The Fruit of Evolution (2024)

Assorted Tropes:

Abhorrent Admirer: Salia would be the perfect wife and home-maker, as she's great with children, kind, an excellent chef and tailor, and completely devoted to Seiichi. There's just one problem; she's a 400 pound gorilla who thought the best way to get his attention was to attack him with lethal force, and keeps dragging him back to her nest, holding him captive. By chapter 6 of the manga, this gets resolved.
Accidental Proposal: Seiichi gives Altaria a ring to counteract the curse that gives her bad luck... by putting it on her left ring finger. He realizes a little too late that, with some words he said to her before, it could be taken as a marriage proposal.
Adaptation Explanation Extrication: The manga adaptation skips over a great deal of exposition.
Adaptive Ability: Seiichi is a living, breathing example of "what does not kill you makes you stronger." Any and every negative status buff he experiences, he becomes immune to, if it doesn't kill him first.
Art Shift: In the manga, every time Seiichi experiences a strong emotion, he winds up looking like a character from Fist of the North Star.
- When Seiichi is inventing a spell to liberate someone from slavery or mind control, his first thought is Abraham Lincoln, including a half-page realism style portrait of said president.
Bishōnen Line: The effect of eating ten "Fruits of Evolution" and "Evolving" ten times. On the final evolution, the one who does so becomes the epitome of human beauty, regardless of original appearance or species.
Black Comedy Rape: When Seiichi and Salia join the adventurer's guild, Seiichi gets lured into a back alley by three of its most delinquent-looking members. Seiichi expects hazing, or maybe a fight. Instead, the three make no attempt to disguise how they want a piece of his ass, sexually. His response is to cry out "Hell NO!" and flee. The next scene is the three "delinquents" passed out, over a barrel, as they had chased him through town, trying to catch him, without success.
Cerebus Rollercoaster: While the story is unflinchingly a comedy that doesn't take itself seriously, it can't decide if it's a modern comedy or a Shakespearean one, as it touches on some very profound and dramatic elements, particularly after Seiichi defeats a dungeon boss.
Compressed Adaptation: The anime cuts and simplifies a lot of content, and also messes up with the order of some things. One of the more egregious examples is the Salomonic reduction of the students of class F, as three of them that didn't have a big pay-off and one who had a cathartic pay-off about self-confidence (overlapping with Seiichi in that regard) in that particular arc but had no real involvement afterwards got mercilessly cut off; which is a bit tragic considering their original situation.
Cosmic Plaything: Seiichi, of course. Not only did "god" mock his body and odor (the latter of which he has no control), but gave him a stat sheet full of insults.
Creator Cameo: Miku, the author of the light novels, voices an unnamed man with a mohawk hairstyle who appears in Episodes 3, 11 and 12.
Cursed with Awesome: Seiichi's body odor (over which he had no control while on Earth) got him horribly bullied. In this new world, it saves his life, as the first monster who beat him up and tried to chow down on him, got one whiff, and died. He even gets a skill to directly control the smell, much to his annoyance given the implications.
Evil Chancellor: Scheld Wohl Kaiser, the Kaiser Emperor, has a dark wizard by his side who acts as this, being an evil, cunning advisor. However, in this case, the dark wizard doesn't really have to work overtime in plotting and conniving, because the Kaiser Emperor is just as evil and scheming as he is and the two of them go together like peas in a pod.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The skill God gave Seiichi after he was rejected by his classmates before being summoned, "Complete Disassembly". This skill completely break down any enemy that he defeats into things he can use. This doesn't just include physical materials (like meat or pelts), it also lets him gain their skills, stats and even their history and knowledge become known to him. In addition, item drops (including rare and powerful equipment) become an outright certainty in most cases (water magic boosting sword he got from defeating a wolf early on). This skill, along with the Fruits of Evolution, is a key factor in Seiichi becoming as strong as he does.
Foreshadowing: Chapter 5 of the manga, second to last page, has a panel with a picture of six women who will wind up joining Seiichi's harem, and yes, one of them is in her original donkey form.
Hammerspace: While the manga only focuses on Seiichi's, everybody in Seiichi's school got an "Item Box" that allows them to store things in an alternate dimension, as part of the compensation for being whisked away to this RPG Mechanics 'Verse.
Humans Are Bastards: At least among the rulers of the human empire. While the citizens are, for the most part, simply people trying to live their lives in peace, the leaders are morally bankrupt, kicking every puppy they come across, just because they can, and woe if they feel envious or slighted.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: As is revealed in chapter 11 of the manga, the original Demon King was entirely content to live his life away from humans, having gathered up all the abused and mistreated "monsters" on a far-away continent. The humans, who only saw "monsters" as slaves, at best, would not abide that and waged a war of subjugation and extermination upon him, after summoning "heroes" to their world.
Humanity Ensues: Both Salia and Rurune gained the ability to transform into humans after eating 10 Fruits of Evolution.
Indecisive Parody: The series certainly comes across as a parody of isekai light novels by making jokes such as the protagonist learning skills and powers at such a ridiculous rate that even he gets exasperated by it, the adventurer's guild being full of various types of perverts, and his harem simply not caring about being rivals for his affections, instead sharing him equally—two of them even first met and became attracted to him as a pink gorilla monster and a donkey, respectively. That said, the series does play the protagonist helping the girls with their personal problems pretty seriously, and plays the Prejudice Aesop straight several times throughout, so whether exactly The Fruit of Evolution is poking fun at the typical isekai formula or actually is a typical isekai punctuated by dirty jokes every now and then is not exactly made clear.
In Medias Res:
- Played for laughs in the manga. The story starts with Seiichi and Salia are enjoying a picnic in a meadow when she spots a squirrel-like monster that she finds cute. Seiichi denies her when she asks to make it a pet. To prove him right, said monster jumps up and attacks her the moment she turns her back... to find that she's actually a 400 pound gorilla who retaliates by throwing it with so much force it becomes a Twinkle in the Sky.
- The first episode of the anime starts by showing Salia's transformation into her gorgeous human form before the opening credits. When that episode ends with Salia, still in her gorilla form, carrying Seiichi back to her den, Seiichi wonders aloud when he will actually see the naked beauty shown at the beginning.
Interspecies Romance: Seiichi's first wife, and the first heroine, is a 400 pound gorilla, and he later adds a donkey. Of course, they assume a human form first, as a result of eating 10 "Fruits of Evolution."
Jerkass God: The "God" who whisks Seiichi's entire school to another world, especially in the original light novel, where he verbally pats himself on the back for shipping people to another world, not even bothering with consent, with every other word being an insult to his victims, and a veiled threat that he could do things in a much more vicious way. The one slightly kind thing he did was gift Seiichi the "Complete Disassembly" skill when he saw that Seiichi had been effectively abandoned by the rest of the "heroes", not that this stops him from insulting the poor teenager in various ways through his stat screen.
Karmic Jackpot: Seiichi. The rest of the class bullied him for his body-type and odor, and abandoned him during the summoning. They wind up slaves in all but name. While Seiichi didn't have an easy time either, he gets compensated with a much better body, and a Battle Harem of very loving, and very attractive, wives. Not to mention that he becomes a force of nature, as a direct result of his efforts.
Kidnapped by the Call: An entire school, 800 some people, is yanked away from Earth and shoved into another world by a Jerkass God, who makes each and every one of them an Unperson, so it won't have to deal with the rest of the planet wondering where they went.
Literal Genie: The first two times Seiichi creates a spell with his Magic Creation skill, the skill names the spell after the first thing he says. Naming the curse reversing spell 'Get Well' isn't that bad, but the liberation spell 'President Lincoln' is a lttle odd, especially in a world with no concept of that.
Number of the Beast: Played for Laughs in Chapter 11. Leia, Captain of the 3rd Platoon of the Demon King's army, apparently has had 666 (failed) marriage interviews.
Polyamory: In-Universe, it's revealed to Seiichi that in the world he was summoned to, having multiple spouses is socially accepted (albeit uncommon outside of royalty and nobility). This is discussed in relation to his troubles related to Artoria after his Accidental Proposal to her (which would have much more dire consequences if Artoria found out about it as such things are taken very seriously), laying the groundwork for the Battle Harem he winds up with.
Power-Up Food: The titular Fruit of Evolution. Its most mundane effect is, when eaten, it immediately leaves you feeling full and satisfied as though you'd eaten a full day's meal (though the taste is terrible according to Seiichi). The true benefits of the Fruit is that it allows the one to consume to, well, evolve, the effect triggering the next time the one who eats it levels up by defeating an opponent stronger than it. These include significant stat increases and physical changes (e.g. Seiichi losing a lot of weight the first time it happens). The maximum number of Fruits someone can eat is ten (with dire, if not outright lethal, consequences if they try to eat more), and if they can trigger the Fruit's effect all ten times, that person will reach the pinnacle of their species, or may even transcend into another (interestingly, any non-human species, like Salia the Kaiser Gorilla, also gain the ability to turn into a human and back again on top of everything else). An old legend claims that the Fruits are the crystalized power of a god who was sealed away after rebelling against the other gods.
RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Lampshaded in chapter 1 by the "god" sending everyone to a new world.
Shout-Out: A lot.
- In the anime, after Seiichi gets together with both Salia and Artoria, they get surrounded by people they know who applaud them and say "congratulations!"
- During the montage of Seiichi's date with Artoria in the anime, we get a shot of them going to a play that is clearly Peter Pan.
- The title of episode 6 is a direct reference to YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World.
- Episode 8 has a Rose of Versailles shoutout.
Stock Light-Novel Hero: The story openly mocks the concept. Seiichi is the stereotypical bullied teenage Japanese kid who gets whisked to an alternate world by "god," and becomes a powerhouse with a harem of loving beauties, as a result of his efforts, and "cheat" skills. Of course, the first haremette, and Harem Seeker, Salia, starts the story as a 400 pound gorilla who kidnaps Seiichi, repeatedly drags him to her nest against his will, pushes other girls onto him, and it's a rare day when doing something mundane doesn't have the RPG Mechanicsverse suddenly flood his brain with messages, indicating all the new "cheat" skills he accidentally unlocks.
"Unattributed Magic: Master has been added.... By acquiring the magic, title [Hidden Secrets of Magic] has is received."
Seiichi:"I was just reading a book."
"By acquiring the title..."
Seiichi: "Give me a break..."
The Good King: Lanself Ford, the king of Wimburg (the kingdom where Seiichi and his friends live), otherwise known as Lanse. He is beloved by his subjects for both his kindness and his wisdom, and he does not show any bigotry towards non-humans. Seiichi first meets him in a cafe where Lanse likes to get away from the court and just relax, with Lanse even offering advice to Seiichi on life. It's implied that the previous Kaiser Emperor was also this, but unfortunately the current Kaiser Emperor is the exact opposite, an elitist, sad*stic tyrant who's happy to abuse his power over others.
Too Dumb to Live: Literally. The "horse-deer" mounts are so stupid, they have to be constantly ordered to breathe or they will simply stare ahead vacuously, dying unnoticed.
Tough Love: Zakhia Gilford, the leader of the Kaiser Imperial Knights, puts the summoned heroes through a grueling training routine every day. While even the heroes complain that the training wouldn't be as useful as actual combat, in reality Zakhia is doing his best to keep the students away from danger, as he not only recognizes how messed up it is to summon a bunch of innocent civilians and basically threaten them into fighting the demon lord, he actually opposes the war with the demons in the first place. At best, Zakhia hopes to teach them how to survive rather than how to kill.
Tragic Monster: To date, all the dungeon bosses Seiichi has to defeat have horrific backstories justifying their hatred, and Seichi is all but forced to read each and every one of them.
Trapped in Another World: None of the summoned characters can return to Earth by any means.
Written by the Winners: In chapter 13, Seiichi heads to the local library to gather information about the world, especially the Demon King, that revives every few centuries. Most, if not all, the books he finds are fairy tales that end "and thus the hero married the princess, and they lived happily ever after." This contradicts the original hero's diary that says once the heroes have defeated the Demon King, they are forced to commit suicide.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: If the Hero's own diary, owned by Seiichi, is to be believed, once the "heroes" summoned by the empire have completed their duty, they are compelled to commit suicide.

The Fruit of Evolution (2024)

Assorted Tropes:

References