I assume it's classier and more coherent than its source material, which I'm taking to be a 4-panel gag manga. The anime's episodes tend to be split into individual chapters, each with its own title. Some of these are funny and the show's cast is well designed for good gag opportunities, but the anime has sorted them intelligently and turned them into a 12-part series that's satisfying to watch and feels like a coherent story.

Our heroes are adventurers in an RPG world, but it's an ill-balanced party. They should hire a bodyguard or two. They have four party members, but only one with any combat ability. One unlucky fight is all you'd need for total party wipeout. There's one fighter, one not-actually-a-thief and two magic-users. One of the latter could be called a cleric because she casts healing magic and turns undead, but she doesn't fit the D&D cleric definition of "fighter with blunt weapons". Never mind that, though. It's not that kind of show. As a band of likeable and semi-functional misfits, our heroes work very well. They are:

1. SAITOU (isekai hero, handyman) = can match the abilities of a D&D thief, but he's not one. He'd never do anything like that. He's an ordinary handyman from Japan who got pulled into this fantasy world. He thinks he's weak and powerless.... AND HE IS. No one's given him god-level superpowers or anything like that. By isekai standards, that's genre subversion (as is the fact that the show's gender-balanced). Saitou really is an ordinary bloke who does odd jobs, e.g. lockpicking. He also has self-esteem issues because no one needed or gave a damn about him in Japan. He mostly just wants to do his job well and to be useful.

2. MORLOCK (wizard) = extremely high level and knows some awesome magic, including Time Stop. He's also a senile old pervert who might forget which party he's in. The gags almost write themselves... but eventually we'll learn how he got that way. Ouch.

3. RAELZA (warrior) = was once a orphaned slave alone in the wilderness, with no friends except a wolf. Morlock found her and became her pseudo-father. She's grown up now and is now serious, practical and business-like... but completely at sea with personal stuff. She soon falls in love with Saitou, but she's too shy to say anything and her self-esteem issues might be worse than his. Her feelings aren't the usual anime fantasy girlfriend nonsense, but instead the deep, confused turmoil of someone who needs serious help. I loved her. She's adorable.

"We survived three winters together. The wolf looked a lot like that pup. I wonder if it's disappeared to somewhere too. Maybe it's because I lived with a wolf, but I'm rougher and more crude than other women. Me, a useless, decrepit old magician and a miserly fairy... this bizarre party is the only place someone like me can belong."

4. LAFANPAN (fairy) = the party's most straightforward, level-headed member. Unfortunately, her race has been cursed to shrink if they don't regularly give gold to the Moon Goddess. She's already hand-sized and might disappear one day if she loses her cash flow. She's money-grubbing, but you can't blame her.

This could easily have been turned into a dumb, crude anime. There's semi-regular fanservice, usually from Raelza but in the final episode also from Lafanpan. There are vulgar gags, usually from Morlock. (At one point, a dog eats his penis... and that's not the worst thing he suffers that day.) In fairness, though, low comedy can be funny too. I laughed at Raelza's berserker reaction when a succubus approached Saitou, especially given her utter disinterest when the succubus tried Morlock instead.

The show rises above all this so well that I'd occasionally get impatient with the trashier material. There's a lot of warmth in the character interactions, but everyone has issues. This show gets dark. A fairy cuts off her own wings and deliberately got fat to be unattractive to humans, but it didn't help. Consider the idea of being used as a bestiality brood mare for cross-species rapists. Love leads an assassin to offer himself as a magical sacrifice. One life for another. There are demons so evil that it's shocking. There's bitter hatred from a cute puppy. "You killed my father. I will make you pay too."

Nothing is static. Characters develop. The Raelza-Saitou relationship isn't just anime formula, but instead a study of two people who are capable of growth and even, in time, saying what's important to each other. (Relationship difficulties are common enough among adventurers that they can get marriage counselling... although this doesn't seem to have much success.) I also love where the show goes with Morlock, which I didn't see coming at all. This show is warm, funny and not ashamed of dirty jokes, but it also has pain, sincerity and dark emotions.

I'll definitely rewatch this one day. Probably more than once.