~~~This show is kind of like going to McDonald’s, ordering fries, and getting a fresh batch of the window, with a new brand of dipping sauce that, after trying, you liked - but isn’t as good as your regular order of sweet chili. ~~~
Cautious Hero presents itself as a safe alternative to most other isekai in existence. A hero is summoned, they go on an adventure, meet friends and comrades on the way, all with the objective of slaying the demon lord and his minions.

What the show has which a more generally average show may lack is charm. Specifically, the characterization of its two main leads; Ristarte and Seiya is a contrast to the typical isekai slop we all know and love.

Ristarte – The ‘useless goddess’, who I would describe as nothing short of an Aqua-like character

Seiya – The traditional isekai protag with the twist that he’s ‘cautious’

In my experience, Seiya is a relatively unique character, in that he’s not underpowered/underleveled/under whatever power system the show’s universe uses. He starts out as an exceptional hero who can take on the majority of challenges from the get-go. The twist of the show is that he’s a ‘Cautious Hero’. This characterization is used in an interesting and well-thought-out way. You can relate to many of the choices he makes as a traditional video game protagonist, which helps a lot in making him a more believable character.

Ristarte the goddess does come off as someone extremely similar to Aqua, but the way the show uses her is, similar to Seiya; unique in its own way. She is generally weak, and the rules of the universe dictate that she cannot take an overly active role in Seiya’s journey. The charm of her character is the way she’s juxtaposed with the ‘traditional isekai MC’ of Seiya.

From the audience’s perspective, Seiya isn’t actually the MC of the anime. Seiya is the MC of the plot, but the anime itself is told through the perspective from Ristarte, which I thought was an interesting perspective on the traditional isekai setting. Much of the charm of her character is that she’s played off as the straight-man of the show. Her interactions with Seiya and his overly cautious attitude lead to humorous moments, where we as the audience can empathize with her situation in having summoned someone so strong, yet so cautious.

Ristarte herself is nothing necessarily ground-breaking or special as the audience’s view into the world of the show, yet she is beautifully animated with a wide range of faces and physical reactions. She will contort herself to fit something that can only be described as a Picasso-like image after seeing an old man turn into a baby. She’ll stretch out her face in an expression of pure horror in the face of a demon. She’ll bend every dimension imaginable to give us a glimpse at the face of a broken woman in reaction to Seiya’s decisions. Ristarte is a vessel for absurdism in an otherwise straightforward isekai romp through a demon-infested world.

The catalyst for the useless goddesses’ humorous reactions is Seiya himself. In basic terms, he’s played off as a caring asshole. Not exactly a ground-breaking representation of a fantasy character, but the way he’s used as an, equally to Ristarte, absurd character is what gives the traditional isekai story a bit more of a twist.

Seiya is cautious to a fault. This man will stock up on 1,000 potions and herbs to fight an enemy 30x weaker than he is. He is for all intents and purposes, a ridiculously overblown portrayal of a cautious hero. I think a weaker show would use this as the setup and punchline for the entire show:

“He’s super-duper cautious, he never stops preparing, all the character think this is crazy, hilarity ensues”.
Everyone in the board room claps. We can make a completely average isekai but with a small twist that people can meme about for 2 weeks before it’s forever forgotten.

But as mentioned before, it’s how this is juxtaposed with Ristarte and the rest of the cast. Without Ristarte’s absurdist reactions of face contorting nonsense, the show would fall flat on its face as just another isekai, but suddenly it’s elevated to something a bit more special with the switch to Ristarte’s perspective for the audience. The show seems self-aware about just how overly zealous Seiya is about preparation. It’s pointing and laughing with us THROUGH Ristarte, which I think is a bit of smart characterization.

With the juxtaposition of absurdism with the bland and mundane comes with a large caveat, however. As mentioned before, this IS a traditional isekai. Demons are destroying the world. Kill the demons. Summon a hero. Make him stronger. Start at a ‘low level town where you can fight slimes and buy gear’. It’s boring. The premise of the show as a principle is boring. Without the humorous character writing, this show would be left out back and turn into dust to the annuls of time.

The supporting cast, mainly being Mash and Eruru, the ‘traditional isekai party members’ are bad. They’re poorly written, they have barely any characterization, they don’t have any real interesting or unique traits. They’re dragons. Wow. The show does everything in its power to make these completely uninteresting supporting characters seem important to the plot and the world they’re meant to save, and yet they’re given very little time to develop as characters. They aren’t flawed, they don’t have personalities. Coupled with this is the as previously mentioned aggressively safe and traditional isekai plot. It’s been done a thousand times before. It’s not unique, it’s not interesting. It’s boring.

What would really elevate this show in addition to its unique perspective and well-animated slapstick/absurdist comedy would be a good plot and good supporting cast.

You would have every right to argue ‘but the story isn’t over, there’s still more in the source material’. Sure, you could argue that if you weren’t wrong. The 12-episode anime itself is a self-contained story. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Every plot thread, every character, every arc is wrapped up in those 12 episodes. The continuation, I would assume, is just more of the same. It’s almost ironic that the absurd actions and reactions of Seiya and Ristarte respectively are mirrored with the equally absurdly generic and uninteresting plot, world and universe.

This is where the McDonald’s analogy comes in. This show is like eating fries, but you’re dipping it in a new sauce, and it’s good, but at the end of the day, you’re still eating fries. The best part of the meal is probably going to be that you found a new sauce that you didn’t know you liked until you tried it. It’s a new and unique twist on the same thing you’ve been eating for years.

It’s a massive shame, because they had an interesting dynamic between the two primary characters, but everything else lets it down. The animation is generally above average (not including the animation on Ristarte herself, which is perfectly executed to portray every reaction imaginable), but the OP isn’t very unique, the soundtrack basically doesn’t exist, the worldbuilding and supporting cast are massively lacking, and the plot itself just feels like a staging ground to develop the interactions between Seiya and Ristarte.

My overall feelings are that the two primary characters can justify this show being seen as good, but it can’t justify it as being seen as great.

I enjoyed it overall :)