The Winter 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Fluffy Paradise

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After meeting an untimely end due to overwork, a young Japanese woman is offered a deal: be reincarnated in a fantasy world where their god tries to decide if humans are worth the trouble in exchange for one special skill. Based on her love of all animals, the woman asks for the ability to communicate and pet every species out there, and her wish is granted – with the caveat that humans won't be nearly as keen on her as her fluffy and scaly pals. Reborn as the youngest daughter of a powerful noble family, little Nefertina thus begins her life with one goal: to pet them all. That "do humans deserve to exist" thing will just have to wait.

Fluffy Paradise is based on a light novel series of the same name by Himawari and Kirouran. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

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Rebecca Silverman
Rating:
If there is one thing that I, a reader of the first Fluffy Paradise novel, can say, it's, "Thank God the subtitles don't write Neema's baby pronunciation phonetically." We can hear Neema's mispronunciations in her voice (as opposed to thought) lines, but the lack of her being too pwecious for wowds is one huge barrier cleared that I was, I admit, concerned about. Neema's plenty cute enough without it; she looks more like she comes from the Lady Georgie school of how to draw children than anything else, with her solid little legs and soft body. It works very well for her character because, like Georgie, she can run headlong into potential danger armed with nothing but her certainty that nothing can happen to her.

That, of course, comes from the fact that this is Neema's second life. Her first one ended at age twenty-seven in what is a genuinely upsetting opening scene: she walks into her apartment and promptly collapses and dies. The saving grace is the appearance of (a) God, who, after making the concerning statement that he can't change her lifespan, offers her a second chance in the fantasy world of Asdyllon, where he's casually considering wiping out humanity. Would she mind being reincarnated there and assessing the situation for him? He'll give her a special power if she will! After she asks for animals to love her (well, to be able to pet fuzzy creatures), he sends her on her way.

The opening scene does hint at some underlying darkness. Even without her death, there's a definite implication that she won't be able to live past twenty-seven in her new life either, because she's merely been promised a different manner of death, not a longer lifespan, and she is the same soul. The purpose of her new life also has some grim factors, because apparently, humans are about to embark on a campaign of killing non-humans, which the opening theme implies strongly could be beast folk. Yes, most of the episode enjoys teasing us with Neema running directly up to potentially dangerous animals for hugs, but the fact that the first reaction of everyone else when a dragon is mistakenly (?) summoned by Neema's sister Karna is to kill it, even though it's a divine creature does cast a pall over things. I can't help but feel that Neema's idyllic life is being used as a bait-and-switch for later in the series.

That grounds this episode, though. It's delightful and charming (assuming you aren't creeped out by Prince Will, and there's not a lot of reason to be unless you've watched too much anime), but that undercurrent of darkness keeps it from being too saccharine. If nothing else, it's not entirely clear which direction things will head in, and that alone merits giving it a second episode.

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Nicholas Dupree
Rating:

I'm of two minds on this premiere. Grading on the heavily weighted scale of Another God Damn Isekai Show, this one is perfectly alright. It's inoffensively cute and fluffy, and there are a couple of funny moments between the standard character interactions. While it's not an interesting gimmick, I share our heroine's desire to spend her new life cuddling cute animals, and that charm does a lot of heavy lifting across this premiere. There's nothing original here, but there's also nothing eye-rolling or insultingly lazy. If this show was only interested in being cute, like a cat video on the internet, I could be tempted to watch more.

However, the show chooses to promise something more than that with its introduction, only never to make a move towards that interesting potential for the rest of the episode. Instead of being given a second life for no reason, Nefertima is explicitly sent to this new world as an agent of the god that reincarnates her, on a mission to observe and judge the humans living there for their apparent oppression of other creatures. That is a fascinating, rather dark twist to add to an otherwise bland setup for cute animals and boring magic! Yet it never comes up after that, outside of a single mention, where Nefertima wonders if all these friendly rich people who raise and love her so much could be oppressing anyone. Which is, let's say, a profoundly immature perspective that she'll hopefully grow out of. Except, wait, she's an adult with all her memories, right? So, shouldn't she know better? For that matter, if it's her job to judge the value of humanity, then why was she reborn into a wealthy family with connections to the royals? How will she decide something like when she lives in the lap of luxury? Oh god, if her whole thing is animals, then does that mean the humans are persecuting furries? Are we going to have to deal with Furry Slavery?

If the show had just stuck to the tried and true (and depressing) setup of an overworked rando getting gifted a cushy afterlife to make up for their hellishly exploitative death, then we'd be fine. Instead, I'm stuck with a whole lot of questions that the show seems to be either unequipped or unwilling to answer in any hurry. In a sense, I'm grateful to have something to think about in between the endless scenes of Nefertima cuddling big kitties and being carried around by handsome dudes. Yet I can't shake the feeling that I'd be better off just catching up with Ascendance of a Bookworm rather than trying to watch more of this. For all that show's faults, it assured me very quickly that it was prepared to tackle the ideas it brought up. Fluffy Paradise has done much the opposite.

Nevertheless, the animation for the ED is pretty cute, so it gets an extra half-point.

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Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

I can't really explain how bored this episode made me. It's a marathon of clichés: death from over work, being reincarnated in another world with a cheat skill, a fantasy world where all conflicts are meaningless and everyone loves you... I searched for even a single thing that might surprise me—a single thing I hadn't seen before. The closest thing I found was the central conceit—that animals love the main character—but I've already seen more than a few anime where the protagonist has a horde of animal companions.

But you know what? Maybe I'm being too hard on this show. I mean, the title literally told me what it was: fluff. So how can I be shocked that it's all fluff and no substance? This show is the mental equivalent of shoving your head in a pillow. It's not painful or anything—but that doesn't mean that it's in any way fun.

Fluffy characters, fluffy art, fluffy setting, fluffy story. Fluff, fluff, fluff, fluff, fluff. There is no real tension, no stakes—nothing to make me care about this show. And honestly, from the moment I finish writing this sentence, I don't think I'll ever think about this show again.

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James Beckett
Rating:

There are oftentimes situations during these Preview Guide marathons where I have to separate myself into two distinct entities as a critic: There's the "Did This Anime Successfully Set Out to Do What It Aimed To?" James (aka "James #1"), and "Would I Ever Willingly Watch Another Episode Of This Show?" James (aka "James #2"). I'm going to start by putting on my "James #1" Hat, because that's the perspective that will be most useful for anyone checking out this preview that is simply curious as to whether Fluffy Paradise makes for a decent reincarnation isekai and to that end, I can tell you that the answer is, "Um…probably!"

You could maybe even tack on an extra half-star to that rating up there, if it pleases you, because Fluffy Paradise is far from a terrible show if we're judging it by its own merits. The art is pleasant to look at, and the story doesn't waste any time in offing its heroine so she can be reborn as Neema to pet as many heckin' cute fluffs as she can get her tiny little mitts on. Also, the animal lovers amongst you will be glad to know that there are, in fact, a good many heckin' cute fluffs for Neema to pet. Lars the White Tiger obviously steals the show here, and there's a lot of potential for future Cute Little Guys to bolster the ranks even more. Neema's reincarnation mission comes with the proviso that she has to decide whether or not the entire human race deserves to live, too, which could make for an interesting turn of events if the story ever decides to have stakes.

All in all, it's a fine, harmless example of a sub-genre that could do a whole lot worse. Now, though, is the point where I have to replace my "James #1" hat with the much grumpier "James #2" hat and tell you that, on a personal level, I found Fluffy Paradise excruciating to sit through. This comes mostly down to personal taste, which is to say that I generally cannot stand stories with literal toddlers for main characters unless they've got the inner monologues of John Travolta and Kirstie Allie to add a little bit of edge to the proceedings (Gen Z Readers, ask your parents to explain that reference). I know I watch cartoons for a living, but I have a limit on how much twee, overbearing, widdle-dee-woo! Cuteness that I can bear, and I'm pretty sure that Fluffy Paradise lives far south of the line from where I stand. If you fall into my camp, I'd recommend steering clear of this one. It would be easier and less irritating to check out a couple of cute pet videos on YouTube instead.