English Dub Season Review: The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Someone claiming to be a god transports an entire high school class to another world and says they’re going to become heroes. Seiichi Hiiragi winds up in a different location than everyone else. He eats a lot of fruit called the Fruit of Evolution and becomes overpowered. He travels around, enters a kingdom, becomes an adventurer, and builds himself a harem. All while a war between humans and demons is waiting in the wings.

Our Take:

The Fruit of Evolution is a typical isekai that takes an ordinary loser from one world and makes him an overpowered hero in another. Seiichi Hiiragi aptly fits that description. He’s an overweight high school student in this world who seemingly doesn’t have any friends. It’s hinted at that he does, but we don’t see any interactions between them. Regardless, he ends up getting every power imaginable in this new world and he even slims down.

He also gets a wife, a girlfriend, a servant, a pupil, and a little sister. This is basically his harem even if it’s never said outright. He wins competitions, heals a king, and does everything else imaginable. Does he really deserve everything he’s getting though? Not really. He’s painfully bland and when he does gain new skills, he always complains about it. However, he ends up using them regardless with no complaints, so he just comes off as insincere.

The rest of the characters aren’t much better, if any better. Most of them are one-dimensional, like Saria just loves Seiichi and that’s pretty much it and Lulune only cares about food. Artoria and Oliga are the characters who have the most depth, but even their charm wears off pretty quickly. The show also tries to give us backstories on some enemies and side characters. While I appreciate the effort, it comes off as rushed and unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. There are even characters who just feel like they’re forgotten about, such as Mr. Sheep, the one who starts Seiichi on his journey.

The plot is simple enough: Heroes come from another world to fend off against a demon army. That said, we don’t see much of those heroes. When we do see them, they’re barely even training. It’s most drama over something that was never established and it feels forced. It’s explained that these heroes are being used more as slaves, but we still don’t really see that progression. The war preparations always feel messy on both the human and demon sides. There are a lot of moving parts and none of them are explained well.

The voice acting is fine, but nothing memorable. Visually, the show’s average at best. The character designs themselves are fine, but the animation looks choppy. The fights aren’t animated well and they’re not fun to watch. I’m not familiar with the studio behind this show, Hotline, but this show needs a lot more polish.

This season ends in a way that sets up for a second season. Even that setup feels rushed since they introduce a new character one or two minutes before the end of the last episode. Another season could help fix a lot of these issues and maybe flesh out the characters and story more. My problem is a show shouldn’t wait until the second season to put its best foot forward.

As a whole, I didn’t enjoy this first season. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but this is a rough show to get through. The world building is fine, but confusing. The characters look okay and some of them are tolerable, but none are memorable. The story is messy and doesn’t feel like it’s really gotten started. Plus, most of the fights and plot points that are meant to be exciting just feel boring. The show isn’t unsalvageable, but I’m honestly not hyped for Season Two.