This New Isekai Anime Already Blows One Punch Man Season 3’s Bad Animation Out of the Water

The Fall 2025 anime season is packed with anime heavy hitters, but one isekai anime is slowly making a case for why it belongs in the discussion. While it still remains an outlier among this season’s big hits like My Hero Academia, One Punch Man and Spy X Family, Crunchyroll’s new isekai series, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s, has been slowly making a name for itself with consistent animation quality and a gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing art direction. My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Episode 3, “The Assassin Plays With a Cat,” is yet another step in the right direction for the series in its goal of exceeding the status of the My Heros this fall.

My Status as an Assassin Episode 3 picks up with Akira still hiding out from the King’s army in a nearby dungeon, now joined by an Elfish companion named Amelia. After defeating a giant Dragon boss monster at the end of Episode 2, Akira and Amelia find their opponent undergoing a dramatic transformation. Meanwhile, the Hero’s party sets out to find Akira before the King can get to him. While its story remains limited by generic fantasy and isekai tropes, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s covers new ground on multiple fronts in Episode 3, hinting at big things to come for an overlooked gem.

Akira’s Secret Obsession Lightens the Mood With Dazzling Visuals

As the title of My Status as an Assassin Episode 3, “The Assassin Plays With a Cat” suggests, viewers find out in this episode that Akira has a weirdly over-the-top love with cats. The huge dragon boss that Akira was fighting in Episode 2 transforms into a large black cat, who has the ability to shape-shift. Akira is over the moon at this development, because being able to pet a giant cat is like a dream come true for him. Being a cat lover is a pretty unusual trait to have for an OP MC of Akira’s ilk, and that makes it charming. Akira separates himself from the overcrowded OP isekai hero pantheon thanks to strange personality quirks like this.

Akira’s love for cats lends itself to a bit of silliness and humor that the series otherwise seemed to miss out on up to this point. Night’s introduction opens up interesting possibilities for humor even before the audience gets to know anything about his own personality. It’s a great move that was truly needed at this stage of the story. Akira’s edgy personality was rather boring on its own, but each new hero, from Amelia to Night, helps to round out the cast a bit more.

While the plot remains generic, there’s a heartwarming aspect to Akira’s treatment of Night that at least makes up for it. It’s also welcome to see Akira not brute forcing his way to overcome Night, but winning him over through a gentle embrace. Still, it might have been nice to see a bit more tension between the two from the outset instead of Night just immediately accepting Akira as her master from the start. There was room for a slow-burn friendship arc here that might’ve made both characters more interesting. Nevertheless, Night is an excellent new mastcot-style character who felt sorely needed to spice things up for Akira’s party.

Aside from the joy of simply seeing a new friendly face on Akira’s team, the build-up to Night’s team-up lends itself to one of the more engaging visual sequences in the anime’s short run so far. Akira’s entry into Night’s dream sequence is a fittingly surreal piece of artistry that further shows this series in great hands with Studio Sunrise at the helm of its production. The fact a relatively nameless new series like My Status as an Assassin is receiving this level of consistent quality sets a concerning precedent for a series like One Punch Man, which continues to make headlines due to the controversial handling of Season 3 of the series. It also just speaks volumes of what is possible when a studio has the time, resources and appreciation for the material to bring out its best.

The Hero’s Party Gets Cozy in My Status as an Assassin Episode 3

My Status as an Assassin Episode 3’s second half heads into unexpected territory. It centers around the Hero, Tsukasa Satou, and his party, who have set out from the King’s castle in search of Akira. However, instead of dungeon crawling and monster hunting like Akira’s group, the Hero’s party has something of a slice-of-life moment as they enter a new town and ease into their surroundings. It’s easy to forget that just recently these kids were all studios in the real world, because the pacing of the anime hasn’t really allowed viewers to sit with the struggles of this group of classmates who were isekai’d to a fantasy world.

This sequence is refreshing in that sense, because it at least hones in on the “kids trapped in another world” of it all. While it does go another direction compared to the more realistic approach used in a series like Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, for example, My Status as an Assassin’s more lighthearted take on kids being summoned to another world is a valid approach. It’s arguably just as realistic that a group of kids would enjoy the “Edo Era vibe” (as one of Tsukasa’s party members puts it) and procrastinate in relaxation, as they do in My Status as an Assassin.

It stands to reason that they’d be in constant mortal danger and live in absolute horror, as the kids do in Grimgar. This fun detour helps fans finally get a feel for these kids’ distinct personalities. The anime even seems to recognize the value in the fantasy food genre (think Delicious in Dungeon or Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill) with a mouth-watering close-up of a seafood rice bowl in the midst of it.

Ultimately, the Hero’s Party comes to decide that they should remain in this village for the foreseeable future in order to wait for Akira’s return. With this decision, Episode 3 sets up an intriguing formula for future episodes. Contrasting the darker, more perilous exploits of Akira’s group with the lighthearted slice-of-life atmosphere of Tsukasa’s city life could make for an interesting balancing act. Whereas most isekai series would either choose to emphasize exciting action or comfy comedy, My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s seems to want to have its seafood rice bowl and eat it too.

My Status as an Assassin Proves That Beautiful Animation Makes Up for Generic Stories

It isn’t just the Hero’s Party who get some much-needed characterization in My Status as an Assassin’s third episode. Akira and Amelia finally get some meat added to their respective backstories. Even with these scenes, though, the anime seems intent on moving forward with the cozier atmosphere it already established with Hero’s party. Both Amelia and Akira’s backstories make up some of the most visually distinct moments in the episode. Amelia’s story is told with a fairy-tale style of animation told with grainy imagery that plays-up her identity as an Elf Princess.

On Akira’s part, Episode 3 gives viewers another small fragment into his family life in his home world. This scene finally gives the audience faces and character archetypes for Akira’s mother and sister, which makes his constant harping over his mother and sister feel that much less shallow. While Akira’s mother and sister now both have a face, it’s notable that Akira’s father’s face is blurred out in his family photo. It may be the case that the anime is hiding his likeness from the audience because an important character may resemble Akira’s dad in the future, or he may play part in some twist going forward.

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Episode 3, “The Assassin Plays With a Cat”, is a more relaxed, quasi-slice-of-life episode than previous entries. Nonetheless, glimmers of action shine through to keep the audience on their toes. After being teleported to Amelia’s Elfish homeland at the climax of the episode, the trio find themselves confronted by an archer whom Akira stylishly disposes of. It shows flashes of that epic intro fight from Episode 1, which got many fans hooked to see what this series might be capable of going forward.

Episode 3 feels like a crucial turning point for My Status as an Assassin‘s story, full of new beginnings for the Hero’s Party and troubling dead ends for Akira, Amelia and Night. While it doesn’t tread particularly groundbreaking territory as an isekai storyline, the anime continues to show signs of promise as its characters get deeper and its world grows larger. Still, the animation and art direction of My Status as an Assassin remain the most consistent standouts, showing the value of a dedication to quality and attention to detail that other big anime IPs could learn from.

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.