The Winter 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

Tsuyoshi Mukōda was nothing special in modern Japan, so when he was summoned to a world of swordplay and sorcery, he thought he was ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Too bad the kingdom that summoned him only got him by mistake. Not only was he not one of the three summoned heroes, but his stats were laughable compared to theirs. On top of that, there's something really sketchy about this kingdom. He immediately left to make his way in this other world. Mukōda can only rely on his unique skill: the "Online Supermarket," a skill that allows him to buy modern goods in a fantasy world. It's useless for combat, but he could lead a comfortable life if he plays his cards right. At least, that's what Mukōda thinks, but it turns out modern food bought with this skill has some absurd effects. Mukouda introduces ridiculously tasty everyday cooking to a fantasy world and gets some ridiculous repeat customers begging for more.

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is based on Ren Eguchi and illustrator Masa's light novel series and streams on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

Caitlin Moore
Rating:

I first read Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill for the manga preview guide, and I was charmed enough to enjoy the volume but not enough to spend money on further volumes. I took a look at the original light novel but was immediately turned off by the clunky, amateurish prose that is endemic to the medium. And so I filed Campfire Cooking away in my mind among other series that I would like to check out someday, should it become convenient enough to do so. Well, we live in a world where an anime adaptation is about as convenient as it gets, so here we are.

Campfire Cooking has a lot of the same tropes that I detest in most isekai, so why does it work here? The world uses gaming abstractions like menus, skills, levels. Mukoda ends up rejected from the hero's party, which is the foundation for a dozen mean-spirited revenge stories. Despite having similar trappings, though, this story rejects many of the excesses and pure id-based storytelling that characterize the genre, going for something more subtle. It's remarkable what a difference it makes when a narrative realizes that a skill like “Appraisal,” which is available to every protagonist by default in most series, is actually super powerful. Being able to gain a detailed breakdown of everything and everyone you meet with zero effort would give you a huge leg up in the world; knowledge is power, after all! Things like soap are a rare luxury, adventurers wear sensible plate armor, and there's more flavor in a single Dorito chip than most people have experienced in their entire lives.

The script takes a similar approach to character writing and worldbuilding. Mukoda is overpowered in subtle ways that most series would take for granted; he's just a normal guy with good instincts and situational awareness. He gets bad vibes from the kingdom's rulers and decides to get the hell out of there. Upon realizing that sticking out would be a bad idea, he tries to limit his supermarket ingredients to one or two per dish. The world never feels like it's warping around him, for good or ill. Oh, and instead of buying slaves, he hires a party and pays them for their services. It's positively refreshing.

I know I make this joke at some point every season but it has never felt more apt to say, finally, some good fucking food. And I'm talking both about this season and in the world of gamic isekai.

James Beckett
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Dammit, fine. Fine! If we're forced to live in this reality, where we're seemingly going to be cursed to slog through three dozen new legally-distinct-but-still-essentially-plagiarized isekai anime every few months, I guess I won't turn up my nose when one of them comes along and I end up kind of loving it. Does it force me to question everything I've ever thought I held dear about the core values of art and animation? Yes. Am I deeply upset that I am feeling so enthusiastic about a show with one of those stupid in-world MMORPG menu interfaces that I hate so much? Absolutely. Do I feel like a two-faced phony for actually appreciating the completely unnecessary but educational breakdown of the Yen/Alternate Universe Gold Coin exchange rate that we got at the end of this premiere? Reader, trust me, I don't know how I'll even be able to sleep tonight. Or ever again, for that matter. Yet here we are.

I think what endeared me so much to Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skills is that it takes its world and isekai gimmick just seriously enough to provide a cast of simple yet likable characters, who all inhabit a setting that is believable and interesting, despite being a bit generic. Mukoda, especially, is the kind of hero that is, technically speaking, just as nondescript and featureless as most isekai heroes, but there's just that much of an extra dash of humanity given to his writing and performance to get me to say, “Yeah, you know what? If I ever pissed of God enough to get myself isekai'd into some random fantasy world as a form of nightmarish karmic punishment, I'd probably respond just like this guy.” Cooking good food out in the middle of nowhere for all of the homies that will keep me from getting slaughtered by monsters in exchange for a lifetime of full bellies and constantly elevating sodium levels? Hell yeah, sign me up.

Then again, the show is also not so self-serious that it forgets to be funny, which is another key to its success. The joke of Mukoda's “Online Shopping” skill being the most profoundly useful, reality-warping ability that anyone could ever hope to ask for? That's pretty good. The bit where Mukohda realizes that his cheap camping cookouts actually do act like the stat-boosting foodstuffs from real RPGs had me laughing out loud. And no matter how repetitive it gets, I will never get tired of seeing all of Mukoda's party (and eventually the dark forest gods of legend) become borderline incoherent at how delicious his food is to their deprived tastebuds. I don't know if I've ever related to an anime character harder than when that knight guy's eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning when he realized that he could make his delicious ginger pork cutlet even better by wrapping it up in some soft-ass bread.

So, yeah, I dunno what else to say. There really isn't too much special at all about Campfire Cooking in Another World, but I had a total blast watching it, and I'm genuinely excited to see the next episode. I feel like I don't even know who I am anymore. If you excuse me, I need to go stare listlessly into my bathroom mirror for a couple of hours and wonder if the weight of the Eternal Isekai War has finally broken me for good.

Richard Eisenbeis
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You know, if I enjoyed “food porn” anime, this show might be worth watching. But sadly, I've never thought animated food looked particularly delicious or enticing in any way, though I am often impressed by the effort the animators put in to make it look as realistic as possible. And as the cooking aspect of this isekai anime seems to be the focus, it was obvious early on that this one wasn't really going to be for me.

This is unfortunate because I do like the isekai portion of the show. We have a cast of young, beautiful teens summoned to another world to fight the demon king and find a way home—and Mukoda, the poor twenty-something SOB who got pulled along by accident. While the teens get powerful magic and sword skills, Mukoda gets the “internet supermarket” skill which is seen as useless by both the teen heroes and the kingdom in general (but is actually incredibly overpowered—you know, as these things go).

The thing about Mukoda is that he's genre savvy. He knows all the isekai tropes and uses them to his advantage. One look at the king and he knows who the bad guy is. So Mukoda does his best to seem as useless as possible to be set free—then dons a disguise and tries to flee the country. At the same time, he does his best to keep his unique skill hidden, quickly understanding that getting items from our world to appear on demand is something that could easily make him end up as a slave to be exploited for other people's profit.

It's great to have a quick-witted and pragmatic protagonist. Watching him try to tease out vital information about the world make up the best moments of the episode. Likewise, his reliance on the party of adventures he hired (rather than curb-stomping all the monsters himself) and his trust in their decisions as professionals is likewise good to see. If a sizable amount of the runtime hadn't have been focused on cooking and eating, I'd have said this one is above average. But as the “food porn” does nothing for me, I'll be giving the rest of the show a pass.

Rebecca Silverman
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I was lowkey looking forward to this show, mostly because I appreciate that protagonist Mukoda is labeled (in the source light novels) as a “victim from another world” when he is caught up in the hero summoning of the requisite three teenagers and instantly realizing that no good could come of being sent to fight to the death by a king who is living the high life. Instead, he allows the king to pay him off and live his regular life in a fantasy world. When the books initially came out in English, this was, if not revolutionary, at least drastically different from the rest of the isekai horde. But the part about this story that really appeals to me doesn't come in until the very end of this episode: the way that Mukoda ends up with what is essentially his talking dog. In something that mirrors the way that I have ended up with several pets in the past, the giant Fenrir is lured to Mukoda's side by the smell of the food he is cooking and then basically does what at least two cats and a dog have done to me: says, “I live here now, and you will feed me.”

The episode takes a little bit too long to get to this point. Most of it is busy establishing how Mukoda will live in this new world. He has two things on his side, one being that he very quickly figured out not to trust the royalty from the kingdom he was summoned into, and the second is his unique skill, something called “online grocery store.” Basically, this means that he has magical access to an Amazon-like website that allows him to buy anything they sell online. He feeds in fantasy world currency, and no sooner has he completed his purchase than what he ordered pops into existence beside him, grossly over-packaged. Of all of the bizarre skills that isekai stories have graced their protagonists with over the years, this one seems to be the most useful. Could you imagine being able to get things like tampons and water purification tablets while trekking through some monster-infested wilderness? I feel like Mukoda may be living the isekai dream.

He's also a lot more self-aware than some other summoned heroes are. He knows it's in his best interest not to stand out, and he's very good at reading the room, so to speak. There's something inherently entertaining about watching him panic in the background while the three teens summoned with him jump feet first into their hero designation; it feels like he may be the only one thinking clearly. He also quickly figures out how to put his unique skill to its best use. When he ends up having to hire a party of adventurers to escort him to the next kingdom, he offers to provide all of the meals, something he can do quickly and easily thanks to being able to procure groceries and cooking utensils that don't necessitate having to cook over a campfire. He knows to use only a few fancy new things in front of people living in a medieval world, and he seems to be trying to strike a balance that works for everyone.

This may not be the perfect isekai show or the perfect anything, but it is definitely fun. And what can I say, I'm a sucker for a story with the dog in it.

Nicholas Dupree
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Alright everybody, we've made it to the last (new) isekai of the season. It's been a long, bloody road to make it this far, but it's the home stretch. Thankfully, this final course is a decidedly pleasant affair, perhaps even charming if I feel generous. It still has some of the pitfalls of this incessant genre – the stat screens, the boring JRPG world, the requisite “just like in the manga and light novels” lines – but through sumptuously animated cooking and likable characters, it leaves a good taste in your mouth after you're done.

That doesn't mean this is a particularly exciting episode. If you're going to enjoy Campfire Cooking, you've got to be in the mood to watch some fantasy folks eat homemade meals. So maybe watch this right before dinner to whet your appetite, since the star of this show isn't our protagonist, but the collection of tasty, humble dishes he prepares. There are no fancy recipes or eccentric flavors to be found, just the kind of simple cooking you could make on your stovetop and a little prep time. The food is rendered with just enough detail to make it look appetizing without looking totally out of place with the simple art style of the rest of the show, and even on a full stomach, I was drooling just a bit over those ginger pork chops. At its best, it hits a similar vibe to Restaurant to Another World, where the appeal is just about vibing with these adventurers and monsters chowing down.

As for the actual characters, they're...fine. Mukoda is a little dull, but I was amused by his constantly hiding his special powers. This guy in his late 20s just escaped the clutches of a mundane 9-to-5 and does not want to fight wars like some holy hero for a king he just met. Watching him try to keep his secret, only for his (literally) otherworldly cooking to attract a legendary beast to his side, was worth a solid chuckle. Besides our hero's new gluttonous doggy, the rest of the cast doesn't look to be sticking around too long, but they're mostly here to react to Mukoda's cooking and serve that purpose well. Ultimately, it makes for a familiar and reliable dish: warm, enjoyable, and something you're glad to have, even if it's not the most memorable.