The World's Finest Assassin

Episode 12

So here we are at the big action climax—the final episode of the series. Our hero is facing off against a seemingly unstoppable opponent to protect the woman he loves. We're primed for a knock-down-drag-out battle with our hero winning by the skin of his teeth. Of course, what's great about this episode is that no such fight actually happens.

The World's Finest Assassin is a bit of a subversion of the typical isekai fantasy. The general cliché is that the person from our world has either a special skill or knowledge from our world which makes them more powerful than anyone else—able to beat anyone in a straight up fight. This anime, however, reigns in that trope in a bit. Now, don't get me wrong, Lugh is exceedingly powerful. He has an array of skills meant to work with each other to give him an edge against the strongest existence in the world. However, it's important to remember that all his knowledge and talent isn't to make him the world's greatest fighter. It's to make him the world's greatest assassin.

As an assassin, Lugh has one goal: to kill his target (and ideally escape to kill another day). Honor, battle lust, commitment to a greater cause, these are simply things that hinder other people—things he can use to gain an edge. In this episode, Setanta expects any person as strong as him to be like him—i.e., a warrior. He expects Lugh will want a grand duel where the two of them put everything on the line in a series of blows because that's what he wants.

Exploiting this expectation is Lugh's true attack. As he does on any other mission, Lugh plays into the role he has established, using it to maneuver his target into just the right position to make the kill. Of course, this is just half of what's going on; the other half is preparation.

Lugh is all about making plans. After all, information is king when it comes to assassinating a target. Once you know their routines and how they think, you can find your moment. However, what makes Lugh The World's Finest Assassin is his ability to adjust on the fly when things go wrong—to have any number of plans already thought out and ready to be implemented if the situation warrants it.

Lugh was originally planning to come, fake Dia's death, an escape unnoticed. Once Setanta arrives on the field, this plan becomes meaningless. However, what's important is that he never loses sight of the actual goal: keeping Dia alive. Thus, his new plan simply becomes “kill Setanta.” And working with intel that says that Setanta is the hero of legend, Lugh uses his most powerful attack—there's no pulling of any punches here. All that remains is to wait out the clock. And so he wins at the moment the duel begins. It's not a fair fight because it never was a fight in the first place: it was an assassination. Setanta was too caught up in his own wants to realize what was truly going on.

But beyond all this, there's a second, more personal layer to the events we see. Lugh believes that Setanta is the Hero who must kill the Demon King and save the world—i.e., the person he was reincarnated to kill. Of course, he was supposed to do this only after the Hero had completed his destiny. Doing the deed beforehand would not only be disobeying the Goddess' orders but also potentially dooming the world. However, even as the stakes become clear, Lugh doesn't hesitate. In his mind, Dia is the most important thing in his life. He would doom the world to save her.

Far from the tool he was in his first life, he is now a man who knows what he wants and isn't afraid to make the hard choices to protect what he cares about. The true climax of the series isn't him killing Setanta, it's the moment he chooses his personal wants over the mission the Goddess herself tasked him with completing. It is the end to his opening character arc and the true beginning of his new life.

Of course, as luck would have it, Setanta isn't actually the Hero so Lugh's divine mission remains intact and no true betrayal has occurred. But that, as they say, is another story.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• So Setanta wasn't the Hero. However, I wonder if he was another of the goddess' pawns meant to kill the Hero. After all, he had the Berserk S-rank skill and another skill that let him keep his sanity as well. That's a pretty “lucky” combo right there.

• I liked that we had seen Lugh develop all the spells needed for his ultimate attack over the course of the series—we just didn't realize why he was learning them or that they were connected.

• It's funny, Lugh only failed in his job to fake Dia's death because she ran onto the battlefield after he won. Everyone would have believed she died after the lance went through the tower if they had just kept her out of sight. Or heck, they could have just said she was on the battlefield when everything went boom.

• Having Dia act as Lugh's younger sister is a surprisingly good plan. Her hair is the right color and as a younger sister to a male heir, it wouldn't be surprising for her to fly under the radar her whole young life before her high society debut. Plus, Lugh's family lives in a different kingdom so she's unlikely to meet people who know her. (Of course, I'm sure it angers both her and Lugh that they have to pretend to be siblings despite being lovers.)

• A lot of people are going to be hunting for “Feri Marconi” from now on. Lugh should probably go out as a redhead on missions now.

• All in all, this series was way beyond what I expected. The character-first emphasis on storytelling helps it rise way above your standard run-of-the-mill isekai anime. Here's hoping for a season two down the line.

• As always, thanks for reading and commenting. It's great to see everyone so engaged with both these reviews and the series!

The World's Finest Assassin is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.