RecommendedFunny
I thought for a moment about making a proper analysis and a serious review, since it's not a preliminary review anymore, but I mean, come on. The show doesn't treat itself seriously, so why should I? Also, it's not like it's unenjoyable despite being bad, so eh. I'll leave most of it as is. Dear reader. I don't care how high or low do you think the level of my intelligence is. I think that this show did not respect it, no matter its quantity. If you've ever seen another trashy isekai, especially one that has some sort of trans-dimensional trading system in it, then you'veseen all the gimmicks that this anime will have going for it. The plot of "Arafo Otoko" is as one-dimensional of a Campfire Cooking knock-off, as one can make. And generally it's a happy mishmash of isekai slop tropes in random order. Which to be fair, I'm used to at this point;
This is neither the first dumb power fantasy trash I watched, nor will it be the last. But I must stress, that this workaround around the general issue of dumb shows came from me, not from the show. They are still on the hook for being moronic, appealing to the base emotions and relying on the stupidest tropes one can think of. Me being "fine with that" is not a merit of these shows, but a dull reality I've grown to accept. The idea in the first place was always, is that if you're gonna be swimming through the trash anyway, at least choose a decent kind. Sometimes it's the barely trashy Eminence in Shadows. And sometimes, it's a stinker like Arafo Otoko no Isekai Tsuuhan. And I'll probably gobble it up, anyway. Self-respect is through the roof here, bois.
HOWEVER!
While there are many, many faults I can see in it, like some sound glitches, many reused frames, bad CGI, music that becomes mismatched to the general scene's vibe, because they let it play for a bit too long, stiff and cheap animation and lazy editing included, there is one part that I absolutely love. While this title doesn't respect any intelligence, it does respect the heck out of my time. Like, despite this clearly being a dogwater of an isekai show, this I feel like it's trying to speedrun the story. It's relying on the preconceived notion, that since you LITERALLY CAN NOT GET LOST in a brain-dead stupid plot like this, you therefore can go at a breakneck pace and tick off the classic isekai tropes one by one and get home for dinner with no overtime. It makes the show so much better for it. At least compared to other slow life-adjacent fantasy shows, which often take FOREVER to get to the point, even in the case of a much better Campfire Cooking which this show borrows A LOT. Yet, this dumpster fire of a show, flexes on many competitors in the trash genre, simply by saying that:
"When creating a story, its STRUCTURE matters almost as much as the plot itself."
And in this story's case, structure is king. (Even though the plot and the characters are still sh**)
While all the alleged plot takes place, I feel the author was forced by an editor to add romantic subplots and sexual innuendos, but wasn't really comfortable with them, so they are an afterthought. He probably didn't want to waste any more time on romance than necessary. It's so bad, that it loops around to being decent again, just because it brings nothing to the story and is short, sweet and already over with, before you can remember the current female romantic interest's name.
Summarizing, I like trashy isekai slop. You like trashy isekai slop. We all like slop every now and then. This one will not remain in your head for longer than an hour after the credits of the last episode roll. It's definitely one of them. It's cr*p and I recommend it regardless, because it's dumb fun you can lose yourself in, as with any slop. Have fun and probably stop reading if you are considering watching this.
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One thing that changed my final score from the initial 4 to the current 2, is that it dared to hint at "Usagi Dropping" the adopted daughter character, Anemone. If you know what that means, I'm sorry. If you don't, I'm also sorry.
It doesn't go further than implying it might just happen one day, but it's disgusting enough that I felt it should be shamed for it.
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The super cool excavator mech that appears in the opening DOES NOT APPEAR in the show. Nor do most of the stuff from the opening. There will indeed be some heavy machinery, but not the big robot, that I was waiting for. The opening is like a banner with pictures of food at a fast food joint. Next to none of it will be there.
