Content Warning: Blood, Fan Service, light effects that may impact Photosensitive viewers
What’s it about? When Ephtal, a former human from modern Earth, devotes himself to magic, it results in him being one-fourth of the necessary heroes to slay the Demon King. Yet even with his superhuman efforts, Ephtal still finds himself leaving the world without talent, his dedication spurned. But this is just his first chance at life: four hundred years later, he finds himself reincarnated with the same name. Ephtal sets his gaze once more on mastering magic to its zenith.
Episode 1 begins in media res with fiery, magic explosions that rattle the very foundation of a demonic stronghold. Multiple warriors, each wielding weapon and skill, prepare for another onslaught of evil magic from a titan of a being as they coordinate for one final barrage.
And success—the beast is felled, and we cut to fireworks above a pristine castle, the citizenry elated that their homeland is secure from the wickedness of the Demon King. As a reward for their gargantuan efforts, those heroes are crowned as the Four Emperors, each wielding an element in their skilled hands. Now, decades into the future, Ephtal, one of those Four Emperors, faces a fate even he can’t defeat: death as a seemingly talentless warrior, despite his fame and skills.
But not all is blood and sadness, for hundreds of years in the future, Ephtal’s wish to be more than his seemingly pathetic self gets answered by fate, opening the path to a future where maybe, he’ll have the aptitude he so desired…
The first half of From Overshadowed to Overpowered is honestly pretty okay. It’s not necessarily doing anything different than your usual male-centric isekai, but it’s also not dipping its toes into the more gnarly aspects of the genre and all its trappings. It’s the type of show I’d put on just to have something on.
And then the plot kicks in and I let out the biggest sigh because what the actual hell, dude? Why did we have to go from well-clad characters to everyone boobin’ about, especially since the Ephtal we spend most of the episode with (and will likely spend most of the show with) is like, a literal child. Explicitly, he’s four. Like, why does his mom shove his face into her breasts? I know this is the only example, but I already know that this is a hint for what is to come based on the covers and anime splash images, and I just don’t like it. It’s just weird, and I’m gonna call it exactly what it is: weird.
On top of that, this show has the nerve to be really boring. Like, I had to force myself not to scroll on my phone during my watch because I do pride myself on presenting shows as accurately as possible, but like… oofa-doofah, I felt my fingers itching to do anything else. And I hate that, because I genuinely do like to enjoy each premiere I watch as best I can, but this one? This one was a test of my ADHD and how long I can sit still, and let me tell you: the show won.
I know that there’s an audience excited when their favorite isekai gets adapted. I know that said audience, both in Japan and globally, is probably thrilled to see the black and white text of a novel come to life. However, I can’t help but wonder what the appeal is here when you go from a pretty okay first half to seeing the protagonist reincarnated as a young man in a world where, once again, women have battle panties and High Power Armor on when they like, just didn’t in the majority of the show beforehand. I’m just not sure why. It doesn’t add anything of value to the story other than some very cheap titillation for… someone, I guess.
Also, like I said, this was really boring.
Like I said, I’m happy for the target audience, but for me, this was dead on arrival. Like a mage coughing up the sickness that consumes them, I’m down for the count, only this premiere didn’t make me want to reincarnate. It just made me want to go watch something else.
