This Week in Anime

Has the Isekai Genre Given Up?

Steve
Hey Nick, I'm super excited to do the column today. Just gimme a sec to open my translucent blue rectangle status screen...and wow! Would you look at that? It says we're in hell!

Which, per usual, is no small feat since we're still wading waist-high through the depths of this isekai fad. I'm sure someday, when anime adaptations have moved onto even more depraved material, we'll look back on these times with the wistful eye of a grizzled old sailor staring at an oceanic sunset. But for now, it freaking sucks.

Right, counting sequels, spinoffs, and even a couple of reverse-isekai examples, we had 10 or 11 shows that fell under this umbrella. That is not a small number. That is a large number.

To be fair, though, I noted some minor but appreciable improvements over recent prior seasons. The same dreck is tempered by more variety from the other shows, especially from the reverse-isekai examples. Also, there weren't any premieres this season that overtly featured the protagonist buying a slave. Small victories!

Now there's a quandary with no answer. But since we are here to separate the wheat from the chaff and the chaff from the manure, it makes the most sense to start with the manure. And no isekai this season resembles excrement better than KamiKatsu does.

Its saving grace is that it's bad in a deafening and baffling way. Not really so bad it's good, but so bad it's fascinating. Like, I'm entranced by the creative decisions that went into making a shot that looks straight out of a visual novel.

The stiff pose, bland and blurry background, and perfectly centered 3/4 profile are perfect. By which, I mean terrible.

I wouldn't grant KamiKatsu the benefit of intent in any regard. The pacing is the biggest smoking gun, which is especially egregious when the show transitions from a BDSM gag to a hanging in less than five minutes.

Yeah, the first 75% of the episode isn't funny, but it's full of jokes and manages to be amusing in an anti-humor way. Then the final stretch of the premiere is miserable until it defuses everything by turning into a shitpost again. The tonal whiplash is just weird and unpleasant. But still, I admit, a little fascinating.

Speaking of misery and unpleasantness, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World was by far my least favorite isekai on this assignment. I genuinely hated watching this. It's so dark (visually and thematically). It's so hackneyed. It's so joyless. I hated it. I hated it so much I have to say it twice.

Translators/typesetters should be eligible for hazard pay if assigned to an isekai with status boxes.

Exactly, the anime is barely more technically competent than KamiKatsu, which is not the ruler you want to be measured by. The camera movement is downright disorienting with all the constant zooms and pans.

It's just plain dumb too. Like putting aside that the narrative is a stupid, vindictive person's idea of "redemption," there's the part where Yuuya experiences overnight Chad-ification...and then he doesn't notice it for the entire summer break? Despite the fact we see his POV of him looking down at his rock-hard abs.

Nick, you don't understand; as an isekai protagonist, he's contractually obligated to look like cardboard.

It favors the smallest-minded plot beat at every turn. It's repulsive television. Don't watch Cheat Skill. And don't watch The Aristocrat's Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far either, but that's not due to me hating it. That's due to it being so bland it's impossible to feel anything about it.

If your hero says any variation of that line, you've given up as a writer.

The only edge it has over KamiKatsu or Cheat Skill is that it's inoffensive because it's just a checklist of the familiar isekai tropes.

You've got the fourth wall breaking. You've got the wealthy fantasy parents. You've got the sudden natural adeptness at magic. You've got the maxed-out video game stats. You've got the hero accidentally summoning a monster that he then defeats. I've literally watched this exact show before, and it sucked then too.

It has one good joke, and that's when the almighty benevolent gods tell him his death in the real world was completely pointless. This is thematically fitting, though not in the way the series intended.

No doubt, but when I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel, I will excuse plagiarism if it lets me take another jab at the show's expense.

Here, finally, we have an isekai with a kinda neat concept. The protagonist saved the other world five years ago, but now he and his classmates have been brought back to deal with the aftershocks. I imagine some interesting narrative ground being trodden upon here, like our hero bridging the years-long gap in his isekai relationships. Maybe the audience has to piece together what happened in the original summoning from context clues. Since his classmates are with him, he may have to learn to work with others instead of saving the world himself. You could use this opportunity to comment on isekai tropes and take a more three-dimensional look at the consequences of otherworldly heroism. It could be cool! And naturally, the premiere exhibits no intent to explore any of this.

Yeah, the dude picks up exactly where he left off. There's no conflict, so there's nothing to grab onto. It's a parade of missed opportunities. At the very least, I would have expected him to have trouble proving his identity, but they completely gloss over what could have been an intriguing first arc in favor of this tripe.

It's a shame because it's technically on point too. Decent character designs, good framing, and use of light/color. The director worked on parts of stuff like the Revue Starlight movie, Made in Abyss, and Kaguya-sama, so there's some genuine talent here! Too bad the writing doesn't hold up.

Gotta hand it to them; the first half of that premiere tricked me into thinking it was good. Nice art, very nice animation cuts, and some good one-liners in between the standard isekai non-jokes.

It's no Yosuga no Sora, that's for sure. Even when his sis enters the scene, it gets a couple of decent bits out of her, like her forcibly isekai-ing herself.

But otherwise, it really is just one joke. Alas.

Woe be it for me to laud that show because it eventually turned one-note and boring. But you're right; it possessed that quintessential incestual spark of tackiness that One-Hit Sis sadly lacks. By the way, since we already brought it up multiple times, it's worth mentioning we have a KONOSUBA spinoff airing now too. It's not technically isekai, but it is more Megumin, and that's not the worst thing.

The Megumin Show is okay. It's fine. A big part of what made KONOSUBA work for me was the dynamic between its main horrible cast members, so I don't know if Megumin possesses enough moxie on her own to carry a comedy. But it has moments where the setting's absurdity and her chuuni-ness come together nicely.

Me neither! Moreover, we've finally reached the point where we can talk about premieres I liked.

Indeed. Though Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion proves the plasticity of the "isekai" label. Because while it is about someone being reincarnated into another world, it bears little resemblance to the titles we've covered so far.

Which, incidentally, is why I like it, lol.

It feels weird to break down a premiere that serves as a competent introduction to a longer narrative, but here we are! It introduces us to Raeli. It gives her motivation and a personality. We learn about the web of intrigue her character is trapped in and how she intends to use her outside knowledge to her advantage. She's not overpowered, but she's clever and has the conviction to use what little leverage she possesses to cheat her predetermined death. It's good stuff. It's an honest-to-god story. Hallelujah.

We've already had more than our fair share of gamer protagonists. It's about time we had a different class of nerds at the helm.

You're right about the production woes—which are extra dire to see in a premiere. But I'm slightly assuaged by the anime's eye for framing its scenes in interesting and appropriate ways. A good still can go a long way.

I'm eager to see where this one goes and how silly the names can get.

Ah yes, Dead Mount Death Play, the story of one man's quest to strike down Da Share Z0ne once and for all.

I knew nothing about it going in, so my first impression was being put off by how long the opening fight scene was. They could have shaved five minutes off that easily. But the intrigue picks up once we get to our world, and I was pleasantly surprised by the twist at the end. Then everything fell into place when I saw that Ryohgo Narita wrote this.

It's entertaining! I laughed at this kid walking through Tokyo with his bright red neck-blood staining his plain white t-shirt. And then the murder girl comes along and chews all of the scenery. It's schlocky but good schlocky.

Yeah, I've seen anime of this ilk fizzle out before, but Narita's a name I trust to keep the momentum going. If nothing else, I respect ending your ultraviolent edgy premiere with a dumb and macabre post-credits gag. That takes real conviction.

We are, admittedly, really stretching the definition of an isekai anime here, but Otaku Elf both technically counts and is a delight to watch, so I'm not backing down. Genres are fake, anyway. Only Red Bull is real.

I think "warm" is the operative word here. Plenty of comedies center on nerds and nerd activities; Otaku Elf's undercurrent of genuineness and pleasantness buoys the whole affair. It balances jabs at Elda's NEET lifestyle with an understanding of her deeper character without leaning too heavily in either direction. It's charming as all hell.

The choice was either splitting hairs or suffering a splitting headache from all the interminable isekai anime we brought up earlier in the column, so I regret nothing. And I'm sure you noticed that all the shows we disliked were those that most closely hewed to the genre's tropes and stereotypes. Isekai, as it continues to be popularly understood, still doesn't seem interested in innovation. Thus, we will continue to clutch at its fringes.

Remember, Nick; there are fates worse than death. And most of them involve vehicular reincarnation.