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Year: 2013
Genre: Harem
Episodes: 12
Rating: 3.25 out of 5
Have you ever spent your whole life working for a dream that you wanted to obtain? Whether it was the best football player, violinist, basketball player, or artist. You spent almost every waking moment working as hard as you could to achieve this goal. You surrounded yourself with other like-minded people who had the same dream as you did. You pushed each other every day to make it. When the day comes for you to achieve your dreams, it suddenly disappears. The once place/job you dreamed so long, is suddenly gone. The need for that position and skill is no more.
What do you do after learning your position is now obsolete, and you didn’t take up any other skills? The only thing you can do is work at a place you never dreamed of working to make it in the world. You somewhat hate where you are, but you give your absolute best to make it and put on a happy face.
I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job is a story that shows what happens when you train for something all your life only to be denied it because of employment reasons. Now you must work at a place you think is beneath you to ultimately appreciate it.
Overview:
Raul Chaser is a young man who has dreamed of becoming a hero and defeating the mighty Demon King. Raul enters the Hero Training Program to pursue his dream of being a legendary hero. He excels at his training, becoming one of the top two in his class. The Demon King is defeated with peace returning to the world. With no enemy to fight, the Hero Training Program is suspended until further notice, ultimately crushing Raul’s dream of being a hero.
With his dream crushed, Raul must find a new way of life after training so hard for one goal. After many interviews and two years of trying, Raul reluctantly takes a job and now works at a small electronics store called Magic Leon Shop. Since working at the shop, Raul views his life as busy but incredibly dull. One day, a boy arrives at the store applying for a job. After some misunderstanding, Raul finds out the new hire isn’t a boy but a girl who is also the daughter of the late Demon King.
Handed the extreme task of training the new employee, Raul’s life turns upside down as life in the new store becomes exciting in ways he never dreamed of.
Review:
I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job is a funny anime to watch that makes you actually think about life and how things turn out the way you never expected it to do. While watching this anime, anyone could relate to the main character or several other characters and the situation they are put in when an unseen event happens.
The story of this anime is very light-hearted and entertaining. The main character, Raul Chaser, is a former hero candidate that dreams of becoming a hero and taking down the Demon Lord. His dreams are derailed when the Demon Lord is defeated, and the Demon Empire collapses. The need for heroes is put on hold indefinitely. With nowhere to go and not having the adequate skills to work anywhere else, Raul reluctantly takes a job at a small department store. Ever since his hiring, Raul’s life has been busy but in his eyes dull and boring. One day, a new person comes in and applies for a job. After some misunderstanding, Raul finds out that the new hire is the Demon Lord’s child, who happens to be a cute girl.
The story can be relatable for many people in the United States during the Great Recession and draws many parallels to it. Many people, including myself, graduated from college with a degree looking forward to entering the real world. Then just like Raul and so many others, a disaster happens that leaves many without a job. For me, it was the Great Recession. Just like Raul, many people’s resumes weren’t up to standard, and many found it hard to get a job. Many times, people were told that we didn’t have the adequate skills to work for a company. For many people, they had to take a job they didn’t like or thought was beneath them, just to survive and pay bills. Like I said, this story drew on many comparisons with the real world.
Another area that the anime does a great job with is the competition of the Mom and Pop stores against the megastore giant. Magic Shop Reon is a small department store that gives personal care and advice to all its customers. It sometimes struggles to bring in customers and sell items, but it gives the feel that it cares for everyone and tries to fix their customer’s needs. Magic Shop Reon sees a downturn in sales when a new magic shop named Amada comes into town, offering lower prices. Even though they offer lower prices, their customer service is horrendous. This can be a parallel when Wal-Mart comes to town. Many Mom and Pop stores have a hard time surviving against the low prices. Even though Wal-Mart employees help, they sometimes don’t give the special care needed to their customers that most mom and pop stores give.
The characters in the anime are pretty relatable but have their own strange ways of doing things. Two characters, Raul Chaser and Phino Bloodstone, stand out. Raul is that clueless boy who only wants to make it and be a hero. He dreams of being a hero and doesn’t realize what he actually has. That he is a hero to many where he works. Phino is that naïve girl from a different country that has no idea what customs or ways of life are acceptable in a different part of the world. Phino also brings that refreshing sense of training someone but also a person that wants to learn and get better. She dreams of opening up her very own store in the demon world. Another character that is great for the anime is Airi Altinate. She is introduced as Raul’s rival from school. She couldn’t become a hero, so she takes a job reluctantly at Amada as a bunny but lies and states she is a security guard. She is profound because many of us have lied about the job we have just to make people look up to us and not feel like a failure.
Besides the story and characters, the anime falls off with its animation and music. The animation is standard for most anime series, but like many others that feature pretty girls, the girls are drawn overly buxom with more underwear showing. Like many others before it, this anime has that happy, fast music that makes you feel like everything will be good. It plays the fun-loving music all the time.
I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job is an anime that is quite relatable to today’s world. Many of us have studied a subject in school, thinking we were going to do that until we get to the real world and do something completely different. We also have been through a time where we didn’t have the adequate skills needed to do a specific job. This anime does a good job in showing the different ways people will go to make it and survive. That is one of the highlights of this anime. This anime is simple and great to watch when looking at your own job and how it’s not that bad.
