Sentóin, haken šimasu!

Natsume Akatsuki brings his third work to the television screen, which is again very similar to his two previous works. The main protagonist is once again a deviant, and once again he has a very odd group of peculiar characters around him, each defined by their greatest weakness or shortcoming rather than any fundamental strengths, and with this ensemble, he fights against seemingly possibly stronger opponents, whom he dispatches with unpredictable and crazy tactics. Plus, some of the characters are so similar to others in Akatsuki's other works that it almost beggars belief! But okay, when I suppress my disappointment in the writer’s constant auto-plagiarism, and focus on purely comparing the three series, then I can safely say that Combatants Will Be Dispatched! is definitely better, funnier, and fresher than Kemono Michi: Rise Up, however, in my opinion, it still loses out to KonoSuba. In fact, KonoSuba had at least one truly unforgettable moment in both of its seasons that immediately comes to mind. Combatants Will Be Dispatched! has a lot of funny jokes, however, none of them are so good I will remember them even a year later. As far as the characters go, Combat Agent 6 is a slightly more mature Kazuma from KonoSuba, who utilizes his deviancy a lot more, making it his advantage in certain scenes. Of course, he is also quite righteous and actually likable, so this anime series also builds on the fact that even though he is actually a villain, in some ways his actions are heroic, and again, as the main protagonist of this anime series, he does things that others would not dare to do. In other words, we get a pretty interesting take on morality, with various grey areas, and paradoxes. Most of the girls are just going about, doing their own thing throughout the season, defined primarily by their shortcomings, so in certain situations, it gets really predictable; hence Combatants Will Be Dispatched! gets, like other works written by Akatsuki, quite repetitive after some time. There is one exception, however, and that is Alice. Alice is a droid and as such is the voice of common sense and pure logic. She is the one who sometimes manages to tame the main protagonist in certain situations, and who partially and very subtly holds the reins of this show, and stops it from becoming just another messed up madhouse. It is equally interesting to see how her relationship with the main protagonist gradually develops, because that is probably the most heartwarming part of the whole show. However, the most interesting thing in this anime series is the lore of the world being conquered. It gradually becomes clear that the world Combat Agent 6 is sent to is a lot more interesting than it first appears (all that desert landscape), and the finale itself, which brings elements of science fiction into the fantasy genre and makes sense of some seemingly ordinary races like the chimeras, makes me hopeful that this world still has a lot to offer. I hope there are still a lot of secrets waiting for this crazy crew to uncover. In the end, I am interested in continuing to follow this anime series, I have managed to find a few things and even characters I like, and while I still do not think this is Akatsuki’s best, I can still reward it with an above-average rating here and now (after the first season). 7/10. (2021.06.20) (kevesebbet) (több)