Review of My Unique Skill Makes Me OP Even at Level 1
After three days diligently hiding from my roommate that I was watching this crap, I bring a review. I’m Strong Even though I’m Level 1 (don’t remember the actual title) is the archetypical bad isekai. Every quality you’d expect is on display here. Terrible art and animation, one dimensional characters, a complete lack of meaningful conflict. Everything, all executed in such a bland, uncreative way I’m almost impressed with it. It‘s lighter on insane moments than similar works, but still has a few bangers. Like when the MC breaks a strike by knocking out all of the workers with magic bullets (the adventurers guild would otherwise havehad them killed). Or how the MC heals people by shooting them with “healing bullets”. Which yes, is funny every time it happens.
The central plot conceit is that the MC (called Yoda by one character which is funny so I’m using it) has maxed out drop rates, and is isekaied to a world where every resource drops from dungeons. That sounds like it would significantly alter how the world functions, but it's treated as an afterthought. The entirety of the worldbuilding is: anything left alone outside turns into a monster, so garbage has to be burned, and different towns control different resources. That’s it.
The fights illustrate the show’s general approach to writing. Once we move past basic dungeon fodder, the heroes face a big goofy-looking ass gorilla, which they beat by hitting real hard. Yoda gets a sweet revolver out of it, making him slightly more like Hajime Arifureta. Next they fight a bicorn that blocks Yoda’s attacks with a magical barrier, they remove the barrier by hitting it real hard, then kill the bicorn by hitting it real hard. They fight a goblin who grows larger by absorbing attacks, and beat it by hitting it real hard.
The fights are almost all resolved by hitting the enemy harder, and this kind of brute force, low-effort writing defines the show’s atmosphere. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, and is written such that it’s almost impossible to. The show even directly asks you not to think too hard about it (after a character somehow bakes a cake using a campfire). I could take this as insulting, but I’m happy to oblige.
This casual, stupid atmosphere renders the show surprisingly watchable. It seems everyone involved in the production knew what they were making and weren’t taking it too seriously (this is especially evident in the improvised eyecatches). The terrible art direction, off-model characters, and embarrassing animation take on a less offensive character in light of that.
Normally I wouldn't sit through an entire show this bad, but this held me. I wouldn’t recommend it to most, though. You should watch this if, and only if, you’re titrating your bad isekai dose in preparation to binge Arifureta. Or if you’re an insane isekai junkie like me, but these are the trenches my friend.