My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s – Episode 1

What’s it about? Oda Akira is a high school student who likes to keep a low profile.  His life changes when he and his classmates are summoned to another world to fight the demon king.  While Akira’s classmates accept their new reality as a fun adventure, he immediately suspects something is wrong and that their summoners are hiding major secrets from them.  Akira uses his new abilities as an assassin to learn more about the new world and uncover what their true purpose is for being summoned.  

The first couple of minutes caught me by surprise.  I was fully prepared for this to be another mediocre isekai series only to be amazed with fantastic action sequences.  The animation for the fight scenes were well choreographed and dynamic camera angles fully conveyed Akira’s tense emotions about killing a person.  Even though he’s extremely skilled, it doesn’t change the fact that Akira grew up in a peaceful world where he never had to enact any form of violence.  The rest of the premiere follows the usual isekai beats of the entire classroom getting summoned to another world and accepting their new powers.  What surprised me is that Akira’s classmates were genuinely nice people with no hidden malice from any of them.  

I’ve gotten so used to cartoonishly evil classmates in this genre that I’ve forgotten that these characters are capable of being decent people.  That sounds shocking right? At the very least it minimizes the list of things that Akira needs to worry about.  Despite this premiere seemingly being no different from other isekai shows, what stands out is the air of unease that something more sinister is happening behind the scenes.  There’s a lot more emphasis on Akira being suspicious of his new environment and realizing he should keep his true strength to himself.  I like that he’s asking the necessary questions that nobody in his class seems to be worrying about.  It seems that everyone has bought into the idea that none of this is “real” so therefore, they should just treat it like a video game.  

Akira is the only one who notices that there are hidden cameras all around the castle, which is weird since this world is supposed to take place during the medieval period.  Why is modern technology available in this world? While it’s smart that Akira leans on the side of caution, he’s also aware that he’s going to have to take risks in order to learn about the politics of this world.  It’s truly a gamble for Akira to rely on commander Saran Mithray for support, especially since I don’t believe Saran is very forthcoming about his true motives.  Saran reminds me of Su-Won from Yona of the Dawn in the sense that he looks nice on the outside, but he might be far more morally grey than he lets on. Who knows if he’s even telling the truth about starting a coup d’état in order to create a false sense of trust with Akira.  But hey, at least Saran’s face card gives Lady Oscar a run for their money.  

I’m curious as to the events that lead up to Akira having to do his first kill and how he’ll handle the enormity of having to commit murder.  That’s not something anyone can easily come back from and it makes me wonder if he’ll be able to readjust back into his original world. Lastly, it’s important to note he’s going to get a female companion and here’s to me hoping she’ll be well-written rather than just pinning after the male lead.  For now, this isn’t a flop folks! I’m even willing to watch two more episodes just to see if this story deserves its nice animation.