Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (Season One)

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Title

The villainous Kisaragi Corporation has almost conquered the Earth, so they are naturally making preparations for their next world. Agent Six has been selected to go on ahead and get things started!

What did you watch?

As you may have gathered, I’m a big fan of KonoSuba. So, when I saw that a new series by the author of KonoSuba was being released, I had to check it out. It felt a little odd watching a seasonal show and not reviewing it episodically, but that’s the way things roll around her now. Regardless, I watched Combatants Will Be Dispatched! or Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! over the last twelve weeks and as such I am now here to review it. I’ve not seen that much appear in the blogging community about it, so this should be exciting.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 1 Agent Six

What happened?

Agent Six was selected to begin the conquest of a new world as the Kisaragi Corporation had Earth within its grasp. He wouldn’t be going alone, mind you. An android called Alice Kisaragi would accompany him and ensure that he didn’t screw up too badly. She was also tasked with keeping an eye on him and assisting in any means necessary.

They arrived on the new world outside of the targetted kingdom and met with Snow, the commander of the royal guard. She takes them into the city as they are constantly being attacked by the Demon Lord’s army and they can use all the help they can get. There is an ancient artefact that is responsible for the rainfall in the kingdom, but it hasn’t worked for quite some time. Alice fixes it and Six changes the command phrase to “dick festival”… evil points acquired…

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 1 Alice

What did you think?

For anyone that’s familiar with KonoSuba, this series is quite literally one massive nod to it with constants references and shared terminology. To some extent, that’s quite funny, but it also feels a little forced. The first episode fell a little flat while still being kind of entertaining. It was enough for me to continue and I’m glad I did. It picked up and definitely got funnier as the series went on. However, it never reached the levels of humour that KonoSuba managed. The main story was fairly disjointed and never really went anywhere.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 1 Snow Alice and Agent Six

What was your favourite moment?

As we were following a combat agent for a villainous corporation, we got to see the main character do some fairly underhanded things. It was a welcome change and made for some very funny moments. One of my favourites was the first time he met Heine and was quite taken with her outfit. Of course, he pulled out his camera and started taking photos like a fanboy at a cosplay convention.

In truth, the conflict between Heine and Six was probably one of my favourite things throughout the series. However, there was one scene that topped that. Six was preparing to face the Demon Lord’s army and had no evil points for weaponry. Desperate to win, Snow agreed to let him grope her to get the points. He realised that he wouldn’t get the points as she was consenting so he whipped down her panties… evil points acquired… He, of course, felt the full force of Snow’s wraith and Alice’s derision.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 6 Six removing Snow's panties

What was your least favourite moment?

Seemingly out of nowhere or it was such a small segment that I didn’t notice, but Tiger Man appeared and joined Six. He was funny at first but slowly became more and more creepy. Then, in the final episode after Six and Alice defeated Russel, a chimaera who was one of the Demon Lord’s generals they offered him some terms to defect to their side. Russel refused which meant they had to bring Tiger Man in who took his creepiness to another level altogether. It was more than a little uncomfortable to watch.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 12 Russel and Tiger Man

Who was your favourite character?

So, I actually liked Six and Alice, and all of the team to be honest, but Snow was my favourite character. She started out as the commander of the Royal Guard but got demoted after the dick festival fiasco. Snow is not your typical knight as she is driven by money and was easily convinced to join Six and Alice in return for an allowance. She reminded me a lot of Aqua from KonoSuba and that’s probably no coincidence.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 2 Snow

Who was your least favourite character?

Tiger Man is the obvious answer here, but I was a little disappointed with how they used Grimm. She was the arch-priest of some evil god who could put curses on people and things. Unfortunately, half the time her curse would fail and she would receive the curse. One such curse ensured that she could never wear shoes again which is why she’s in a wheelchair. I felt like she was massively underused and spent most of her time asleep or dead…

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 3 Grimm Alice and Agent Six

Would you like some more?

I would watch another season, however, if it was a choice between more Combatants Will Be Dispatched or KonoSuba, I will always pick KonoSuba. This series was fun and had some great moments. It just wasn’t as cohesive as KonoSuba. I don’t think it did enough to stand on its own.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 2 Heine

What have you learnt?

As a rule, I generally like internal jokes that reference other shows or works. They are like little easter eggs for the audience to find. However, I think this series did it a little too often and all that did was remind me that this wasn’t KonoSuba and how I’d rather be watching that. I don’t think that’s what you want your audience to be thinking.

I really enjoyed that the story was from the perspective of an evil invading force. That was an interesting change and gave us a chance to see a group of pretty awful characters. Of course, KonoSuba had Kazuma who was a pretty trashy character who made lots of terrible decisions so it wasn’t exactly anything new. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Combatants Will Be Dispatched Episode 12 Alice and Six


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2 Comments

  1. Funny enough, Combatants Dispatched! was the blueprint for Konosuba, but I get what you mean with Combatants’ humor not reaching the same level as the latter. Nevertheless, it’s enjoyable even if its overall plot is unable to be discrete without Konosuba’s existence. You can thank ReZero’s author for pestering Konosuba’s author to publish Combatants officially.

    I think I’ve managed to give a good enough rating is because of Alice. She has carried the show more than Rokugo/Number Six despite him being a sloth(?) at some point.

    My most fave moment is when she challenges an Archdemon’s capabilities to grant wishes. It’s hilarious to know not even magic can create two whole planets along with any species’ population. šŸ¤£

    My least fave moment is the same as you. Scary enough there’s an infamous reviewer who said: “Tigerman is just like me. ā˜ŗļø”…

    Yeah… I hope that reviewer has no clue about my existence…šŸ˜

    • Yeah, that scene where Alice was demanding crazy wishes was hilarious, especially when she started shaking out the magic circle like a rug.

      I feel like there was absolutely no need for that final scene with Tiger Man. None whatsoever. Who thinks characters like that are funny?

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