YMMV / In the Land of Leadale

• Heartwarming Moments: The show is full of them.
  • Given Cayna's previous existence, she gives her all to making the most of her new life in her new world. Though she has something of a temper and is more willing to use lethal force than a few other heroes out there, everything she does is for the good of the people around her.
  • Cayna's adoption of Luca. The entire last quarter of the anime is dedicated to Cayna giving motherhood a shot and giving Luca the life she was robbed as a result of the zombie plague. Given Cayna's own previous existence, it only makes sense she'd do everything in her power to provide her newest daughter a proper life and home.
• Ron the Death Eater: Since the anime premiered, some fans seem to excessively focus on Cayna's interactions with her new family, especially her exasperation and more slapstick moments with them, referring to her as an abusive mother. What these people forget is that Cayna herself is still mentally a teenage girl who's spent years trapped on life support and her family up until recently were NPCs, ignoring that Cayna still has to remind herself that Leadale is no longer a game and always trying to make things right if she feels she's gone too far.
  • Steps are also taken to tone this down in the second half of the anime, where Cayna comes to fully understand the implications of the servers being off. There's still some slapstick between her and Skargo, but greater attention is placed on Cayna's motherly treatment towards her newest daughter, Luca, who she at most ever scares somewhat. The implication is that her elder children, being adults who lived the past 200 years without her, don't need her holding back on them, while friendlier care should be considered with the literal small child she's raising.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Though it's somewhat the point, there's no doubt that the story takes a very relaxed approach to the introduction. The entire anime adaption more or less exists to set up more seasons, and there aren't many grand plots going on. This is mostly the result of the story being one of discovery; Leadale's already had its most turbulent times, and Cayna is making her mark on a world that largely doesn't need her beyond dealing with other former players who are causing problems that are well above the NPCs' collective weight class. Most of Cayna's input is figuring out what happened so long ago. The introduction of Luca does add a bit more verve to the plot, though, and Cayna's two attendants give Cayna consistent allies to work off of to keep things interesting.

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