Stark700

FUNA’s anime adaptation follows a common trend in recent years with the flood of fantasy isekai. Abilities Average (the shortened title I’ll be referring to) doesn’t demand much on the creative side as we witness the transformation of a teenage girl into an overpowered adventurer. Joining main female protagonist Mile includes Reina, Pauline, and Reina. Are you ready to watch an adventure with these four goofballs? Clocking in at 12 episodes, the early warning flag raised is the faithfulness of the anime adaptation. Unfortunately, it’s easy to say the anime decided to condense the material in order to maintain a flow of the overall series. Ratherthan following a faithful roadmap, the anime omits Mile's days at academy and instead puts her right into the 4-girls group as we are most familiar with. Needless to say, that cuts value into Mile's character as the audience will have a lesser time understanding her. As the novels consists of over 300 chapters, this decision didn’t take me by storm. Thankfully, Abilities Average make time to bring a comedic filled adventure. The Crimson Vow. Remember those words well because this entire show is about them and their adventures. Mile may be the central protagonist but she retains the common interest of an otaku that being her love of anime, manga, and video games. Applying this knowledge to her adventures and battles, the show is made effectively self-aware of its standards. Even Mile herself is aware of her personality that is addressed by her own narratives. Joining her in these adventures is Reina, the crimson mage with a dark past but became a Hunter. As a crimson mage skilled with fire techniques, she plays the role of a tactical fighter and is invaluable to the party; think of her as the mage class in one of those classic WOW raids. Reina herself does have a background story that takes the show into a more emotional direction. If you care about her as a person, you will likely feel some sympathy of Reina when told from her personal perspective. Entering the familiar isekai party tropes, we also meet Mavis von Austein, the skilled knight with a noble persona. In any fantasy stories, a knight is almost like a necessity to make its series credible. Hence, we have Mavis although the show pokes fun of her character. For instance, she often gets teary eyed by sad stories despite her masculine appearance. Finally, Crimson Vow has another mage named Pauline who occasionally shows her “dangerous side” when least expected. Brace yourself for this group because they are the embodiment, heart, and soul of Abilities Average. It makes sense that Abilities Average follows these four characters exclusively rather than developing other characters. After all, Crimson Vow is essentially the collective party of the poster characters. Even though Mile is the central protagonist, the others are featured just as much as her. FUNA’s writng of these characters puts emphasis on their personality than development. Watching their character chemistry and embracing who they are as characters is essential to enjoying the show. The more I watch these characters, the more I feel connected to them. However, I will say the show is aiming for lighthearted humor the majority of the time. There’s also satirical humor with character behaviors such as Mile’s lack of common sense at times. In other words, Abilities Life is more of a deconstruction of the fantasy isekai genre. It’s not an entirely a unique concept but does give a breath of fresh air for the Fall 2019, a season that seems to have an unusual amount of isekai. The closest Abilities Life gets to with an antagonist is the life adventure itself. The anime adaptation doesn’t truly have a Big Bad but does introduce obstacles for Crimson Vow to overcome. This includes the battle tournament these girls participates early in the show to later facing off against an Elder Dragon. We have to remember that these are still teenage girls who have yet to step into the adult world. However, all these characters are portrayed as adorable badasses. The best way to describe them would be “dynamite come in little packages”. It’s when their opponents are caught off guard and realizes it's too little, too late. Mile’s request to be “average” still turns her into an overpowered character by the Creator. By average, she didn’t expect that her own abilities far outclasses others in this new world. The word ‘average’ itself losses its meaning when you think of the Average Joe. But in essence, it’s still fun to watch their adventure to see how they overcome their obstacles. Project No.9’s transformed the light novel into anime by making it full of charms. It’s adorably cute with the characters made into teenage girls. If you look at first glance, there’s little reason to fear them until it’s too late. Character expressions is portrayed with a cartoony style of expressions with a vast majority of the time being humorous. On rare occasions, there’s more emotional reactions such as with Reina’s anger or Pauline’s sadism. The world setting is also decorated with light touches of fantasy such as the mystical and fairy tale-like creatures. Of course, dwarves, elves, and goblins exist because it’s part of the Isekai 101 formula. On a lesser scale, the battle cinematics is clean and crisp although looks average in style. Don’t go into this show looking into some high level caliber of animation quality because you won’t find it. I’d normally discard the voice acting of a cast of teenage girls because most often time or not, they all sound the same. However, I do want to mention that the character voice mannerism of Average Life is more effective than some of the other isekai shows I’ve seen. This is due to how close the character connections are with each other. It’s collected together as a union of personalities coming from different backgrounds but united as Crimson Vow. Plus, who can forget the theme song of the show? When you have an adorable cast posing in ridiculous manners and catchy lyrics, it’s hard not to get into the rhythm. Average Life always seemed like a series that would eventually get an anime and it indeed did. Here, we have an anime about a cast of goofballs poking fun of the idea of an isekai adventure. However, I do want the audience to be aware of the faithfulness of the show. Average Life is guilty of falling short on expectations when it comes to adaptation. There’s much more in the light novels that you can understand the characters better. But for an anime show of itself, Average Life is much more than just average.

simplydru

"You can attack me as many times as you like. I'll heal up every single time, and then bring this staff down upon the head of the person who insulted my friends." - Pauline, very cutely, and with a cute smile. I think you can see where this is going... My feelings about 'Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!' (Noukin) can be summed up with four simple words: I LOVE this show! That's right, I fucking said it: I. FUCKING. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. Do something about it. Because there are a few aspects of this show which will displease those whouse a fine crystal wine glass to savor the aroma of their farts, here is a friendly little disclaimer: - Yes, it's another isekai anime. - Yes, there are plenty of tropes. - Yes, it probably doesn't follow the source material to the letter. - Yes, there is a beach episode... well, half-episode. And a bath scene or four. - Yes, there are quite a few boob jokes. - And yes, the plot is not 100% original. In other words, anyone who has a stick up their ass jostled by the aforementioned should instead go watch 'Your Lie in April' or some other puke of a series that pretends to be all deep and shit. I don't want them sitting at my table anyways! ANYWAYS... Simply put, Noukin is ADORABLE! Seriously, everything about it makes you want to let out one of those "aw, look at the cute puppy" sighs and hug a giant teddy bear. The MC is just the most precious thing you've ever seen, and the rest of her party is a basket of cute-itude, with varying degrees of damage. And the pop culture references? Fucking golden! There were 'Dragon Ball' and 'Terminator 2' references that had me in literal tears - shit, if I were tripping on mushrooms when I saw them, I might have died of laughter. Oh, and that OP is just cute with a capital Q-T! Noukin truly is a delightful surprise that is drenched in fun & cute, and is probably my favorite show of the year. So, about dem scores: Story: 7 Art: 8 Sound: 10 Characters: 10 Enjoyment: 10 Overall: *9/10* In the future, I may expand this to delve into every category more thoroughly; in the meantime, though, here is my list of the notable pros & cons: PROS: - Noukin knows exactly what it is: A cute & self-aware quasi-spoof on its own genre, but without neglecting the character development or story progression. - The main characters are just delightful in every respect. The designs are somewhat familiar, yet each character still displays a refreshing uniqueness. Not only that, they flesh out each character's personality & backstory quite well, and none of the characters feel sidelined in any respect... oh, and did I mention their cuteness? - From start to finish, this show is fucking HILARIOUS! I was caught completely off-guard by the humor, and I couldn't be happier about it. There is plenty of meta-humor, well-executed references to other works, situational comedy and even a bit of black humor here and there. Every single episode had me in stitches at some point, even if "some heavy shit was going down," as you hip kids love to say. - The production quality is solid, including both the animation and sound design. None of the corner-cutting seen in other recent isekai releases, such as 'Arifureta' or 'Demon Lord, Retry!', is present in this series. From the very first scenes, you can tell that all sorts of well-animated cuteness is in store for you. - Romance is rarely even mentioned in the show, and sex itself is discussed even less than that, which is incredibly welcomed. While there is some pervy-ish humor and light fanservice, it is fairly benign and not at all gratuitous, which could have easily ruined this show. At no point are the girls portrayed as mere sex objects, nor are they ever overly-sexualized. Only one character ever inspires open expressions of lust from men, due to her large bosom, but those moments are few & far between and in no way define her as a character. There is a beach half-episode, a few short bath scenes and some boob jokes strewn throughout, but the execution is more tasteful than most and always seemed appropriate: the bath scenes are pretty tame; the boob jokes are usually related to the MC's "breast envy," which actually makes sense in this case, since the MC was a young adult when she died; and much of this humor in the series comes in part from the MC's actions inadvertently clashing with the societal ignorance & modesty of her new world... plus cuteness. - Perhaps the best part of the "sexual mildness," though, is that the girls are never subjected to any rapey behavior, much less rapey behavior presented as "goofy antics," as is the case in dumpster fires like 'How Not to Summon a Douche Lord.' Enough said. it's nice to watch something a little more on the "innocent" end of the spectrum once in a while no? - Did I mention the cuteness? - Oh, and before I forget: NO PANTY SHOTS! - None of the girls' voices are annoyingly shrill or squeaky. Thank fucking god. - CGI is used both sparingly and appropriately. THANK. FUCKING. GOD. - That fucking OP, though! ^_^ CONS (maybe): - Some of the mood shifts are a bit jarring, which is usually intentional, and the humor can seem inappropriate for the situation(s) at hand. Oftentimes, there are hilarious moments in the midst of dramatic situations, which can be incongruous with the overall mood of the scene. I myself enjoyed this aspect of the series, but I can see how it would be off-putting to some. - The show is somewhat episodic and the overall story may be a little thin. I don't personally find this an issue because the story is really about the friendship & first adventures of these four girls and doesn't need to be anything more than that; however, I can understand if someone desires more suspense or a more defined plot, so it bears mentioning nonetheless. IN SUMMATION: If you are looking for a cute, fun and accessible isekai anime about powerful magical girls that aren't glorified sex toys going on adventures in a Medieval-esque fantasy world, then you have hit the motherfuckin' jackpot with Noukin! At its core, this is a heartwarming tale of a young girl's second chance at life and the friends she makes along the way, and it tells the story without relying on cheap gimmicks or crossing into ecchi territory. Noukin is a refreshingly adorable & guilt-free comedy about four strong female characters that has wide appeal without alienating typical anime fans, and should not be overlooked simply because it happens to be another isekai about an overpowered MC. Come for the cute, stay for the funny!