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The premise and the early episodes seemed like they might portend an interesting story. Unfortunately, it quickly devolves into a rather trite affair. Your given the impression that the protagonist is a nescient genius who plays the part of a slacker as a result of his parents abandonment of him to gold digging relatives. But that all ends after Episode 0. After that, Lu Mingfei is just your typical underachieving, below average intellect, hero character, who for whatever reason is "special". He shows up on screen and you're just supposed to root for him, well because he's obviously the MC. ... Even when he's given the opportunity to do a whole 'training montage', he's still the underachieving, incompetent, cowardly, stooge he's always been. He just happens to be "gifted" special abilities during the (eventually) anticlimactic boss battle that (still) makes him the hero, and hence, indispensable. Lu Mingfei is a totally forgettable character with no depth or growth.

The few interesting characters barely live long enough to make an impression. And the ones that remain are just your run of the mill, cliché, 2D, anime characters you'll find in a schlocky "high/magic school" anime series. Everyone else were mere stage dressing, not characters. To tell a dull and pointless story.

It also, doesn't help that the story seemed to jump from one beat to another in a disjointed and awkward way. I never really got a sense of the why or how of this story. It was exclusively focused on the who of Lu Mingfei. Another thing that really bothered me, were the attempts to shoe horn in comedy and slice of life elements. They felt like poorly implemented fan-service for readers of the original novel. Which kind of crystalizes how I feel a bout the whole story. It all felt out of place. Like it was written by a slightly hallucinating AI LLM that got confused trying to composite popular anime genres.

What's most sad, is that this ONA has excellent animation and very good sound design. But it is squander on a lousy story, uninteresting characters, and a confused & confusing narrative. I'm baffled at the fact that Long Zu manages a score of 7.19. I was tempted to give score below three, but I've seen worse and at least Long Zu was something to look at.

The last review I wrote was for, Shijou Saikyou no Daimaou, Murabito A ni Tensei suru. Where I lamented how derivative the Isekai/Reincarnation/VR Anime genres had become. Well, Isekai Shoukan wa Nidome desu managed to surprise me at just how bad that tendency can get.

I don’t think this will be much of a spoiler, given that the name pretty much tees this synopsis up. Our MC was once summoned to a another world; does the typical OP hero thing, returns victorious; but at the “victory party” is betrayed; is reincarnated in (yet?) another world (or perhaps his own?), it’s a bit ambiguous; ... lives there up until the point he and his middle/high school class are transported to the same world he had originally been transported (Eclair?). All so we can have a “new” Isekai adventure that requires next to no world building or character development. Why is that you might ask? I imagine the author would retort, “Well, because that already happened the first time around. You just didn’t see any of it!”

I don’t want my criticism to extend to the source material, as I haven’t read it. I tend to watch far more Anime than read Manga or Light Novels. So, perhaps the source light novels were far superior. On the other hand, if this Anime is a faithful adaptation… How, and more importantly WHY, did this garbage get optioned in the first place?!

Here’s how I can best describe what Isekai Shoukan wa Nidome desu was like to me. This was either accidentally or (more likely) intentionally designed to feel like a sequel to an existing block buster franchise/genre. Only that original was never made. Instead, you get a B-Movie style cash grab ripoff off, where they grabbed all the tropes, basically clone a bunch of characters (including character design), and then reference just enough from other entrants in the Isekai genre to hook you. Well, at least until you realize, Isekai Shoukan wa Nidome desu, is not actually part of some other IP. For example, the MC Yuki née Setsu, looks a lot like Kirito from Sword Art Online. Though he behaves more like other characters from other Isekai Anime. I just can’t be bothered to hunt them down.

Anyway, the point is, this Anime is rotten to its core. The writing was atrocious. If I get into it anymore, I’ll rant for pages and pages The art and animation, relatively speaking, were only slightly better than the original Mobile Suit Gundam… Or maybe The Transformers Gen 1? You might say that’s harsh, but if you look for the cut corners, you realize, “Yeah, where did all the merchants faces go?”; “There were too many missing frames in that scene.”; or “Were there any frames in that scene!”. The sound design, well, it was just dull and completely forgettable. The music sounded like it was canned royalty free music. The sound effects were worse. I cringed the first time I heard Levia roar (last minute of episode 2). Common people! Don’t throw in the Godzilla roar, unless you’re doing Godzilla! The rest of the sound was, again, canned, unimaginative, and flat. It sounded as if they only used a four track that had one missing channel.

If I weren’t a completionist and insomniac, I would have given up on Isekai Shoukan wa Nidome desu by about the fifth episode… And that’s because I was still convinced this was supposed to be the sequel to something. I’ve given up on better. But I tend to monitor train wrecks.

TL;DR: Watch something else. Almost anything else.

It's pretty hard these days to make anything original. I get it, most everything has been done and there are quite a few derivative Anime from the Isekai/Reincarnation/VR genre. However, what sets The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody (Shijou Saikyou no Daimaou, Murabito A ni Tensei suru) apart, is just how little effort was put forth to make it anything more than a retread of already derivative works. Something that is seemingly becoming all too common in Anime today. Especially when considering Isekai/Reincarnation/VR genre.

That said, this Anime might have ... ranked appalling, except the story at the end had just a hint of an interesting twist. It was unexpected, but not a surprise. After all, it has been done before. I just expected a different outcome based on perceived foreshadowing that didn't deliver. Anyway, The characters are boring and strictly cut and paste jobs from [insert another Anime in this genre]. The first two villains are lame. The first appears in episode four, proclaimed a big bad, but doesn't survive beyond the very next episode. The second shows up in episode six, for no other reason than the need for a bad guy, oh and as a red herring for the final four episodes. Defeated, in fact, in episode eight. Now the third was unexpected, but not nearly as interesting as they could have been. After all, we've all wondered what we would do if we could change past events knowing things we now know (or could learn). The plot and story were very, very, very derivative after all. The art was sub-par at times. At others, the art looked like an asset flip from a halfway decent VN engine or RPG maker. Some of the visual effects for the magic circles was good, if a bit too retrowave neon. The sound was forgettable. The opening an closing tunes were a bit catchy if you are into J-Pop. What can I say, I'm not.

It could have been better with a little effort. At least it isn't as bad as (what I've seen of), In Another World With My Smartphone (Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni). That story is far more facile. Then again, perhaps The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody (Shijou Saikyou no Daimaou, Murabito A ni Tensei suru) is exactly what it was supposed to be. An Anime to test those like me. Can we watch till the very end, to see just how bad it gets? Or will we give up out of boredom, like I did with In Another World With My Smartphone? All I can say now is, I think I might be a masochist (/s)? I really wish I had given up and watched something else.

As others have pointed out. Chain Chronicle is yet another unimaginative adaptation of a gaming title that leans on a series of tropes and clichés to express a simplistic narrative. There is nothing original or even derivatively interesting here. It's only saving grace is that the production values in terms of art and animation make it pretty. Beyond the tropes, this anime appears to rely heavily on the popularity of its source material (of which, I'm unfamiliar). It's fanservice, nothing more. I have no idea how this could inspire interest in the source material or in subsequent chapters. ... It's weak, thin, and uninspiring.

If your looking for a good shonen romp, look to, Black Clover, My Hero Academia, One Piece or the like. If you've already watched what you can of those, don't bother with Chain Chronicle. It's a waste of time. I whish I could reclaim the 10 episodes worth I squandered on it.

There was potential here. Sadly it was not utilized and even if the series continues, I doubt there is much hope for any improvement. The whole thing is just a generic re-hash of many existing anime tropes with nothing original added.

Here we have the story of a soldier who hate the war he's fighting, imprisoned for treason, then released by his government/military to continue fighting because he's 'special'. His mission to fight a powerful warrior princess from the opposing side and they almost immediately start crushing on each other. And hence we have the primary plot of this anime. A ... trite star-crossed lovers story with next to no story or character development. Just a simple setup to tell a bland story.

The only reason I kept watching was because there seemed to be the possibility that something interesting could take place in the next episode. Which seems to be a common practice in anime these days. The promise of getting better only to fallback on mediocre, or worse, pathetic stale archetypes, clichés, tropes, memes or other simplistic plot devices to move an ultimately boring story along. How anyone could rate this above a four out of ten escapes me. It never elevated itself above the blurb used to describe the series. That makes this a very sad anime.