With Season 2 right around the corner, commonplace isekai fans should hurry to catch up with Arifureta, the world’s strongest isekai series.
Many isekai titles feature characters who’ve reincarnated from a relatively mundane existence into a much more exciting one, made even better by the fact that in their new life, they’re extremely powerful and resourceful. However, that’s definitely not the case with Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest. With a protagonist who’s at all kinds of disadvantages, Arifureta is a definite change of pace for isekai novels, manga and anime.
Like most entries in the genre, it’s traveled the same production from book to animation, with all versions of the series still going strong since the original 2013 debut. Here’s a closer look at just how series protagonist Hajime becomes his new world’s strongest, as well as how readers and viewers can join the journey.
The Plot of Arifureta
The protagonist of Arifureta is Hajime Nagumo, a bullied teenager obsessed with a celebrity idol. Even when his class is suddenly reincarnated into another world full of people with magical abilities, Hajime’s luck among his fellow students doesn’t improve. Instead, he’s stuck with only the rudimentary ability to work with solid materials, making him a lonely craftsman.
To make matters worse, he’s eventually betrayed by these former colleagues, who deserted him at the bottom of a cavern. Not intent on letting the situation drag him down any further, he quickly acclimates himself to his surroundings and crafts an arsenal of weapons to survive. Gaining the power to absorb others’ abilities through a rare mineral, Hajime builds a rag-tag team of other outcasts and is determined to become the strongest in the world.
Where to Read the Arifureta Light Novels and Manga
Arifureta was created by Ryo Shirakome and Takayaki, beginning as a web novel in 2013. This eventually spawned a light novel adaptation from Overlap, and both this and the manga version would receive multiple spinoffs and side stories.
Amazon is one of several online retailers that carry the light novel series, with physical stores like Barnes & Noble and Walmart also carrying the books. Most of these retailers also have the manga version of the story, which can be purchased both physically and read digitally through Comixology and Kindle. The same goes for the spinoff series, Arifureta: I Love Isekai.
Where to Watch the Arifureta Anime
For those who prefer viewing to reading, anime fans can still enjoy Hajime’s journey in Arifureta. Like many isekai, the franchise hit it big with the release of the anime adaptation, which began back in the summer of 2019. Produced by animation studio White Fox, the series was meant to come out in 2018 but was delayed due to mysterious circumstances. Airing 13 episodes so far, the first season’s finale also came with the announcement of a second, which is set to premiere on January 13th of 2022. However, it brings some major changes, with Akira Iwanaga and Studio Mother replacing Kinji Yoshimoto and White Fox as the director and production studio respectively.
With isekai being as big as it is, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of ways to watch Arifureta. These include streaming it through the Funimation streaming service (with Funimation officially licensing it in the West and handling the simulcast/simuldub) and on Hulu, as well as by purchasing individual episodes to stream through Amazon Prime Video. With Season 2 right around the corner, commonplace isekai fans should hurry to catch up with Arifuretathe world’s strongest isekai series.
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