Sara Talks Anime

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If you asked me if there was ever an anime I regretted watching, I’d lean closer to you and whisper Fluffy Paradise, before leaning back to where I was before. “But why would you say that about a show that you stated was great when you were watching it as a simulcast?” people who have scrolled through my posting history on my account in the fediverse may be asking.

The simple answer? I did some reflecting and realized “wait, some decisions made in this don’t make sense, actually!”, and then I proceeded to drag my past self to the present and asked her why she thought Fluffy Paradise would be peak fiction when in actuality it’s just a mess.

Generally, in these posts, I give an overview of the plot – level of detail may vary – and then review it from there. However, since I don’t want to take the time to recall significant plot details, I will summarize Fluffy Paradise as I think some viewers may need it to be outlined to understand what’s happening: Single sentence Dhar Mann video title. [Disclaimer: I do not support Dhar Mann, my only experience with Dhar Mann videos is watching other creators reacting to Dhar Mann videos.]

And what would that title be? “Office Worker Dies Of Overworking – What Happens Next Is Shocking!”

…nah, that’d be too general. After all, I don’t know if Fluffy Paradise is the only show that has an office worker die of overwork.

…”Office Worker Died And Got Reincarnated Into A Fantasy World – What Happens Next Is Shocking!”?

…still no. It doesn’t describe what’s supposed to set this show apart from other isekai shows that use that exact same method of death.

…”Office Worker Gets Reincarnated As A Child In A Fantasy World — You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!”?

…nope. Other shows have most likely done that same premise. And you know what I realized? I suck at YouTube video titles! So, instead, SCREW DHAR MANN VIDEO TITLES! We’re going to light novel series titles of web novels that got turned into light novels because I know I can do that!

“After Dying Of Overwork, I Got Reincarnated In A Fantasy World And I’ll Make It My Goal To Fluff All The Animals!”

…okay, there’s the basic premise as an absurdly long light novel series title. Or at least, the premise that the show tries to make you think it has at first. However, so many things get thrown into the equation, I’m positive that the author isn’t writing this off of the seat of their pants and actually has an outline for what should happen…and this is coming from someone who commonly pants their stories! Or maybe they are pantsing it and I’m an idiot. Who knows at this point.

So, what did we get instead? A story with so many holes,  I’m surprised that the me in my first year of college didn’t realize it and kept hyping it up as if it were some hidden gem that everyone was skipping for one reason or another. Like, no sweetie, it was completely valid for them to skip this series, especially considering what I know about the story now compared to back then.

This is a show that Crunchyroll billed in a trailer thing was going to be the “wholesome anime of the season” or something along those lines. I don’t know if this was due to a Japanese trailer making this exact same claim and Crunchyroll translating it, or if Crunchyroll threw this in on their own, but this is not the wholesome anime of the season, or the year, or whatever they billed Fluffy Paradise as.

The instant you have your main protagonist get involved on either side of a genocide and have them on site of where that genocide occurs, even if the anime only shows one instance, you’re losing the “wholesome anime” title in my eyes.

*inhale*

*exhale*

Quick pause from me bitching about Fluffy Paradise to talk about something important.Since part of this video will involve me talking about a genocide, even though it’s fictional, I want to do my part in trying to end the genocides that are currently going on in the real world. As such, not only will I be doing my daily clicks on arab.org, I highly encourage you to do so as well. These clicks are completely free, and the folks behind arab.org will donate the money on your behalf. They reset daily, so all you have to do is click the six “click to help” buttons they have once per day, and you’ll play some part. Besides, in my opinion, it’s much easier than having to look at so many sources just to make sure the person you want to boost has their gofundme or whatever be vetted so that you don’t accidentally boost someone trying to take advantage of people’s kindness and claiming to be the victim of a genocide so that they can make the big bucks, so it’s great for naturally skeptical people like me!

Okay, there’s that. Now let’s get back to talking about the issues I have with Fluffy Paradise, like you all signed up for.

Issue #1: This Shouldn’t Have Been An Isekai

Yeah, we’re starting with ripping apart the genre choice. It’s understandable why they’d pick a fantasy world – it allows for a lot of cool stuff to occur, and they can even involve fluffy fantasy critters as well! And they even went as far as to pick a subgenre of fantasy…

Being isekai.

Like I brought up when I was summarizing the plot, Protagonist-san dies of Overwork-san, and then Kami-sama was like “sorry that you died early. But I can reincarnate you in another world with any power of your choosing!”…and our protagonist insists on fluffing animals. Kami-sama interprets this as “make animals love me, in exchange for humans hating me”, and also tells the protagonist “oh, yeah, judge humanity in this world for me please” before doing the reincarnation. Now, if Nefertina acted mature for her age since we only get a good grasp on how she acts at ages 3 through 5 in the anime, then I’d be completely understanding as to why this show was an isekai.

BUT SINCE NEFERTINA DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE ACTING MATURE FOR HER AGE, AND WE DON’T GET ENOUGH INSIGHT INTO HOW SHE ACTS MENTALLY DURING THE SERIES, IT MAKES IT FEEL LIKE THE ISEKAI ASPECT WAS JUST BAIT TO GET MORE PEOPLE TO WATCH THE SERIES!

In my opinion, if you plan on making your show an isekai, you should have a damn good reason why the show has to be an isekai instead of just using a pre-existing character within the world. For example, trapped-in-a-game isekais have to be isekais because the stakes would be a lot lower if the players could just leave at any time.

Other reasons as to why a show has to be an isekai include “a character feeling like they need to repent, so they get isekai’d to the real world to repent. Can also include an optional isekai BACK to their original world to try and get a better future there” and “either bringing or becoming an item that doesn’t exist in the other world”. Examples of isekai that I think fit these reasons are Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp, The Devil is a Part-Timer!, and Reborn as a Vending Machine I Now Wander The Dungeon.

But with Nefertina constantly acting like her actual age, and barely any looks into her mentality, I refuse to believe that isekai is a required genre for this show. Sometimes I even forget that Nefertina is mentally in her 20s due to how she acts. In my honest opinion, you could make this exact same show but have Kami-sama appear to the protagonist in a dream and have this exact same exchange minus the reincarnation stuff, and absolutely nothing about the plot would change. Now, you may have noticed what I said. Issues. That’s right, there’s an issue other than me question why the hell this is even an isekai in the first place.

Issue #2: Are We Meant To Be WHOLESOME or SERIOUS?

Now, this isn’t saying that tonal shifts in a show are always a bad thing. That’d be rather hypocritical of me, especially considering that one of my favorite anime that I’ve ever watched, Stardust Telepath, does a tonal shift. However, if you do a tonal shift, you have to make it make sense and either make it a temporary thing to shake up the status quo or commit to the shift full time. And even if you make it a temporary thing, there should still be at least a little bit of a feeling that things aren’t the same anymore. Hell, if you’re a cartoon fan, you’ve already seen plenty of tonal shifts in the shows you’ve watched.

Basically: if you’ve ever seen a show go from “episodic comedy” to “serialized storyline”, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a tonal shift in there as well. But with everything I’ve described, how did Fluffy Paradise fumble the ball? Well, at first, the series seems like it’s going to be something that you can turn on at the end of the week and just wind down to. If it remained on that path, it would’ve been perfect.

Instead, at Episode 5, Nefertina gets bloody kidnapped by goblins and ends up doing shit with the goblins to get them to let her and the other two kids that the goblins had go. Um, yeah, if this is supposed to be part of the “wholesome anime of the season” or whatever that trailer said it was, then I guess there are a lot more wholesome series out there than I thought there were.

Oh, and remember when I brought up genocide earlier? Yeah, that wasn’t for no reason! Because the final little arc in the series – yes, I’m saying series, I am confident that it is not getting a season 2 – involves Nefertina talking to the kobolds (basically just dogs but with human proportions) and helping them fight against the humans that want to eradicate them, even going as far as to show us how badly impacted the kobolds were. While it is very good representation of what happens to the people in a genocide once it’s over…this is supposed to be the wholesome anime of the season! You mean to tell me that we have to see the bodies of injured kobolds and depressing talk about this genocide in the wholesome anime of the season?!

THERE IS SOME GOOD IN THE SERIES, THOUGH!

What, did you think this entire video was going to be me bitching about Fluffy Paradise? I know to give credit where credit is due. Based on their performance, it seems like they enjoyed doing this…or they’re all putting in the most they’re willing to muster for a series like this. I don’t know, I wasn’t there when the VAs recorded their lines. The animation is also okay. I don’t think it’s flashy enough for the modern anime fan, but for the series that it was setting itself up to be, the animation works. And I also loves the theme songs that were made for the show!

The opening theme does a great job at getting you hyped for the show, and to be honest, I think it’s catchy. The ending theme is also a fun little ditty, and I love how they use a different method of animation for the visuals. Honestly, I love when the animators go that extra mile. It always makes a theme stand out to me. Both themes found their way into my heart and my playlist. In fact, they’re one of the few genuinely good things I’ve found in this series. The characters also feel like they’re more than just characters to me. If I had to put this show on a tier list, it’d go in either low C tier or high D tier.

Trust me. There’s a good reason it isn’t lower.

Normally, this is where I’d point out where to watch it…but do you really want to watch something that I’ve called out that the meat of it is bad? If the answer is yes, I’d like to question why. But as you probably guessed, this show does not have the Sara Talks Anime! Seal of Approval because screw that.