Cautious Hero gives us the usual isekai deal with an overlay of heavy comedy. The main gimmick is that the hero, despite being incredibly powerful, is incredibly cautious (almost paranoid about danger). There's certainly some amusement here but can this one hold its own in the already over-crowded comedic isekai market?
Ultimate moves and goddesses breaking the rules, this would be an almost epic hero versus demon lord showdown except that with the comedic build up to this point it just doesn't quite feel earned. Not to mention, even mid-crisis the story can't resist throwing in some slap stick. Still, Cautious Hero gives us a pretty solid ending with episode 12.
Seiya may have met his match and the stakes actually exist for once. Cautious Hero manages to be both completely ridiculous and fairly tense simultaneously in episode 10 and then hits us with an exposition dump to somehow make us worry about the outcome in the final episode. It isn't great writing but its still kind of working.
The flies have met their match in episode 8 though the girl has learned absolutely nothing and is still pretty much set on throwing her own life away (honourably of course). However, just when Seiya has things under control a new threat emerges for episode 9. I was not expecting this series to be this interesting but I'm glad I stuck with it.
Is it really the hero's job to charge in sword waving even if the cost is the soldiers who follow after? Seiya certainly disagrees with that model of heroism and honestly it is hard to fault his logic in not just leaping into he fray. He might not have made a new friend this week but his logic was pretty solid.
Shinchou Yuusha continues to surprise me with how Seiya continues to evolve as a character. I'm sure Ristarte wasn't the only one who was kind of stunned by his declaration at the conclusion of this episode. This comedy isekai didn't just get my attention, it has managed to make me very interested in where it intends to go over the course of the last 6 episodes.
That was a bombshell and a half delivered at the end of the episode. However, prior to that, we get Seiya imparting some important wisdom on the two new additions to his party and some more training. It's pretty funny though not exceptional.
Hey look, the hero actually acted kind of heroically though given he had a planned contingency it kind of makes sense. Still, it was kind of fun watching him take out another heavenly king this week.
Ristarte continues to bemoan her cautious hero and Seiya continues to be obsessed with preparation and mistrustful of literally everyone and yet somehow this manages to work. It is more or less the same set-up and punch line over and over again with slightly different settings however so far I'm finding Shinchou Yuusha entertaining enough and largely that is down to the way the characters bounce off of one another.
While individually both the hero and the goddess aren't exactly great, when played against one another, Cautious Hero manages to actually be kind of funny and honestly I'm enjoying this different approaching to 'heroing' so far. While not great by any means, this one is probably a keeper for the season.