Endro! – Ep. 1 (“First Impressions”)

Pardon me but I’m feeling the void right now. It’s just crazy to think that “Endro~!” has finally come to an end. How time flew by.

I’ll admit that I was a little stunned at how brief the final fight between Yusha (Hikaru Akao) and the Demon Lord. A couple spells, punches, and sword slashes and Yusha and the gang then proceeds to use the sealing curse on the Demon Lord, ending the fight in a manner of minutes. It’s a little disappointing. I mean, this is the big fight that was promised way back in the first episode. You’d think it’d be a little grander than what we got. Oh well, the journey was clearly more important than the destination and to be fair, one can imagine the fight being over so quickly. These girls clearly have come a long away from their humble beginnings at the academy.

Which oddly brings me to the rest of the episode. I was expecting something along the lines of Return of the King where the ending just keeps on going and for a while, it did have me fooled when the show cut to Yusha trying to sleep in (never change, my friend). But it turns out that we’ve gone back in time to when the adventure all began. Yusha is once again classless, all her friends get dragged into her ambitions, and the whole team is back to being a bunch of rookies. There is one change in the continuity however. Did anyone notice Mao (Misaki Kuno), the demon loli teacher (boy, the things I need to write for this blog)? Apparently, that’s the Demon Lord reincarnated! What a twist!

At first, I was really confused by all this but then it dawned on me. This whole time loop is one final comment on the show’s primary theme about the cyclical nature of good vs. evil. That, no matter how hard the forces of good may try, there will always be at least one person opposing them. After every big showdown, like with Yusha’s final battle against the Demon Lord, we are essentially back to the beginning. The writers of this show simply made the stroke of genius and took that idea to a literal level. As for the demon lord becoming a loli…okay, maybe that is just the writers having some strange fantasy they want to fulfill. At least they sort of justify it thematically. One could maybe look at the Mao-sensei’s jailbait form as a statement on how villains come in many shape and sizes; an interesting append to Endro‘s commentary.

You’d think it’s be boring to see the beginning of the series repeated but honestly, it’s just a lot of fun going back down memory lane. Yusha screws everything up, Seiran has one of her classics panic attacks, Fai Fai befriends all of nature, and Meiza’s chuunibyou kicks into full gear. Considering that it’s been a while since I last saw the first episode, I forgot how endearing these character traits are. A shame that they eventually vanished into the wayside but I get that it’d be out of place when the characters are meant to mature over the course of the story.

On the bright side, things don’t play entirely the same due to the actions of Mao-sensei. I don’t know what else to say. It’s just really funny seeing the main villain try to retcon the story only for it still play out in largely the same way. Mao-sensei tries to jeopardize the team’s first time in a dungeon but in the end, they still find the sword that turns Yusha into a Hero. No doubt, this is once again a stroke of genius, detailing how good will always triumph over evil even when the battle never truly ends.

As with every anime that has ever existed, I was hoping for a second season of Endro to be announced. Alas, I saw no such thing. Hopefully, this show will sell for audiences. I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: I was pleasantly surprised with this anime. It’s a real bright spot in 2019 as a year for anime. Hopefully, this show will do well with audiences and it will get the continuation it deserves.

OP: “Endoro~ru!” by Yuusha Party

 

Still a really adorable OP. Darn it, where are my gifs, internet?

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Thanks for reading!

Endro! is officially available on Crunchyroll.

For all of my Winter 2019 First Impressions, check out this archive page!

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