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REVIEW: Isekai Cheat Magician


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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:14 am Reply with quote
I liked the series, but the reviewer is sadly right. Demon Lord Retry clearly beat them.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:06 pm Reply with quote
I absolutely agree that this is a generic isekai show, but I was entertained and often pleased throughout its run.
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Thespacemaster



Joined: 03 Mar 2012
Posts: 1095
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:24 pm Reply with quote
Even Hardcore Isekai Junkies will find it hard to stomach this one cause of it's generic elements, with bad shows like airfuerta you at least have something to talk about but this is just so plain average and generic that it really is nothing but a boring series.

I guess it would be fine if it is used to introduce the isekai series concept to a newbie or someone not familiar with anime in general but outside of that very few would really bother with this.
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Skyletv



Joined: 11 Dec 2017
Posts: 81
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:15 pm Reply with quote
I don't really care about clichés, I knew that this show was going to be cliché, I defended it in the first episodes but then it became so dumbly cliché that I couldn't defend it anymore. Taichi was so uninteresting and while I liked the design of the girls, they weren't that interesting either.
At the end of the series I think I can confidently say that I would have preferred to follow Rin's gay adventures.
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Tenebrae



Joined: 26 Apr 2008
Posts: 485
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:11 pm Reply with quote
Ah, this is the show based on that manga which, on a certain popular fan translation site whose users readily give generic by-the-numbers isekai pap average scores of 8, has a score of 5.59. And I agree with that, I think the only good thing about that manga is Nardack's cover art. Needless to say, I haven't checked the anime.
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uberbenbo



Joined: 30 Sep 2019
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:49 pm Reply with quote
The characters aside, I thought the events of the middle arc starting with episode 3 reminded me of a good tabletop roleplaying game module- rumors, investigations, ambushes, dungeon crawling, plots uncovered, etc.. I'm currently running an urban campaign and if I got anything out of the show, it's the outline of an adventure I can quickly flesh out. The last arc, eh, not so much.
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micah007



Joined: 25 Jan 2017
Posts: 205
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:06 pm Reply with quote
It was definitely generic and could have done more to stand out since it had elements that were genuinely interesting. I enjoyed Rin more than Taichi simply because her applying Modern Chemistry to understanding her powers was interesting and a good example of a modern character applying futuristic knowledge in a less advanced age. She was also just more creative in general in combat, but Taichi had a Goku quality to him that also made him entertaining. This definitely was a weird series since I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but at the same time it was DEFINITELY generic and yet personally I didn't find that enough of a blow to kill my interest, at least in the first half. From what I hear the other aired series in a grey spot like this was Demon Lord Retry.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:01 pm Reply with quote
I also personally enjoyed the show even though it didn’t do anything new or different. I think what sold the show for me was the positive chemistry between all the main characters and it wasn’t all overly dark and edgelord like more recent isekai shows have been. Even though Taichi is kind of bland (his name makes me think of Taichi from Digimon), he’s such a good natured kid that I can’t help but root for him. But I probably would have liked the show more if Rin was the MC. I’m glad I'm not the only one who noticed Muller was totally gay for Rin which I feel like is kind of rare to see positive lesbian rep in a light novel isekai anime.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:29 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
I’m glad I'm not the only one who noticed Muller was totally gay for Rin which I feel like is kind of rare to see positive lesbian rep in a light novel isekai anime.

I liked that aspect too. Rin and Muller would make a nice couple.
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writerpatrick



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 670
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:09 pm Reply with quote
This is the sort of show I'd only bother to watch dubbed since it would require less attention. I haven't watched it yet, although if it gets added to Isekai Quartet I might.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:05 pm Reply with quote
I did personally make the observation that though you could say one thing that made it special was having two people, I think that it could have been better if there was no Taichi. Keep Rin, a girl who applies things like chemistry for magic like she did, build her character up more around her relationship with her gal pals, now that there is no Taichi to compare her to, save her and so on. It may have not even had to do much different, but without the insert main character it could have been more interesting.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:12 pm Reply with quote
writerpatrick wrote:
This is the sort of show I'd only bother to watch dubbed since it would require less attention. I haven't watched it yet, although if it gets added to Isekai Quartet I might.
Crunchyroll just dropped the first episode of the dub today.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3627
PostPosted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:38 am Reply with quote
Definitely agree with the review and comments. Generic, but still enjoyed it.

It would have been nice to see it lean more in to using modern scientific understanding to create interesting new magic, though the prime show off spell they did (the steam explosion) was anything but. A gigantic hole in the ground is probably where it could have ended as that alone took out a lot of troops. Filling it with water also then becomes an effictive way to drown your opponents if that's what you're looking for too. However, the steam explosion ended up being unimpressive, creating more of a geyser iirc than a giant explosion that took out even more troops. It just seemed like a waste of energy for very little additional gain.
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:09 am Reply with quote
writerpatrick wrote:
This is the sort of show I'd only bother to watch dubbed since it would require less attention. I haven't watched it yet, although if it gets added to Isekai Quartet I might.


I keep on telling people that the relationship between quality and likelihood of getting dubbed is pretty much inverse, but it never seems to sink in.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Isekai Cheat Magician was a light novel series written by a single author but it feels like it was made by a committee that was trying to play it safe. It is an isekai story that sticks to the safest narrative choices and is the blandest show I have seen this season. It does have some cute moments with Rin and Muller but it doesn't have much of a hook apart from standard fantasy adventure.

nargun wrote:
I keep on telling people that the relationship between quality and likelihood of getting dubbed is pretty much inverse, but it never seems to sink in.

Whether a show gets a dub is mostly a matter of popularity and Isekai Cheat Magician had a fraction of the audience of a big name isekai but it was still getting about ten times the number of episode votes on Crunchyroll than Granbelm. There are plenty of anime shows I liked that I know won't get a dub since they didn't get a simuldub and only had a small western audience.
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