The Winter 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter

When ordinary salaryman Seiichirou Kondou sees a girl struggling on his way home from work, he doesn't think twice about going to help her. Unfortunately for him, the girl, Yua Shiraishi, was being summoned to another world, and Seiichirou was pulled along with her. The people of the fantasy kingdom don't quite know what to do with this unexpected interloper, and are stunned (and put off) by Seiichirou's insistence on working for his keep. But because he's not the summoned saint, Seiichirou has no defenses against the natural "magicules" that fill the air, and he finds himself on the brink of death. The only thing that can save him is an infusion of magicules, administered repeatedly over time, to acclimate him. And somehow, handsome young knight Aresh Indolark ends up being the one to give it to him.

Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter is based on storywriter Yatsuki Weakest and illustrator Kikka Ohashi's The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter light novel series. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

When The Case Book of Arne almost put me to sleep, I thought I might be done for the day. My choices would be to muddle through the remaining reviews, turning out subpar work, or just give up on getting paid to watch such intellectually stimulating art as *checks notes* The Demon King's Daughter Is Too Kind!!. Luckily for all of us, I decided to watch The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter before throwing in the towel. Like Seiichirou after drinking a health tonic, I found myself feeling awake and refreshed. The promise of homosexuality is so reinvigorating!

Also, I drank some water and ate something with protein, but that was probably unrelated.

I doubted it when my friends told me Other World Bean Counter is good, actually; I like to think my skepticism toward Narou-kei series is well-earned after doing first-episode reviews here and elsewhere for nearly ten years now. I'm here to say: Megan, I'm sorry. You were right. This is actually pretty good, and it's not just because of the sultry looks Aresh keeps throwing at Seiichiro. Seiichiro doesn't get transferred to another world and immediate settle into a comfortable life of doing the same thing he did before, but with nicer coworkers and better conditions.

Okay, there is an element of that. He's shocked when his coworkers start getting ready to walk out the door the moment their work hours end. It doesn't come so easily to Seiichiro, though. After years of overworking himself, he doesn't know what else to do with himself. Instead of resting like his associate urges him to, he starts horking down magical Five-Hour Energies like he's me during Preview Guide. The episode gets at an important truth: hard work may get results and feel satisfying, but overdoing it with no time for rest has terrible consequences for your physical and mental health. He's the kind of guy who takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, from improving the country's financial record-keeping and creating safeguards against embezzlement to trying to look out for the teenage Yua.

I'd describe director Shinji Ishihara's past resume as workmanlike in terms of technical proficiency; he translates the manga he works on into perfectly fine, faithful anime. The most important thing is he has a lengthy track record of leading adaptations that feature gay male couples. Even if the anime of The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter isn't impressively transformative, it's good to know that it's in the hands of someone who won't get grossed out when two men start boning.

I really like the premise of this one: What if a random Japanese wage slave guy was isekai'd into a fantasy otome game along with the female protagonist? This is a great way of exploring the tropes without things getting silly or having our hero be genre savvy.

Kudou is just a normal guy seeing this world without all the romance trappings. While he's so beaten down by the salaryman life that he picks things up right where he left them in Japan, that doesn't mean he isn't analyzing things constantly. He's basically put himself in a dead-end job in the bureaucracy. He's basically saying, “I'm not important, ignore me.”

Shiraishi, on the other hand, is so caught up in the romance fantasy of the situation (she is a high schooler after all) that she's never even considered her role in the whole thing. When it comes down to it, the two of them know nothing about this kingdom, its history, or its motives—other than what the kingdom wants them to know. For all they know, the Saintess is destined to be burned at the stake when this is over to “return her to the heavens” or some such nonsense (i.e., to keep her out of power once her job is done). Shiraishi is just taking everything at face value, while Kudou is not.

Also, because this is an otome game world, Shiraishi is basically the only girl in it. All the nobles we meet are exclusively men—and pretty ones at that. While I wasn't sure things were going to go this route during the episode proper, the ending credits make it pretty clear that Kudou is into men—so at least he won't be starved for romance.

All in all, I enjoyed this one far more than I expected. Kudou's worries about the kingdom, whether they are well-founded or not, add more than a bit of tension to their situation. Likewise, having Kudou and Shiraishi so at odds with each other's thinking makes for some solid conflict. After all, if they are longing for a slice of home, they only have each other.

I really dig the way Isekai Office Worker establishes its story. Maybe it's just me, but the subtitle of “The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter” just immediately primes me to suffer through a boring slog that could only possibly appeal to folks who are both hopelessly addicted to fantasy slop and hopelessly trapped in the 24/7 grind of Japanese white-collar hell. From the get-go, though, Isekai Office Worker makes it clear that it is actually putting some thought and care into this little production. For one, I appreciate how Kondou's accidental summoning to the fantasy otherworld plays up the darker subtext of the genre that we rarely get to explore. The girl Seiichirou tries to rescue looks like she's become the unwitting star of a Japanese remake of Drag Me to Hell, and it's rare that a show treats the frankly horrifying logistics of the standard isekai premise with anything other than bootlicking fealty to the power fantasy of it all. So, kudos are already being earned.

Then, once Seiichirou does land in the land of Vaguely Medieval, European-Style Castles and Suchlike, I cannot help but respect how he is just immediately cursed to be the downest of bads over hot guy with purple eyes holding court over the summoning circle. The poor guy has been trapped in a parallel universe because of a (literal!) clerical error, so the least that this story could do is provide an opportunity for him to “count some beans” while he's, you know… counting beans.

Okay, look, I don't exactly know if that works as a punny euphemism for hot, gay sex, but throw Kondou and me a bone, okay? Our hero is just trying to adjust to a life that has completely upended everything he has ever thought he knew about the basic laws of reality, and I'm sitting here trying to figure out how a show with a title like Isekai Office Worker actually turned out to be pretty good. Granted, the fantasy setting of the otherworld is admittedly about as generic as it gets — I swear to the hero-summoning goddesses, why don't any of these protagonists ever get whisked away to the legally-distinct-enough-to-avoid-a-lawsuit version of, like, the Lands Between from Elden Ring, or the world of Thra from The Dark Crystal? As bummed as I am to be trapped in the same old cobblestone streets and marbled palace hallways, though, it's all of the smaller details that Isekai Office Worker excels in.

The premiere is paced well, and the dialogue is surprisingly engaging and understated, especially given the subgenre we're operating in. I love that Seiichirou doesn't just take the empire's intentions at face value, which actually results in some interesting conflicts with the Shiiraishi girl who has become this world's “holy maiden.” Then there's the presence of the handsome and imposing Sir Indolark, who spends most of this premiere glowering in the background while Shiiraishi makes trouble with all of his questions and investigating. You just know, though, that this means that Indolark is going to be the one man that can be trusted amidst all these courtiers and schemers, which will inevitably lead to that hot, gay loving that the show's trailers promised us.

In other words, despite coming up short in a couple of key areas, I'd say that Isekai Office Worker has the juice. We've got a smart and capable hero whose adventures in this otherworld are supported by a solid cast of characters and compelling writing. I think I'll need to see more of our guy's chemistry with Indolark before I can be sure that this is an out-and-out hit, but I'm already convinced to give the next episode a shot.

These otherworld summoning rituals are getting downright inconvenient and dangerous. Seiichirou Kondou is just minding his own business on his way home from weekend overtime at the office when he hears a girl screaming. It's Yua, and she's being sucked into a magic circle, scared out of her mind. And of course, when Seiichirou goes to help, he gets pulled in, too. Downright irresponsible, if you ask me.

Seiichirou seems to share that opinion. He's none too impressed with the fact that another world summoned a teenager against her will – he basically tells Yua that she's been kidnapped – and that's only the start of his issues with the situation. But mostly he's just trying to find a way to cope with his new life in a world that didn't want him, and that means doing what he did before: burying himself in work. And my, how convenient that this new world has some magical energy drinks to help him work himself to death! Surely that won't backfire on him in ways that will kick off the romance plot with handsome knight captain Aresh Indolark…

While this does feel fairly pat by genre standards, there are still some pieces that are worth paying attention to. One is absolutely the way that Prime Minister Camile reacts to discovering Seiichirou's workaholism. While his new coworkers, Norbert and Helmut, are aghast at how much he wants to work (and he's likewise horrified at how little work they seem to do), Camile clearly thinks that this is a man he can take advantage of. And that only gets more intense when Seiichirou, unbidden, creates a presentation of how much his new department (Accounting) sucks at its job. He may not have had a place when he was summoned, but Camile sure thinks he's got one now, and that's almost certainly not good for Seiichirou's health.

Another interesting element is Seiichirou's reaction to Yua's summoning. While he's not keen on his own, he's downright worried for her. Based on the research he wisely did on the whole miasma/Holy Maiden situation, he's right to be concerned that they've summoned someone they don't need to worry or care about to solve their problems. Yua, perhaps poisoned by isekai fiction, is determined to do what they want, but I think Seiichirou has an excellent point – and judging by the state of the kingdom's budget, “careful” isn't precisely their watchword. I'll admit that this isn't off to a stellar start. Events truck along at a steady but fast pace, and frankly, it doesn't look too much different from any other isekai series, BL or otherwise, and the visuals aren't what I'd call glorious. (Although Seiichirou's eye-bags are good.) But I love the original novels, so I'm here for the duration – and if you enjoy adult isekai titles like The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent, I'd encourage you to give this a chance.