0 Stereo Japanese, with translated subtitles and a signs only track locked during playback. I was happy with the Japanese audio, with the actors suited well to their roles, the action coming across well, and the music driving the story with suitable impact. While the theme songs might not be earworms, I wasn’t tempted to skip them either. The subtitles are accurately timed and are free of typos.

Extras

You get two discs in a BD Amaray style case, one on a centrally hinged panel, all wrapped in an o-card slipcover. There is inner sleeve art to appreciate as well as a defunct Funimation NOW digital code.

Disc 1 autoplays with a trailer for Funimation NOW.


The extras on Disc 2 comprise the following...

Promo Videos (2:43)
Commercials (0:34)
Textless Credits

Conclusion

Cautious Hero is an isekai show, and I like it! That’s something I didn’t really expect to write when I started this review. Admittedly, the only issue I have with this particular genre of anime is its ubiquitous presence. I enjoyed the first few examples that I saw, but a couple of years into the phenomenon, I couldn’t take much more, unless it was a parody of the genre. Cautious Hero isn’t a parody, but it is one of the funniest anime shows I have seen of late. Most anime comedies will elicit a smile, a knowing chuckle, a smirk of appreciation most often, and I will classify that as a successful comedy. Cautious Hero had me laughing out loud in a way that I rarely do these days.


The thing is, it does it all with pretty much just the one joke. Seiya has been summoned to be the hero that saves an entire world, but rather than being a gung-ho adventurer, he’s so cautious and paranoid, that he becomes a roadblock to the goddess Ristarte, who has been tasked with saving the realm of Gaeabrande. Even the slightest challenge will see Seiya retiring to the Divine Realm, where luckily time flows so fast, that he can train for days to level up while the villains wait for an hour or so for him to respond. And Seiya is obnoxiously single-minded about it all, so that he winds up rubbing everyone he encounters the wrong way. It’s all the more difficult for Ristarte, who as well as being annoyed by this guy, winds up attracted to him too, something which should be a no-no between gods and mortals.


Then Cautious Hero does that thing which so many anime comedies do to annoy me, become serious in the last couple of episodes to wring some pathos, tug at a few heartstrings where just a few episodes ago they were aiming for the belly laugh with some crude sexual humour. The thing about Cautious Hero is that instead of causing narrative whiplash, it earns its genre switch. It’s been telegraphing and laying pipe since the beginning of the story, developing its characters in just the right way to make that sudden shift into serious mode feel deserved, and the emotions it elicits from the audience are genuine; you never feel manipulated. So, I had a good time with an isekai show. Had to happen sometime...

Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered But Overly Cautious is available from Anime on Line, from Anime Limited, and from mainstream retailers.