So during my regular scrolling of Crunchyroll I stumbled upon another show I knew nothing about going into it other than I was intrigued by the title. Our story stars a young girl who was reborn in this world from her previous life and to some degree has some memories of her past life which will occasionally talk to her mentally. In this world everyone has a skill and the level of skill is determined by the number of stars it has with three being the highest. However, while her protagonist has a monster tamer skill she has no stars and is seen as an abomination by her village and even her family and she flees for her own survival. She survives by hunting and scavenging through trash for helpful items and assumes the identify of a young boy named Ivy to hide from her village. So going forward I’m switching to the he/him pronouns since Ivy goes by them from that point forward just for clarity for you the reader. Ivy survives alone until he stumbles upon a very weak slime from a race that usually is too weak to survive more than a day, but he manages to tame the slime who for some reason is now able to survive far longer than expected. Ivy names it Sora and the two of them go on an adventure together.

I’ll start with the story because I’m honestly struggling a bit with how to put it to words. It hit a little close to home for me as I myself come from a family that valued skills and accomplishments so much that it often was the priority over what you would typically see in a family. So I found myself having an overwhelming amount of empathy for Ivy. As Ivy travels he often finds things either discarded or left alone from people and is able to find value in those items and makes a good living in doing so. For example he finds discarded old potions and while they are weaker than if they were new he still manages to find use for them to heal minor cuts that he gets on his travels. Due to being young and on the frail side Ivy can only hunt small animals for food to take and sell to the butcher; however, because those animals are often ignored by hunters in favor of bigger more popular meat to hunt Ivy is able to make decent money selling an undervalued and needed product for the butcher. The story has a lot of moments like that where you come across items, people and monsters that are often not seen for their worth and Ivy being discarded himself is able to look at all of them and see incredible worth and in doing so the story has a ton of feel good moments that I really couldn’t help smiling at on many occassions.

The story does escalate rather quickly as Ivy starts to find people who ultimately accept him for who he is and find value in Ivy’s skills. Not just the monster tamer one in fact often he is valued for his other skills such as his wit and his charm. So while the story heavily features Ivy finding value in the world around him it equally places focus on parts of the world finding value in him as he becomes a vital part in solving major problems plaguing the cities he visits. As Ivy travels he often finds himself in danger often from various people meaning to do him harm for one reason or another, but he is often saved by people who are incredibly kind and it is through those moments that we gradually see a change in Ivy from being timid and putting walls up to people wherever he goes to finding out that people aren’t as bad as his home made him think and he grows to be more confident and willing to put his faith in others.

The characters are also all very interesting. As I stated earlier Ivy grows as a character during the season and it’s a fun process to see that growth. Sora is also a very unique character and while unable to speak any he ends up having a lot of personality. Throughout the season we’re introduced to a pretty sizable cast of characters both the good and the bad and they all add a much needed part to the story as a whole. All of the bad actors such as the villagers from Ivy’s home to random bandits he comes across and even an evil organization show that the world is full of people who are bad and mean to do him harm; however, it counters that with lots of kind people such as guards, adventurers and townspeople from other villages and city that show that the world isn’t all that bad. These characters are often found face to face with one another in situations centered around Ivy’s health and well being and are vital parts of Ivy’s character development.

As a whole while it’s not one of my favorite shows in general, but I will say this is one of the best examples of a feel good show I’ve ever seen. It starts off very traumatic but the rest of the show is a story of how Ivy begins to heal from that tragedy by finding value in the discarded and undervalued while finding people kind enough to do the same for him. It’s a rather beautiful story that is able to resonate on an emotional level and that’s what makes it so captivating. It’s a really interesting story about how the world is full of good and evil and both emphasizes a need to both be safe with your emotions but also not to the point of being closed off to the entire world while telling a wonderful story about finding value in everything and that nothing is worthless. So it’s ultimately a story that focuses on some very hard hitting themes executed so well that evokes an emotional response from it’s viewers to make one incredible show. If there’s a season two it’s a must watch for me.