We open in media res, with protagonist Seiichi in another world with busty naked girl who asks to marry him. Now flashback: at a high school in Japan, chubby Seiichi is a victim of bullying and seems to be despised by pretty much everyone in class. A voice from the PA system announces it’s a god and will transport everyone in school to another world, but courteously grants them a few minutes to form groups. Naturally, no one accepts Seiichi, so he ends up in the fantasy world alone. After wandering a jungle for five days, he finds an odd fruit: the eponymous Fruit of Evolution. It tastes terrible, but is nourishing and (on a seemingly unpredictable basis) can cause the eater to painfully “evolve.” (This is the kind of “evolution” you find in Pokemon, a sudden metamorphosis, not the real-life scientific theory.) Elsewhere, all the other students were transported to a city; a few of them (possibly friends of Seiichi?) express concern for the lone missing student. Our protagonist gets attacked and defeated by a monkey, but then his body odor kills it (I’m not making this up). Suddenly “evolution” kicks in; by the end Seiichi is much more handsome, and much stronger to boot! Five months pass, and Seiichi reaches the ninth of his ten evolutions. Then a talking pink gorilla drops from the sky and demands a duel. Impressed by both Seiichi’s combat prowess and his body odor, the female gorilla Saria decides to marry him instead of killing him.

Umm… So… Huh. This looks like a generic wish-fulfillment isekai. A stereotypical anime loser-guy gets phenomenal cosmic power, a total body makeover, and an attractive girlfriend (well, wife; oh, and the OP and ED hint this going to turn into a harem). The episode is mildly entertaining, but nothing about is particularly clever or unique. Between the fanservicey prologue and the fat-shaming, there are some truly dislikeable elements as well. I feel solidly meh about The Fruit of Evolution‘s first episode. I’m not certain it will be terrible, but I can’t really recommend it. I can see this being one of those anime where I watch the first five episodes and then drop it when I finally realize that no, it’s not going to get any better.

You can view The Fruit of Evolution on Crunchyroll.

Written by JeskaiAngel

Historian of the American Civil War, author of More Important than Good Generals, and editor/proofreader for J-Novel Club.

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