Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Season One) – Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru
The novice goddess, Ristarte, has been selected to save the S Class world of Gaeabrande from a Demon Lord. She’s allowed to summon a hero to help her and has set her sights on one with incredibly high stats! Surely, there’s a catch!
Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Season One) – Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru
What did you watch?
Cautious Hero was one of the shows I was covering when I made the decision to shift my website to OtakuAuthor.com. As such, it was one of the first shows I covered here. Of course, that was way back in 2019, and a lot has changed since then. I decided that it was time to revisit the series, rewrite my reviews, and reschedule the posts. It gave me the chance to do a little house cleaning and revisit a series that I loved. The first time I watched it, I went in knowing absolutely nothing about the show, as I tend to, and was pleasantly surprised. This time around, I knew what was coming and was able to look for all the clues that ultimately led to the ending, which elevated this series to a greater height. There will be spoilers, so make sure you’re perfectly prepared to continue…
What happened?
After reading up on hundreds of potential heroes, Ristarte settled on Seiya Ryuuguuin from Japan. She quickly told him about the situation with Gaeabrande and the Demon Lord. After some persuasion, he agreed to help her, but not until he had been able to adequately prepare. Ristarte reluctantly conceded to his request and sat impatiently waiting to begin their adventure. After some time, Seiya finally emerged from his training and agreed to go down to Gaeabrande with her. If Seiya’s training had given Ristarte cause for concern, his first encounter with a slime quickly confirmed what she feared. This hero is far too cautious.
However, his caution was rewarded when one of the Four Heavenly Kings appeared and attacked them. Seiya and Ristarte hurried back to the Divine Realm so that Seiya could continue to train before going back to challenge Chaos Machina. This process would repeat itself over and over as they came up against increasingly difficult foes and situations, but everything would be fine as long as Seiya was perfectly prepared!
What did you think?
This series was outstanding. The whole overly cautious hero thing started out as a bit of a joke with Seiya always looking for a negative angle and refusing to budge unless he had prepared, but then it morphed into something far more sinister and tragic, giving weight to his actions. The final two episodes absolutely flipped the series on its head. I was already loving it from the beginning, but the way it ended just lifted it up to another level. One of the best things about this series was that it constantly hinted and prepared us for the eventual twist. It was almost impossible to see exactly what was coming, but you knew that something was coming. On the second viewing, these subtle clues become much more obvious, which makes you realise just how fantastic this series was. The foreshadowing was incredible.
What was your favourite moment?
You would have thought the cautious act would have become quite tedious, but it continued to entertain me all the way through. I loved the scene where he poured holy water over the nun to make sure she wasn’t an undead too, and then poured some on Ristarte, just to make sure. Before they entered the Dragon’s Den, Seiya sent a lizard through the portal first to make sure it was safe. However, my favourite thing was how everyone assumed that they had prepared for everything before they faced the hero, but Seiya showed them that they’re preparation was merely normal preparation. Then he showed them what it meant to be truly prepared for anything.
What was your least favourite moment?
The flashback to Ristarte’s previous life on Ixphoria changed everything. It showed us why Seiya is the way he is. We found out how Ariadoa and Ishtar both knew who Seiya was. There was a connection between Seiya and Ristarte, which you might say brought them back together, although it was looking like they would be pulled apart once more. My least favourite moment had to be when the Demon Lord of Ixphoria revived and then ate Ariadoa and Ristarte (Princess Tianna and her unborn child) while Seiya was absolutely helpless to stop him. From a story standpoint, this was an incredible turning point, but that didn’t make it any easier to stomach, and rightly so.
Who was your favourite character?
I loved Seiya from the beginning, so there’s no question that he was my favourite character. As soon as he was introduced, I knew that I was going to enjoy the ongoing joke of him always being cautious and expecting the worst in every situation. I loved that his paranoia often proved to be right, and also the way that Ristarte reacted to it, made it that much funnier. It’s always funny to see someone who everyone believes to be crazy turn out to be the sanest of them all.
Who was your least favourite character?
Originally, I would have said Rosalie for being the complete opposite of Seiya. She was brash and impulsive, believing that the only way to be a hero was to blindly rush into action and defeat your opponent with sheer bloody-mindedness. Then, when we realised that she is the character that Seiya used to be on his first summons, it all started to click together, and we saw exactly why Seiya was so heavy-handed with her. He had seen where that path leads and was not willing to see another suffer the same experience. So, she was annoying, but there was a point to it. I think the Demon Lord was probably the biggest miss, as he was hardly in it.
Would you like some more?
I want nothing more than to find out what happens next. The series ended with Ristarte being punished for abusing her godly powers by being assigned to an SS Danger Class planet, which also happened to be the one that she was from in her previous life. However, Ishtar also revealed that Seiya had survived the Demon Lord’s weapon thanks to the Gate of Valhalla. Therefore, she could summon him to be her hero once more. It was a great way to end the season, and if we don’t get a second season (which is looking increasingly unlikely), I will be happy with that ending. I definitely want more, though.
What have you learned?
This series was a fantastic example of how to foreshadow. As this is my second viewing, I made a point to mention all of the instances of foreshadowing in the series as they happened. One of the things that really caught my attention in this series was the foreshadowing. By the third episode, it had revealed everything, but done it in such a way that it was incredibly subtle. Each piece of information was given to us to answer a different question; however, it helped to shape the world and set rules in place that would make the real twist that much stronger. A good twist needs to be surprising and also completely obvious. The trick is doing both without spoiling it for everyone. Some will spot it, but for everyone else, they will realise that they already knew, but only after the twist has happened. I think it’s one of the most magical elements of storytelling when done right.
Series Information
| English Title | Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious |
| Japanese Title | Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Isekai, Parody |
Anime
| Season | Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious |
| Released | Fall 2019 |
| Animation Studios | White Fox |
| Episodes | 12 |
| 1 | This Hero is Too Cautious |
| 2 | Too Much For a Novice Goddess to Bear |
| 3 | This Hero is Too Self-Serving |
| 4 | I So Don’t Need Any Allies |
| 5 | This Goddess is Too Spooky |
| 6 | The Great Dragon Mother is Too Sneaky |
| 7 | This Lady Knight Is Too Doglike |
| 8 | Neat and Tidy but Overly Nymphomaniacal |
| 9 | This Reaper is Just Too Invincible |
| 10 | This Man Is Too Strong for Being So Old |
| 11 | The Truth Is Too Much to Bear |
| 12 | The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious |
Bonus Posts
| Saturday Spinoff | Valkyrie |
This one did pleasantly surprise me. I loved Seiya as a character early on and while I found the mid-season got a little bit repetitive that ending more than made up for it. Very nice entry into the isekai genre.
Agreed. I think the ending really raised it up a level and I’m about to go back through it and find all of the foreshadowing. I remember lots of it happening as the series went on which also helped the ending.
The foreshadowing was really well done. I knew when that other goddess mentioned her only failure, a B class world, that the topic would come up again. That and the way she looked at Seiya the first time she saw him. I wondered about both of those after I saw them so early on.
Yeah, it was really cool and I want to go back through and make notes of everything that leads up to the big reveal. I feel like there were a lot of them, but they were small and didn’t mean much without the context.
Have you made the post about the foreshadowing? I’d like to read it.
I haven’t got around to it, actually. I went through a big rebrand at the time and it ended up being forgotten. Seems like as good a reason as any to rewatch the series. Thanks for the reminder. If I remember correctly, there was a lot of subtle foreshadowing.
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