When interdimensional travelers from an otherworldly land known as “Japan” appear, they often bring
death and destruction. It’s up to Executioners like Menou to track and exterminate the Lost Ones
before they wreak havoc. When Menou encounters a beguiling Lost One named Akari, it’s bloody business
as usual… until Menou discovers Akari can cheat death, that is. Even so, Menou has a job to do, and
she is committed to her executioner’s mission come hell or high water — provided her newly stirring
feelings don’t get in the way.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks)
Note: The first two episodes received an advance release on Abema on March 20, 2022. The regular TV
broadcast started on April 2, 2022.
Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road is one of the isekais that come from the new batch of isekai series of this season, however, what made Shokein Shoujo no Virgin Road stand out to me? We’ll see about it. This review has spoilers mostly in the character section. The story seems your run-of-the-mil isekai series showing a male that is transported to another world, finding a cute girl and having an OP power, however that quickly changes showing us who the true MC is, and that one is the girl that we saw, Menou. We follow her in her travel to kill another girl named Akari, she also comes from another world but her powers make her very difficult to kill forcing Menou to find a way to kill her. The series has some pretty good world building, the world in which the series occurs gets explored in multiple ways we are told the past and how the culture got to the point it is like why they all talk in Japanese, the reasons why they treat people from other world in the way they do, explanations of the locations they are in which helps in not everything looking the same. We get more than a superficial part of the world explained and there is even more that the anime didn’t get to cover. The animation is actually pretty good seeing the studio that made it, JC Staff really put effort into this, there are multiple fight scenes which look really good, especially the ones from episode 10 and beyond. The animation and art are pretty consistent through the show, the only nitpicks I could make is that in episode 8 there were some reused frames, however even there it still looked nice outside of that, and the purpose of those frames was mostly comedic so not much is lost in there, there is also the CGI of the last couple of episodes which is doesn't really look good. About the adaptation, it is actually a pretty faithful adaptation which makes sense since they were adapting only 2 volumes, some minor stuff and here were omitted. The only problem with things omitted is Momo’s backstory, it made her power look like it came almost out of nowhere for not having much information on it in the anime. Despite that, there is also something I liked about the added scenes, some of them give some more character interaction, however a scene in episode 7 where Manon is with the little girl and takes her to the Iron Maiden wasn’t there originally, it was a really good idea to add that scene to make a bigger surprise in a future episode than how it was in the novels. With the characters we have our protagonist, Menou, unlike most isekais the MC of the series is actually a girl from the world that isn’t Japan, she is pretty calm, she has a determination to kill Lost Ones after her town got destroyed and spending a lot of time her her teacher Flare, she tries her best to kill them for no one else to have to commit those actions she does, despite that she is still has a warm side to her like even after killing Mitsuki she is still buried him, and actually we get to see with Momo how she can treat other people nicely outside of her work. As she travels with Akari she gets to open herself to her and start caring for her, she protects Akari from outsiders at any cost and feels bad for having to kill her but it is still something she has to do to protect her world, it is a self-character conflict that she has that mainly drives the story. Akari is actually an interesting one, we first see her as a very happy person that is suddenly very attracted to Menou despite just meeting her, as if it was fate that connected them, she can be bothersome in some stuff since she is always excited about stuff and is always drooling over Menou, however in episode 6 everything makes sense, we get to see that the usual Akari we see is not her actual personality and that she has traveled multiple times to try to save Menou, the Akari with memories is far more collected than the normal one although still somewhat inexpert in some stuff, she comes off as much more normal than the other and it start to makes sense that the other Akari enjoys so much her time with Menou and the reason why she is so determined to get killed by her. The interactions between Menou and Akari a lot of the time come from Akari being too excited over things or wanting to jump to what Menou is doing or calling her attention, it come with some funny moments, while it also can have some serious and nice moments about them, specially at their “dates” and in episode 6, stuff like that was pretty nice to see, their relationship actually seems more like a friendship. Momo is the one that probably come out the weakest of the characters, specially because of the omitted part of her past, the reason why she never stands anyone aside from Menou is because she is a misanthrope, her “senpai” is the most important thing in the world for her and that’s why she wants to make Akari disappear as fast as possible, she is always following Menou even if she cannot be at her side helping her to solve some of the stuff that she cannot do alone. Ashuna is an interesting kind of princess; she doesn’t behaves herself like a normal one since she is a warrior too. She has her own motives, that while we don’t see that much in the beginning we get a little grasp in her conversation with Momo in episode 5 when she talks about having a sister. The interactions between Ashuna and Momo are really fun, so the multiple times when they are together can be amusing. We get to see that Ashuna really cares about Momo even if Momo calls her names and tries to push her to the side. The opening is song is very good, a great work from Mili, I had to listen to add multiple times a day when it came out, the lyrics really fit with the series and the video tells you a lot of stuff that you would have some hard time guessing until you get there. The ending also is good, the song is nice and after a while I really started to like it, but the most important part to me is the video, I really like the video, it is artistic in the style and it makes you follow Akari understanding her travel. It’s actually funny how this show got under my radar until one day I found a meme about it after the first episode aired and got interested on it. So finally, Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road is a very good series with an interesting premise and it has many mysteries, that while some weren’t solved due to the anime adapting only 2 volumes it still manages to surprise and entertain. I’ll definitely be waiting for a second season of this great series. Thank you for reading.
Everything about Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road screams comically bad pseudo-deep isekai to me. An anime that aired last year even did the so-called first episode twist better. Yet, the overall reaction kept saying subversive thriller. It's like Re:Zero, if Re:Zero was cheaper, blander, and lacking any depth. The English title, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, refers to Menou, the female assassin protagonist, who speaks every line like she's a caricature of a lone wolf killer. Her introduction is agonizingly cliche: A mysterious organization recruits a child to assassinate superpowered teenagers. After witnessing the traumatizing impacts of their powers, she vows to prevent history from repeating itself and becomes a ruthless murderer. Her goal is to murder teenagers who've been mysteriously summoned into her fantasy world from modern-day Japan, known as "Lost Ones." The Lost Ones arrive with a random superpower called a "pure concept" that supposedly could lead to catastrophe if used in the wrong hands. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Menou's desperate efforts to find a way to kill Akari, a seemingly immortal Lost One with the pure concept of time, who she is convinced will be the downfall of humanity. Their chemistry is light-hearted, even though Menou hides the fact that she wants this girl dead. All the show has in terms of levity is their banter, mostly because Akari mistakes their companionship for mutual attraction. The rest of the show is pure edge, the painfully serious kind, not the trashy-fun kind. From the beginning, Menou is a mouthpiece to dump exposition on the unfortunate viewer. The writer arbitrarily added a generic character with the appearance of a standard male isekai hero, but only for her to spout world-building at him in the most unnatural way possible. Menou's role is to speak lines that insert what the writer wants the audience to think before being an actual character. She delivers these lines so seriously that it's funny. Everyone talks like this except for a few selective oddities. Menou develops gradually as she struggles to overcome her need to murder Lost Ones and reconcile with the assassin who conditioned her. The rare times she broke her serious persona to have banter with Akari was actually pleasant. Akari's tongue-in-cheek sense of humor plays off Menou's straight man act because the writers know how to place jokes appropriately. Akari flirts with Menou, vies for her affection, and asks to go on dates, usually for humor rather than a sincere relationship. The show is undoubtedly at its worst when it separates Menou and Akari. Although Akari comes off as a shallow comic relief character at first, developments in the show's second half add depth to her personality. After a few convoluted twists, you find more to her than meets the eyes. Ultimately, she is a shallow husk of a protagonist used as a plot device when needed, with little space to grow. The excitement of her time-reversal power wears off when you realize it was done exponentially better Steins;Gate. Even Re: Zero's first cour utilized its time travel mechanic much better. She is characterized by laughably melodramatic and overwrought flashbacks. You would have a more enjoyable time finding another anime to watch than piecing together her lore. This is an extension of the show's larger issue, mistaking poor storytelling with foreshadowing. Rather than hint at mysteries, they deliver the twist first and expect you to be impressed when they reveal the build-up. It's like telling a joke by saying the punchline first; you haven't achieved anything. You've just made your story needlessly confusing. Menou's assassin companion, Momo, is a caricature of a psychotic lesbian—two words I despise putting beside one another. She is introduced with laser red eyes, only to speak as in a moe voice and motorboat Menou. Cute-but-unhinged archetypes like Momo are so played out in Executioner. After the third secretly evil moe character it’s clear the author either ran out of ideas or has an obsession with the trope. For most of Momo’s screentime, she clings to Menou, hiding in the shadows to tie loose ends. Momo's rival, a rather unconvincing tough-as-nails swordswoman, gives her other things to do, thankfully. There are no thrills to the action unless you count gratuitous viscera for the sake of it entertaining. Blood, gore, children getting diced up, but there's no impact. It's all faux darkness to seem more mature than it is. The creators were seemingly trying to one-up other isekai anime labelled as "mature" with its outlandish blood and gore. I would be remiss if I did not mention the remarkable quality of the visuals and audio. In terms of J.C. Staff productions, it's comparable to One Punch Man's second season; frequently reused animation loops, low-detail character designs, and janky CGI monsters. Sakuga cuts are used sparingly, but admittedly the bombastic fight scenes look exhilarating when they try. However, the sound design is exceptionally bad. What little sound effects they include are pleasing, but it's as though their audio team ran out of time frequently. I especially loved how Menou could perfectly hear Momo talking outside of a moving train from the inside because they forgot to add wind or distortion. Visual effects such as the sparkling Ether dust, and the show's magic system, have no sound whatsoever. Part of what makes the final episode so anticlimactic is the janky CGI that undermines its attempts at grotesque body horror. For all of the exposition dumps, the show offers little explanation for the magic system and power scaling. They mention different tiers of assassins offhand but never show how that status affects their powers. Fighters wield giant swords made of light, launch explosions, and throw magic circles every which way. I'd be lying if I said it didn't have exciting moments, but ultimately the fights are tensionless. Seconds before death, one of the heroes will inevitably reveal a cheap gimmick magic ability to save themself. It's repetitive, predictable, and never as shocking as the author intended. This might feel original if there weren't already a hundred violent isekai anime. Instead, it is derivative of the same story it's attempting to tell. The early 20th-century attire juxtaposed with modern technology sets the show apart from a production design standpoint. The Lost Ones influenced architecture, design, and technology powered by magic rather than electricity. Don't think too hard about it. Obviously, the writers didn't because the more you do, the less it makes sense. If you're interested in the people inhabiting the fantasy world… well, you'd be better off reading the light novels because backstories, politics, and lore are sparse. Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road is so heavy-handed and awkward it comes across as a parody. It feels like you're watching the script's first draft because of how the story is told in such an ass-backwards way. There are some redeeming qualities, such as the relatively ambitious production and hints at queer romance. But, ultimately, they are overshadowed by a shitload of problems. The characters talk in cliches and tedious explanations instead of dialogue. It is so self-serious in the face of utterly idiotic writing that it leads to plenty of unintentionally funny scenes. All of the plot twists and gratuitous violence were the show's attempt to shock us. The shock factor is what the story was built upon, truly. It is a lazy attempt at subversion that never found a reason to exist.
