In another random scroll of Crunchyroll I came across a show called Failure Frame I Became The Strongest And Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells. I’ve seen a number of shows with an over powered protagonist with weak abilities so I thought I could predict how this show would go. I couldn’t be more wrong. Our story stars Touka and him along with his entire class were summoned to another world to defeat the great evil of the land. Upon being assessed by the goddess Vicius everyone in his class has amazing power, except Touka. Touka was given an E rank with special ability to inflict status ailments, an ability deemed worthless. So Vicius sends him to a dangerous ruins to leave him to die, but Touka finds his skills aren’t as useless as everyone thought.

Starting with the story it’s very interesting. We get a lot of context of what shaped Touka as a person prior to the events of the season. He comes from an abusive home and has a lot of repressed hatred which boils to the surface after being left to die by Vicius. Finding a way to survive he claws his way out of the ruins and is on a mission of revenge. Turns out while status ailments normally have a low success rate and fade quickly, Touka’s skill works consistently and lasts a long time. Giving him the ability to paralyze and poison enemies to defeat them and farm experience.

However, Vicius has some kind of protection and is the sole exception to his skill working so he must travel the land finding a way to defeat her. So I really love this unique take on an isekai. While there is a great threat in the world we don’t get to explore it that much as the antagonist is the very person who summoned the otherworld heroes, the goddess herself. As the season progresses we get to see more of how cold and heartless she is.

Touka is an interesting character. Being a victim of abuse and trauma he is very protective of his emotions. He often conducts acts of kindness but masks them by acting like his motivations are solely for his own gain. It’s interesting to watch him interact with the world but also how he fights. His challenge is he has to find a way to use his status ailments while not being adapt at hand to hand combat. So his situations are very different than what I’m used to for a protagonist. He’s very crafty often using half truths as deception and has a very tactical mind as he creates incredible strategies to out wit his enemies. So watching his story unfold is very entertaining.

As for the rest of the class they are almost all very horrible people. Since most of them have a rank of B or above they value themselves by their rank as they train to level up their incredible skills. As the season progresses the horrible traits they have only continue to manifest as they compete to prove their superiority. It’s an interesting concept to watch frankly a myriad of detestable characters as their story unfolds unaware of Touka’s survival. So it’s a nice change to see a show where you end up disliking most of the characters and you’re meant to so it’s actually a good thing.

The story is a lot of fun to watch because the characters are interesting and Touka has a fun and unique combat style to watch. The problem is watching everything unfold is not the most pleasant experience. All of the moments in this show feel stiff and you can even see it in the walking animation. It doesn’t ruin the show but it’s very noticeable. Plus in a way that I’m not able to describe the show is not aesthetically pleasing at all. I don’t have an objective way to explain this. I just found myself not liking the way the show looks.

So overall this show takes a fun unique take on the isekai genre. This is a story of an outcast otherworldly hero seeking revenge on the person who brought him there. Plus instead of hand to hand combat Touka has to find crafty ways to inflict deadly status ailments and it along with a traumatic back story makes Touka stand out as a protagonist. Really the only weak part of the show is that while it’s a fun watch it’s not a pleasant one as it’s not visually pleasing at all. A noticeable but not a dramatic problem in an otherwise entertaining show. So I’m curious as to what the next season has to offer.