Gacha hell has reached anime in an all-new way. For years, anime fans have been able to randomly draw for waifus and weaponry in their favorite games. Now anime protagonists get to draw for powers. At least that’s the premise of Bogus Skill “Fruitmaster:” About That Time I Became Able to Eat Unlimited Numbers of Skill Fruits (That Kill You). Some of you may have heard it called “Nut master” instead.
Descending into Gacha Hell
Light (no last name) and Lena (no last name, too) are childhood friends. These friends have no family, no friends, and no origin point. A blank slate that he is, Light dreams of becoming an adventurer. Lena, the love interest, only dreams of working with Light. Unfortunately, you can’t be an adventurer in the Fruitmaster world without a combat Skill. They are at the mercy of their gacha luck. Are specific fruits the containers for Skills? Do Skills bring out a person’s inner powers? How Skills and Fruits relate isn’t significant or explained (at least up to where I watched).
Lena lucks out, eating her fruit and gaining the Skill of Sword Saint. Light loses the gacha roll and gains the seemingly useless power of Fruitmaster. Like all other anime protagonists with a useless power, Light tries to make the most of his situation. In his case, by becoming a farmer. Fruitmaster lets him ripen and mature fruit faster, you see.
But Not Just Any Gacha
Generic premise aside, the gacha here is truly staggering. Skills like Bug Resistance, or the ability for cats to like you more, exist. Therefore, the odds of getting a combat Skill seem astronomical. The more we learn, the less surprising it is that people would try for another power. The issue is that Skill Fruits are toxic to anyone who has eaten one before, at least according to the lady named Saint who introduces them. So, these people have one gacha roll, with a near-unlimited number of options, and pray for a useful one. It’s been a while since I’ve felt bad for an entire population in an anime, but Fruitmaster managed it. I wouldn’t want to live in their world just because gacha addicts dying of bad decisions is far too real.
Serious Business
Long story short, Light learned that his Fruitmaster Skill made him immune to fruit-based poisons, so he could eat more Skill Fruits and live. His first new power is Sword God — a vague step above Lena’s Sword Saint. Now, as Kirito 2.0, he decides to pursue his dreams. That means getting Lena back so they can adventure together.
Light Recruiting Lena away from her S-rank adventuring party and away from domestic violence takes two-thirds of an episode. During these early episodes, I was sure the tone of the show was going to be serious, as it shows off: mental manipulation, adventurers being violent assholes, farmers losing their livelihoods, monsters threatening to kill people, and after a while, zombies of fellow adventurers confront the protagonists. There are also hints of an apocalypse.
Gleeful Gacha
Only, the show isn’t really a drama. If this was Death Note, its Light would have spent episodes learning to use his powers or getting new ones. Instead, nobody seems to really consider the implications of the Fruitmaster Skill. Light’s just happy he can be an adventurer now. He doesn’t worry about risks, and he brings his child ward, Ayla, along into life-and-death situations. She’s, like, twelve years old, tops. For multiple episodes, he doesn’t eat another Skill Fruit.
No, this show treats gacha like a gag and Skills as the convenience they are. While there is serious content, the show never lets it drag the tone down. At one point, Light starts making gacha rolls to escape a doomed situation. If this was Arifureta, he’d have been horribly maimed and lucked into a healing Skill. Instead, he stands around rolling junk powers and complaining as he chews fruit, but he’s not in danger. While many of the show’s jokes are standard anime fare, they don’t overstay their welcome, and there’s no junk food fan service to desperately beg for popularity. And no filler harem (so far).
This show’s heart is about a dude, his childhood friend, and some kid they’re looking after, doing scary things through a fun anime lens. They’re not in danger, they’re not burning minutes of viewers’ time on power exposition, and that lighthearted tone carries what is otherwise a pretty generic show.
Just One Last Roll
Bogus Skill: “Fruitmaster” takes a silly gacha mechanic that turns its protagonist into a generic Super Special Skill Dude™ Kirito-lite and implies just enough to make the mechanic deeper and more dangerous than it seems. Then, it shakes all that up with a lighthearted tone and jokes and shows viewers not to take it too seriously. “Fruitmaster” wants to be fun instead of plot-heavy or deep. If that’s all you want, give a roll on this gacha.
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