Contains very minor spoilers.I know what I said when I titled this review but please before you immediately scroll past it in its entirety to slam that thumbsdown button in an indignant fit of how dare they say my loli fantasy anime isnt original?induced rage hear me out for a minute. As you can tell from the second half of rest of the title I think this anime is good. Im by no means writing this review just to take a big ol shit on it I just have a lot to say about it and I figured barfing it all out on a review would be the most productive way to get that all out. Its been a hell of a ride watching it release these past couple of months so I hope youll join me. Headsup Ill talk about this series both as a standalone anime and as an adaptation of a manga I like but if youre here because you only care about the show I wont bore you too much with all of that so dont worry. Synopsis The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated tells the story of Jahy the Dark Realms fearsome secondincommand whos suddenly stripped of most of her powers and transported to the human realm after an attack by a Magical Girl leaves the Dark Realms mana crystal in pieces. Jahy plots to rebuild her realm with the mana crystal shards that have now been scattered across the human realm as well as seek revenge on the Magical Girl who caused her world to fall but this is no easy feat when shes tasked with both trying to keep her job and pay rent for her cramped apartment in this unforgiving world. Put simply its your standard isekai sob story of losing everything and being made to live in an unfamiliar world. Sounds depressing doesnt it? I think now would be a good time to mention that its a comedy. Despite having a premise that youd usually expect to find in a 100k words slowburn hurt/comfort isekai AU fanfiction its far far more lighthearted than it sounds on paper. Each episode is essentially a set of skits that sometimes end in happiness and sometimes in frustration but all in Jahy making her way towards the reconstruction of her realm with the help of the friends she quickly makes in the human realm. Its really wholesome and quite motivating actually and is basically just a story of this stuckup loli girl learning to open up to others and managing to work towards her goals even if only a little at a time. It deals with usually pretty tiring issues like work and rent but thanks to its slapstick theme it never makes them seem as depressing as we all know far too well that they are in real life. Its refreshing in this sense and although the idea of making stuff thats a pain in the ass in real life into a comedic gag isnt exactly new it still seems fresh when said stuff is experienced by a chuuni Dark Realm lord. Its comedy doesnt mean its devoid of genuine emotion though and it has its moments of sadness and regret. We all know that feeling of having a goal we just have to complete but becoming intimidated by the mountain of work ahead of us that well have to climb over to achieve this goal and the one thing The Great Jahy is somewhat realistic about is this. Its heartfelt and downtoearth in this regard but it also doesnt linger on it long enough for it to actually get us down and break the fluffiness that the rest of the show creates whether that be for the best or otherwise. In terms of how it adapted the manga aside from reordering a few chapters and skipping one or two where they werent needed Id say the anime was almost entirely faithful. It adapted around 70 chapters and even added relevant filler in some places but it was paced well and never felt like it was trying to speedrun to the end thanks to its two cour run. The way it mixed actual plot progression with simpler skits was also wonderful and it wasnt ruined by its ending either like some other comedy and/or isekai shows. Characters If I had to pick one aspect of this show to call its strongest suit the characters are no doubt what Id go for. To describe them in one word theyre colourful. From Jahy the kusogaki painintheass who isnt actually quite as unfeeling as she thinks she is to the seemingly evil but honestly just misunderstood Magical Girl Kyoko each character has their own very unique personality and gimmick that never really seems to get old. Almost every interaction is absolutely hilarious and the characters bounce off of each other wonderfully. Whats most genius to me is that thanks to the series more episodic format characters are never overused. Aside from obviously the main character and to an extent the Boss and Landlord as the secondary protagonists each character will dip in and out of the story at different intervals meaning that enough time will have passed since their previous appearance for them to feel fresh once they come back in. Its this that really makes this show work as well as it does and what keeps it watchable for the entire 20 episode run. Additionally despite this animes simple and lighthearted premise of what kinda funny and slightly unfortunate demon bullshit can we pull next? characters arent at all devoid of development. Jahy in particular really changes for the better over the course of the series and even colder characters like the Landlord soften up a bit as her bonds with her new friends start to strengthen. The Great Jahy is ultimately a story about making the best of bad experiences and it doesnt fail to deliver those teetee wholesome moments of reflection alongside its slapstick comedy. Designwise the characters are just as eyecatching as youd guess from their vibrant personalities. Jahys two forms are both great in different ways and I really have to take my hat off to Konbusensei for managing to have her switch between being a loli and an absolute milf without ever carrying over the horniness of her latter design to the former. Its a comedic gag that works without feeling weird and I honestly really like it for that. The other characters are definitely worth mentioning as well as theyre plain enough to avoid being Mary Sueish but theyre not so plain that they just look like background characters. I like the demons designs in particular specifically Saurvas as she looks demonic enough to fit in at an anime con but isnt stupidly overthetop about it like many other anime girl demons are. Art Animation Honestly considering how much I adore the mangas art I was thinking I was really gonna love the animes as well provided it was a decentlyaccurate adaptation. I was wrong. While not offensively bad the shows animation is lackluster to say the least. Its honestly disappointingly amateurish and while studio SILVER LINK. isnt exactly up there with KyoAni and ufotable in terms of reputation its still produced shows with far better animation than can be seen in The Great Jahy. Its just utterly devoid of any care it couldve been given had more time been spent on it. Character movement often feels stiff and wonky even during repeated scenes such as the openings and backgrounds sometimes even look like theyve been created from photobashed free use pngs some tired animator found on Google dot com after their third coffee of the evening making it frighteningly obvious how lowbudget the show is and what little was done to rectify that. 400https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/617832347546550278/919451347739377664/whatthehellman.jpg Look at the foreground. This is an actual unedited screenshot. That being said its not absolutely unwatchable and it tells the story well enough to leave one satisfied after an episode. As I mentioned earlier the character designs for one are nice and I also liked how closely the art style sticks to the source materials as thats definitely one of the mangas strong points for me. Its faithful and I guess thats what ultimately matters but that wont stop me from wanting to punch a wall every time I see that one specific shot of Jahy flinging her arms up at the end of FightinPose. Voice Acting I dont have a lot to say about this animes voice acting and thats because it can be summed up pretty quickly: it was really really good. The anime has a lineup of fanfavourite VAs and theyre casted absolutely perfectly. Each character sounds pretty much exactly how youd picture them sounding if you glanced over their design sheetsaside from Kyoko but thats only because I literally had no idea what I expected her to sound like and honestly I dig deeper voices anyway so this is a win for me. My singular complaint? Small Jahys voice can kind of grate on you after a while. This isnt at all because of Ozoras performance though its simply because small Jahy is really that annoying sometimes and her VA brings it to life far too perfectly. Music As a perfect point to lead off from the previous section on all but one of the animes openings and endings were actually sung by the voice actors and theyre honestly really good as far as VA songs go. While none of them are particularly memorable and all failed to make it onto my Top 10 2021 Anime Songs Id Get Drunk In My Girlfriends Basement To list theyre still catchy enough to not be immediate skip material. None were standout enough for me to feel the need to do an individual review of them all but they all fit the animes tone perfectly especially the second opening: Life is Hard DAME DINERO which is basically Im poor give me money in genki anime song form and what is The Great Jahy if not that? In terms of op/ed animation however I wasnt really feeling it as much. The animation sticks to one specific aesthetic across both openings and while it isnt ugly by any means it kind of feels like a mental breakdown of bright colours and repeated animation loops that exist to look nice while eating as little of the budget as possible which didnt do either song justice. The endings I liked more honestly as while theyre equally as loweffort I really dug the chibi style and all the cute little storylines they tell throughout the songs. But I realise Im just going back to my animation bashing so lets move on. The OST wasnt anything to write home about in all honesty. It hit at all the right points but not one song was memorable enough for me to recognise it and Id be hardpressed to answer if you asked me how many times each one had played throughout the series run. Thats less of a complaint and more of an observation though because only very few anime OST composers have ever managed to impress me to the point at which I actually recognised different songs in different episodes. All in all good maybe even great but too average to ever be something Id recommend this anime to someone on the basis of unless they were a Hololive fan. Conclusion Is this anime perfect? No. Is it still worth watching anyway? Yes. Ill be the first to say as a manga fan that I was disappointed by this adaptation but it wasnt so devastatingly awful that I started to resent it as a result. Its a fun show and I loved watching it be brought to life by the wonderful team that worked on it despite all my complaints about certain aspects of it. The Great Jahy is essentially just a prime example of why you shouldnt sleep too hard on the slapstick surreal comedy genre. Its not the best anime ever and its definitely not for everyone that much is obvious but its worth at least trying a couple episodes of if its something that piques your interest. Or hey embrace your inner manga reader and give its superior source material a shot. Id recommend this to of course fellow chad enjoyers of reverse isekai and fun characters with slightly horny designs but also to anyone who just needs a lowbraincell show to senselessly switch off to and enjoy. The Great Jahy is by no means the most revolutionary anime to drop this yearI mean its not even in my top 5 for this season in that regardbut that doesnt mean its not a good watch for anyone who needs a bit of dumb comedy to make them smile in these trying times. 400https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/617832347546550278/921885609658814534/babey.jpg Thank you for taking the time to read my review and I hope you got at least something out of it. I appreciate it