Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious anime series cover art
Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious

Overview

Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious (Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tsueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru / 慎重勇者~この勇者が俺TUEEEくせに慎重すぎる~) is a comedy isekai adapted by White Fox from a light novel series.

And before you assume that Cautious Hero must be good because White Fox adapted other notable series like Steins;Gate and Re:ZERO, let me remind you that they were also the ones behind Arifureta — one of the worst anime of the 2010s. But don’t worry, Cautious Hero isn’t anywhere close to the level of Arifureta.

However, just like Arifureta, Cautious Hero also copies the more successful series which came before it. Specifically, you can see that KonoSuba was a major influence on this series, and it’s no coincidence this series was published a year after the KonoSuba anime aired.

When this series was airing, one of my friends mentioned that he was watching and really enjoying it. And while I didn’t tell him to stop watching Cautious Hero, I recommended that he go watch KonoSuba afterwards. Because the fact is that if you like Cautious Hero, you’ll probably love KonoSuba.

Just take all the best parts of Cautious Hero, throw away the bad parts, and what you’re left with is KonoSuba. It has the same plot, very similar comedy, and even some of the same characters — looking at you, Ristarte.

The plot goes like this: A guy gets transported into another world by a goddess so that he can defeat the demon lord and his generals. Said guy then chooses to bring the goddess with him as his one item. And then, where it diverges from KonoSuba, the guy is completely overpowered. But the goddess is still useless.

Characters

Seiya Ryuuguuin is the protagonist summoned from another (our) world. From the very start he takes his role as a hero seriously and completely prepares himself for anything he might run into. And while this is his his greatest strength, it’s also his greatest weakness.

There are many situations for which Seiya is completely prepared, and yet he chooses to retreat just in case — putting off his saving of the world.

Ristarte (literally just a play on the word “restart”) is the goddess who summons Seiya to save the world. She’s basically the same exact character as Aqua from KonoSuba, except not a goddess of water. She’s a useless crybaby who gets bullied constantly by the hero she summoned.

Ristarte and Seiya from the anime series Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
Ristarte and Seiya

The other two “main” characters are Mash and Elulu, two dragonkin who join Seiya and Ristarte’s party. Compared to Seiya, they’re just as useless as Ristarte, if not even more so. They round out the party by being a brawler and mage respectively, but Seiya’s already so overpowered it doesn’t really matter.

So, in order to give them a purpose, Seiya allows Mash and Elulu to join his party as his pack mules who carry his stuff.

Finally, there’s a bunch of other gods and (mostly) goddesses who make an appearance in the series. Ristarte is the only one who’s newly made up for the series. All the others are actual gods from various cultures, such as Ishtar and Valkyrie. It’s sort of like DanMachi in the sense that it has all these gods mixed together.

Comparison to Similar Series

Alright, I’ve made it pretty clear that Cautious Hero is similar to a lot of other series, most notably KonoSuba. But just how does it stack up against them? Obviously, it’s far outclassed by KonoSuba in just about every way. Even the art in KonoSuba is better — the Cautious Hero art is pretty standard.

And if KonoSuba is at the high end of the spectrum, Arifureta is at the very bottom. With this in mind, I’d place Cautious Hero right in the middle. It’s an average anime, and that’s really how I would describe almost every aspect of it: average.

In that regard, it’s a lot like DanMachi. They’re both series which look good in theory, but then once you’ve actually watched through them and compare them to similar series, you realize they aren’t anything special.

Elulu and Mash from the anime series Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
Elulu and Mash

The good news for Cautious Hero is that, although it’s completely average, that’s actually pretty high up on the rankings as far as isekai anime go. There are so many that are so bad, that somehow this was probably one of the better ones of 2019.

Just remember that if you enjoyed this anime, there are a whole bunch of anime that do everything it does, but even better. Use this as a jumping off point to find some higher quality viewing material.

Conclusion

Overall, Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious is a 5/10 — like I said, completely average. The art is plain and bland, and the animation is too. It also takes all of its best qualities from other, more successful series such as KonoSuba, leaving it with very little personality of its own.

And when you look at the OP and ED of the series, again you can see that it’s extremely standard. What, an isekai anime with a song by Myth & Roid used for the OP? That’s so unique and hasn’t been done like five other times within the past two years.

And as much as I do like Myth & Roid, Tit for Tat is a pretty bad song. It sounds like it was written specifically for this series, and that’s something that doesn’t often go well.

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9 Replies to “Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious”

  1. I liked the show…

    I think the execution their dynamic makes them different from Kazuma and Aqua. I think Seiya’s backstory puts all of his comedic actions in a new light and would merit a rewatch bonus, and in the LN (from what I’ve heard) Spoiler: Seiya and Ristarte end up back in their first world, albeit with resetted stats.

    1. I’d say I liked it as well. After all, it does have a lot of the same comedy as KonoSuba, which I love. But there’s just so much of it that feels reused. And, it’s true that Seiya’s backstory adds context to everything. I’ll concede that point.

  2. This series would been pretty good as a funny comedy, if not for the last episodes where it broke the atmosphere with that plot twist, the point of being a Parody is to be strictly make fun of the Typical stories and not become like them or fall into the same thing that they used to criticize. The mistake is not that you can not put drama or serious moments in a story that starts simple but that becomes more complex as it progresses because in fact many good anime have a lot of comedy in between such as full metal alchemist, Naruto or gurren lagann.

    1. I felt the same way about the final episode or two — whenever the series suddenly became serious. It does add some context for Seiya’s actions, but at the same time the entire feel of the series changed — arguably for the worse. Suddenly the only thing I really enjoyed about the series, the comedic moments, were gone.

  3. Honestly, I kinda agreed with this review up until I saw what you said about Arifureta, which is to say that I didn’t get very far. lol

    I don’t know what your problem with Arifureta was. I did find it annoying that it took the MC so long to finish the first Labyrinth, thereby limiting his journey for the rest of the season, but his evolution from Kind, desperate and afraid to tsundere, partially insane and driven makes absolute sense. It’s a time tested story. Man gets lost in the wilderness, he either thrives and survives or he dies. The backup cast isn’t the greatest, but the MC and the plot in-general was excellent, imo, I’ve seen most of the Isekai available in Dub, and some in Sub like Slime, etc, and it’s a fairly unique plot for an Isekai.

    You equate it to konosuba, but I’ve watched both(back to back) and they’re both understandably unique.

    You can’t expect every Isekai to be completely unique. It’s a specific genre, like slice of life, where every anime is about high school teenage drama. So comparing the two based on genre specific qualities is absurd in my opinion, and it reminds me a lot of a friend I had when I was 11 or 12, who got me into the band Disturbed. After a year or so, he said “Eh, all their music sounds the same”. This is ridiculous. All Linkin Park’s music sounds the same. All Three Days Grace’s music sounds the same.

    You can’t compare one apple to another and expect both apples to be perfect. That’s stupid, and I honestly mean no offense. We can all be stupid or close-minded about certain things.

    That said, from what I read, the majority of your review seems to focus on comparing this to Konosuba, and in my opinion, Konosuba sucks. lol

    It’s not terrible or anything, it’s just not very entertaining. At least with Cautious Hero, every episode has an encounter that changes the circumstances and advances the plot, where as Konosuba is Isekai/Slice of Life/Harem and it’s way to focused on fanservice to be a good anime, comedy relief notwithstanding.

    If you don’t like an anime, don’t write a review for it, period.

    That anime obviously wasn’t YOUR kind of anime. That doesn’t mean millions of others that read your review and decide not to watch it wouldn’t enjoy it WAY more than you did.

    Also, it’s worth noting that most anime on Hulu doesn’t even get dubbed. Hellsing Ultimate(Arguably in the top 10 all time best anime) doesn’t even have a dub. But Cautious Hero received a dub a month after the final episode was released.

    Not saying you shouldn’t write reviews ever, just write them about the things you enjoyed.
    And refrain from this stuff ” Arifureta — one of the worst anime of the 2010s.” because there were thousands of animes released during the 2010’s. 10’s of thousands.

    Arifureta wasn’t even in the worst 1000. Let alone “One of the worst of the 2010’s”. Think before you insult things.

    1. Honestly, all I need to know about you is that you think KonoSuba sucks and Arifureta is good. Those are both factually incorrect. The rest of your comment isn’t even worth responding to if you can’t understand what makes an anime good and what makes one bad.

      I’ve been doing this for years. I’ve seen hundreds of anime. I know what I’m talking about.

      Also, you seem to misunderstand the point of a review.

      1. Again, you used your personal opinion to judge something. In this case, another human being with their own feelings, thoughts and preferences.

        “Also, it’s worth noting that most anime on Hulu doesn’t even get dubbed. Hellsing Ultimate(Arguably in the top 10 all time best anime) doesn’t even have a dub. But Cautious Hero received a dub a month after the final episode was released. ”

        Also, Konosuba isn’t on Hulu or Netflix. And it took quite a while for it to get dubbed.

        I’m guessing that means the producers involved weren’t making enough money to invest in a dub and Hulu/Netflix weren’t interested because of power viewership, which means I’m definitely not alone in my opinions.

        That last bit is only half true, though. Konosuba WAS on Hulu and Netflix for awhile, but it was removed because too few people watched it and liked it.

        Experience means nothing without reflective perspective.

        “Self-reflection is a humbling process. It’s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things… then better yourself.” -Sonya Teclai

        Finally, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I didn’t mean to imply that Konosuba IS bad, I was just sharing my opinion on it as an example for my comment. I really didn’t mean to offend you, but I’m a sociopath and it can be difficult for me to soften my words. I never meant to imply that you were ignorant and not a good reviewer.

        Your review was detailed, well thought out and grammatically excellent.

        All I was trying to say was, your opinion doesn’t make Arifureta “One of the worst of the 2010’s”. Your opinion means that YOU didn’t enjoy it, but there’s a reason it’s still on Hulu, and now it’s even Dubbed. (Might have been dubbed before, honestly only watched it for the first time last week).

        And again, please don’t take the first part of this reply harshly. I’m sorry I offended you. I’m just giving you the facts, I’m a sociopath and these words hold no emotional context for me whatsoever.

        “Not saying you shouldn’t write reviews ever, just write them about the things you enjoyed.
        And refrain from this stuff ” Arifureta — one of the worst anime of the 2010s.” because there were thousands of animes released during the 2010’s. 10’s of thousands. “

        1. Seems I made a mistake, Konosuba got a dub rather fast. “We can all be stupid or close-minded about certain things.”

        2. Please don’t use the comments of my site to spread misinformation about the anime industry. Whether a series receives a dub or not doesn’t have to do with how good it is. And the same is true for what streaming platforms have the rights to series. Neither of those things is a reflection of how good a series is.

          If you want to talk about dubs, then allow me to first point out that these “producers” you’re referring to have no say in whether a series is dubbed or not. The creators of anime don’t have anything to do with dubbing. Overseas licensors are the ones who dub series, such as Funimation. They aren’t connected with the producers of the series. Also, licensors typically choose series to dub which they believe will appeal to the widest market in whatever country they focus on. That generally means that a generic shounen battle series will get a dub over a much higher-quality, but more niche anime.

          On top of all that, there are also anime that simply wouldn’t work in a dubbed format, which is something I’ve written about before. Not every series can be translated in a way that flows and makes sense when spoken aloud, which is why a series such as Monogatari will never receive a dub despite being one of the highest-rated series of all time.

          As for your take on reviews, there’s really no point in reviewing things if everything I review ends up being a positive review. I try to see and point out both the good and the bad in any series. However, some series have more good aspects while others have more bad. Using Arifureta, Cautious Hero, and KonoSuba as examples, KonoSuba is on the “more good” side of the spectrum while Arifureta is on the “more bad” side. Cautious Hero falls in the middle, but I would say it leans towards the good side.

          If I call an anime bad, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the plot or characters are bad. With Arifureta, I would say that most things about it are bad, but the best thing was probably the plot. And, considering I’ve heard from a lot of people that the light novels were much better than the anime, that makes sense. The majority of Arifureta’s problems seemed to stem from its adaptation, not necessarily the source material.

          And, as one final point, the comment about Arifureta being one of the worst anime of the 2010s was a jab at the series. It was somewhat intended as a joke. Is it really one of the worst? Maybe. But it’s definitely one of the worst from the decade that I’ve watched. That’s not just because it wasn’t “my type” of anime either. It had a lot of technical shortcomings on top of everything else that I assume I mentioned in my review of that series.

          If you’re interested in discussing any of this further, I highly recommend joining our Discord server. It’s much easier to have a discussion when it’s in real-time.

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