The online game Kenichi Yamada had been playing religiously is shutting down its servers, leaving him with a void in his heart. He looks for a new game to fill it, but everything he finds is way too easy. Kenichi stumbles upon an untitled game, one promising incomparable challenge with unprecedented potential. Without hesitation, he selects the "Hell Mode" difficulty. Lo and behold, he finds himself reincarnated in another world as a serf. Now called Allen, he sets out to unlock the secrets of his mysterious Summoner class. Without the convenience of walkthroughs, game guides or forums, he must stumble his way to the top of his new world by himself.

The real Hell Mode is having to suffer through all of these garbage isekai anime, amirite, folks?

I suppose I should point out that at least Hell Mode has a premise that by definition exists to confront its protagonist with some degree of actual conflict and challenge. I can also acknowledge that a modicum of thought went into giving Allen a class that requires actual effort to be successful in, but come on now. I have not yet been so broken by this godforsaken subgenre that I'm giving out brownie points for a show managing to suck 10% less than its shameless competitors. Jesus H. Dick, how I despise the trope of watching a grown man get turned into an RPG toddler. Allen may not be the most insufferable twerp-baby we've been forced to take seriously on account of the anime industry's obsession with churning out low-effort junk guaranteed to turn a profit, but he's still insufferable, a twerp and a baby.

Allen is yet another adult man reborn as an infant with an adult mind (cue the obligatory remark about "sucking on titties" as if breastfeeding is something designed for the titillation of men reborn as self-aware babies). He can summon his stat screen and he's got powers beyond what regular folks know about. He spends most of the episode figuring out how to use his skills as a summoner, acting like a cute toddler for his parents, and otherwise being as paper-thin a character as almost any other in a similar situation you care to name, with the plot following suit. It's all the same predictable routine, right down to his female friend with the pink hair, who's obviously going to have some sort of sword skill when she gets appraised at age 5.

The job of a premiere is to get the prospective audience invested in a series enough to keep coming back for more each week. While I understand the primal appeal of a story that makes no effort to do anything other than recreate the same familiar experience that first activated the dopamine pathways in our brains when it was fresh, I reject the practice as a matter of principle. I don't care that the anime everyone loved 15 years ago did the exact same thing, the problem is that it's been done a bazillion times since then. We don't need to see Allen futzing around and monologuing about his random NPC parents who ultimately don't matter to the story. We don't need to see Allen learn how to summon little critters with the power of his stupid RPG stats menu. For the love of all that is good and holy, at least have the decency to relegate some of this stuff to a montage.

Here's what I will concede: Around 20 minutes into the episode, I finally began to feel... I dunno, something for this kid and his poor servant-class family. I like the concept of a genuinely harsh world that demands sacrifice and suffering in order to succeed, and I can kinda see how Hell Mode is trying to set itself apart from the pack. The problem is that the fundamentals we're working with--the writing, the tone, the worldbuilding, the genre conventions--are still trapped in the same essential framework, shaped more by corporate interests than by artistic instinct. It's the anime equivalent of putting a decent BBQ sauce on a cheap leftover cheeseburger that you just rewarmed in the microwave. Is it technically a more sophisticated experience than what the burger in its original state would've provided? Maybe. Doesn't mean you aren't still shoving junk down your gullet because it was the quickest and easiest option available.

There was one single moment in Hell Mode where I had hope for the story. Allen reaches out his hand, dramatically calls for the stat window, and...nothing happens. I was suddenly excited. No stat window would indeed be "Hell Mode" for a min-max gamer like Allen. He'd actually have to figure everything out himself or find someone to assist him. Then came another thought: What if part of "Hell Mode" is that everyone has a stat window EXCEPT him? That'd make for an interesting twist.

Of course, this was all for naught as my mind racing with the possibilities was brought crashing into a tree when Allen simply tried again a few seconds later and it fucking appeared.

Hell Mode is, simply put, yet another dime-a-dozen isekai slog. The most original aspect of the show is that the stat window is designed like a floating book rather than a floating computer screen. While Allen talks about how unbalanced this world is, it means nothing. He's already a young child with the strength and intellect of a grown man. The fact that he can only summon insects and rodents means little when he can fight almost on par with someone clearly destined to be the hero. The only actual "Hell Mode" aspect of his life is socioeconomic, with his family being dirt-poor serfs working in a largely undeveloped frontier land.

So in the end, this feels like a series where the main character laments about how bad he's got it even though he's still better off than 99% of people around him. I don't care about him or his struggles, and I can honestly find not a single reason to come back for more.