Winter 2019 First Impressions – Endro!

In the land of Naral Island, a land of magic and swords, humans and monsters live together. Once upon a time, there used to be a terrifying Demon Lord, but long, long ago the first Hero defeated the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord would revive again and again throughout the ages, but every time a Hero would appear to defeat it… Now these young girls attend an Adventurer’s Academy to prepare them to defeat the Demon Lord that will one day rise again. This is the beginning of a laid-back fantasy life with no sign of the Demon Lord for these four who hope to become a party of heroes. – Crunchyroll

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Yulia, the hero, and her three companions soundly defeat the Demon Lord, sending them into a prison of time and space. The world is saved! … or so it seems. In truth, the magic spell that sealed the Demon Lord was a fluke with accidental consequences, sending the near-powerless enemy back in time several years before the final conflict.

The Demon Lord finds her way to Yulia-and-company’s hero school to nip the whole adventuring party thing in the bud before it becomes a problem for her. The issue is that, while the heroes aren’t very competent yet, they seem to have a talent for being lucky. That alone may be difficult for a very small Demon Lord to overcome.

First Impressions: The concept of heroism is something that many cultures hold in high regard. Individuals who act selflessly to protect others are admired and remembered long after their heroic deeds are performed. There are many reasons why people may take on the mantle of “hero;” some are reluctantly thrust into that position after simply doing what they believe to be their duty. There are others, though, who seek the admiration that comes along with the title. They may not be well-suited in the traditional sense, and their motives might be a bit too selfish, but if the end result is that they’re able to help those in need, does it really matter?

Endro!’s heroine is the type whose competency level doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. Yulia’s well-meaning, kind-hearted and cares about others, but her lack of basic knowledge (including the fundamental fact that the “Hero” class in which she self-classifies is only conditionally available based around the existence of a major foe) means that she’s not the typical hero “type.” Some of my anime pet peeves are characters who apply for or are hired to do jobs about which they know almost nothing; it’s a great entry point for an audience who might not know much about the ins-and-outs of certain careers, but realistically by the time someone is at the point in their life where they’re applying to do something specialized, they ought to at least know the basic tools and expectations of the work. While I can tolerate fairies, magic spells, and divine relics just fine, anime hiring practices are just too much for me to deal with sometimes (I’m only slightly joking).

Luckily this series is billed as a fantasy comedy, and thus far it seems to be a pretty decent one. The first episode does a good job of being self-aware enough to be able to razz on its main protagonist while also setting her up to achieve victory in spite of her obvious (and adorable) shortcomings. Yulia’s friends, all appropriately-skilled (and classed) party members, seem like they could do much better for themselves by forming their party around a leader with some credentials, but there’s a sense that their group only exists because Yulia is the beating heart at the center of it. I find the whole situation amusing because the protagonist clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing, but the narrative avoids taking a mean-spirited tone when examining that. It’s more a whole-hearted proclamation that, in some cases, heroism is 10% skill and 90% dumb luck, and somehow it just works out.

The show’s guileless approach is what really appeals to me, probably more so than its silliness. The Demon Lord, now in the form of a little girl, seeks revenge even though her power to do so has been severely limited by both her size and her standing. Unfortunately, Yulia is the exact opposite of threatened by her eventual mortal enemy at this point in the timeline. There’s a lot of hugging, exclamations of how cute the Demon Lord is, and just a general mitigation of any brewing animosity through the softness of the characters. Demon Lord-chan, for her part, resists the all-enveloping friendship being thrust at her, but her impotent position (which lends her the threat level of a barking chihuahua) leaves her looking more lovable than menacing.

Speaking of adorable things, this episode is that and then some. The characters are different variations on “soft, round, and pastel,” dressed in baggy costumes that convey a more laid-back aesthetic than your typical fantasy adventure series. Even the fighter/berserker character’s weapons are cartoonish cat-pawed mitts rather than something more traditionally threatening. The golem the characters battle is constructed from round shapes and has a cutesy cat-like visual theme. Even ignoring the dialog or plot elements, the intent is made pretty clear through the distinctly non-threatening visual style. There are a couple of character design missteps, including an adventurer-school student whose design seems based on Native American stereotypes – I’m not sure why a Japanese series would reach that far for design inspiration, besides it probably seeming “exotic” in some fashion. There’s also the question of coverage; as is the norm with a lot of fantasy anime, the characters don’t seem protected by their clothing, which bares a lot more skin than would be ideal when faced with slashing blades and malevolent magic. Considering the episode’s general focus on benign incompetence, though, at least that element is fitting.

I just started reading the manga Spirit Circle, and while I feel that manga and this TV anime are in separate leagues as far as philosophical storytelling, I’m wondering if there might end up being some similarities in the general story arc worth talking about. Spirit Circle is the story of characters whose various past lives intersected in ways that were primarily negative. In the current age, there’s a sense that, while the person who was frequently wronged is about ready to murder the one who wronged her, that there may be enough of a two-sided story for the characters to come to an eventual understanding. Through this magical time-skip, the characters of Endro!, especially our chibi Demon Lord, have been given a gift – the gift to change the future for the better. The idea of what’s “better” is obviously different based on who’s talking, but I think even our antagonist here might have a soft enough heart to conclude that maybe animosity and world-domination might not be the most productive path.

That obviously lays a particularly large burden on a series that seems content to engage in moé antics and cutesy comedy while also actively ignoring the darker and more violent fantasy genre elements that seem to have become more popular as of late. It’s not groundbreaking material by any stretch of the imagination, but considering the time and place in anime fandom I feel like it might be just the silly genre-parody I need to start enjoying fantasy anime more. Heroics in this series might skew toward the “inadvertent” side of the spectrum, but to accidentally cobble together an amalgamation of silly tropes into something lighthearted and entertaining is its own sort of heroism, I suppose.

Pros: Pretty cute and pretty funny. A “Wile E. Coyote” set-up with very limited blow-back so far.

Cons: Some brief character design insensitivity. The hero’s incompetence might become irritating.

Grade: B-