Isekai rarely addresses returning to the real world anymore. Some anime are so uninterested in the protagonist’s prior life that it can make you wonder why they’re an isekai at all. Saving the world is the most common objective, and when it isn’t, then isekai heroes are often power seekers or weird survivalists. Thankfully, we get My Status as an Assassin Exceeds the Hero’s this season to shake those tropes off. Let’s check out what conflict looks like in a world where the hero’s first goal is getting home.
My Status As An Assassin Is Because I Was Dull?
One day at school, Akira Oda’s class is caught up in a magical ritual and sent to another world. Akira — a fan of isekai stories — immediately subverts the genre by being suspicious of the king who summoned them. But why?
You see, Akira’s life hasn’t been easy. His mother is sickly, his father isn’t in the picture, and his younger sister needs to eat. However, Akira’s not the kind of guy who stands out. In fact, most of his classmates don’t know his name. So he stays quiet at school, works hard part-time, and takes care of his family the best he can. He doesn’t mind not being noticed, but he also doesn’t expect much from other people.
Quiet loner that he is, when he gets isekai’d, he gets two benefits. One is high base stats: much higher than he’s told are high. The other is the Conceal Presence power. Perfect for his assassin class and for a paranoiac like Akira, Conceal Presence enables him to hide in plain sight and sneak around anyone relying on sight.
Good thing too. As Akira stands back, the king explains the class mechanics of the world and his needs. He requires these high schoolers to destroy a demon king. Before that, he’ll measure and register their stats and classes. Standard stat-based isekai stuff. Except that not everything the king says adds up. Not trusting the king and not wanting to be used for his high stats, Akira conceals his presence to learn more before committing to the king’s cause.
A King’s Plot
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s is a subversion of an isekai. While that’s clear enough from Akira’s paranoia, it turns out he’s right, and the king is a villainous manipulator. He has his own daughter under a mind control spell to do his bidding without question, and he plots to get the kids to be his trained weapons. He’ll hang onto them, rather than help them home. Akira can’t have that, because Akira has a mother and a sister who need him.
The king’s realm isn’t as stable as it appears, and others have concerns about the outwardly good, but corrupt, king. One of these people is the knight commander of the kingdom, Gilles. Lucky for Akira, Gilles is also the only person in the castle who has the necessary skills to see through Akira’s Conceal Presence. If he were an enemy, Akira would be doomed. Instead, Gilles provides Akira with the knowledge he needs to understand the class system and train up his low-rated assassin skills. Gilles is such a good guy that he admits it would be inappropriate for him to ask Akira to kill the king. Even though Akira is an assassin, that doesn’t mean he has to be a murderer (to paraphrase Gilles).
Escaping Conflict
Certain plot-critical things happen, and Akira abandons the castle to solo a dungeon and get stronger. He won’t be the king’s pawn, but he understands he needs power to accomplish his goals. He avoids one conflict, but is forced to fight another.
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s doesn’t dive into the stats or abilities to the extent of a LitRPG story (at least in the first few episodes). Instead, we’re shown that Akira’s strong enough to solo a dungeon. The hero and a small party of Akira’s classmates also escaped the king in the aftermath of the weighty spoiler twists, but, so far, it’s unclear if they’ll share much screen time. It would help to see the classmates fight, because Akira seems strong. It’s hard to tell if he’s overpowered without a clear comparison.
My Status As An Assassin Doesn’t Include Killing
Akira has slain monsters in the dungeon, but so far, he refuses to kill people. This includes a messenger cat-demon sent by the demon king, even though its status as a dungeon boss meant Akira needed to kill it to leave. Lucky again, Akira picked up an elf mage named Amelia Rosequartz who helps him with the boss. Instead of killing the kitty, Akira makes a familiar pact with it and gains a cute cat companion — while making Amelia jealous.
Will Akira slay a thinking person? This tension is at the core of My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s. What if killing someone is Akira’s only way back? The demon king, who has yet to be seen, is clearly a person, and the magic that brought Akira to this world may be undone by their death. Unlike many anime, killing isn’t trivialized here. While it takes a person’s death seriously, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s does eat its cake with glee whenever it allows Akira to slaughter monsters without a second thought.
As anyone who has lost a pet or seen a wounded animal die should know, death can still hit hard. It can be emotional even though it’s the death of an unfamiliar animal. I wish this anime recognized that. As it is, the plot feels rushed at times, and a more self-reflection would help the dungeon montage feel grounded. Still, I’m enjoying the internal conflict over the righteousness of taking a person’s life.
The Conclusion of an Assassin
Other than feeling rushed beyond the first episode, I’ve enjoyed My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s. Focusing on morality-driven conflicts and sidelining mindless violence pays off here. Even Akira’s freed classmates are more driven by regrets of how they ignored and never got to know Akira. They also care more about their prisoner classmates than about defeating the demon king — though that’s on the table. Their personal goals also help highlight the moral questions. What would you do to get home?
If you enjoy isekai adventure with personal motives and moral conflict, then give My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s a shot.
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