i have to talk about this fucking show sorry
Preface this by saying that I have no idea if this is genius, trash, or genius trash. One of those things that defies taste. This is not a recommendation nor an unrecommendation.
The Executioner and her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road) is about a murder-priestess tasked with eliminating isekai'd Japanese teenagers before their unchecked magical power can destroy the high fantasy world she lives in... until she meets an isekai'd Japanese teenager whose unchecked magical power makes her impossible to kill.
From this description, would you guess this show is a:
- Moe odd-couple romantic comedy
- High fantasy political thriller
- Shonen-adjacent battle series
- Gory, ultraviolent body horror show
Yes the answer is 'all of the above.' It ping-pongs between tones and genre modes like it doesn't even really understand that there's any particular tonal gap between "making a cute hair band for my friend" and "self-mutilation as a form of ritual magic." Somehow because it's so blithely unaware of genre boundaries, it all kind of works. This is like what Lycoris Recoil is trying to do but in five dimensions and better.
This is the kind of show where there's heavy exposition about the deep backstory of the setting grounded in taking a genre trope extremely seriously. This is also the kind of show where the entire plot is driven by one girl's very specific lesbian yearning. And the kind of show where there's a muscular princess with a giant sword who just shows up every episode to beat someone up for no particular reason other than the pure-hearted enjoyment of violence.
I give it 8i+5 out of 10 stars