FIRST REACTION: it's a charming, wholesome anime with a father-child dynamic. They're both street orphans. Hajime grew up and is a tough adventurer, while Rirui hasn't had a chance yet because she's still a tiny child. They've just met for the first time. This should be lovable. Let's give it a watch!

SECOND REACTION: when night comes, Rirui transforms into a succubus with big boobs. Japan, what the hell?

Yeah, this sounds like a bad joke. Yeah, Rirui will be possessive of Hajime and gets dark and scary if she thinks a woman's getting too close to him. Welcome to another disturbing variant of the Sad Otaku Fantasy... but the TV show's actually quite nice. Hajime has no sexual interest in Rirui (in any body) and soon regards her adult form as the equivalent of pyjamas. So she wears that at night? Whatever. He hardly seems to notice it and the only thing they do at night is sleep.

Incidentally, Hajime's not one of those anime protagonists who's too pure and saintly to live. He likes boobs, arses and prostitutes. It's just that he's a crass dickhead when it comes to sexual relationships, so he'll generally torpedo his own chances.

The show also has a hard edge, underneath. It's usually fluffy and cute, but Hajime's childhood was brutal as hell and he doesn't have an ounce of sentiment. He had a pet dog once. He ran out of food and ate it. He teaches Rirui how to catch rats for dinner (using a fishing rod and a fat caterpillar thing) and the nearest he has to a childhood friend is a succubus with a terrible personality. (Her name's Veronica and she runs a brothel.) Hajime spends half of Episode 1 looking for someone else to take in Rirui, but ends up losing an arm protecting her.

I like the characterisation. Hajime's rude, scuzzy and could seem immature compared with boys half his age, but you can rely on him. Rirui has a comedy ego that's at war with her own incompetence, but she's impressively serious about her duty as an adventurer. No one else believes she'll achieve even five per cent of what she demands of herself. (There's also a running gag of her continually getting swallowed by puny, mindless slimes. This ongoing rivalry can almost be lovable.) I also liked the supporting cast, e.g. Veronica (a good friend but also an exploitative, manipulative sadist) and her masochistic but deceptively skilled "chair".

The world's more technologically advanced than the usual Tolkeinesque pseudo-medieval fantasy. They make prosthetic arms. It also has RPG-inspired character levels and training, but the show doesn't make a big deal of it. It's not merely generic, e.g. the rules about the difference between local and out-of-towner adventurers. That's not a genre cut-and-paste. A bit of thought went into this. I also noticed that "beaster" is regarded as one of the four core races alongside humans, elves and dwarves. (That makes sense as a slightly cartoonish visual decision, allowing chicken-men, rabbit-men, pig-men, etc.) Succubus is just one of the "ancient species", like medusa (one of whom gets interesting, sensitive characterisation when we meet her and realise that she's functionally blind unless she wants to turn you to stone). The show's also aware of lore like succubi being dream demons (leading to surprising plot points).

RANDOM OBSERVATION: the city of "Yanago" in episode 6 is Nagoya. Those "shachihoko walkers" are a reference to mythical Japanese creatures with the head of a tiger or dragon and the body of a carp, of which the most famous examples are the 1.2-tonne gold-plated Kin Shachi at Nagoya Castle.

I enjoyed this show. It's likeable. It's not creepy (which is amazing given its premise), being family-friendly even when Rirui's changing bodies. Her clothes enlarge modestly with her, instead of forcing her to bulge out of them. It also sometimes made me laugh, e.g. Rirui's egg. This one's worth your time and I'm hoping for a second season.