I have written before in my A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace post about how the 9-to-5 grind can be a bore. We have 24 hours in a day, and we spend 8 hours at work, an hour commuting if we're lucky, an hour getting ready for work, and even more time decompressing after work. If our jobs don't satisfy our passions and we have to deal with the demands of other domestic duties, then what time do we have left to actually live?
This is a concern I've buried in my subconscious. I've been in my industry for more than a decade, and burnout has become a normal occurrence. How I wish I could have been a truck driver. Being able to operate heavy machinery and enjoy the sights has always captivated me. And being the fatass that I am, being able to eat different regional delicacies throughout the workday would have been a big bonus. But alas, it was never meant to be. I now see myself retiring as a pencil-pushing corporate drone when all is said and done.
But for our guy Rick in The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible, or Shinmai Ossan Boukensha, Saikyou Party ni Shinu hodo Kitaerarete Muteki ni Naru in Japanese, that simply isn't enough.
DAMN IT, JAPAN! YOU AND YOUR LONG-ASS TITLES! I'll just refer to the anime as The Ossan Newbie Adventurer moving forward in this post.
 | |
|
The 32 Year Old Pencil-Pusher
The Ossan Newbie Adventurer stars our guy Rick. He had always wanted to become an adventurer to defeat the legendary monster Kaiser Alsapiet, whose existence is the subject of legends. However, becoming an adventurer was a career his parents didn't approve of because of the dangers involved. It's not unlike how my own parents didn't approve of me becoming a truck driver because of the physical and emotional toll of the job and its perceived "low-level" nature.
But unlike me, Rick managed to stay within the industry of his dream job and became a receptionist at the local adventurers' guild. This was a job his parents approved of because of its stability and safety.
By all accounts, Rick was a solid member of the staff. He maintained decent relationships with the adventurers who frequented the guild. Having worked there for more than a decade, it seemed as though this was something he could simply hold on to, allowing him to pay the bills and live a quiet life. But this wasn't really enough for him.
During his childhood, it was discovered that he possessed a dormant skill. This skill isn't discussed in detail in the first few episodes of The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, but it was apparent that it was something that could prove valuable to an adventurer.
The Pencil-Pusher Takes a Leap
Rick's dormant skill proved to be both a source of hope and frustration. The knowledge that his skill could potentially catapult him into great adventures, juxtaposed with his inability to understand what it actually was or how to use it, was a burden Rick carried throughout his teens and into adulthood.
Things changed when he met Reanette, an ass-kicking, sword-wielding dark elf. A chance encounter gave Rick a glimpse of what an S-rank adventurer could do and slapped him with the reality that it was already too late for him. But at the very least, our boy got a date out of it! MY GUY!
But as it usually does in anime... The Ossan Newbie Adventurer couldn't let my guy score. On his way to meet Reanette, Rick encounters people running away from monsters. Fortunately, Reanette takes out the trash with ease. Unfortunately, the reason these monsters are entering the village also arrives. The monsters themselves were running away from something more powerful... something that even Reanette isn't capable of beating...
 |
| THE LEGENDARY COCK-BLOCKING DRAGON!!!! |
With Reanette being unable to control her mana against dragons for some reason the anime never bothers to explain, and the adventurers sent as reinforcements being no match for the Cock-blocking Dragon's immense power, things looked particularly grim for Rick.
That is, until Rick gets stepped on. And that's when the hype soundtrack kicks in! And where there's a hype soundtrack... there is...
 |
| HYPE ASS KICKING! |
So yeah, Rick's skill, Reckless Awakening, activates, his mana overflows, and he proceeds to kick the Cock-blocking Dragon's ass. And after witnessing Rick open a can of whoopass on a creature she couldn't hold a candle to, Reanette invites him to shack up... well, sort of.
Rick is invited to join Reanette's party, Orichalcum Fist, a group of S-ranked adventurers whose goal is to defeat... you guessed it... Kaiser Alsapiet.
The Road to Being an Adventurer
With Rick finally acquiring Reckless Awakening, it's not unreasonable to expect The Ossan Newbie Adventurer to become a story about some overpowered dude totally owning monsters and picking up chicks left and right as he builds his harem. Had that been the case, I would have dropped the anime quicker than I could type The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible... GODDAMN, THAT TITLE IS LONG!
Fortunately, the anime offers more than that.
Having been a desk jockey for his entire adult life, controlling Reckless Awakening is a feat that's too complicated for Rick. Even with his special skill, he needs more training to actually become a competent adventurer. This is where the members of Orichalcum Fist come in.
Aside from Reanette, Orichalcum Fist is composed of Broughston, an intellectual orc who has studied multiple spells and is also gifted with immense brute strength. There is also Mizett, a crafty elf who develops weapons that would be familiar to you and me and whose technological knowledge is regarded as millennia ahead of that of The Ossan Newbie Adventurer's world. And then there's Alicerette, a young vampire mage whose magic can burn entire forests.
The members of Orichalcum Fist take turns training Rick for two years. But with Rick starting so late in life, his mana capacity is relatively low, as increasing it would have required training from a young age. This, however, does not deter Rick. He goes through an insane level of hardship, powered by his desire to live out his dream of becoming an adventurer. And when I say an insane level of hardship... I mean...
 |
| Ever heard of Pickle Rick? Well, our guy usually ends up as Dead Rick during his training sessions |
If it weren't for Broughston's revival spell, The Ossan Newbie Adventurer would have never even made it past Rick's training.
It was mentioned that Rick had died thousands of times during his training. Throughout those sessions, he witnessed the awesome powers of his senpais. This, coupled with his long years of being on the sidelines, developed a level of insecurity in Rick that remains prevalent throughout the show.
I actually appreciate this background. A lot of overpowered protagonists in anime act as if they're weak for no good reason. At least with Rick, he has a valid reason to be insecure about his own powers. Our guy got killed on a daily basis by his senpais. Who wouldn't feel weak after two years of constant death? His only measuring stick was these four overpowered freaks!
And it is this insecurity that brings us back to the Cock-blocking Dragon incident. This flashback wasn't shown in the first episode. Instead, it was shown right before Rick received his results from the adventurer examination.
The actual first episode basically went like this:
 |
| Basically Rick went all Saitama on them fools |
A Good Weekend Spent (But I Won't Be Driving a Truck Anytime Soon)
I spent about five hours watching The Ossan Newbie Adventurer on Muse Asia's YouTube channel over the weekend. And overall, it was time well spent.
I'm a sucker for anime with good soundtracks. When I wrote about With You and the Rain, I highlighted how its soundtrack helped establish the atmosphere the story was going for. The same level of sound engineering may not be as apparent in The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, but the song choices during the fight scenes really got me hyped. That snare hit when Rick lifted the Cock-blocking Dragon's foot, leading straight into the guitar breakdown and hardcore punk drum pattern, accompanied by the high-pitched lead guitar, was chef's kiss.
And the OP had me reminiscing about my childhood days watching General Daimos. I mean, check it out:
But The Ossan Newbie Adventurer isn't without its flaws.
Generally, the flashbacks exploring the characters' pasts were done well. However, the final fight scene between Rick and Broughston near the end of the season lost some of its hype when a backstory was inserted at an awkward point. If you watched Slam Dunk in the '90s, it was a bit like when an entire episode was devoted to Kogure's three-point shot against Ryonan. Good thing this one didn't last the whole episode. But there's a time and place, man.
And there are also the usual fan-service moments that some viewers may not appreciate. The shot of Reanette's boobs when she's first introduced, or the bunny-girl segment in one of the episodes, may not be to everyone's liking. But these moments aren't particularly overbearing and are barely noticeable when you consider the show as a whole.
Orichalcum Fist's motivation for wanting to kill Kaiser Alsapiet is also never fully explored. The final episode does touch on it, but this may have been something reserved for a second season, which, as of this writing, hasn't been announced.
Overall, The Ossan Newbie Adventurer made for a good weekend binge. It's not groundbreaking, nor has it turned me into more of an action anime fan. It also didn't inspire me to pursue my dream of becoming a truck driver. If becoming a truck driver requires the same level of hardship Rick went through to become an adventurer, then no thank you!
But it was a good action anime with a few sprinkles of comedy. And if a second season does come out, I may just find myself binging on it during another random weekend.
Rick starting at 32 is such a refreshing twist — most shonen heroes get their power handed to them as kids, but he has to earn every bit of it as an adult with a job and regrets. It made me think about the opposite case in Naruto, where Sasuke's whole path is shaped by what happened to him as a boy. I ended up reading Naruto Senki for a clearer run-through of that Uchiha backstory, and it really helped me see why his choices feel so heavy compared to a late bloomer like Rick. Fun review, the training-death running gag had me laughing.
ReplyDelete