- Mangaka : Akai, Matsuri (Story) and Aigamo, Hiroyuki (Art)
- Publisher : Seven Seas Entertainment
- Genre : Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Isekai
- Published : March 2020 - Ongoing
Ansatsusha de Aru Ore no Status ga Yuusha yori mo Akiraka ni Tsuyoi no da ga (My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s) Introduction (No Spoilers)
Akira and his entire class have been magically summoned to another world and each possessed powers of their own. Unfortunately, Akira has not been bestowed with a hero status but an Assassin. Time passes, the role of an Assassin might be the most powerful vocation of all! Akira has grown suspicious of the King and makes use of his newfound skills to uncover the secrets and conspiracies of the crown.
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
Okay. We are now in an isekai genre, where we are now living in a fantasy world, given a special power to save the world(?) under the name of the king and an extremely attractive princess by defeating the demon king. Seems normal, except… we’re working for a corrupted king and a messed up princess… mentally. So we’re basically in a pinch here. To explain what we meant about the situation such as this, think of this series as a combination of Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest) and Akame ga Kill!
1. Character Designs
It goes without saying that the artwork in this manga is delicious. The ensembles and weapons feel so suitable for the characters based on their class and personalities. They also reminded us of a video game called Dragon’s Dogma in terms of outfits. There are so many elements for their clothing and the number of details they focused on them is unreal.
2. Interactions
You probably read the discussion section above. Yes, there are conspiracies going on behind the royal family, but let’s take a step back and appreciate the light-hearted conversation between Akira and Sanra. Even though both parties share the interests of learning and understand each other’s world, they see each other as genuine friends.
Through conversations alone, Saran sees through Akira’s words that he knows the true color of the king and the princess and he sees him as someone special and different from the rest of Akira’s classmates. With that, he placed a special training regimen for Akira and letting him join his circle to stop the King’s plan…but it wasn’t that easy.
3. Battle Settings
The settings of the labyrinth reminded us of Arifureta, so obviously it is going to be filled with traps. They were labeled as a labyrinth for a reason. The manga shows the importance of teamwork, communications, strategic warfare but on a small scale, and when to have a tactical retreat.
Akira did the right approach when he encounters situations. Probably because of his nature of an Assassin, he asked for details of his party members and how things came to their predicament before he makes quick decisions for the best of everyone. Of course, with the knowledge of video games, manga, and novels from his world, he pointed out the unusual personality of his popular classmate, Tsukasa, and requested aid from his classmates in the middle of battle while having others covering them.
4. The Art of Assassination but with Skills and Magic
Has anyone gotten the vibe of Assassin’s Creed? Okay, fine. Except for the fact, there is no hidden blade. Anyway, the way how Akira moves and operates as an assassin makes us immerse in his role and how they perceive to their strength and weakness in both battles and actions.
There are scenes where we feel like he shouldn’t have revealed himself to the princess when he destroys the crystal that was responsible for Tsukasa’s curse. Although the consequences of that action taught him a lot of things in a hard way for plot purposes.
1. A Lot of Questions
There is a scene where an elf got shot in the leg by another elf. The recipient was running away from the archer and just those three pages give more questions rather than answers and maybe a hint of what kind of culture do other parts of the world have. Could it be that the royal families of each state are corrupted or what?
2. Musophobia
A quick warning to future readers, if you have musophobia (fear of rats or mice), there are some scenes that contain a large group of medium size rats, but other than that, there are about five pages, so it wasn’t that bad. Just think of the nice things while you read them.
Final Thoughts
Ansatsusha de Aru Ore no Status ga Yuusha yori mo Akiraka ni Tsuyoi no da ga (My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s) is a very interesting manga where they focus on the art of assassination and how an assassin operates with the knowledge of their old world in the medieval fantasy settings. It makes sense to not trust the people who summoned you, because you don’t know them, at a personal level, in the first place, so why should you?
The battles were smart and tactical, the clothes were badass, the interactions between characters brings a lot of meaning to the development of the story. If you want to know how it feels like to be a badass assassin in an isekai genre as an otaku, give this manga a go.
Author: Nobodies17
