"A Wild Last Boss Appeared" brings a unique twist on the typical OP Isekai genre with an intriguing story I haven't seen anywhere else. While it is far from perfect, and needs at least 2-3 more seasons to be completed, it's a good show that kept me interested and wanting to know what happens next.
Disclaimers: I have NOT read the light novel or manga, I do not know what happens next. This review is based solely on the context provided in the show itself. I will also keep it relatively spoiler free, but fair warning, that is basically impossible with this show because the plot is most of it. If you want to avoid spoilers, just watch the show or skip my part about the plot.
Reminder: My scoring STARTS at 5/10, and goes up or down from there. Do not be offended if I give the show a 60 or 70, that is considered a good rating by me. A score of 50 means the show is exactly average. Without further ado, let's get into the review:
The plot (Spoiler Free):
By far the most unique part of this show is the plot, but it doesn't seem like that at first. In this genre, the twists this show brought came at a legitimate shock at first. Initially when I began the show I was expecting a typical OP Isekai where our hero is pulled into a game and has god-like powers and a harem immediately. And at first it does appear that way. The main character is Isekai'd in from his own world into the world of a game he is the top player of when some preists accidentally summon him, and he possesses the character he mains in the game, Lufas. His character Lufas technically died in the game, but the preists accidentally "revived" them 200 years after this death, which is how our main character has come to possess Lufas. What happened during the 200 years is unclear. Instantly our hero has the incredibly strong abilities of his character, and due to the fact that he has played the character for thousands of hours, he doesn't even need to spend time learning their abilities, he already knows them. He comes in at the max level (1000), and frequently comments on the fact that many of the foes he faces are quite weak. However, even the hero is somewhat puzzled by this, as there should be various level 1000 characters in the world that are nowhere to be seen. The plot truly begins when he encounters his former advisor Dina, who says they have been maintaining their tower for the past 200 years, awaiting Lufas' return. Lufas, under the direction of Dina, decides to look for his former comrades that should exist if he has been pulled into the game, specifically the Twelve Heavenly Stars. The journey begins as Lufas and Dina start the search.
Plot cont (SPOILERS):
The characters in the world are not the same as the characters our MC knows from the game.
MC has not simply "possessed" Lufas, they have completely replaced them.
Dina is not normal, and is, at minimum, a spy (it is still unclear even after finishing the show. Though I have a guess which I suspect is correct).
The Goddess is probably evil, and caused our MC to possess Lufas.
And more.
Twists like these come throughout the story, and shift it from being a typical, boring OP Isekai to an actually engaging story. As more and more is revealed, we discover Lufas is not as OP as they seemed at first, and in fact has a long way to go before being able to take on the big bads of the story.
As for things I don't like... it's not exactly a super interesting story to me, even with the twists. Yea, it's creative, but frankly stories like Summer Time Rendering do the mystery and twist genre far better in my opinion (highly recommend btw). Additionally, only the Dina twist was a true "twist". Everything else has been more like a reveal or revelation by Lufas. If you're looking for shock value, you only get it once with the Dina reveal, which is heavily implied and foreshadowed anyway to the point where the reveal is not even a shock, it's just feels like we finally get the answer to all that foreshadowing.
Overall I give the plot a solid 7.8/10.
Characters and backstories:
The characters are actually pretty bland in my opinion. Most of them are not funny, and kinda just feel like they're in the background of the main characters Lufas and Dina. Now due to the high amount of "plot twists" this show includes, I'm sure that most of the backstories are supposed to be bland and vague for now, but will be fleshed out later to provide more context for the twists. That's fine... but for now, they're boring. Almost none of the 12 Heavenly stars have backstories, Dina's is incredibly short and vague, etc. Again, I know all of these characters will likely get more backstory when necessary, but for now it makes for a lot of mysterious characters and little emotional attachment. However, I've seen way, WAY worse, so a backstory that makes me think "hmm, that's interesting" is far better than some of the cringe slop we have come to expect from this genre. giving a few points, but more can be earned in the future because it appears these will be expanded upon. 6.5/10.
The animation:
The animation is decent. Nothing stuck out as impressive, but I don't have much to complain about. Some of the stills last for a bit too long, but what anime doesn't have that? Some of the fight scenes are nice, of which there are a few. 7/10
Sound design:
The overall sound of this anime is average. I wasn't bopping my head to any of the soundtrack, but I wasn't hating it either. SFX are fine. 5/10.
Final thoughts:
Overall I would recommend this anime to you if you
My personal rating:
This is the part where I pretend like any of the scores I just wrote about have any impact on my final score. They really don't. I just give it a score I feel like starting from 5 as the baseline and going from there. This show is better than average, it was probably the best show I saw this season. But I also felt it was a pretty underwhelming season, so that's not saying much.
Overall I give this show a 7.6/10
I would rank this show above:
I would rank this show below:
I hope you found my review helpful. This is my first review, so I hope to better convey my thoughts as I write more for other shows. Thank you!
11.5 out of 17 users liked this review
