Loli Hitler
That’s why I picked this show up. Admit it. You heard about it and added it to your To Watch list, too, didn’t you?
Surely, there has to be more to this show than the reincarnation of one of the evilest dictators in human history, right? Thankfully, there is more to it than that, but the question is whether the plot of this show can outshine the meme that surrounds it. Did Petals of Reincarnation manage to be more than an internet meme?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
Touya wishes he had more talent because, just like in a typical Asian household, his brother Seiya excelled at everything, and his parents were severely disappointed that he couldn’t be like him. On his way to cram school, a mysterious girl follows and even confronts him, but he blows her off and heads on his way. Later that night, we see a crazed man attacking an innocent woman. The police approached him, but when Touya walked by, he noticed they were all dead. The man turns his gaze to him, but our mysterious girl shows up and takes him away. Not much time passes before they are discovered, and this is where we get the information dump about the Branch of Reincarnation, and how you can use it to “kill” yourself. If you fail, you die, but if you succeed, you will tap into the talents of past historical figures and awaken as a Returner.
This girl does just that as she dual-wields some katanas and makes quick work of our resident creep. When she’s finished, Touya has heard enough and takes the Branch of Reincarnation. He succeeds in awakening as a Returner, except his power is quite… useless (or so we think). He has the power to steal anything he wishes, but his range is only 70 centimeters.
The girl brings Touya to meet Neumann, a girl who is the head of the Returners… well… the good ones, at least. Their mission is to eradicate those who become Returners and use their talents for evil. They are given a target, Vlad III, but they are instructed not to kill him. They want them to extend the battle for at least ten minutes because Neumann is looking for certain information. Our girl (I’m tired of typing this and can’t remember if they said her name, but she’s Haito… so, yeah…) Haito gets impatient and goes on the offensive, but makes a crucial error. Touya sneaks behind and steals something, but we don’t know what. Just when Vlad is about to finish them off, a mysterious voice calls him back.
Later, Vlad meets back up with Touya when he realizes what it was that he stole… his talent. Touya then uses Vlad’s own talent against him to finish him off. Touya doesn’t want to be good or evil.. he just wants to surpass his brother Seiya… but there’s one big problem that leaves us on a cliffhanger… Neumann knows Seiya and is, in fact, working with him!
Worth Watching?
YES – To answer the question… yes, this show is more than just a meme, and it’s a damn good one… even if it follows some of the tired tropes that we’ve seen countless times before… albeit… with a little twist.
So, we all know how these action shows go. Powerless/weak MC wants to grow stronger. They fill themselves with resolve, but before they can awaken their power, they are confronted by a bad guy who threatens to overwhelm them. That’s exactly what we get here, but what we DON’T get is our MC awakening the power, using it to defeat said bad guy, and getting asked: “What will you do with your power?”
Instead, he lets someone else handle all of the dirty work, takes the power, and runs with it. Of course, since he’s the main character, he succeeds and awakens it. I mean, it would be a really short series if he failed. Then, we are thrown into our typical action series trope of good guys with powers vs bad guys with powers.
So, this show has a bit of a potpourri going for it. We have the typical action tropes above mixed with a little bit of Fate/stay night, mixed with our main character, essentially, being Mega Man (or All for One if you’re a My Hero Academia fan). I do like that Touya has a backbone, is a bit edgy, and is only doing this for a self-serving goal. Since he wants to be neither good nor evil, I wonder if there will be a point where he will turn on Haito and take her power, or if he’ll just use them to amass a collection for himself.
Obviously, Seiya is the end goal here for him, but will we get there in thirteen episodes? I don’t think a series like this is setting itself up to be a 1-cour series. I think we’re going to get multiple seasons of this, but given the hype surrounding it (outside of the upcoming Loli Hitler), I think it’s safe to say that multiple seasons are on the table.
The action was great, the animation was far above something you would normally see out of a TV anime, and the opening theme song (which served as the ending theme, I’m assuming) was a pretty chill, yet upbeat techno song that’s right up my alley… and best of yet… it didn’t fall into that Japanese pitfall of sounding cool for the verse, then switching to some happy, campy, generic hype chorus like a lot of other Japanese songs tend to do. It stayed true to the unique sound, and that made me appreciate it even more.
So, yeah… just after one episode, I think this will be an Anime of the Year contender in a lot of people’s eyes, but it’s going to have to keep up the quality to do so. Sometimes, shows like this will blow their budgets on episode one, then severely fall off, but if there is any saving grace… this genre typically doesn’t fall into that pitfall, which is why I think we’re in for a banger and a half here.
