A common archetype in fantasy anime is the guild receptionist, the cute anime girl that the protagonist(s) often talks to whenever they finish the quest. Their involvement in the plot ranges from complete background character to a legitimate supporting character and even a love interest. I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time (shortened to Girumasu in Japanese) offers a potentially fun spin on the archetype. The protagonist of the show, Alina Clover (Rie Takahashi), works as a guild receptionist. Secretly however, Alina is extremely powerful. She can solo any boss in the dungeon the guild oversees and she has the ability to destroy relics, enemy drops that are otherwise indestructible. When regular adventurers struggle to defeat a boss, Alina gets stuck with overtime and this annoys her so much that she eventually steps in and kills the boss herself, under a persona known as the Executioner. Usually in fantasy anime, the guild receptionist is supporting the overpowered protagonist. But in this case, the receptionist is the overpowered protagonist and that I must admit is a pretty funny premise.
In the premiere, the top ranking party in the area, Silver Sword, struggles to defeat a Hellflame Dragon. Alina gets stuck with working overtime as a result and this leads her to soloing the dragon. Silver Sword then becomes interested in the Executioner after their main attacker, Ganz (Shohei Tabuchi), quits. Jade Scrade (Kentarō Kumagai), Silver Sword’s leader and tank, correctly deduces that Alina is the Executioner and he confronts the receptionist in an attempt to recruit her into his party. I figured someone would learn Alina’s identity in Episode 1 but the execution does feel pretty dumb. Alina doesn’t wear a mask to cover up her face. She just puts on hood and banks on the dungeon’s dim lighting to further obscure her appearance. How comical then that Jade happens to have enhanced vision. I’m honestly baffled that Alina is so stunned that her disguise isn’t good enough.
Alina refuses to join Silver Sword and she threatens beat Jade up with her oversized hammer with he interferes with her life. On one hand, it does seem like a waste for Alina not to use her powers on a regular basis so I get why Jade is adamant on recruiting her. At the same time however, I completely get why Alina doesn’t want to be a full-time adventurer. She prefers the more peaceful job of a guild receptionist (provided that overtime doesn’t kick in and throw her schedule off but that’s besides the point). She’s content with the life she has now so she has little desire to change paths. The highlight of this scene however is Alina explaining why she killed the hellfire dragon. Even though Jade can’t entirely relate with Alina’s conundrum, the latter’s anger is enough to make him sympathize with her. The interrogation room background is a great stylistic choice. Alina calling Jade and every other adventurers a bunch of losers who can’t defeat anything is really funny.
Given my aversion towards light novel-based fantasy anime these days, I’m still a little skeptical of Girumasu. I do however really like the spin it offers and there are a couple of moments in the premiere that got a chuckle out of me so I’ll give this show a fair shake.
Watch I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time on Crunchyroll
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