This Week in Anime

What's the Recipe for a Good Isekai?

Nick
Nicky, it's the start of the new year and the new season, which means we've got to pay our taxes. Both the boring regular taxes and the seasonal Isekai Tax that management makes us pay in blood every quarter.

We are auditing you here at the Isekai Revenue Service. You've got NINE of these suckers to deal with this season.

Mostly no! Though yes, having the creative vision not just to copy-paste the template of Reincarnated With A Magic Penis In The Land of Catgirl Slave Wives is certainly a boon. Generally speaking, the less identical your series is to the glut of the subgenre, the more likely people are to actually remember you exist. Nobody will even recognize My Instant Death Ability Is Overpowered in about three days.

Also, I need to point out, in case those screenshots weren't clear, that the majority of this premiere takes place inside a Greyhound bus. That has to be one of the worst, least cinematic places to start your fantasy story, short of opening inside a locked porta-potty.

Folks familiar with the novels claim this is a failure of the adaptation and that the source material says this dude is played much more as a chaotic eldritch being who happens to be shaped like a light novel potato-man. I can't say whether or not that's true. Still, here, he most certainly comes off like the same kind of stone-faced sociopath as every other character because, like every other isekai where the whole class gets brought along, this thing tries to speed-run Lord of the Flies to little effect.

It's almost impressive. Anime has been making boob jokes for decades. There are quite literally millions of them out there you could crib from. Yet this show can't even do that right, because it feels like nobody making this wanted to in the first place.

It's by far the most...traditional? Conventional? Lazy? Whatever the word is, it's the worst of them. However, that doesn't mean the ones that are a few degrees more inventive are all that thrilling. Fluffy Paradise mostly avoids last place on the fact that none of its characters have tried to become murderers, rapists, and necrophiliacs all at once.

I wonder how many of these shows that start with a character dying from overwork are trend-riding versus a desperate cry for help. The more of these we get where the other world is a stand-in for a fantastical afterlife, the more depressing the entire concept becomes. And no, adding big cats to cuddle doesn't make it any less unsettling.

Which isn't necessarily a good thing. Just because Neema's Isekai Valhalla reward is to become a Disney princess instead of the strongest guy in an RPG doesn't mean her life or story is more compelling. The idea that she's supposed to be judging the human race in this world to determine if a god should wipe them off the existential plane or not is by far the most interesting element. So, of course, it's ignored for 99% of the first episode.

They at least take on slightly different forms than their older brothers. Neema doesn't buy any slaves or have to heroically save any women from contrived sexual violence, which is nice. But if the only positives I can give are that it's not as bad as the worst things I have to watch every season, that's not a great sign.

Don't fall for that bird's charms, Sasaki. It's a filthy capitalist deep inside.

"Have you tried not being poor?" - this literal bird brain.

Yep, this show's swerve of choice is that, instead of being permanently sent to a fantasy world, Sasaki pals up with a reverse-isekai'd wizard who helps him hop between worlds. However, instead of going on adventures or exploring this brand-new dimension he's gotten access to, Sasaki's only thought is to make extra money. Now that I write it out like that, it may be more depressing than the overwork trend.

How poisoned has your brain gotta be if finding a new world and learning magic can only be processed by their utility towards a side hustle?

That's the problem. This premiere introduces an idea and shows no real interest in exploring it as a narrative. Sasaki meets a down-on-his-luck chef, takes him in, and makes him the manager of his otherworld restaurant entirely through narration. He learns magic in a montage that he also narrates. The whole thing feels like somebody working through a thought experiment rather than crafting a piece of entertainment.

It's one of those ideas that sounds clever to a writer but is also deceptively complex to pull off. Mashing up two genres sounds like a great way to differentiate yourself from the norm. Still, it turns out that writing two separate, compelling stories is exponentially more demanding than just writing one. So, even with a double-length premiere, this one feels half-baked at best.

That's where the show reveals that even with its twists, it's still following the established formula. Sasaki doesn't have all the powers of an Otakubermensch like most isekai protagonists. However, he's still positioned to live a power fantasy, including romantic interest from teenage girls for no apparent reason. I don't know what this girl's damage is, but if this guy is her romantic ideal, she needs to read some Natsume Ono manga or something. There are far better older men to be crushing on.

I think we've hit the saturation point on villainess stories, too. No story idea can survive being constantly iterated upon every single season. At this point, I'd rather watch a straight-up, no-frills show about a blank-faced girl dating a bunch of handsome guys over watching the hundredth version of this premise, especially when our villainess is also just another overpowered protagonist with maxed-out stats.

I don't even know whether they were all that common before this trend began. The problem with newbie authors constantly borrowing the same ideas from one another is that more and more of the original inspiration gets lost. At some point, the idea of a game character becoming self-aware and using that knowledge to change their story had a grain of creativity. But that's been lost like a degraded JPG over the years of Narou regurgitation. So now the thought of a regular-ass dating sim story is provocative enough that the first episode pretends to be one for half its runtime. They even made a fake opening for it and everything!

Unfortunately, Yumiella herself is a black hole of charisma, and the central joke isn't funny enough to build a whole show on anyway. Also, I can't get over casting Fairouz Ai, an actress with a ton of range and personality to her voice, and making her do this monotone deadpan shtick.

Why would you do this? Look at your life. Look at your choices.

Yeah, it turns out that when you spend half your first episode pretending to be a different show, you can't also flesh out your actual lead or premise. In that regard, it's a bit like Sasaki and Peeps. It's a clever idea that it's not skilled enough to pull off properly. It's like watching an oversugared toddler try to do a backflip. It's enough to make you want to escape from Narou adaptations entirely. Just for some fresh air. Like, hey, it turns out villainess stories know no borders. Just like doctors. Or something. Doctor Elise.

Yes, that transition was mangled, but that's why we have a world-class surgeon to operate on it.

I wasn't as wowed, but it has more potential than Lady Dolkness. Having Elise get double-isekai'd back into her own previous life is an idea rife for an exploration of regret and change, like a more dramatic spin on last season's Tearmoon Empire. However, this opener mostly focuses on telling how Elise is the greatest doctor ever to live.

Honestly, the part about a potential setup in her past life is the element I like the least. Stories like this carry much more weight when the person involved does have a lot to answer for. Yet, through episode one, we have no real clue what Elise did in her previous go-around that brought about her execution.

What crimes!? Be specific! It feels like the story is too skittish to make Elise potentially unlikable. Hence, it skirts around whatever she did before and focuses on her new life as a combination of Mother Teresa and Gregory House.

It's also novel that Elise gets taken out by a plane crash instead of a truck. I guess her options were either getting sent back to her past life or winding up on a new season of LOST.

Much like Elise came from the world of Korean novels, Wedding Rings hails from the land of manga, specifically from the same creator as Dusk maiden of Amnesia. So, while it's still an indulgent power fantasy about an average dude lucking into powers and otherworldly booty, it's at least got more solid storytelling fundamentals than so much of the web novel fodder.

Also, while there are plenty of bad manga out there, starting life as a professional product being produced with access to an editor and coming from a veteran creator gives the whole thing a more substantial feeling to it. Just the way Satou goes to the other world is much more effective than the typical Narou move of sudden death or inexplicable teleportation. Our hero actively chooses to leave his world behind to pursue the girl he's in love with, which colors his motivation and reaction to everything that comes after. It's an act of character agency that drives the plot forward! Like an actual god damn story!

I'm not saying this show is groundbreaking or anything. It's very trashy and, by all appearances, will be about the dude collecting women so he can gain a full fist of magic rings and deliver a Five Finger Wife Punch to the bad guys.

I'm emphasizing how low the competition has set the bar. It exemplifies that even indulgent power fantasies take skill to execute correctly.

Plus, they have the good humor to let Hime see the Ring King's royal scepter and crown jewels. I would never call it an equal opportunity, but at least the show isn't so terrified of putting off the intended straight-dude audience that they won't even let the lead guy be naked in front of his literal wife.

Of course, there are still some further outliers this season, and even roping them in with the rest of these titles feels awkward. While we were planning out what to watch for this column, we had to wait for the first episode of The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash to figure out if it was an isekai show.

This novel way to go about it gives away how vestigial the whole bit is. You could eschew past life stuff altogether, and nothing would be lost. Ivy's personality would be the same, and the audience wouldn't have to hear half of a conversation represented by a bell chime for the entire premiere. Just make a god damn fantasy story at that point.

Meh, I've seen cuter.

Which, if anything, makes the past life part less useful. Ivy's story is most engaging when she's effectively on her own, so the creator either makes her past life memories useless and begs the question of why they're there, or else detracts from the conflict by having it offer useful advice and insight. Again, why not just get rid of this?

It's frustrating because there's a solid cour here; even some basic editing could make it shine. However, there's little reason to do that when the original was successful enough within the circle of Narou readers to get adapted in the first place. So, first draft it is!

I think that's still a safe bet. A title is part of a story's identity as much as anything else, and having a bad one is still a flaw. Find a better naming convention than The Blankest Blank Does Blank in Another Blank. Set yourself apart.

The premiere straight-up has a character listing off notable cool boss fights in their world in a cadence that's remarkably close to the opening cut scene from Elden Ring. Don't be surprised if The Loathsome Dung Eater eventually shows up.

It's certainly a novel approach (if you haven't seen The Executioner and Her Way of Life), but I wasn't really into it. The concept of a bunch of crazy overpowered isekai protagonists all wreaking havoc on a fantasy world is honestly cool, as is the conceit that our female lead is trying to murder the primary Potato-kun via the boss rush. Yet we go from that character's salad days to watching her girlfriend get turned into salsa in under 60 seconds.

It could probably be a great show with some tweaks - though I'm also not wild about the production values, despite the premiere's sky-high ambitions with its action. What we have right now feels like a rush job, slapping characters together gracelessly so we can get to the hook by the episode's end. Yuno and Soujiro's banter is weak, and the reasoning for why she decides he needs to be killed is shaky at best.

Now we have the most divergent offering of the whole line-up: the SSR Ultra Rare isekai that's good in its own right. Will wonders never cease?

That's the thing. Healing Magic doesn't reinvent the wheel or turn the concept or subgenre on its head. It succeeds by having a solid sense of humor and a good knack for character writing. There are a million ways the setup of Usato being a literal hanger-on to the "real" heroes could have turned out meanspirited or angsty. Instead, everyone involved treats him empathetically, like they're actual people rather than plot devices.

I joked on Twitter about how this moment felt like a couple trying to pick him up for a threesome, but it's genuinely striking how rare it is to see characters just be personable. There's no weird hatred for the "popular" kids, and neither secretly hides some vindictive or nasty side. Before they hit the fantasy world, it feels like Usato is making some unexpected friends, which carries over once they're all summoned into Fantasyville.

There are way, way too many isekai and isekai-adjacent shows that contrive a scenario where an essential part of any RPG party is seen as worthless - see this season's The Strongest Tank's Labyrinth Raids - so I'm glad there's none of that here. Usato's role is emphasized as important and folds perfectly into his desire to help his new friends out. It's simple, but I have to appreciate how it makes him feel good-natured without being boring. It helps that he has his own personal Genkai to whip him into shape.

Also, by episode 2, Usato gets ripped as hell.

It's a clever cheat that works because Usato gets Mr. Miyagi'd into it, while also building a rapport with Rose and developing as a character. Getting beefier is still partly a power fantasy, but with that fantasy comes a sense of responsibility and duty that Usato isn't quite confident enough to face yet.

Who'd have thought that making an earnest hero who has to build up his ability and skill would make for an engaging story? It turns out that when you have creative goals outside of "make the hero the strongest" and "hit trending on Narou," you can make something that's pretty fun.

She's a perfect foil to Usato, always demanding more of him than he thinks he's capable of, while assured that he can do it with the right push. They make a good team, and the rest of the cast works well, too. That's a hell of a lot more than I can say for any other show we talked about here.

It proves that the ultimate problem with the incessant isekai deluge isn't the premise itself but a trend of uninspired execution. You can make a good isekai story, but that requires being willing and able to make a good story at all. So please, everyone involved in making these things, please be a little more picky about what you choose to adapt. Because 1 out of 9 is a terrible hit rate.