What makes a good isekai?
I realize that the answer to this question is highly subjective,
but I’m going to attempt to answer it anyways.
Love the genre or hate it, it’s probably the most populous genre
in anime at the moment, so much so that it’s not even a matter
of just having one isekai show per season!
Because there’s more than one this season, far more than one.
Heck, I’m only talking about 4
and that’s not even all of them. But I had to cut it off somewhere…
In my eyes, the isekai formula is actually quite simple.
Take a quirk, or a concept, or something random that makes your story unique,
throw that thing into a generic fantasy world that
still can be customized to an extent, and then write about
the consequences of these two things colliding.
For me, the entertainment value of the show comes from these unique situations
that can’t happen elsewhere.
It still relies on the writers to tell a good story,
even if ultimately the concept is just following a formula.
I’ve always been optimistic about the isekai genre because I remember
when a similar formula used to be taking a quirky or random thing
and attaching it to a group of four high school girls.
We called it slice of life,
and I loved it!
most of the time.
There’s really nothing stopping people from taking those
exact same concepts and doing it here.
I'm not saying that's what some of them are doing,
But, it could happen.
Half the work could almost be done for you.
and we'd probably have just the same amount of crap...
So today, because we are spoilt for choice,
we are going to be looking at some isekai from this season
and see if they can follow this formula
and also see how well that’s going for them.
Some are great, while others…..yeah.
High School Prodigies Have It Easy in Another World
Oh boy,
sometimes I go into this with low expectations because
the lengthy light novel title tells me most of what I need to know about the plot.
In this case, the title tells me we have some smart high school students
who get thrown into another world and…things are great for them?
Not much room in the title for any conflict or growth,
but maybe…maybe that’s just want they want us to think.
Unfortunately no, the title is kind of right on the money,
except that the series itself is actually quite a bit more exaggerated than the title.
See, when I think of a prodigy, I think of a person who is just in the top percentile
of academics and who covers topics at an extremely high level for their age.
And while technically that is the case for all the characters here,
they go a bit further than that. The characters here are not your average prodigies,
they are like advanced prodigies.
They are not just experts in various fields compared to their age group.
No, these kids are the best in the world in some interesting categories.
You have a genius inventor, a doctor, a warrior,
and we also have the world’s best businessman – like that is something that can be easily
quantified.
There’s also best magician and best journalist?
What?
Not that it matters, because really she’s also a ninja,
and that's kind of her thing.
but that’s just added on to the pile of things to ignore in the name of suspension
of disbelief.
Our main character is the world’s best politician – another title that’s meaningless,
because you can’t really rank them – and he takes command of all of the geniuses
who end up in this generic fantasy world and try to get out of it. I think.
So at least we are following the formula well enough so far.
The quirk with the series is the cast of geniuses.
But!
But, But, But, But , But...
There is one interesting problem.
They are all the best at what they do, to an almost stupid degree.
So what problems can they not solve?
What challenges will they face?
What difficulties will they encounter?
As it turns out, nothing of interest.
The problem I have with this series is that it’s like watching someone play
an RPG with cheats turned on,
as all the characters have their own get-out-of-problems-free cards
built into their backstories and it’s just…not fun.
I’m not saying that you can’t have impossibly smart characters;
you just need to make them entertaining and still give them the chance to fail.
Senku from Dr. Stone is a good example of this,
but the main difference between the two is that Senku is fallible.
These characters are not.
Senku can still possibly fail in his goals because as smart as he is,
he still needs his dumb-as-a-brick friend to remind him that those grapes make wine.
But all of these prodigies are too perfect, and perfection is just boring.
Hard pass.
Next up: Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?
I first brought up this series in my anticipated list because, as with the last series,
the title gives the whole plot away.
You have a smart young girl who gets reincarnated, but wants nothing more than to be normal,
to be what she calls “average”. But as it turns out,
the gods have a very different idea at what average is since they decided not to drop
the outliers.
So she’s half as powerful as an elder dragon.
The quirk is “girl who wishes to be normal” and the circumstances that make her extraordinary.
She’s dropped into a stereotypical fantasy world where
her powers could have her doing a lot of good but, again, she wants nothing to do with it.
The show tries to play up the comedy of her desperately trying to act normal and “average”
while constantly outperforming everyone by accident.
Really, the series is as good as I could have hoped for.
What I wanted was a kind of reflection on the overpowered nature of most isekai protagonists
by having a main character who desperately wished she wasn’t the main character.
And while I definitely wish the series could have gone further with that,
so far the show is exactly what it says on the tin.
It just needs to keep shaking things up and not become
predictable to a boring degree like the prodigies series.
At the end of the day, this series about a girl who is not average, but wishes to be,
is possibly the most average isekai that came out this season.
So really, mission accomplished.
Kemono Michi: Rise Up
Not going to lie, if you’ve already seen this series then you can probably
figure out why I ended up watching it.
If there’s anything in an anime that can get me to watch it for no other reason, it’s
because of
THE CUTE DOGGO!
awwww he's so cute!
But seriously, there's also a banker looks like me.
Kemono Michi’s quirk is that its main character is a professional wrestler
who wants nothing more than to open a pet shop,
but during his final match he gets transported...
to a generic fantasy world!
and is instructed that as the “Hero”, it’s his job to defeat all the legendary
monsters of the land.
He takes this to be on the same level as killing animals and,
as a future pet shop owner,
he takes quite a bit of offence to this.
So now he still wants to have his pet shop, but he’s in a world that doesn’t know
what that is,
summoned by people who want him to hunt and kill monsters.
So what does he do?
He turns monsters into pets.
This can only go well.
Over time, he ends up accruing not only new monsters to his menagerie,
but also some happy helpers who also see a benefit in having a peaceful relationship
between humans.
Really, the interesting build to the series is seeing how he deals with
and attempts to tame various fantastic beasts.
I’d say he does a better job at it than J.K. Rowling.
and I'd probably not be wrong with that assessment.
Do with that information as you will.
Recommended because of the cute doggo. Let’s move on.
Ascendance of a Bookworm
The quirk here is you have a book-obsessed girl who ends up reincarnated into a world
as a poor villager whose family has never seen a book in their lives.
Naturally, like her, your first thought might be:
WELL, I’LL JUST MAKE MY OWN BOOKS.
With blackjack and a word that YouTube probably doesn’t want me to say,
but hasn’t clarified its new rules about appealing to children yet,
so I’m just going to play it safe.
The best way I can describe this series is that it’s a budget Dr. Stone,
but with all of the entertainment.
Like Senku, Main keeps trying to use the technology of the new world to create books of her own
making.
Unlike Senku, she fails more often than she succeeds
and constantly needs to rely on her knowledge of other futuristic inventions to keep her bookmaking
plans afloat.
Making shampoo, for example, becomes a very quick priority.
But she soldiers on and, like with Dr. Stone, the series has a very
entertaining way of explaining how various real world things are made
and how they can be manufactured with simpler tools and techniques.
Or in some cases….she just experiences pure, agonizing failure.
You can’t relate to her 100% of the time, because she does seem to figure out how
to do a bunch of things when it’s convenient for the plot,
but at least she doesn’t claim to be an expert in any field in which she is knowledgeable.
She just happens to be better than most of the locals.
There is still this underlying mystery around how or why Main got reincarnated.
What happened to the girl whose body she now inhabits,
and why does she keep getting sick all the time.
So it’s this pleasant double whammy of plot points that makes the show a winner for me.
It may not be for everyone, but definitely the best isekai of the season, in my eyes.
Sure, there are others I could have talked about, but does it really matter? Do we really
need to discuss the anime
about Aqua 2.0?
No.
No, we don’t.
and so! That is it for me.
There will be streaming links to the shows I have talked about.
today down in the description.
and most of them just so happen to be available from this video's sponsor: Crunchyroll.
So be sure to check them out!
and use the 14-day free trial code in the description
crunchyroll.com/glassreflection
Should you require it.
Lastly a very special thank you to all of my patrons.
Without whom I would be unable to do what I do.
So I am eternally grateful.
Specifically though, as I like to do, I want to give particular shout-outs to patrons
Richard Bradley, Hector Montemayor, Siri Yamiko, Ryefan Boneapart, Rune Jachobson, and Calhoonboy
for being especially awesome. You guys are great!
and until next time – ladies, gentlemen, and others
watch more anime!
and stay frosty.