Autumn 2021 First Impressions – The World’s Finest Assassin

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: The world’s finest assassin completes his final mission with efficiency and the utmost effectiveness, providing a model for the protégé he’s been forced to drag along by his governing agency. But the mission doesn’t quite go off without a hitch – the duo is spotted by a military drone on their way from the job site and are forced to make other escape plans. It’s during the night that the assassin proves why he’s the best – he’s quieted his emotions and never trusts anyone.

As the day dawns, the two arrive back at base and are provided tickets to Japan; here the assassin will begin a new life training others like him within the organization. But betrayal is in the cards and the plane flight ends almost as quickly as it began, with all aboard being killed as part of the organization’s plot to silence their finest. But the assassin’s frustrated soul is grabbed by the goddess, who offers him a tantalizing deal in exchange for his help in a certain matter. He’ll be reborn in another world, one of fantasy and magic, with his memories and skills intact if he promises to use those skills to murder the world’s Hero.

Impressions: This series begins with the story already in progress, tantalizing us with magical firearms and heroic bishoujo before rewinding to reveal where it all began – with a grizzled veteran assassin and a betrayal. I have to admit, I wasn’t paying the closest attention at the outset – the subject matter in the opening scenes is a little bit off-putting, and there were some compromising camera angles that were starting to cause my eyes to glaze over (yes, I get it; the women hide their weapons in holsters beneath their skirts and their panties are right there, too). Yet, this story presents sort of an interesting variation on the reincarnation isekai genre, making the central character a competent (though still emotionally maladjusted) adult rather than socially-inexperienced or outright-deviant teen. It’s that element of cool calculation that lends this episode an air of tolerability that many of its brethren have trouble manifesting.

We aren’t given a ton of detail about our central character’s former life; he’s sort of a nameless Golgo 13-type whose deadliness essentially speaks for itself. The central tenet of the way he operates is to “never trust anyone,” a idea for which he puts on a big show and then is forced to revisit once the tables are ironically turned on him. I felt a little bad after the recent death of Takao Saito because as much as I respect what he contributed to the development of manga (and it was a lot!) I never cared for Golgo 13 primarily because I found the character to be an almost laughable expression of a weird masculine ideal that I thought had mostly passed us by. The type of character who does his duty while expressing zero emotions (and also reportedly packing a huge dick that sends women into ecstasy… somehow). A relic of an earlier time, perhaps, and not something created to be interesting to me in particular. And yet, slipping this old-fashioned hard ass into a modern-day genre seems to add a bit of spice to both things, somehow.

It’s difficult to say much more than that, though; we spend a fairly short time in both the real and the reincarnation world – enough to get a taste but not enough to feel out some of the biggest question I still have – how ubiquitous is the fanservice? How grating is the assassin’s personality in his new life? I’m wary about being too enthusiastic about something that’s from a genre that’s burned me so many times in the past.

Pros: There are already a few things to like, here. The main character is a very cunning guy using what are clearly well-developed deductive and problem-solving skills to help aid in his initial escape from the spy drone and the various agents pursuing him. There are a lot of anime series that tend to undermine their own characters, telling us that they’re smart and capable while also ensuring that they simply can’t handle the burden of their own overblown emotional reactions, and that’s not the case here. I often lament the lack of adult characters in anime, all the while knowing that most anime is aimed at people a lot younger than I am. But it’s nice to be thrown a bone every once-in-a-while.

I also like that the goddess who appears to facilitate Assassin’s reincarnation isn’t just another goofy airhead – she seems to have her own (perhaps unsettling) motivations and a willingness to make a deal in order to make her goals a reality. It gives the whole process a darker feel.

Cons: Unfortunately any time there’s one guy surrounded by a bunch of women, I have a difficult time just going with the flow. One of the issues that arises from this is that the big action scene at the outset of the episode is replete with panty flashes. One thing I like to emphasize when I’m talking about animation in particular as a visual medium, is that each frame is hand-crafted by a person to look a certain way, and that includes how the characters are framed and portrayed. There are no accidental wardrobe malfunctions in anime; someone drew each frame that way, and likely based it on a similarly-crafted storyboard. So I think it sends a message when an action scene is so careful to include imagery of what’s beneath the two female assassins’ skirts – it gives us a clue about how these characters are meant to be interpreted by the audience. And while I don’t always mind nudity or fanservice (despite popular assumptions to the contrary), I do get kind of annoyed when it’s both carefully-crafted and completely pointless or antithetical to the sort of series in which it’s included.

Content Warnings: Violence (primarily gun violence with some magical weaponry thrown in), mild nudity, mild fanservice, sex trafficking, a plane being shot down.

Would I Watch More? – I’m a little bit curious about this one still, so I might check out a couple more episodes. It will really come down to how the female characters are framed and treated, I think.