A Nobody's Way Up to an Exploration Hero

This was easily one of the weakest anime I’ve finished this season—or maybe I’m just not the target audience. Imagine Solo Leveling for kids under 12. In this world, dungeons suddenly start appearing, and chosen adventurers dive into them to fight monsters. Sound familiar? I’m not surprised! But honestly, you probably need to be under 12 to be impressed by a protagonist who goes dungeon crawling armed with nothing but a stick and two cans of bug spray, every adventurer’s best friend! And for his first big purchase, our hero buys...a wetsuit. Yeah, because that’s exactly the kind of gear that’ll protect you from everything. Sure, he looks like a bit of a fool, but hey, maybe someone out there finds it clever. The dungeons themselves? Terrifying—mostly because of how much the electricity bill must be! At least up until the 10th floor, where the walls are fully lit, making sure everything is perfectly visible...so the kids won’t be too scared, I guess. And, of course, the deeper you go, the better loot you find. Except, poor Kaito somehow scores all the overpowered drops right on the first floor. Go figure! If that were the case, wouldn’t every adventurer be farming that level for OP gear? But nope, you’ve gotta be a "nobody" or your typical anime protagonist to get lucky. Some adventurers dive into dungeons to find treasure; others seem to go to collect their loli entourage. Honestly, if I got this many loli companions from playing a gacha, I’d uninstall the game. Even Kaito starts questioning if this is really what he signed up for as he builds up a generic harem, heading deeper into dungeons that seem oddly empty except for monsters and treasure waiting just for him and his pals. Looking for positives? The production quality isn’t bad, the animation is decent, and most of the monsters are hand-drawn instead of CGI, which is a plus. The music’s okay too. But as for the story and characters? This is clearly aimed at kids—friendship conquers all, fear is the biggest enemy, and most plot twists are predictable way ahead of time. The characters are cute but shallow, with no real depth. If that’s your thing, maybe this is for you, but it didn’t do it for me. I made it through the whole series, but I can’t give it more than a 4/10. If you’re under 12, you might double that score, but as for me? I’m too old for this shit. (2024-09-14)