Review of The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made

I was surprised when I saw so many negative reviews of this anime. It's an anime that I th oroughly enjoyed. It's honestly one of the best Isekai in recent years, although I suppose that's not saying much considering the embarrassingly low bar for the genre. This year in particular was great for Isekai, there was this, World's Finest Assassin Reincarnated as an Aristocrat, Mushoku Tensei: Jobeless Reincarnation, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2, and The Faraway Paladin. And out of all four of them, I do think it's the worst, but it's still a goodshow, and worthy of your consideration. Of course it's not flawless, because no anime is, and I will highlight the problems that I found, but they come nowhere close to outweighing the positives.

First of all, I love the protagonist, Seiichi. On the surface he seems like the generic Isekai protagonist, but there are several things that sets him apart. While he seems naive, he's not stupid, and makes many intelligent and rational decisions in the series. He's kind hearted and wants to protect the weak, but he understands his own limitations and doesn't go head first into danger without aid. This is especially seen when he saved the assassin girl from being bondage tortured for information by one of the Valkyries. He didn't go to save her himself, he enlisted the head of the Valkyries, Louise. That actually brings up one of my issues, in that it didn't make much sense that she helped him. Louise seemingly knew what the torturer was all about, that she was going to, indeed, brutally starve and whip this young girl, but she let her go through with it without a word of complaint. But then, she helped Seiichi save her. Not only that, but Seiichi, despite being told point blank that she was a bondage master, didn't voice any complaints either. Don't get me wrong, i"m glad that they saved her, and the woman was punished for going that far, but it was still kind of strange.

I also like that Seiichi entered into an official polyamorous arrangement with both Saria and Altria. Polyamory isn't my thing, I wouldn't want one of those myself, but I do think that Polyamory should be represented and normalized more in anime. Maybe not official marriage in modern settings, at least not yet, as you can't legally marriage multiple people in modern days in any major country, but at least in spirit, like devoting yourself to multiple people. It hink that's very interesting. However, the few we're getting now seem to just be in fantasy anime, which is acceptable as well. Mushoku Tensei is gonna have that in the future, and this series has that as well. I think this pushes the relationship a little ways beyond the standard fanservice-centered harem, and into something more official and emotional. Both Saria and Altria love Seiichi with all their hearts, and Seiichi loved them both equally, so it was the only arrangement that made sense, and it was handled very tastefully.

That doesn't mean that there isn't a harem in the series. Louise, the head of the valkyries, is part of his harem, as is the young assassin girl that he saved, because there always has to be a damn loli, doesn't there? But I still think there's more to this than just a standard harem, even if elements of that are still present in the series.

However, the absolute best element in the series has to be the humor. I like that a lot of recent Isekai try and play up the humor aspect more than anything else. It probably started with Konosuba, and while I don't think any of the others are nearly as amazing as that one, it's still refreshing. Considering how unbelievably oversaturated that Isekai is in 2021, it's nice to see Isekai anime that dont' take themselves incredibly seriously and just want to entertain you, to make you laugh. Hell, episode 1 builds a romantic relationship between a human, (Seiichi), and a Gorilla, (Saria), and ends with a kiss between the two. I laughed my ass off due to how seriously the music, voice acting, and animation was trying to take it in spite of how ridiculous it was in reality, and i'm almost certain that this was the intended reaction.

After that, Saria transforms into a human form, and at first, I thought the series was gonna go down hill. And while nothing was as funny to me as that moment, it still kept me entertained throughout the duration of it. While I would have preferred if Saria remained a Gorilla all the time, she is able to transform back into a Gorilla whenever she wants to, which makes it a little bit better, and even when she's not a Gorilla, she's still extremely funny and endearing.

That's not all, either. There's the bar which is led by Ellis Mcrene, the BDSM Queen, (who was also the trainer of the one who was gonna torture the assassin girl), and is filled with tons of masochists that love being whiped and abused by her. I think Darkness from Konosuba would fit in perfectly well there. It's always a good time when they're on screen. Also, the old man introduced in the final few episodes, who clearly has fetishes of his own that he's kept hidden, (or maybe not, because some of the other characters don't seem too surprised, they just never bring it up).

Another problem I had with the series was the final battle, which was way too short and underwhelming compared to what I was expecting. But even that isn't enough to damper my enjoyment for this series, and also, albeit to a lesser extent, my investment in the plot and characters and where it's going to go. There are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the anime. Seiichi has yet to reunite with his bullies, or those other kids that were Isekai'd with him. I hesitate to call them his friends, because we don't know how close they were exactly, but at the very least they were the ones that didn't bully him, and in fact defended him against the actual bullies before. Also, at the VERY end of the episode, a brand new character was suddenly introduced. Saria teases the possibility of a second season, then it ends. She was really vague about it. I really hope that wasn't her giving us false hope, and that there's a second season on the horizon, because so far the light novels haven't been licensed either. And yes, I will consider that cliffhanger to be a flaw of the series, until we get another season, or the light novels get licensed.

Despite my issues, however, I still think this is a good show that deserves another look. If you were made skeptical by all of the negative reviews, know that it definitely gets my endorsement, as an anime that's not amazing, but is still enjoyable and worth a shot.

SCORES!
STORY-7/10
ART-7/10
SOUND-7/10
CHARACTER-7/10
ENJOYMENT-8/10
OVERALL-7/10