Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero (Season One)
A hero of questionable decency smuggles the daughter of a Dark Lord back to Earth in order to protect her and keep a promise to an old foe. Did I mention that he is a huge pervert?
Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero (Season One)
What did you watch?
This was the first title from my A to Z Anime Challenge which I completed in 2019. For the second half of 2020, I’m going to republish all of my posts from the challenge, freshly edited and with some new images. This was the first series I watched and I picked it knowing that it had one season which was twelve episodes long. Other than that, I went off the title image. That’s generally how I make most of my picks. So this one had a hero, a hot dark lord, and a massive sword. What could possibly go wrong? There will, of course, be spoilers.
What happened?
Interestingly, the story begins with our hero, Akatsuki running through the woods where a group of well-endowed warrior maidens attack him. He fights them off with ease, immobilising them by expertly removing their undergarments (bras and panties!). Once clear of the embarrassed maidens, he goes through a portal back to Earth.
There he opens the duffle bag he was carrying to reveal a beautiful naked girl concealed within. It turns out she is Miu, the daughter of a Dark Lord and Akatsuki has sworn to protect her. Having returned from another realm, they are placed in a special school for people gifted with combat-based magic.
Akatsuki soon takes over the place with his charm and general badass nature, but it’s not long before the rulers of Alayzard realize where the Dark Lord’s daughter has gone and send warriors to retrieve her.
What did you think?
The animation and art style appealed to me, plus the hero, hot dark lord, and the massive sword were a big help in easing me into this series. It has plenty of fan service and some pretty entertaining fights. It doesn’t necessarily do anything too surprising or new, but I did enjoy it for the most part. It takes a while to get used to Akatsuki, but I think he’s actually a much more complex character than you might assume from the first couple of episodes.
What was your favourite moment?
Akatsuki is garbage at magic, which is funny considering he is supposed to be the true hero. He more than makes up for it with his speed, power, and control of the elements. At the school, the students are given bracelets that will enable them to summon their weapons, which, of course, uses magic.
However, Akatsuki is unable to do so until he puts on a total of seven bracelets, which he stole from the other students. He did this because a giant chicken that Miu and her friends were sparring against had been tampered with to make it incredibly powerful. Finally able to summon his weapon, a giant demonic double-handed broadsword appears (YES!). It’s at least twice the size of him, but that’s what makes it awesome.
What was your least favourite moment?
There was a scene where Akatsuki, Mui, and two of her friends, Domoto and Izumi get trapped in a storage room. Before they are rescued Domoto reveals that she needs to pee. In a weird attempt to help her, Akatsuki applies pressure to each of the three girls’ midsections, forcing them all to pee, figuring it won’t be embarrassing if they all wet themselves. Even for a rogue hero, that’s below the belt…
Who was your favourite character?
Even with his dastardly roguish behaviour, Akatsuki is still my favourite character. I actually believe that a lot of what he does is intentional. Now, I know that doesn’t sound like it’s a good thing, but he’s hiding the daughter of a dark lord and I believe he does this to move the attention away from her. He doesn’t care about how he looks or what people think of him. That’s a true hero.
Who was your least favourite character?
I was almost tempted to say Akatsuki for this one too, but that would be silly. Instead, I’m going with Kaido. He appeared out of nowhere and declared he was going to be Akatsuki’s best friend. He hides in the bushes and generally didn’t really do enough to warrant the time they gave him.
Which character needs more screen time?
Haruka needs more screen time. I know she got a reasonable amount of it, but I think she’s also the real love interest for Akatsuki. Sure, it seems like it should be Miu although I think he sees her more as a little sister, which is ironic since she’s pretending to be his little sister. Is that irony? Possibly. Anyhow, she clearly likes him, but also hates him for killing her father…
Would you like some more?
It ended with a pretty major event that would certainly require another season to answer that alone. If they make another, I will undoubtedly watch it, but if they don’t it’s not going to kill me. It was definitely fun.
What have you learnt?
It was interesting that the series began after the end of a pretty massive storyline. From what I can tell, Akatsuki was summoned to Alayzard where he fought and defeated the Dark Lord. It hints that it was pretty epic, but we don’t see that. I think it would be interesting to write something after a major event and slowly piece together everything that happened before it as the story progresses.
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I watched this one a while back but only really remember the moments like the storage room incident. It didn’t really leave a lasting impression other than I probably don’t want to watch it again. I do remember kind of liking the hero and then he would do something that would make him seem like a jerk again and the cycle would continue.
Yeah, that was the biggest issue. He just flip-flopped back and forth between being a jerk and a hero.
I like arrogant characters that can back up their talk, so I enjoyed this one. What I had wished though is that more actually happened – I would have preferred to see him in his role as a hero rather than see him in some school the whole season.
Definitely, it doesn’t always have to be at a school. I think that’s what we would get from a prequel or a sequel.
This was done by the guy who did…(ugh) Shinmai Maou, but it is considered to be his stronger work, aside from fanservice (one of the only two good things THAT show has). I might give it a look one day, but my wounds are still fresh.
I’m yet to see Shinmai Maou. Should I?
This wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t great. There were some funny parts, but like Yoma said in the comments, it would have been better to see him being a hero rather than being a student at a school.
I’d love to see what someone else thinks of that show, just to see if my dislike of that series is mutual or just me being an idiot.
If you love hot under the collar, right up to the line Fanservice, then Shinmai wins the gold medal and it should be respected and credited for that, but if you are there for more than glorified softcore porn, then it’s quite frustrating. At least it was for me.
Haha! I’ll pencil it in then, unless something catches my eye closer to the time.