We gaze into a dark, bottomless abyss placed in a cavernous underworld. A desperate man is looking down alongside us. The path is here. “This…This is my fault, for being so weak.” Dark music, choir, violin. The man is falling. He wonders in his mind what purpose his life held, then disappears into the darkness. Cut to Crescendo by Arterism, an explosive opening theme that awoke me from my long-isekai-title-induced slumber and made me pay attention to the story. The man, Ein, belongs from birth to the lower of three castes seemingly based on Plato’s Republic. Since his parents died young, Ein had no option but to work as an “appraiser”, an analyst/collector of magical monster entrails in the lower dungeons. As it turns out, the guild provides this service for free, and only the most sadistic and lazy of adventurers, the ones who won’t even touch what they kill, have any use for an on-site appraiser. When they bite off more than they can chew, a betrayed, bloodied, and battered Ein runs until there is only an abyss ahead. But as he falls, resigned to his fate, an invisible presence watches over him. Is this perhaps the Goddess of Light?

Well, I certainly didn’t expect that. Given the uninspired title and the promotional material (eight girls surround the protagonist, mind you), I thought I’d sleepwalk through this premiere. But above-average art direction, soundtrack, and editing, as well as some smart narrative choices, have turned this uber-generic premise into something quite intriguing. This is not an isekai, it is fantasy, and there is something very real in how our protagonist has internalized the abuse he suffers, Grimgar-style. When the Goddess of Light (I presume?) heals Ein, whom she has clearly fallen for, he cannot see or hear her. When the sorcerer girl with glasses saves “the strongest” as his eye and his face are brutally destroyed a là Re:Zero, she appears and disappears after a few lines. The missing eye is not healed, but replaced. The world, the powers, the girls, everything feels otherworldly and mysterious. Will the show be able to keep this up, or will it turn generic after all? Might be the case that even given the worthless long-titled isekai class, this show is actually the strongest? For now, it has certainly earned another episode. We will see.

Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, etcetera can be streamed on Crunchyroll.