Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! is a twelve episode anime adaptation of the light novel series written by FUNA. The director of the anime was Masahiko Ohta, and scripts were written by Takashi Aoshima. The studio that produced the show was Project No. 9.
Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! aired during the autumn 2019 season of anime, and is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
Abilities Average is one of the ubiquitous isekai genre of anime, in which a main protagonist dies at the beginning of the series and is reincarnated into another world. In this case, the main protagonist is a girl who adopts the name Mile. She becomes a hunter and joins up with three other girls to form the party known as the Crimson Vow.
However, that is technically the second part of her Mile’s story. What this anime adaptation shows of Mile’s life as Adele von Ascham is presented in a rather abridged manner.
So here’s the caveat of this anime: it is not a 1:1 adaptation of the light novels. That might leave some light novel readers feeling particularly disappointed. For the record, I have read the light novels, and I still enjoyed the anime adaptation.
Whilst some events from the light novel are adapted, there are times when they are changed up a bit. In some cases, certain characters are done away with entirely, whilst in others the anime introduces original characters. Said original crop up a couple of times, but they aren’t all that impressive compared to the characters lifted straight from the light novels.
In her previous life, Mile was an otaku. As such, Abilities Average contains plenty of references. Naturally, these all fly over the heads of Mile’s friends, but it is a safe bet that viewers will most likely have some understanding of what is being referenced.
Naturally, referential humour won’t be for everyone, but then again what type of humour is?
It is not just original characters the anime offers, either. One particular episode is pretty much a staple of anime, though whether it proves enjoyable or not depends on how viewers feel about beach episodes as a whole. Sometimes taking a different route from the source material isn’t all that bad.
When it comes down to it, though, Abilities Average is fun. Mile’s adventures with her friends in the Crimson Vow entertained every week it aired. The references have already been mentioned, but Mile just being a totally average girl is certainly worth mentioning, too.
It certainly helps that the four main characters are a lot of fun, too. The aforementioned Mile serves as main protagonist, and she is average. So she claims.
The other three members of the Crimson Vow are Reina, Pauline and Mavis. They fit into some pretty typical roles, but all four characters have a great chemistry together. Much of the joy of Abilities Average comes from seeing the girls interact with each other.
Most impressive is the way in which they adjust to Mile being Mile.
Abilities Average doesn’t particularly offer anything spectacular in terms of visuals, but it certainly is not terrible to look at, either. With the sheer amount of isekai anime out there now, it might be a little easy to overlook it.
Still, give it some attention, and it carves out a nice little niche for itself and provides a fun time. Unless you want an extremely faithful adaptation of the light novels, but hey, the Rolling Stones said it best: You can’t always get what you want.
Score: 8/10
Probably not going to have any huge impact on the isekai genre, but Abilities Average is still a fun time should you give it a chance.
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Not a groundbreaking Isekai but it didn’t need to be. Twas a fun show with enjoyable references and a lovable main cast. Mile’s yuri harem power along with Mile X Reina and Mavis X Pauline were my highlights.