Recommendation: A very fun action comedy. Its type of humor isn't going to work for everyone, but I thought it was hilarious personally. Easily one of the best gacha adaptations I've seen so far. Review covers both seasons. Positives: + It's really funny. It's hard to sell this without explaining jokes, which is never funny, but I found it hilarious and absolutely ridiculous in every way. Episodes are often about fighting an Arthur that has, for example, a sniper rifle that turns people into radishes, or a woman that embarrasses her enemies with a giant paintbrush that creates BL fan art of them.It's very creative and the episodes never get boring even though they're fairly formulaic because there are so many wacky ideas bouncing around.
+ Fun characters. Each episode tends to put together 2 or 3 of the 6 main characters (along with their fairies) and just let them go off on their own and bounce off each other in funny ways. Everyone gets their moments, but my personal favorites were Tekken, the dumbass Gym Bro that punches everything, and Dancho, the dumbass captain that no one respects. Everyone in this show is at least a little bit of a dumbass and that's part of what makes it so fun.
+ Surprisingly well-animated for a gacha adaptation. It's not perfect and the seams start to show at times, especially towards the end of season 2, but the action scenes are pretty cool and exciting. They made good use of effects to make things really pop and there are few, if any, CGI shortcuts that I noticed
+ Strong voice acting. It's pretty much an all star lineup, and even the fairies are stacked with VA talent.
+ Self-deprecating/parody humor is funny. Sometimes it can be really annoying if a series is too meta, but Million Arthur hits the right balance. Every once in a while, you'll get jokes like a character getting amnesia and saying "It's too confusing" when they try to explain the premise of the series to her, or someone reacting to the introduction of a new character with "12 people is already too much", and it's just subtle enough that it hits in the right way.
Negatives:
- To say that the worldbuilding is bad would be to wrongly imply that there was any effort put in at all. The setting is supposedly medieval Britain, but in reality it's whatever the hell they want it to be, and they will never even attempt to justify it. Why are there functional security cameras in medieval Britain? Or Japanese-style hot springs? Why is the South Britain soccer team exclusively made up of people with Japanese names? Why are there fucking laser gun fights in a fantasy setting? The answer to all of these questions is "just go with it". If you're the kind of person that is bothered by plot holes, this series will drive you to insanity.
- This sort of lack of attention to detail applies across the board. Plot elements like "Invaders" are introduced as though they're going to be a major part of the story, and then immediately dropped and never explained. The rival Arthur Hunter group, Hebrides, is just sort of introduced randomly and then they never do anything but make occasional cameos. There's not really any reason for them to exist. The whole plotting and planning of this series is very sloppy overall. In the end, this is a pretty mild criticism though since the show itself doesn't really care about the plot and treats it exclusively as a launching point for goofy villain of the week episodes.
- There are 12 main characters (each of the 6 main protagonists has their own fairy) and the show just throws you straight into the deep end with all of them, again with no explanation of anything. Eventually you get to know them all pretty well, and it's very rare for all 12 to features in the same episode (they usually find a way to sideline all but 4-6 characters), but it can be a bit overwhelming at first.
- Dancho can be a bit too weird at times and the show probably deserves an ecchi label for her antics. Making the show's token pervert be the main character and leader of the group is kind of a questionable decision.