Ore wa Subete wo "Parry" suru: Gyaku Kanchigai no Sekai Saikyou wa Boukensha ni Naritai

I want to play a bit of a devil's advocate here and tell you why this is not an unwatchable garbage, as many reviewers claim, but rather a very watchable garbage.

The main problem of this show lies in the failure to properly communicate the main characteristic of our MC beforehand on the author's part.

The MC is retarded. I mean it not as profanity but as a medical condition. Like Forrest Gump the hero of this story lives in his own world and deserves pity. He has an intellectual disability. It is shown many times that what is common knowledge and basic logic to many ... is an enigma to him. Instead, he makes his warped irrational assumptions about everything without even realising it.

And if you approach this show from this angle, everything starts to make a lot of sense and the show becomes a good thing to binge-watch in the evening after work while having a meal.

Our character is unable to learn any complex skills (he is retarded), but he has an insane will, drive, and obsession to train, doing it over and over (you know why) with no thought. But because of his obsession and him being naturally gifted, he achieves insane strength. But lacks the self-awareness to realize that and never stops training.

The show, of course, is goofy with its comedic situations of how clueless MC's actions and motivations are misinterpreted by other people, but it is not that bad. There is no gag humor, no fanservice, no isekai bullshit with the mc rambling about how great ramen is, or some other Japanese crap. Apart from the silly premise, the show takes itself seriously.

Btw people die in this show and monsters explode into a gory mess. Not what you usually expect from a silly show, so that's a big plus too.

Bottomline if the show`s title was "Retarded Hero" or something along these lines I think many people would enjoy it.

If you need a chill fun show to pass time, this is it. It doesn't have any real depth or complexity, it's only supposed to be entartaining and give you that one crumb of dopamine in the moment. Contrary to other reviews I actually like the MC, he's made to be dense as a plot device/comedic gag, the joke is mostly "idk how strong I really am!!" so get ready to see it in every episode lol but it does make sense in the context, since he lived isolated from others and never mastered any high tier skills.
Now hold on, I'm not about to ... psychoanalyse this chara but stay with me, he's not retarded but autistic:
- Doesn't understand social cues/subtext/nuance
- Repetitive actions and one track-mind when he finds something interesting (the poison, the skills from each school)
- Did everything in a pattern and never changed his routine of training
- Doesn't understand hierarchy (he does know she's the daughter of the king! he just sees the king as a father figure to her and not as a higher standing person because people with autism usually see everyone as equals / don't understand authority that well unless exposed to it frequently)
- Draws his own straight-forward conclusions, because 'common sense' is not actually intuitive to everyone. If someone said 'this guy is hella strong, NO ONE can beat him' he'll take it literally, and because he knows he's only a low rank but still beats him - the logical conclusion is that the 'strong' guy went easy on him. It really makes sense imo and he's consistently written to act like this so I have no problems with the mc's personality.

First impressions when reading the title? It reminds me of Cuphead because of "Parry" and immediately, my mind thinks it is gonna be a show where the MC only knows how to use the parry skill to solve every obstacle that comes along the way.

This is a show with a plot that has been done a thousand times before, using the age old concept that is based on the famous Bruce Lee quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." where we follow a protagonist who thinks he's ... weak because he only trained in the basic skills, but in reality, is very powerful because of his hard work to hone the basics over years of practice.

The MC is probably the make or break factor for most people - the MC's upbringing has resulted in him in being completely oblivious to social norms. For me, I enjoyed watching the MC's reactions when interacting with people that stems from his upbringing, constantly thinking that he's weak and he needed improvement while sending a message to the viewers that humility and hard work overcomes arrogance and inherent skills.

Overall, it is a very simple and straightforward show, and that is exactly what I like to watch - sometimes, the simplest shows are the best shows, just like how in the show itself, the basic parry skill, can be honed and perfected to be as effective, or even more effective, than complex skills.

This review is based on first three episode

If you are interested in this anime for the action and fantasy tag then I suggest you read the synopsis again. Especially the second sentence. Yep, althought it "is" an action anime the story itself is more into comedy instead. But don't go away just yet, because the actual action itself is pretty good the studio sure did good work adapting this one. Well with all that said let's get into the actual review.

Story and characters: 8
The story follows Noor a seemingly failure for an adventurer since he can only learn some skills and none of it is ... considered essential to become a true adventurer. It takes refreshing view of a failure trying to train his hardest to become strong enough to finally start his step on adventuring. The thing is, apparently every character follow each of their own common sense and always fail to convey whatever they are trying to say. And the result of that is how flow of story keep being "parried" where the most tense moment even turning comedic. This anime really need that comedy tag.

Sounds and music: 7
Nothing feel miss but nothing stands out either. Basically the where it sounds just right it feels pleasant and convey the correct mood to the audience but still not to the point of being swept away by it. Not bad indeed.

Art: 8
Being adapted from light novel it could be expected to contain a lot of dialog but thankfully it is not all stiff in this anime. Some sequence with no dialog at all drawn well with beautiful scenery accompanying it. All fighting scenes shown so far also pretty thrilling and fluid giving a good experience to watch.

This pre-review is definitely so biased and could be disagreed with but the show is definitely not a bad one so give it a try and see for yourself.

While I am not a fan of long titles, I have liked this anime.

The main character dreams of being an adventurer, however while trying everything he can in various schools, he can only learn the most basic of skills and is rejected.

Does that stop him? The dude spends a decade mastering his basic skills and training like a champ on his own. He has no idea how powerful he has become, but he ends up helping and besting people well beyond what he thinks is possible.

The humble and hard-working MC is pretty awesome. The story and plot have yet to deepen, but I find ... this fun to watch despite that.

Out of many animes this season, this is one of the few I try to watch right away!

If you want something fun with a smooth progression and pacing, this anime will be something you enjoy.

"Why should I watch this instead of <insert generic isekai here>?"
Most adaptations nowadays suffer from either:
- bad animation
- bad pacing of the story
- bad choreography of scenes
As of the first 3 episodes, this show managed to avoid all of those issues. Art style is good enough for a no-name isekai adaptation. The story is a simple concept with simple worldbuilding - explaining just the right amount. Nothing feels rushed or skipped so far. And the character interactions seem pretty organic, and while MC is a bit dense so far, it does not feel out of place, and makes sense given the context and backstory.

It might ... not be the top anime of the season, but it should be a fun watch. I wish every other isekai adaptation had this level of quality as a baseline at least.

Its the story of an adventurer who became super powerful not through BS isekai magic but by actually training hard as a kid? Thats insane!

However all he can do is parry. No matter how many training schools he tried to attend, whether it be warrior, mage, cleric, assassin, he was rejected because he could not learn any skills. But out of determination to make his deceased father and mother proud he trained hard every day.
He still sees himself as weak not realizing he has in fact become super powerful.

Its a very by the numbers anime. But still enjoyable to watch.
The main character is well written. ... Nothing spectacular but doesn't come off as generic or cliche. Its the kind of MC you can get behind.
It does follow predictable paths though. Girl gets infatuated by main character and wants to follow him around. Asshole guy challenges main character to a fight and gets humiliated. That kind of stuff.

I think the main character's obliviousness to how strong he really is is what makes it worth watching. He thinks everyone else is super strong and that they are going easy on him. He's never had a real sparring partner so it makes sense for him to be oblivious.

Its funny.