KoraEDITOR’S NOTE: The images chosen by Kora for this review were all taken from a scene of attempted sexual assault. Given the tone of the show and the fact that this is the start of the first episode, he felt that these images would best represent the show in all its disgusting glory. However, while we are not a family friendly website by any stretch of the imagination, I still didn’t feel like having images of attempted rape floating around on here. And since neither myself nor Kora felt like going back through the episode to pull better stills, we both said fuck it and just censored the hell out the images he had picked.
“Better worry about yourself! We’ll treat you nice like your little miss soon enough.”
Skeleton Knight in Another World… knows how to make a first impression, though not a good one. I’m trying to think of a series that I’ve had such an abruptly negative response to, but I am drawing a blank. The trope of women being assaulted and our hero having to come in to save them is well worn across countless forms of media, but it’s rare to have a show start with such an ugly iteration of an already distasteful plot device. While the episode never gets worse than that initial minute, it never approaches the level of being good either. In an era of anime that is littered with isekai series, it’s bizarre to see one with so little going for it. I’m not arguing that every isekai needs a gimmick, but the only parts of this episode that aren’t forgettable are the ones you’d want to forget. Skeleton Knight’s refusal to do anything unique might theoretically be endearing if it was at least competent in its implementation of its story, but with a bland narrative and thoroughly upsetting introduction, I firmly recommend skipping this one.
Rather than jumping into the subject of our main character right off the back, I guess I’ll offer a bit more explanation as to why I found the opening of the episode repugnant. Literally the first frames of the episode are of hands tearing off a woman’s blouse. For the next 40 seconds the viewer is treated to bandits laughing because the noble woman that they are assaulting peed herself (always a pleasant sentence to write) and the bandits informing the woman’s maid that she is about to be subjected to everything they do to her mistress. It’s distasteful, prolonged, and possibly attempts to be fan service as well, given how some of the images are framed. Our hero, Arc, does eventually show up and kill the bandits, and the show then proceeds to jump back in time. This was such an important moment that the episode began in medias res just so it could show it to the audience first thing. Everything else this show has to offer is something you’ve heard before elsewhere. Arc fell asleep playing an MMO, and when he awoke he was in an overpowered version of his character, a skeleton holy knight. For someone who is now stuck in another world, Arc is shockingly nonplussed by things. There’s never any suggestion of figuring out how to get back home or speculation as to what happened. Arc’s big goal through much of this first episode is to get some food. He doesn’t even inquire after the obvious question of how a skeleton eats or drinks. This could be comedic if employed properly, but it feels more like someone made a character out of a shrug emoji. He wanders from scene to scene in a half-assed attempt to progress the story. When he does encounter the women being assaulted, because of course we get to see that scene a second time, he just watches the events play out as he contemplates how fighting human mobs differs from fighting monsters. A character such as this could work, but not when placed in these situations with this noncommittal tone.
The series is a co-production shared by Studio Kai and Hornets. Both studios have worked as support on a host of other projects, but are relatively inexperienced at helming a series. Kai produced the second season of Uma Musume Pretty Derby and last year’s Super Cub. Given the lack of pedigree, I’m surprised the show looks as not-awful as it does. It’s primarily standard fantasy styling and generic townsfolk, but I’ve seen worse. Hell, Last Dungeon looked like it was cobbled together using spit and old Newgrounds videos. Still, it’s probably time to discuss the elephant in the room. Doesn’t the premise of a person being transported to another world and becoming an overpowered skeleton sound familiar? This would probably be a good point to compare Skeleton Knight to Overlord and detail the ways in which they’re similar and the ways in which they differ. I’m not going to do that, because I’ve never watched Overlord, but I will say that it doesn’t reflect well on your series when the one narrative quirk the show leans on in order to stand out has been done elsewhere by a far more prominent franchise. One bit of praise I will afford this show is that I liked the OP. There’s a fun slapstick quality to it, and the music underscores the chaotic energy of the clips. The one element that is a bit unusual is that the OP has sound effects that aren’t a part of the musical track. I don’t know if I’ve seen that before, but it was distracting.
Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:
- To be honest, if it wasn’t for that one scene and its later encore, this would probably just be a more middling review, but the show would have had to try hard to recover from that. It didn’t.
- The ED is far less engaging than the OP. It consists of an okay track playing over CG models of our cast. The color palette is nice, but that’s about all I have to say for it.
- The noble that Arc saved from being raped is, naturally, instantly smitten by him. I’m annoyed.
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