Plot Armor
So it is no secret that I really REALLY like this anime, so it can be hard to actually find issues with this series. So there really are two main issues the fact that there is a recap episode and a bit too much plot armor. Sadly the plot armor does make it so that the anime can get kind of dry and stale. I am going to try to let the fact that I found the manga of this and read it not screw with my opinion so much, but it did make me think of a few things.
So first, let us just get this stuff out of the way. There is a recap episode in this anime. I mean, come on this anime is 13 episodes long. We do not need to have a condensed clip show that tells us the awesome story to begin with. If I want to remember what happened, I will just watch the episodes over again. While I can skip over this episode when I get the DVD/Blu-ray, it is just something to help prime the criticism of the show. I mean, wow, that was a very frustrating week. I can tell you that much.
Now there is the plot armor issue. The whole idea of this anime is that Hajime was very average. As much as I know that this is how he survives is by using his head. You are not really an ordinary person if you can build a gun from scratch. I mean, I know plenty of people who can assemble a gun and know all the parts of a gun, but they would not be able to machine the parts themselves. Plus, there is actually a lot of science that went into how guns work. So for him to have first-hand knowledge of how to build those weapons is pretty annoying. Especially when they make a point that he absorbs monster skills when he eats them.
I really wish that they showed off more of his monster moves in this anime. Pretty much once they get outside of dungeon, you see a couple of quick steps and aerodynamics, but not much else. It is not only till the very last major battle that we actually see Hajime use something other than his guns to kill things. So it kind of makes all the fights stale when he can shoot 12 shots and reload fast enough, despite the gun being a revolver, to never have any bad guys get near him. I mean, he can jump around pretty well and is really strong, so it would have made the battles a little more interesting to see the skills, but I guess time is a factor with this as well. You can see this in the inconsistencies that start to surface.
Take monsters, for instance, Hajime survives by eating them. However, there are times when the monsters just disappear shortly after dying. Really the writers switched between the two when it was convenient. As the plot armor protects the show to answer the question, why are there not mountains and mountains of monsters lying around? I mean, at least in the fight at Ur, the monsters were being obliterated by his bullets.
Then there is the inconsistency in his choices and actions. This can be seen when they encounter his teacher and during the last fight, as well. Now, this would not be too bad if the anime did not make it seem like he is troubled by the feelings. He just turns on the sentiment when it is plot worthy and turns it off when that armor is no longer needed. This explains why he even tried to help his teacher and party. A little introspection on his part would have been nice. Kind of the shedding of the not giving a fuck armor that he was wearing all the time. However, I guess this was also a time is money thing. There is a lot of missing stuff in this anime.
So yeah there we have it there is a lot more really glaring plot armor in this series. I mean, it is pretty obvious that this stuff is probably in the original light novel. So I guess it is understandable that you cannot fit all the small nuance and stuff into the show when you have 23 minutes to cover a full story and are required to condense that into 13 episodes. Sadly based on what I read in the manga, they could have easily made this into a 26 episode anime. Which is sad because this feels like a real niche anime, so we likely will not get any more seasons, also a downside.