English Dub Review: Kemono Michi-Rise Up “Wrestler × Summoning”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Genzo Shibata is a mild mannered animal lover, but at nights he dons the identity of Animal Mask, acclaimed pro-wrestler! However, after this next match, he plans to become a pet shop owner. Or at least that WAS the plan, as he and his dog Hiroyuki have been whisked away to another world as a hero for a fantasy land in order to fight monsters. Problem is that he’s more interested in saving the monsters than fighting them, so he ends up fleeing the castle and running through town in nothing but his undies. He soon encounters some of the world’s half-animal citizens, including Shigure, a wolf-eared girl who is in massive debt.

With her help, he becomes an adventurer in order to make some cash, with his first job facing a pack of Cerberus’s (three-headed dogs). But instead of fighting them, he actually ends up taming them! He completes the job and gets enough money for real clothes, but now has a new goal: showing people how nice beasts really are!

OUR TAKE
The Isekai (trapped in another world) genre has been run pretty ragged since it became popular a few episodes ago, but it’s also remained strong in that popularity every since, so naturally there becomes demand for some fresh takes on the more tired aspects and tropes. Kemono Michi looks to be an attempt at that, maintaining the signature move of a regular human to a fantasy land, but this time having that regular human be someone who isn’t going to simply go along with the typical order of things. Which is good, because we really don’t need another boiler plate high school nerd who suddenly becomes a lady killer badass overnight.

Instead, we have Genzo Shibata, who seems less concerned with the adventuring side of things and more about taking care of all the fluffy and scaly monsters that he’d normally have to fight and kill. I have to say, this is a pretty new approach that I would not have expected, since while the story does seem to have all the typical fantasy Isekai trappings surrounding it, they’re basically overshadowed by Genzo’s unorthodox presence. He’s a gentle giant who can certainly handle himself in a fight, coming from an apparently solid career as a pro-wrestler, but he’s also an animal lover (though hopefully not to a weird extent, but then again this is anime) who can hopefully use his power to make friends and reform monsters who would normally kill or be killed themselves by adventurers eager for some quick cash.

All in all, this is a pretty solid start to a weird but hopefully fun show for the Fall season of anime. I don’t exactly expect it to win my pick for show of the year or anything, but it definitely plays around with the tropes of Isekai anime enough that I would consider it worth at least a watch. From here, I expect Genzo will be picking up a few more characters to his party, even if it’s not for standard adventuring, but I also wonder if he won’t let his acceptance of animals get the better of him. After all, the monsters here are also shown to sometimes be sentient and even work with thieves, so this might end up being a case of learning about how people work through these sorts of monsters. Genzo’s good nature will likely ultimately shine through in the end based on the tone of the show, but I don’t expect it to be an easy journey.