My Status As An Assassin Obviously Exceeds The Hero’s Review
After watching the show, one might assume that more time was spent on coming up with the title of the show than on developing the story.
A Promising Setup
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s (or Sutetsuyo, for short) is an action-fantasy isekai produced by studio Sunrise. The story follows Oda Akira, an archetypal background character, who along with his entire class is transported to a different world as “heroes”. In his former life as a Japanese high school student, Akira was quiet, overlooked, and easily forgotten. That invisibility carries over into the new world. Retaining his reserved personality, Akira is granted the role of “Silent Assassin,” a class with vastly superior beginner stats compared to the traditional “Hero” role.
Akira’s superior abilities allow him to spy on the royals of the Retice Kingdom, during which he discovers that both the King and the Princess may not have been entirely truthful with the summoned heroes. Akira finds an unexpected ally in Knight Commander Saran, who secretly trains him as an assassin. Saran is also opposed to the King and plans to depose him. However, their friendship is short-lived, as Saran is murdered and Akira is framed for the crime by the King. The murder and subsequent accusations divide the summoned students, fracturing them between rival factions within Retice. With the Princess manipulating the summoned heroes and many of his classmates siding with the King, Akira is forced to flee. After his escape, Akira allies with an elf princess, Amelia, while exploring a dungeon.
An Intriguing Concept Undermined From The Start
On paper, Sutetsuyo appears to have a good foundation for a compelling political action thriller, and it’s why the anime generated considerable buzz when it first began airing. The premise promises a dark, suspenseful tale of thrill, mystery, and assassinations. While most viewers had termed it as “falling off” by Episode 4, the cracks were already visible from Episode 1.
The premiere episode introduces the plot in a clunky, uninteresting manner, populated by characters so flat and one-dimensional that they lack any distinguishing traits or personalities to set them apart from one another. Right from Episode 4, the series undergoes a rapid decline, with nearly every subsequent arc feeling very much like filler. The dialogue is superfluous, the pacing is lethargic, and overall the experience is consistently sleep-inducing. If you suffer from insomnia, these episodes will definitely cure you of it. There is a saying that it is worse to be boring than outright bad– and Sutetsuyo exemplifies this sentiment perfectly.
Fake Stakes, Empty Drama And Filler Disguised as Adventure
Akira and Amelia’s adventures are painfully lacklustre. Meeting Amelia and their side-quest to the elf kingdom contributes almost nothing to the narrative and largely serves to pad the runtime. This lack of theme and narrative depth continues through every arc that follows, none of which build towards any meaningful overarching storyline– assuming one even exists.
The conflicts in the story seem to happen around Akira, rather than because of him. Even when he is supposedly in danger, you’re never actually worried for him, or for any of the characters who travel with him. The show fails to generate any sort of tension. Not even some admittedly good fight animation could save this show. The action sequences are poorly choreographed, and while there are instances of solid artwork and animation, they are nowhere near strong enough to elevate this series into something worth recommending.
Flat Characters And A Forgettable Lead
Most characters aside from Akira feel painfully one-dimensional and remain largely underdeveloped. Their backstories are generic and derivative, almost coming off as obligatory box-ticking rather than meaningful characterisation. Amelia’s backstory, for instance– centered on her sister Kilika’s resentment toward her position as a Spirit Medium, is introduced and resolved relatively quickly, leaving hardly any lasting impact.
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Some characters exist solely to make Akira appear more impressive in comparison, such as the two formidable demons sent by the Demon Lord to terminate him, but they fail in an unconvincing manner. Further aggravating this issue, the series spends too little time with its supporting cast for viewers to form any genuine connection to them. This lack of supporting character development might be forgivable if Akira himself were a more well-written character. Despite receiving the bulk of the screen time, he remains bland and unremarkable, meandering through the story without any defining traits. He is indistinguishable from countless other isekai protagonists, either in appearance or personality.
An Ending That Tests Your Patience
The weakest aspect of the show is in its final stretch. An excessive amount of time is spent on Akira agonising over whether he should assassinate Lord Gram, the beastfolk royal who is revealed to have orchestrated the murder of Saran in collusion with the King of Retice and is also responsible for many of the obstacles Akira and his friends face. While Akira’s reluctance to kill anyone, despite being an assassin, could have been an interesting moral conflict to explore. Instead, it is stretched to an absurd degree and made worse by poor writing. What should have been a tense, emotionally charged and fascinating buildup to the finale, is undermined by uninspired writing, dull scenes of characters doing nothing and awkward dialogue.
Final Thoughts
If there is one piece of advice I would give to anyone considering watching this show, it is this: respect your time. Save yourself from mediocrity and watch something else. There are plenty of great isekais out there– like The Eminence in Shadow and Konosuba, and Sutetsuyo is definitely not even close to standing among them.
GRADE: D-
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