The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

Akira Oda is the kind of guy who people forget is even there. His unassuming nature pays off, though, when his entire class is swept away to a fantasy world, and he slips easily into his new role as a silent assassin. Between his suspiciously high starting stats and too many details that don't fit, Akira is sure something is wrong. But digging into royal secrets is a dangerous game, and when Akira uncovers an evil scheme, he also makes a powerful enemy—the very king who brought him to this world.

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's is based on a light novel series by Matsuri Akai. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

“Here we go again,” I thought to myself as I clicked the link for the screener of the first episode of My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's. “Yet again, the first preview guide entry I write for the season is going to be for some dogwater cookie-cutter LitRPG with a summary that's indistinguishable from a dozen other shows I've written preview guide entries for.”

Then, “Oh, look! We're starting in media res with a context-free action sequence? Yawn… But wait, this doesn't actually look terrible?”

Turns out it's not total dogwater. I'm just as shocked as you are! Don't get me wrong, it still has plenty of the standard isekai beats that pull me right out of the story, including the job-assigning orb and diegetic stat screens. On the other hand, it's exceedingly rare to have an isekai where the whole class is summoned and the super-special protagonist decides to run off and do his own thing, where the classmates aren't actively antagonistic; in fact, for the most part, they seem pretty nice? It's not put on them that Akira tends to blend in the background, but rather something that he accepts about himself.

Though parts of Akira's character don't totally make sense to me, and I'm not sure if it's an issue with the writing or if I was just thrown off when the episode went against my expectations. He's noted for his lack of any presence, but he also doesn't really try at all. He doesn't seem to have much interest in his peers, even when they make friendly overtures toward him, and chooses to sneak off on his own at every turn instead of engaging. Rather than feeling organic, it ensures that he's always where he needs to be to figure out some super-secret information or meet the guy who will push the plot forward.

Speaking of which, I don't think there's a single viewer who grew up on 90's Clamp manga and Record of Lodoss War and is attracted to men who won't find themselves swooning over Saran. That luxurious, waving hair, those green eyes framed by thick lashes, that Junichi Suwabe voice… Normally, the men in these fantasies are so boring-looking, with all the character design effort put into finding new ways for the female characters' armor to leave their vital organs sexily exposed. While Akira isn't far off from the archetypal isekai hero, the design work overall looks great, with costumes that are more functional than you usually find. The animation team has clearly gone for detail over motion, but with industry veteran Nobuyoshi Habara at the helm, they mostly pull it off.

There was a very brief moment watching this episode where I got genuinely angry. This premiere sold me in its first two minutes with gorgeous animation and pure aura farming with the action sequence on top of the mansion. Just suddenly cutting from that to a school setting felt jarring in all of the worst ways. None of this was helped by the fact that all of the characters except the main character come off as utter idiots. I'm sorry, I don't care how familiar I am with isekai stories, if I suddenly got transported to another world and a mysterious old dude told me to touch his orb, I won't immediately start doing whatever they say. I like how our main character had some common sense, but that overall setup was very rough, no matter how good this show looks.

My Status actually uses the fact that our protagonist's classmates are a bunch of sheep as a legitimate plot point. It's the fact that our protagonist is so skeptical and levelheaded about everything that actually earns him the attention of a comrade. I like that, even though it is arguably a situation where the show is dumbing everybody else down for the sake of highlighting a character being different. It's funny enough that I'm going along with it for now, but it's hard for me to get a solid grasp on what kind of tone this show is going for.

There are funny scenes like what I just mentioned, but there are also serious conversations about overthrowing a government entity, the burden of killing other people, and a large conspiracy that could potentially lead to the deaths of dozens of people. So is this show taking itself seriously or not? I genuinely don't know, and it's usually not a good sign when a series can't establish its tone within the first episode. The action is exciting, and I like that it is able to keep up the consistent level of quality despite the slightly more complex character shading and clothing. I'll continue to keep this on my radar, but I hope it manages to find its footing soon.

This isn't the first anime we've gotten where an entire class has been isekai'd. However, it does come with the great twist of someone immediately going into full distrust mode. While the majority of the class are enjoying becoming the heroes of a fantasy story, only Akira is creeped out by the whole thing—especially once he realizes that his status is far higher than anyone else's, even the hero's.

From there, the episode is a conspiracy thriller more than anything else. Akira, despite his power, is a stranger in a strange land. He doesn't know the first thing about the state of the world or if the King is on the up and up or not. While the King's conversation with the Princess sounds sketchy, without the proper context it means nothing.

It's here that Akira meets Saran and makes his first friend. However, the original problem remains. While Saran helps Akira learn about the world and trains him to become stronger, the fact remains that Akira is basically doing what the other kids are doing. Sure, Saran may claim to be planning a coup but who's to say that he isn't part of the kingdom's system to keep summoned people under control—that he's not just a way to give rebellious kids the illusion of choice.

This show certainly doles out an extra helping of paranoia. Akira may be powerful but his isolation is a weakness—and so is the fact that he's just a normal kid. He's never taken a life and he realizes that, if he ever does, it'll be all the harder to re-acclimate to his life in our world—if that's even possible.

Other than that, I feel the need to shout out the music in this one. Far from generic, the score is excellently epic when the story calls for it. But better still, it also knows when not to use music—when to use ambient sound to unsettle the watcher on a subconscious level. It's good stuff.

All in all, I enjoyed my time with My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's and am interested in seeing how things unfold next week.