The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator

Ellen is a young girl reincarnated from modern-day Japan as a half-spirit. Her father, Rovel, is the legendary hero who saved the kingdom, and her mother, Origin, is the primordial queen and ruler of all spirits. Furthermore, she possesses an overpowered ability to manipulate the elements. While looking absolutely adorable, this perfect little girl will fall back on her past life's knowledge and the power of the spirits to protect her precious family.

Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator is based on a light novel series by Matsuura and keepout. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

So far, nothing has dissuaded me from my belief that I'd Rather Have a Cat than a Harem! is the best isekai story out there, but this one makes a decent case for being a good one on its own merits. A large part of that is that it doesn't adhere too strictly to the hoary old tropes. There's a hero, but he wasn't summoned. There's a spirit queen, but she has nothing to do with our isekai'd protagonist other than being her mom. (So again, no summoning.) And our reincarnator's only real link to her past life in Japan is that she has the periodic table memorized and uses it in her magic. It may not be innovative, but it's also much more palatable than a lot of other similar genre offerings.

My major gripe is the villain(ess), Agiel. Ten years ago, when heroine Ellen's dad was the hero Rovel, he was supposed to marry Agiel, the second princess of the kingdom. Because he almost died heroing, he instead married Ellen's mom, the spirit queen Origin, and his younger brother was forced to marry the princess. That's all fine, but now that Rovel has returned, albeit incredibly reluctantly, to the human realm, does Agiel have to be a plus-sized shrieking caricature? She could have been horrible without being reduced to her size, especially since the narrative has already established that she's selfish and a profligate spender.

Fortunately, the rest of this is perfectly fine. Rovel's reluctance to return from the spirit realm is believable; he's got his wife and daughter there, plus being worshipped as a hero doesn't sound like something he enjoys. Adding to that is the fact that his new half-spirit state means that he's had a hard time learning to control his powers; why would he want to go back and potentially endanger the people he just saved? He's also justly concerned about what a return to the human realm would mean for Ellen – as the daughter of the hero, who's to say the kingdom wouldn't try to marry her off, tender years be damned?

Simply put, it feels like someone really thought about this story beyond milking the isekai cow. Rovel is a character rather than just a trope; the same goes for Ellen, although she's less developed than he is right now. It's not spectacular looking, but it also has more uniformity of costume design than I'm used to seeing in this sort of show, even if Origin's dress isn't exactly a triumph of design. I'm happy to give this another episode or two to see where it goes – even if it isn't breaking the mold, it's stretching it, and at this point, that's enough.

I wish Agiel, and now her daughter Amiel, didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth. There's no reason for them to be drawn as grotesque caricatures of plus-size women, as if their personalities force a change in their appearances. They're unlikable characters – or at least, Agiel is; she's probably responsible for how her young daughter acts – and that could have been enough. Doubling down on Agiel's greedy, selfish behavior would have more than done the trick, as would the punishment inflicted upon her. But it all just feels over-the-top and unnecessarily mean as presented.

The story itself continues to move along decently, aside from that. This second outing is primarily political, as Rovel's return gives his younger brother Sauvel some much-needed hope. Apparently, Agiel's unpleasantness runs in the royal family, and several generations ago, they managed to offend the spirits mightily. Agiel's older brother, Ravisel, is a perfect example of how she could have been drawn differently, because despite his attractive exterior, Ellen notes that he's very blackhearted, something Origin remarks comes with the family line. He puts on a good show of wanting to help Rovel and Sauvel detach from his sister, but even before he suggested Ellen marry his son, it was pretty clear he was bad news.

But hey, at least he didn't try to marry Ellen himself! No, we'll leave that to Origin, who apparently “forced a compact” on Rovel when he was only seven years old. Look, I'm trying to be level-headed about this show, because it really is much better than a lot of isekai stories, with a distinct plotline and relatively interesting characters. But every time I settle into it, it throws something in my face – misogyny last week, potential pedophilia this week (it really does look like Origin was in love with Rovel when he was a child) – and I just can't quite manage to enjoy it. It comes so close, but always pulls up short. This is more than enough for me—time to move on.

One of the first things I look at in any of these modern fantasy anime is how the show chooses to establish its story in the very first scene. Often, the worst of the shows are entirely consumed by showing off the cliches of the premise and setting that they're flaunting - the reincarnation angle, the RPG powers, the hero with the godlike abilities, and the dead, cold eyes. You know how it goes by now. These are the cartoons that are made first and foremost as cynical calculations to prey on an overeager market; it literally doesn't matter if the show is even watchable, half the time, so long as it has a title that can guarantee investors a return on their investments. In the West, you find these sorts of products in the dollar bargain bins at Wal-Mart, with painfully cheap-looking artwork and titles like Finding Greemo and Asian Pop-Star Monster Fighters.

On the other hand, you have shows that may share similar aesthetic and plot conventions to the cheap trash that floods the market, but they make the bold and challenging decision to - shock of all shocks - begin their story by introducing characters and plot elements that have been given a modicum of forethought. Imagine that. For whatever its faults may be, I have to respect Dad is a Hero by actually telling me up front that it cares a little bit about making its titular “Dad” and his cute little girl characters I could give a damn about. Rovel's been hiding from his fame as a legendary hero while caring for his eight-year-old daughter, and like the title suggests, the hook comes from the little girl actually being a reincarnated Japanese scientist. Again, though, take notice of the fact that Ellen being a reincarnated Earthling isn't the only thing that we're supposed to be invested in. She had a specific skillset in her previous life that is going to be relevant to the magical laws of her new reality, and the unique history that her parents share gives her a reason to stand out as special in her new life. A little bit of effort is all I ask for from most isekai anime these days, and by Jove, Dad is a Hero puts in the effort.

That isn't to say that I fell head over heels for the show. It's fine. Maybe even “pretty okay," which is nothing to sneeze at if you know how bad the competition has been this season. I like the 19th-century flourishes to the setting's architecture and fashion, and Ellen's relationship with her dad gives the premiere the necessary baseline of emotional connection for the audience to engage with. Ellen's mom is cute, too, and on the whole, I have to commend the show for establishing a cozy family dynamic without going too far off the deep end. I won't say that I am personally dying over the wait for Episode 2 of Dad is a Hero, but I can tell you that this is easily one of the best isekai to come out all season. I'm willing to stick with it a little longer just to reward the creative team for accomplishing the task of making a television show that is not actively painful to sit through.

I appreciated the premiere of Dad is a Hero Etc. for actually having a bit of substance to its isekai-reincarnation plotline, with a familial cast that gives the story some baked-in pathos. Dad the Hero is a dork, Mom the Spirit is ethereal (and also kind of a dork), and Ellen the Reincarnator is spunky and precocious. It's simple, but it worked to establish an anime that has something going for it beyond the usual tropes. This second episode also has a lot of of plot and character setup going on, though it wasn't as entertaining for me as the premiere.

The long and short of it boils down to Rovel trying to get out of the marriage trap that his ex Agiel has set for him with his supposed progeny, who is just as much of a grotesque caricature as her mother is. On top of that, there is all sorts of politicking going on with Rovel's two brothers and Agiel's father, the King. This means that, despite Ellen and Origin technically being present for the majority of the episode, most of the story falls back on characters who are either fundamentally boring or actively repellent—and your investment in the proceedings will depend entirely on how much you care about Rovel's family drama and his scheming brother's political aspirations.

I do not especially care about any of this stuff, especially with the fairly rote and shallow way that it is all presented in this episode. There is some mildly engaging material between Roven and his other, less terrible brother, who also has a non-noble mistress and daughter that he wants to be able to officially invite into the family—and Ellen gets a couple of cute moments here and there—but it doesn't come together to make a satisfying whole. The central conflict with Agiel gets resolved in a pretty mean-spirited way that gets entirely brushed off by the cast, which only compounds the feeling that all of this was just tossed out there as a meager excuse to establish Ravisel as an antagonist.

That said, I don't think this necessarily spells doom for the entire series. A single weak episode doesn't mean that Dad is a Hero is now worthless, though I do think it is a sign that this will be a very inconsistent series at the very least. Given how lean this fall season is turning out, I reckon folks will be more inclined to give this show the benefit of the doubt than usual, but I think I've seen all I need to know that it's not the kind of anime I am going to go out of my way to keep up with.

It's always a little bit aggravating to be at the point where getting the basics right is impressive. Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator is, as the title gives away, a reincarnation and/or isekai story, but like the better examples around that genre, it has ideas beyond that. The reincarnation aspect is just one component that leads to the whole setup. I'll always be amused by stories that happen after an ending, and this one happens after at least two. That gives it a fair amount of backstory to pull from, even as the background is still, basically, a pretty standard RPG fantasy world.

It helps to have characters in setups like this that feel like actual people in place of plot-serving ciphers. They even run in the entire opposite direction with it—Rovel just feels like A Guy. He responds to reactions to his storied return with concerns that it's, in his words, "going to be a whole thing," and don't I feel that. This guy just wanted to stay in the spirit dimension, hanging out with his wife and daughter, and that's admirable. Along those same lines, his wife, Origin, communicates a palpable love for him that so many obligate isekai waifus would be lucky to have. Rovel and Origin come off like sickeningly sweet newlyweds (ten years later). It's an astonishing side effect of having actual character designs that communicate these characters and their familial relations beyond the base assets they're reusing.

It might not be fair to praise and/or judge I'm a Reincarnator only in comparison to its peers, but it makes it easy. The backstory components are laid out in an easy-to-follow manner that informs why Rovel has to work on things in the present. The wedding scene is cute, but the early indication that it's part of a broader plan prompts the audience to consider where this is going—what's the bigger plan? Do you have any idea the modicum of writing functionality an isekai series has to have to make me earnestly, enthusiastically engage with its plot direction? Similarly, Ellen's reincarnation runs parallel to Rovel at last returning to his previous life to clean up the issues of his prior engagement and missed opportunities to change things. Using these kinds of contrivances to speak to actual themes of second chances and making right? Why I never!

It would all be generally solid if not for the show going to the too-easy well of Agiel, Rovel's ex. Man, what if you had to deal with a woman who was fat and ugly? Wouldn't that be the worst? Simply put, this show was better than the one before and made it clear there were plenty of issues with Agiel that Rovel could navigate with nuance. And it's honestly endeared itself well enough to me that I believe it can pull that navigation off and deliver a compelling plot through the episodes following this. Maybe that's the strongest praising with faint damnation I can deliver unto I'm a Reincarnator: it made me believe it was capable of better, so when it did stumble, I actually had to hold this isekai series to proper standards.

So what would be worse than having to deal with a wife who was fat and ugly? Having to deal with a daughter who was fat and ugly, apparently. Not that Amiel is actually any character's daughter, nor is Agiel anybody's wife by the end of the second episode of I'm a Reincarnator. It's all just piled-on problems and obstacles for our multi-layered protagonists to perfunctorily deal with before… something else kicks off as the plot continues by the end. Mostly, despite the ensemble family cast and previous good-natured structure, I'm still left wondering what some women did to the author of this series, as I am with so many isekai stories. It's a hell of a way to squander some strong starting goodwill.

The biggest problem is that the compelling setup at the start of the show doesn't pay off in a narratively satisfying way. I thought that Rovel was preparing for a more impressive, more dynamic "gotcha" of Agiel to break off her engagement and save his and his brother's house. In practice, it's a couple of lines of relationships and/or plausible deniability that the judge summarily abides by and sentences Agiel to a life of humiliating singletude. There's not even any satisfying karma to it since Agiel's barely been a bouncing caricature in her screentime so far, and is revealed even in this episode as but a run-up to the real villain, her brother. It makes much of the past couple of episodes, apart from the admittedly interesting backstory bits, feel like filler before hitting the main show plot of…whatever the deal with Ravisel is going to be.

It might just be a bad foot to start on for a show that otherwise has some neat ideas and direction behind it. But even as a basic plot to begin with, the active part just isn't interesting enough to balance this whole sequence of events. It sucks, since I'd absolutely watch a full season of Rovel playing Isekai Fantasy Ace Divorce Attorney. But everything here just revolves around the perfunctory declaration that this fat, ugly, horrible woman and her fat, ugly, horrible daughter suck, so Rovel can get them out of the way and keep doing what amounts to feeling like killing time.

That could be good, because I appreciate any isekai-adjacent show that understands the amount of politicking that goes into maneuvering in a fantasy kingdom like this. I'm a Reincarnator doesn't have a ton done with that perspective yet, but I feel like its heart is in the right place, interest-wise. But interest isn't enough when it also feels underbaked with its lack of utilizing two-thirds of its title; Spirit Mom and the reincarnated daughter hardly contribute anything in this episode, save for looking in a magic pool-mirror and explaining who the obviously villainous villain is. There are some amusing irreverences here and there, and the idea of working through an isekai fantasy world of political negotiations and courtroom technicalities is an interesting one, in theory. But I can't even be sure that that's the show this is going to be at this point—thus far I'm a Reincarnator feels like it wants to be a dense, multi-layered fantasy plot of a story, but I don't think that it's all the way there.