Note: TLDR at the very bottom.
Story - 7.5
The World's Finest Assassin is an Isekai anime and much like other Isekai anime I chew up for one-time enjoyment, I didn’t expect much from it. However, The World's Finest Assassin managed to pleasantly surprise me.
A cold-blooded and emotionless man who happen to be the world best assassin in our real world got betrayed by the very organization he worked for and is disposed of. He was then selected by the goddess to be reincarnated in a fantasy medieval world where he have to kill the Hero before he reach a certain age. He was then born in a noble family of Tuatha Dé house where he is named Lugh Tuatha Dé.
Finally, an Isekai where the protagonist is not a NEET, high schooler or a salaryman but an actual skilled person who got summoned to the fantasy world to solve the problem. A goddess with some commonsense but we did see in the short but entertaining cuts about her summoning different people who fail to complete their mission.
The anime can be roughly divided into three arcs. The first arc showcases Lugh growing up, training and meeting a girl who will become his assistant. The second arc is where Lugh saved a group of girls who are being sexually abused and use them to establish his information network. The final arc is the arc where he saves his lover from danger.
For an anime about the assassination, it might feel like the story is slow and we only got to see a couple of assassination scenes but as someone who appreciates intriguing details in my Isekai anime such as Ascendance Of A Bookworm with its details on making things or Log Horizon going over all the guild politic, I enjoyed all the setting up Lugh did to ensure his future assassination go smoothly and ultimately his assassination of the hero.
Things such as creating a long-range sniper rifle using magic, finding people who have mana to train them so that they can assist him with his assassination and making the information network through his business are all important assets for Lugh career.
Let address the elephant in the room, is this anime another OP power fantasy? Yes and No. Lugh is powerful but some enemies are way more powerful than him as I see in the final episode. However, as an assassin, you never want to fight an enemy head-on and match them fist for fist. Lugh doesn’t do that too, instead, he comes up with clever schemes to fight his enemy.
The story so far is entertaining even though it might not be overly unique but still above all the mass production tier Isekai stories.
Character - 7
Most of the characters traits and character interactions in The World's Finest Assassin are quite interesting.
Lugh was emotional-less in his previous life and vow to be more emotional and human-like in his new life and we see him become more emotional as the story went along. As an assassin, he is still strict and but at the same time caring for his companions.
It is also nice to see that Lugh no longer blindly follow the order as in the past and investigate the target before he judges if the target should be finished off or not. Unlike other Isekai protagonists, Lugh is a chad who can handle a woman and won’t go running off. Moreover, he has his romantic target set straight instead of beating around the bushes.
I admire the way how Tuatha Dé family raise their child. For a family of assassins both the father, Cian and mother, Esri are loving parents. I like how Cian is strict when he trains Lugh but also funny and loving other times. He also let Lugh decide things for himself than just blindly follow his order. Esri is mostly there for comedy relief and to fuel your milf fantasy.
Female characters fall in love for no valid reason in other Isekai anime but in this anime, everyone has legit reason since they are saved from death or events that are worse than death.
Tarte, Maha and Dia are the supporting characters of this anime and they are not very developed but what is pretty neat is their backstories, each having their tragic circumstances. Tarte backstory is short but pretty messed up. I especially like Maha back story, it is dark, gritty and extremely mess up.
The character backstories may not be much, but they are like adding a cherry on top for the world-building elements. They help us know how to mess up their world can be.
Art & Animation - 7
The art and animation in general look clean and well-drawn with vibrant colours. It will not blow you away but it is a cut above most Isekai anime that were mass-produced.
Character art looks sharp and neatly drawn. There are some really good shots of the character in the first half of the anime. E.g. when Lugh was hiding behind a tree with half the face in the shadow.
The characters design are good enough to be able to tell which anime the characters are from. I find Lugh and Dia to be less unique, I have seen similar-looking characters in other Isekai anime. E.g. Rio and Celia from Seirei Gensouki.
A minor touch that I like is in the ending song visual which got minor alterations depending on the content of the episode’s story.
Background arts are solid. Cities look believable with background characters doing their own thing, Indoor scenes are decently detailed and populated with objects and sceneries look pretty. There is a minor decline in visual qualities and details in the second half of the anime (e.g. there are streets that look strangely empty when Lugh go around the city with Dia) but it is still pretty solid.
The most jarring thing in the art and animation department is the CG, most noticeably the horses, the horse carriage and the soldiers which stick out like a sour thumb from the 2D arts.
As a show about an assassin, a lot of the combats ended in one long ranger sniper shot, using poison or other assassination methods, but in scenes where Lugh do hand to hand combat, the choreography is respectable. e.g. the part where Lugh spar with his dad.
Sound - 7
The opening song is lit, no it's a bomb, wait, scratch that it's a nuke. It is an absolute headbanger and the black and white visual for it fantastic. The ending song is an equally good well-made song with its soothing and relaxing melodies. Both songs are going into my playlist.
Background music is solid with very medieval-ish sounding music and some music sound straight out of a fantasy RPG game. They sound good, compliment the scenes but they are not memorable. I also don’t notice any sound effects to be missing or out of place either.
Voicing actings are also great in this anime with characters having a voice that is suitable for the character’s personality and design. I like how Lugh sound, very calm and analytical. I am also a fan of Dia’s mellow voice and her singing on episode 10 ending is surprising good.
TLDR:
A refreshing story about a capable assassin who got Isekai-ed to a fantasy world with a mission to assassinate a hero. The story is more like a prologue to what is to come in the future.
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