There’s just something so intrinsically satisfying about watching the underachieving underdog become overpowered, especially when that underdog is so darn relatable and likable. That is 100% the case with Rick Gladiator, protagonist of (deep breath) The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible. If it’s not obvious enough, the tongue is most firmly in cheek.
Adapted from the light novel series of the same name by Kiraku Kishima with illustrations by Tea, as well as the manga featuring art by Ken Ogino, The Ossan Newbie Adventurer is only about eight episodes into its first season from Yumeta Company and MBS as of this writing. And yes, it’s essentially a Shōnen action/adventure comedy set in a standard isekai fantasy setting without the actual isekai, as no one summons anyone else from another world. But we do have our usual adventure guild set up with monsters and other such tropes.
“The best time to chase your dreams is when you’re young. That’s what everyone thinks.”
When we start off on Episode 1, “12 Years Late,” we meet Rick as a buff, low-confidence guy about to take an exam that will make him an official, ranked adventurer. The only catch is that unlike many of his peers, he’s starting at the age of 30, when most people start their adventuring careers at 18, hence he’s “12 years late.”
Why is Rick so behind the curve? Well, the short answer is that he spent those 12 years as a guild clerk, so one of the people in charge of handing out guild jobs, not completing them. But at some point, Rick struck off on his own to train and become an adventurer for real. The backstory behind this unlikely journey comes to us only in pieces, but it is immediately clear that Rick is far stronger than even he realizes. That’s about where the title comes in.
“It doesn’t matter when you decide to make a fresh start!”
Rick is an unassuming newbie, but he’s also spent two years training to the death with the most powerful party on the continent and is now extremely competent, even hilariously so compared to the bullies who want to knock him down a peg during the exams. The first few episodes are a fun, laid-back time as we watch Rick unwittingly demolish the competition while he justifies his victories as weird flukes (and even this odd lack of confidence receives an explanation later on, albeit with this show’s typically wonderful sense of humor).
When it comes to the budget, this is your typical popcorn anime in terms of the art style, fight choreography, and overall aesthetic. Though it doesn’t really stand out much in terms of animation, the actual design and setup of the characters is what sparks the most interest, particularly as we get to know “the most powerful party,” who instantly become fan favorites after the anime’s initial prologue period.
“Does it really matter what age you start adventuring?”
There’s not much we haven’t seen here before, to be fair, as The Ossan Newbie Adventurer hits on tried-and-true themes of someone upsetting the natural order of things and being OP in increasingly outlandish ways. But the joy of the anime underneath the familiar is Rick’s lovability as a character and how well he plays off of Reanette, a vicious but golden-hearted dark elf from the party that trained him whom he has a little bit of a will-they-won’t-they with.
Plus, it’s always nice to see anime of this kind having some fun with its older audience, particularly a protagonist in their 30s instead of the typical high school or college-aged prodigy. And the story only deepens once we get a better glimpse of how and why Rick became so strong. Eventually, some of the explanations for what makes Rick “special” do sort of undercut that interesting theme of humble beginnings, but by the time the anime gets to this point, you’re already pumping your fist to see what Rick’s capable of next.
The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible is currently streaming on Crunchyroll with new episodes dropping on Mondays. Check out the trailer below!
Images courtesy of Crunchyroll. Read more articles by Jon Negroni here.
Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts and our resident Podcast Editor. He hosts the podcasts Cinemaholics, Mad Men Men, Rookie Pirate Radio, and Fantasy Writing for Barbarians. He doesn’t sleep, essentially.
