HELL MODE – Episode 1

Content consideration: One line of creepiness around an adult getting reincarnated as a baby (see review for details).

What’s it about? 35-year-old Kenichi has nothing going for him except playing video games, and even those are too easy for him these days. When he finds a new game offering a “Hell Mode” difficulty level with an ultra-hard Summoner class, he doesn’t hesitate to sign up as an alpha-tester. As soon as he does, he’s reincarnated into the game as an infant and must navigate the world of serfdom with his new family and summoned critters.

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Unless this series plans to pull a plot twist of a Madoka-sized proportions, the title HELL MODE is deeply misleading. This world is much closer to Ni no Kuni than it is Dark Souls.

Actually, based on the way the episode ended, I suspect the entire premise is deeply misleading. For all the annoying game mechanics and self-aware monologuing that clogs the first half of this episode, the second half reveals the beginnings of a bright shonen-esque fantasy with the potential to be—dare I say?—pretty darn charming.

Which begs the question: why the heck is this a reincarnated-into-a-video-game isekai anyway?

HELL MODE begins like a checklist of male-led isekai tropes from the last decade:

• Isolated adult male gamer protagonist with exactly zero things going for him in the real world? Check. 
• Reincarnated as a baby who retains all his memories? Check.
• Video game world vaguely set in Medieval Europe where even the “NPCs” refer to monsters by their rankings? Check. 
• An exhaustive amount of time spent on explaining leveling up and game mechanics with zero attention paid to, you know, the basic narrative building blocks of character and plot and theme? 

Granted, the adaptation team does their damndest to make this show appealing. There’s a round, colorful bounciness to the art and music, and a genuine attempt to infuse a boilerplate game isekai with some expressive humor and motion. The cute li’l beast designs are particularly popping with personality.

Still, there was precious little meat on these bones. There wasn’t even a ton to critique from a feminist perspective: the town has (mostly) stereotypical gendered divisions of labor and there’s one off-putting line where Baby Allen sarcastically notes that “suckin’ on titties is great and all,” but he wants to start playing the actual video game soon.

Overall, though, the show was a pretty harmless meal, albeit an unseasoned one. I had a terrible feeling I was going to have to nitpick the word-building just to make the recommended word count for this review.

But then something shifted at the midway point, as Allen stepped away from his Gamer Grimoire (Gamoire?) and spent time with the people around him. I groaned that the story didn’t bother exploring the family’s status as serfs… and they started to explore it. I sighed for proper characters… and they gave Allen’s dad a personality and added Krena, a battle-happy girl who joyously bludgeons Allen into the ground every time they spar.

Allen begins to change from someone who only wants to level up and “rule the game” into someone who genuinely cares about the people in his life. Instead of strength for the sake of strength, he wants to become a proper summoner so he can help his new family escape a life of serfdom. 

By the end of this premiere, HELL MODE begins tapping into a sincere theme: that our “loser” protagonist isn’t searching for a gaming challenge, but rather for meaningful human connection. It’s not exceptionally deep, but it’s more warmhearted and introspective than a lot of these power-fantasy series get. Coupled with the cheery adaptation, it offers at least the potential for an enjoyable fantasy adventure (when it’s not lost in the game stat sauce, anyway).

All that said, I’m probably not coming back to HELL MODE. You have to work exceptionally hard to get me to watch an anime that’s cluttered with game mechanics, and while Director Tamagawa is doing his best, this doesn’t have Aoi Yuuki voicing a disaster spider. There are simply too many joseimuke on the docket this season for me to take a chance on an incomplete series in a genre that’s burned me too many times before.

Still, if you’re a fan of sucked-into-a-video-game isekai stories, I’d say this one’s worth a try. It’s cute. It’s colorful. There are critters and a swordsgirl, and nobody’s creeped on a minor or said “slavery is good actually” yet. I doubt it’s gonna remake the genre, but you could do a whole lot worse with your anime time.