Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well since I reviewed a good isekai last week it always seem fair that I review a bad one. So, what do you have for me today?
*The Fruit of Evolution appears*
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuccck~! Released in 2014 and written by Miku, The Fruit of Evolution is another example of an isekai that’s way behind the times and seen as a quick cash grab riding the success of the isekai craze. The anime was produced by the relatively obscured studio, Hotline. How obscure are they? They don’t even have a wiki page and this anime is considered their most-known production. Yep, we’re in trouble. Let’s bite right into this rotten fruit. This is The Fruit of Evolution.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Evolution” by Yoshino Nanjo. Not gonna lie, this opening is pretty good. The instrumental is great and the singer is good. It’s a rockin’ opening.
For the ending we have “Moonlight Walk” by Poppin’Party. This is another rockin’ song. However, what really makes this ending stand out is the number of videogame references they manage to fit in throughout the song.
Episodes 1-4
So the anime starts in the forest of the other world where we meet our main character Hiiragi voiced by Hiro Shimono (Keima from The World God Only Knows. Oh~ Hiro why~? I like you man, you’re a funny actor. Why you in an anime underutilizing your talents?). Back on Earth he was considered an outcast by his classmates because he was fat, ugly, and smelly (in another universe he’d be the protagonist in a revenge hentai). He had no friends and got bullied a lot, but everything changed when an announcement went out throughout school telling the students they’re about to isekai’d to another world (must be Truck-kun’s day off) where they’ll be summoned as heroes. Before leaving they get the abilities to check status, appraise stuff, and the pocket dimension item box. The students are told to form groups but nobody wants Hiiragi because his stats are weak (even a slime could beat him). They all get transported with their groups except for Hiiragi so the mysterious god grants him another ability. Hiiragi then gets transported to a mysterious forest where he comes across the fruit of evolution. At first nothing happens to him, but after eating more fruits of evolution his body begins to change. He goes from being fat and ugly to skinny and handsome along with his stats getting a major boost. Despite all of this his level is still 1 and after five months in the forest he’s still level 1, but he’s strong enough to take down monsters way stronger than him. Near the episode’s end he gets into a fight with a very masculine female gorilla where Hiiragi manages to win her (or him, I’m honestly not sure) over with his OD and she (or him) captures him to be his husband (scene here: https://youtu.be/VRz2MEGPXSE).
In episode 2 the gorilla named Saria (so it was a girl) continues to try and win Hiiragi over, but he ain’t having it (now if you were an anthro gorilla we could talk). He eventually escapes and winds up in a dungeon with an undead who used to be a monarch before he was betrayed by the emperor. The undead tries to kill Hiiragi, but Saria uses her body as a shield to protect him sacrificing her life in the process. Filled with anger, Hiiragi fights against the undead where he manages to win with the power of love. In a strange twist Saria survives and turns into a cute human girl (now he has nothing to complain about). Hiiragi also gets a ton of skills and materials for clearing the dungeon and even meets the dungeon master, Mr. Sheep who gives him a pointless helmet and seems to find join in messing with him (in his defense it is fun). He then teleports them out of the dungeon where they begin their journey together (scene here: https://youtu.be/9vlHAFGruDk). Meanwhile, we see the other students who are being coped up at the castle where all they do is train all day and some of them are fed up with it.
Episode 3 sees Hiiragi and Saria leave the forest and return to civilization. On their way to a kingdom Hiiragi levels up and his useless helmet turns into a robe that will hide his power level. They make it to the kingdom of Talbert and go to the guild to get their citizen registration card but discover that the place is the designated home to the local perverts (this place is making Fairy Tail look normal). Even the guild master is somewhat of a pervert and invites them in where they eventually join. The two get paired up with an A-rank adventurer named Artoria who will assess their abilities with a few quests. While Saria helps out at an orphanage, Artoria and Hiiragi go to investigate an old building where it collapses on top of him. Artoria goes into panic mode and blames herself for this as apparently she has some predisposition that causes calamity to befall others. Hiiragi emerges okay and they move on to the final mission which is walking a dog or in this case, a large wolf. Throughout these missions we see Artoria enjoying the company of Hiiragi and everyone around her can tell that she’s changed. At the end of the episode, Artoria invites them to stay at the inn she’s staying at since they have nowhere else to go (hey if we’re sharing a room with you I accept).
Nothing much happens in episode 4. Hiiragi, Saria and Artoria fall into a teleportation trap and gets transported to the black dragon dungeon (home to a very powerful dragon if that wasn’t obvious). Hiiragi and Saria get separated from Artoria where they fight a treasure chest, get two rare items, and a ring that gives you -2 times luck (I know who to give that item to). On Artoria’s side, she battles her way through the dungeon and comes across the black dragon where she’s outmatched and almost dies before she gets saved by Hiiragi and Saria.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 Hiiragi takes on the black dragon himself. I do like how he doesn’t just straight up own the dragon from the get go. He actually struggles in this fight, gets hit hard a few times, and barely got the win (this shows us that while he has a lot of OP skills he’s still physically weak and has room to grow). His reward for defeating the dragon is the dragon’s gem which will increase his physical stats and potency of all magic (scene here: https://youtu.be/lnN0qADkyu8, it also increases your potency in the bedroom). He also receives a new coat as well as a new spell that will allow him and the others to teleport out of the dungeon. Once they make it out of the dungeon, Artoria shows them her luck stat which is -2 million (goddamn). After a little bit of filler, Hiiragi gives her the ring and it turns her -2 million into 4 million. She also starts to realize she’s developing feelings for him (you guys have polygamy in this world right?).
In the first half of episode 6 we see Hiiragi try to dig up information on the other students that were teleported (why, they’re assholes?) but all he does is learn magic spells just by flipping pages and gaining knowledge (if only real life were like this). Speaking of the other students, we see the king is growing impatient with the students not fighting and his advisor tells him to enroll them at the magic academy where they’ll enslave them with bracelets so that they can never go against them. For the rest of the episode, we focus on Artoria whose friend helps her realize that she’s in love with Hiiragi. She goes to confess to him and while Hiiragi is happy he’s unsure if he’s allowed polygamy in this world. Saria tells him to accept Artoria’s feelings and thus the three become a couple (scene here: https://youtu.be/cf2qHNVWgZ0).
Episodes 7-8 go by rather quickly. We see Hiiragi win a race with an angry donkey (stubborn jackass) named Lulune after giving her a fruit of evolution. Sometime later the donkey evolves into a beautiful girl just like Saria. After this, Hiiragi gets abducted by the Valkyries the elite knights of the kingdom (just how high is his luck stat?). As part of his prize for winning the race, Hiiragi gets to spend a day with them where by some stroke of luck he manages to beat Louise the leader of the Valkyries in a duel. We find out that ever since she was a child everyone was scared of her. She was a natural and managed to surpass everyone at a young age (and when everyone considers you a genius and better than them they tend to isolate themselves from you). But after losing to Hiiragi she’s finally found someone who can stand by her. She pledges herself to Hiiragi calling him master (scene here: https://youtu.be/_-rENTXmmVQ). As they talk, the castle gets attacked by an assassin who comes for the king. In another part of the anime the students finally go to the academy where already lines are being drawn between them (no matter where you go someone always wants to prove their dominance). We also get to meet Lutia the daughter of the demon lord and head of demon lord’s army. In a surprising twist, she has considered negotiating peace with humans and wants the support of the demon generals. They all give her their support except for Kreis, her aide, who is against it and seems to have his own agenda.
Episodes 9-12
We start episode 9 with Hiiragi confronting the assassin where he manages to knock her out. He hands her over to the Valkyries but she accomplished her goal. The king, Ranze, has fallen into an eternal sleep using a knife (or has he?). Hiiragi goes to check on the king where he fixes him. He doesn’t remove the curse, but instead inverts it. Instead of the curse making the king sleep eternally, it now gives him eternal health. After this not much happens. We focus on the other students for a bit where some of them are being bullied and the king of the kingdom they’re in (Kaiser Empire) finds out about Ranze trying to form an alliance with Lutia and was the one who sent the assassin after him.
So in episode 10 we find out that the assassin Oliga has an enslavement collar that’s forcing her to follow orders or risk being shocked. Keiichi is able to remove the collar with the help of President Lincoln (God bless you Mr. Lincoln). Oliga tells them how beastfolk as well as demons were persecuted in the Kaiser Empire and forced into concentration camps except for the children. The children were trained to be assassins who would carry out missions for the kingdom (and Oliga became quite proficient in the killing business). Keiichi takes her in which the king allows as he can’t bring himself to punish a child (wow pretty lenient of him). Meanwhile, back in the Kaiser Empire we see that the court mage and Kreis are working together. As the episode ends we see Louise and the Valkyries head out to confront a horde of the demons. Joining them in their battle is the Black Paladin who is said to be on the same level as Louise.
Nothing much to say about episode 11. While the Valkyries and Black Paladin are away fighting, another horde of demons appears and attacks the kingdom. Luckily, the guild members spring into action where we see that despite their perverted behavior and antics they are legit fighters and do a good job defending the kingdom (well the lesson here is don’t judge a book by its cover. Which can be learned in like 99% of anime).
In the final episode (wow, this anime went by so fast I didn’t even know I reached the final episode) a larger group of demons show up and they’re a lot stronger than the first wave. Hiiragi finally springs into action unleashing the ultimate spell that destroys the demons and keeps his allies safe (scene here: https://youtu.be/griBJs-qxSQ. Well that was easy, who’s up for Chinese?). After this amazing display of power, Hiiragi gets asked to become a teacher at a mage school, the same mage school that all the students are at (finally, they’ll meet again). His harem can also come as students and teachers and he accepts. After a few days passed, Hiiragi and his harem leave with Louise unfortunately staying in the kingdom and that’s the end (you couldn’t show Hiiragi meeting his classmates again to end the anime on a cliffhanger. Piss off).
Final Thoughts
Well this was bad. Okay it’s not God awful as some of the other isekai animes I’ve seen but this really leaves no impact on me whatsoever. The characters are generic, the story uninteresting, the animation outdated, and the music forgetful. Even the comedy in this anime feels cliché and tedious. I found their jokes more cringe than funny. Overlord was funnier than this anime and that anime follows a ruthless skeleton trying to take over the world.
Final Score
The Fruit of Evolution’s final score is a 3/10. The only thing stopping it from being a 2 is that it’s harmless. It doesn’t do anything to piss me off or insult me. It’s a harmless anime that you watch to waste time as you wait for something better to come on. I can’t recommend this anime. It definitely earns the bronze in the isekai tier list. And the fact that this is getting a second season makes me sad when there are other more deserving animes out there. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.