The main character gets laid off from his guild to save a few coins. I guess guilds are just like greedy corporations. And just like greedy, short-sighted corporations, they don’t realize that the protagonist can simply take back all of the benefits he ever bestowed upon them. Man, I could’ve sworn I just watched this show a few days ago. To be fair, however, the differences between The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life and that MP battery show are huge. First, let’s get the minor stuff out of the way. For instance, Rein is not an MP battery. Rather, he’s an enchanter who has never gone on any actual adventures himself. Up until he got laid off at the start of the first episode, all he ever did was buff people’s gear, and again, he’s now taking back all of those enchantments. Somehow, he can do it all at the same time, which means he’s got thousands upon thousands of enchantment points to play with. Basically, Rein’s OP despite his less-than-flattering gear (a copper sword and plainclothes). Why didn’t he do this before? I guess he just never knew he could…?

And this plays into the next difference between this show and the MP battery one, and it’s a big doozy: I honestly have to admit that The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life has good energy. Okay, okay, don’t get me wrong. It’s not rip-roaringly hilarious. If you’re like me, it’s not going to make you bust a gut. But this “kicked out of the adventurer’s party guild” anime has decent comedic timing. I can appreciate the craft even if I don’t actually laugh. We get all the usual tropes, but it’s how they’re portrayed. Yes, Rein’s newly enchanted plainclothes make him invincible, but him arguing with Nina, his future guild receptionist, that she should just let him get punched in the gut makes it a little more entertaining than some self-insert MC trying to aura farm right from the get-go.

More than anything, however, I just appreciate the fact that this isn’t a revenge story. This isn’t about getting back at your former childhood friend, or showing your former crush what she missed out on. Rein is like a hyperactive kid who finally gets to have some fun for once — who finally gets to go outside after being cooped up indoors all these years. He’s onto his next adventure, which is apparently slaying a dragon. Why can’t we just have fun instead of getting revenge? Granted, I would’ve preferred a standard hero’s journey, i.e. starting out from level one and gradually getting stronger. But I understand that the people who love this kind of story don’t have the patience for that sort of character-building. They want to be OP right from the start. That’s why I’m somewhat glad that this show seems like it’s leaning more into the humor rather than stroking the self-insert hero’s massive ego. For instance, even after everything Nina has seen Rein do, she’s still somewhat slow on the uptake; she still doesn’t think he’s qualified to do anything dangerous even though he just literally scared off a horde of thugs with a single swing of his copper sword +10000.

Anyway, like I said, Rein goes to slay a dragon, and he’s accompanied by Lily, an S-rank adventurer whose exploits have all but disappeared in recent years. She’s also quite a bit surly. Lemme guess, she recently went through a painful ordeal, and the trauma from it has prevented her from questing these days? Like I said, it’s not like this show is madly original. It just has good energy, so hopefully, it can spin Lily’s story into something entertaining even if it ends up being rather bog standard. Ah well, guess we’ll find out soon enough.

I won’t do a dedicated post on this show or anything. I’ll still assign it to the Generic (Power) Fantasy Anime column. Having said that, The Laid-Off Cheat-Granting Mage Enjoys a Second Lease on Life might be something worth looking forward to every week rather than another slopfest to dread.