“The Gorilla Life of a Lady and Blessings”
What They Say:
Sophia Reeler, a timid noble, chose the Gorilla God’s blessing—the ultimate combat power. Now her dream of a peaceful student life is shattered as the royal knights recruit her unrivaled strength. Juggling school, the knight life, and her overwhelming power, Sophia learns the hard way that gorilla strength isn’t so simple.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga by writer Shirohi and artist Mika Kamisu, which is not available in English, this spring 2025 anime adaptation is one that definitely had me the most curious just from having gorillas in it. The original manga got underway in 2021, so it saw a pretty quick path to animation and saw Fumitoshi Oizaki directing it from the series composition by Hitomi Amamiya. Oizaki has a lot of directorial credits and several full series ones among them, such as Astarotte’s Toy and Place to Place, but also the excellent Romeo x Juliet series. Amamiya has only a few works to their name but worked on Merc Storia and the recent Strongest Tank’s Labyrinth project. Kachigarasu handled the animation production. Oizaki founded it after leaving Gonzo in 2008, and they’re more usually listed under Encourage Films until they were recently renamed.
The idea behind the show is that certain people, when they turn sixteen, are basically gifted powers through various animals/gods kind of thing that they’re able to use in their life. We’re introduced to Sophia as she gets her blessing and thinks about what it could impart on her. But this proper, if timid, young woman of noble birth is blessed by the Gorilla God and that means it’s all about the combat skills and strength that comes from it. Naturally, once this starts to come out it’s going to cause problems for her but the usual cliques and mean girls make their entire personalities about their Blessing and what abilities that it gives them. Sophia just wants to exist since she’s not keen on this but living and studying in what’s basically a school for nobility and royalty means that it’s a constant game of personalities, especially for those that are looking to enhance their families’ standing through marriage as well. All Sophia wants to do is graduate, but it’s not easy when all of this is factored in. And that’s before she got the strength of a gorilla that she hasn’t mastered control over yet.
Sophia does understand how rare such a Blessing is, as the proctor that handles the Blessings mentions that it’s the first time he’s seen it come up in fifty years of handling this. And that does eventually lead her to being tested as a potential recruit for the royal knights because of her strength and power. What will help with this, since she’s not keen on being so public with her powers, is on her way there she ends up coming across Louis Scarrel, and is a bit smitten with him. Of course, he’s involved in all of this as well so that’ll help her as time goes on, but it’s a familiar meet-cute even though she doesn’t know who he is since she’s oblivious to such things. So his formal reveal later as the youngest candidate ever several years ago and is now administering the exam, it certainly catches her attention.
It’s fun to watch the fairly standard physical activity exam get underway since she figures she’ll just fail at everything, but she’s so massively overpowered in strength and speed that it’s comically over-the-top. It’s a good creative channeling of the Gorilla God and has her starting to understand what she may truly be capable of with each test, even if she’s super nervous at first. But it’s also who she is as a person that comes out, such as when one of the other examinees has trouble with one of the tests and she not only helps him out in getting through it, but when things go really bad she showcases exactly what it is that will make her an excellent royal knight. It certainly impresses Louis as it unfolds and Sophia saves Isaac, particularly since she’s both trying to play it down and still embarrassed by the attention and her own Blessing abilities.
In Summary:
Of all the shows this season, this one had me the most curious simply because of its title and imagery. It’s a fairly standard show in a number of ways but it’s using the familiar pieces creatively and appling the Gorilla God Blessing to it just provides the right kind of accent that takes it up a notch or two. It’s fairly standard with its animation and all but it looks good and everything fits right so that it’s enjoyable without being this drop dead gorgeous piece of animation, which is more than fine. The cast is solid and the setting, while generic, has room to grow as more of the cast comes in and if we manage to get some not-awful female friends for Shophia as well. I like just about everything with it and it’s got a unique enough hook that it’s something that might surprise a lot of people in how enjoyable it is.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
