Isekai anime series are a dime a dozen. You can’t have a single series of anime these days anymore without tripping over six different isekai stories, or at the very least a Western fantasy-inspired tale with a title that’s as long as a sentence. Chillin’ in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King’s Army may not feature a young man or woman whisked away from their daily life to live in a brand new and totally different world, but it may as well have, from how miserably predictable this series turned out.
Opening Shot: A young brown-haired man looks up into a shining light, as he asked if he’s been fired. The camera pans to a maroon-haired man who tells the man, identified as Dark Soldier Dariel (Tomokazu Sugita), that he is correct. The pair continues speaking to each other as the maroon-haired man becomes more rude as he completely fires Dariel from the entirety of the Demon King’s Army while also insulting his intelligence. Dariel is stripped of his powers and cast out.
The Gist: Dariel is a former member of the Demon King’s Army, and he’s just lost his job. It looks like no one’s safe from layoffs these days, not even hunky demon soldiers.
When he was enlisted to join the Army, Dariel was given a special mission to complete from one of the Four Generals: Lord Granbarza. But that doesn’t save him from being kicked to the curb. After being told that the lord has retired, there’s simply no room for a member of the Demon King’s Army who cannot use magic — or so Dariel is told, anyway. So he takes his leave and ventures out into the world, jobless and without a place to live.
Having done nothing but work for the Demon King’s Army for the whole of his existence, this vet has no idea what to do in life, until he happens to rescue a young girl named Malika (Akane Fujita) from a huge ape-like creature. Having prevented Malika from being flattened like a pancake, Dariel is escorted to Malika’s village, where he tells the girl’s parents about what he’s been through.
And just like that, Dariel finds a place to live in Malika’s village, with her parents’ approval. To top it all off, Malika’s father wants Dariel to work as an adventurer who registers with the village guild and takes on a variety of assignments — which only humans can do. Dariel works to complete different training tasks to get started as an adventurer, and unravels a few interesting truths along the way.
But Dariel does give us a clue about his true origins early on in the episode: between demons and humans, the only real discernible difference is the fact that demons can use magic…and Dariel cannot, setting the stage for one of the most predictable and obvious reveals of all time.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? You could swap in just about any fantasy story with Chillin’ in My 30s, but shows like Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Helck, or even By the Grace of the Gods all have a similar tone with the whole “getting banished” or “getting fired” thing while living in a fantasy world.
Our Take: There’s nothing in Chillin’ in My 30s that you haven’t seen before in one format or another. Dariel, “dark soldier” as he is, is your average anime protagonist, except he’s a little older. Otherwise, every single character feels like a rehashing of the same ones we’ve seen over and over again throughout the genre at one time or another.
But familiarity doesn’t always have to mean outright bad. There’s nothing here that’s outright offensive or objectionable – it’s just boring. That’s the main issue. The plot is simple, the characters are decently likable, but it’s just so low-stakes, so uninspired, it feels like you could have a more enriching experience if you simply left your home for the day and had an in-your-city adventure.
Dariel is a milquetoast lead, Malika may as well be a walking stick with breasts, and you can see the “twist” in this episode coming a mile away. Hell, ten miles away. This is just not up to par with what anime is capable of.
Sex and Skin: There isn’t overt sex or skin, but Malika’s chest heaves whenever there’s a slight breeze, so the assumption can be made there’s probably more like that to follow if you’re concerned about that bit of content.
Parting Shot: Dariel comes face to face with another adventurer named Gashita, who relentlessly rags on Dariel because of his age. Gashita demands to know Dariel’s rank as an adventurer and brags for no reason — he’s only one rank ahead. In the end, Dariel finds out that he’s already defeated a monster that the village has been plagued by for months, and realizes he’ll have to deal with Gashita from now on while taking on jobs from the guild.
Sleeper Star: Atsushi Abe lends his sinister voice to demon lord Bashbarza, but unfortunately has extremely little screen time during this first episode. This experienced voice actor could make any character sound good though, even if they were spouting nonsense. Here’s hoping we hear more from him going forward, which we almost certainly will.
Most Pilot-y Line: “You’re fired from the Demon King’s Army. You’re truly dull-witted. That’s why you got fired,” Lord Bashbarza says to Dariel in the beginning of the episode. It’s the catalyst for everything that takes place in the series, and sets things up for a nother story later on as well.
Our Call: SKIP IT. There’s nothing inherently terrible about Chillin’ in My 30s, but it’s so memorable and bland that there’s really no reason to watch it. You’d be better served flying through the manga or watching one of so many other, better series if simply finding something to sit down with and watch was the most important thing on your agenda.
Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.
