SPOILERS AHEAD
Writing this immediately after watching all of it. This is gonna be a very informal review and moreso just me trying to process wtf I just watched. I honestly have no words to describe what this anime is. It is an isekai, harem, romance, and action anime all at the same time while at the same time tackling "serious" issues. Let me just be clear and say that this anime is NOT your typical isekai. At the beginning, it really does seem like that. You have a protagonist dying, god sending him to another world, and you see
...
him slowly build up a harem. These are the normal parts. But as you continue watching, you notice the subtle differences that it displays that differentiate itself from the cliches. Don't get me wrong, this anime has plenty of cliches. But what I liked most about this anime is how it almost satirizes these archetypes. It takes these archetypes and exaggerates them to their maximum. For example, the tsundere sister archetype is exemplified because whenever she gets mad at the MC, she literally does beat him to a pulp and even make him go unconscious at one point. The second part about this anime is that it is not afraid of anything frankly. Now normally, I really don't like animes that take fanservice to extreme lengths for no real purpose. However, as I've stated before, this anime works to satirize genres and exemplify them. So expect a LOT of ecchi, especially the fanservice episodes. Touya as a character also adds to this. He is less shy, and probably the most bold MC I've seen out of any isekai. When he is interested in something happening (which is 90% of the time gonna be an exposed shot) he will look at it and express that he does indeed like to see it. However, I will say that even I was shocked by the lengths they went to add ecchi into literally almost every episode starting from episode 5 onwards. Leen is a rather intriguing character that adds to the satire this anime presents. She is always out to expose Touya for, as stated before, his boldness in ecchi situations, and even goes as far as to affect his perceptions. This character adds an extra layer of depth to this seemingly mindless show.
Now to get into the meat of the show. The polygamy aspect. This idea being implemented so casually still leaves me in shock. This element alone makes this isekai stand out from the others so much. I will say that the anime kind of just throws it at us really late into the show, especially in the last episode, so there is quite little to no time to process it. I still honestly don't know what to think of it. I can distinguish what is real vs what is fiction. I think that if there was gonna be a lot of focus on this idea (as the show slowly developed into a harem/romance towards the end) they should have slowly built on it so that the audience could slowly adjust to this wild concept. Especially since they literally throw out the fact that he will have 9 wives by the end of the series, and LITERALLY SHOWS ALL OF THEM AT THE END. Maybe harems should be solved this way. INTRODUCE POLYGAMY TO EVERY HAREM! Obviously I'm joking but this concept of another world with completely different morals could be a really good concept done properly.
To sum it up
Pros- Fun satire, Lots of funny moments, some endearing characters, good action scenes, the other world having different moral code, TOUYA MAKING A LITERAL GUN WTF BADASS
Cons- Typical Archetypes, too much fanservice, Touya being so OP that no one even stands a chance (leads to tedium in some fights, especially when he can literally wipe out entire armies), not expanding upon the moral code idea, some characters just being boring/no character development (like the sisters for example just feel like they exist and thats it so I'm hoping for some more backstory in the second season or in the manga)
Anyways yeah overall I'm left with a lot of questions and just in utter shock still. Maybe when my thoughts are cleared I can give it a more accurate rating but I can say that I enjoyed it for breaking the mold so much while keeping familiarity with lots of elements of other overdone isekai tropes and exaggerating them. Go watch it because season 2 is already confirmed for spring 2023 somehow.
Oct 16, 2022
Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.
(Anime)
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SPOILERS AHEAD
Writing this immediately after watching all of it. This is gonna be a very informal review and moreso just me trying to process wtf I just watched. I honestly have no words to describe what this anime is. It is an isekai, harem, romance, and action anime all at the same time while at the same time tackling "serious" issues. Let me just be clear and say that this anime is NOT your typical isekai. At the beginning, it really does seem like that. You have a protagonist dying, god sending him to another world, and you see ... |
