Aoi KogaFairouz AiAkira SekineMiyu Kubota
Let This Grieving Soul Retire! seasons 1-2
Also known as: Nageki no Bourei wa Intai Shitai: Saijaku Hunter ni Yoru Saikyou Party Ikusei-jutsu: seasons 1-2
Medium: TV, series
Year: 2024
Director: Masahiro Takata
Writer: Hideki Shirane
Original creator: Tsukikage
Actor: Akio Otsuka, Akira Sekine, Aoi Koga, Fairouz Ai, Haruka Michii, Kensho Ono, Kohei Amasaki, Konomi Kohara, Miyu Kubota, Seiji Maeda, Tomokazu Sugita, Yo Taichi, Yu Serizawa
Keywords: fantasy, anime
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Format: Episodes 1-13 (season 1) and 14-24 (season 2)
Url: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=32159
Website category: Anime 2024
Review date: 12 January 2026
Let This Grieving Soul Retire
It's fun. Its central idea is amusing and I'd definitely watch a third season (which the end of season 2 sets up).
Krai Andrey (aka. "Thousand Tricks") leads an incredibly strong adventurers' party called Grieving Souls. They can demolish almost any opponent. 1. LIZ SMART is cheerful, friendly and touchy-feely towards Krai, but a psycho with super-speed who terrifies Tino Shade and takes no interest in tactics beyond "I'll kill them all immediately". 2. SITRI SMART (Liz's sister) is nicer, calmer and can't fight, but is a mad scientist. Well, alchemist. She makes ultimate weapon beings, then lets them escape. 3. LUKE SYKOL just wants to use his sword and hurt people. Krai orders him to behave himself, ignore civilians and try to communicate before attacking. Luke sort of pretends to listen.
...and so on. Krai has a 100% mission completion rate, even on tasks that had seemed impossible. No one can predict him. He also collects rare relics that give him exotic magic powers, e.g. "absolute defence" against all attacks.
The comedy twist is that everyone's wrong about Krai. They think he's strong, but he's not. They think he's intelligent and he is, sort of, sometimes, but he's also a dozy pillock who's usually doing things for dumb reasons and is as surprised as anyone when his foes think he's twelve steps ahead of them. Because of this (plus lots of blind luck), he keeps winning. That's quite funny. The best example of this is Season 2's final story arc, when he innocently teams up with villains and everyone keeps misunderstanding each other. "I really have assembled the perfect team!" Later, when the cat's out of the bag...
BADDIE: "But you knew our password! How?! Where did you learn our secrets?!"
KRAI (thinking): "Revealed? Password? Secrets? What's he on about?"
That's a decent comedy formula, raising the show above its bog-standard fantasy RPG adventure genre. (Adventurers have character classes and levels. There are thieves, swordsmen, paladins, magi, etc.) Also, crucially, the writing's quite clever. This concept should theoretically have been eye-rolling. You'd expect everyone to look like idiots for believing something that's obviously false... but no, it makes sense. You'll understand why Krai has this reputation and why everyone thinks he's a major threat. He is. You wouldn't want to oppose him. It's just that his biggest secret weapon is the opposite of what everyone believes.
The sexual side is very anime. Tino, Liz and Sitri are all in love with Krai and a fourth girl will be as well by the end of Season 2. However, Krai's never interested because he's a Celibate Anime Protagonist. Unusually, though, this makes sense and you wouldn't want a relationship with any of those girls either. They're abnormal. It's as if having an appalling and/or psychotic personality is a precondition for fancying Krai.
Also, the show's male gaze is particularly interested in backsides. It's not a fanservice series, though, and there's no nudity.
I enjoyed it. Krai's both the show's comedic engine and the straight man for his loopier teammates. He doesn't even want to be an adventurer. He dreams of a quiet life that the world won't allow. Look at what happens when he takes his friends on vacation and tries to stop their combat training, for instance.
"No violence!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAWWW..."
"If we keep our level low, that means we can have more life-threatening fights! That's your genius plan, isn't it?"
"Do you two even know what 'vacation' means?"