This Week in Anime

Going to Another World

Coop
Hey there, readers! Before we start today's column, I've got a little bittersweet news to share. This'll be my last regular appearance on This Week in Anime for the foreseeable future. I've had the good fortune of leaning a little more into the industry side of things, including my role as Features Editor over at the MediaOCD blog. You can still catch me over there every so often, but that doesn't mean I'm completely leaving ANN. You'll still be seeing the occasional manga review and investigation from me in this neck of the woods. So long story short: this is my last TWIA, but I'll still be around.

But before I go, Lucas... You've probably noticed that I've masterfully dodged a few recent Narou/Fantasy/LitRPG/Isekai/Whatever-Pedantic-Genre-Name-They'll-Give-It-Next round-ups through a deft combo of circumstance and coincidence. I'm well overdue to pay the piper (and Rebecca really wants to know what I think of Rayearth), and I couldn't think of a better compadre to bring it home with than you!

Absolutely! With a few exceptions, these are the kind of shows you'd dream of as your first advertising or production job in the industry space. Maybe nothing earth-shattering, but a solid foundation for the rest of your career to come if things work out.

The World's Strongest Witch is a rock-solid example. The "banished from the family for having a weird skill we don't understand but is actually amazing" trope is a dime a dozen in anything approaching a Narou work, but when it's done competently and doesn't linger on established trappings, it can be a pleasant little time. Though, I'd say this one goes above and beyond the baseline by giving thoughtful visual representation to all its RPG influences, with multiple text boxes and a surprising amount of pixel art.

The fact that our lead has no idea what the Internet is makes the joke on its own. Honestly, it's a refreshing change of pace knowing about series like the one about the dude and his iPhone. Since most people know the internet fairly well these days, it's amusing to watch her troubleshoot problems that we've all dealt with a time or two.

Like when obnoxious ads pop up all over the game wiki you're trying to look at. I'm not a part of that fandom in the least.

I've gotta tell you, Lucas... From Far Away might've been the weakest of the bunch, and it's no fault of the source material. There's been a bit of scuttlebutt regarding alleged changes to the language element at the heart of the series. Additionally, this one is not a looker in the slightest.

In the long-overdue jump to the small screen, it feels like the core creative team has treated From Far Away like just another Isekai series to churn through before moving on to the next. I know that's an incredibly uncharitable reading, but I always think back to something I was told when I got started in the industry: "Everything is someone's favorite." Even if I don't care for something while I'm working on it, I'm not going to let that bleed into my work. In fact, I'm going to perform my duties to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I can't sense that ethos in From Far Away.

While watching Rayearth, I couldn't help but be reminded of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. This isn't only because both are classics with modern interpretations, but because they're wonderful little fantasy adventures aimed squarely at kids. Yes, the olds who grew up with the original series are along for the ride, but they're not the focus. I absolutely adore Rayearth for fully leaning into what it is instead of bending over backward to appeal to those older audiences like so many reboots do.

Is it also drop-dead gorgeous?

And this is probably how they'll respond lol.

Speaking of a show that might gel with the youngins, Overgeared seems like just the VRMMO romp for the Solo Leveling loving masses.

Didn't exactly blow me away (shocker), but the production values are solid, has an easy-to-understand one-word title, and is competently enough made. And yes, I think the word "competent" might end up being the word of today's column.

I know not everyone's a fan of it, but sometimes a little punch-up to the original dialogue (as long as it's true to the spirit of what's being said) works wonders on an otherwise fairly dry script. After scrubbing through those clips, I'm definitely up for revisiting Overgeared in English. Even if my initial impression of it was "better-than-average."

I'm looking at my notes for this one, and it says, "Just incredibly rote stuff."

Again, the "my skills suck, and people treated me poorly until I learned this one weird trick" trope has been done to death.

Actors in the studio this season.

At first, I thought that Cheat-Granting Mage was going down that aforementioned trope trail too, but I was pleasantly surprised when it bucked my expectations.

Instead of wallowing in the series' inciting incident for episodes to come, Rein gets over it and moves on after taking a few moments to get himself back together. It's another breath of fresh air since most shows with a similar setup see their leads seething over the huge slight to them instead of cutting their losses. Magic Repo Man has a very similar setup, but I'm sure it goes down the wallow revenge route once that Potato-kun gets his mana-sucking powers. As for Rein, he just gives his old guild the middle finger and gets on with it!

Seriously, I'm glad that one of these works outright rejects the mean-spirited shock tactics of a setup like this. Many protagonists in this sort of setup get bitter and rageful fast, perhaps reinforcing similar behavior in some groups of viewers and riling them up. Young dudes who feel like potato-kuns themselves come to mind. Life sucks sometimes, y'all, but dwelling on it to destructive ends does no one any good.

At least the next one has an all-time classic theme song.

Oh wait... Goblin, not Alien.

It also baffled me that our dude didn't wash his damn hands after dropping a deuce on that extravagant throne. I'm sure I saw a sink!

Space Mercenary's premiere made me think, "I could be watching Outlaw Star right now."

Particularly when there's a rather flaccid dogfight near the middle of the episode. CG dogfights in space can be done well, but that wasn't one of them.

Secret Saint pulls off a neat trick by presenting its flashbacks in 4:3, but yeah...it's another well-worn reincarnation story. Our heroine's secret identity as a saint will probably lead to some drama later on, but the opening episode isn't particularly thrilling. Oh, and she has a dragon buddy too.

If it's felt like we've rapid-fired through the last handful of titles, it's because watching most of these Narou-based titles has been like eating rice cakes. There might be slightly different flavors here and here, but eventually there comes a point when if you've had one cinnamon sugar rice cake, you've had them all. Worst-case, a cake is either stale or moldy; otherwise it's just a food-shaped object...or "anime-shaped object" if you will.

As such, I'd have to put Even Though I’m a Super Timid Noble Girl, I Accepted the Bet From My Cunning Fiancé in the anime-shaped object boat. It's cute that the main love interest kid is head-over-heels for Pia here, but eh?

I, too, liked The Matrix.

I know PSYREN fans were a little more than taken aback when its anime adaptation was randomly announced out of the blue, considering it'd been on ice for a good while, but dunno if this was what they were hoping for. I have no clue how closely these opening episodes adhere to the manga's pacing, but they felt as if they were barreling toward the big twist without taking a moment to breathe. There's solid meat on PSYREN's bones, but the good ol' shonen approach doesn't seem to gel with what the material is trying to cook up.

Still, the initial payphone confrontation had some gas.

For being an eroge isekai, I'm shocked that Magical Explorer isn't a hentai. Don't get me wrong, the fanservice is generally pointed in the right porny direction, but an ideal version of this show should be OceanVeil's killer app.

I'd also be curious to hear the expert opinions of ANN eroge expert and now-fellow TWIA alum, Jean-Karlo, because he might have more than a few things to say about this one. If you're an eroge enjoyer, Magical Explorer features solid animation and feels appropriately tongue-in-cheek for what it is.

But it could really stand to be pornier.

It's the sort of premise you've really gotta go balls out for—literally.

It's crazy to think that Nia Liston's the only show in this round-up that's on HIDIVE—everything else is on Crunchyroll. However, that might be good for the physical media sickos out there since most of Sentai's titles get a home video release eventually, which you can't say for CR's offerings.

Nia Liston's also the only show here that lets its opening do all the talking if you're looking to sell someone on it. Little girl beating the snot out of thugs while becoming a TV star? Cool. I've also got to give the team at KONAMI animation (yes, that Konami) for not being weird about our very young heroine and her similarly young friends. It'd be all too easy for a show like this to hit creeper territory fast if in the wrong hands.

They kept us waiting, huh?

And with that, it's been a wonderful two years on This Week in Anime. I'd like to thank my amazing fellow columnists, Lucas, Chris, and Sylvia, for taking this ride along with me. Also, I can't forget our editors, Rebecca, Gunawan, and of course, Lynzee. I'm sure y'all will talk too much bugmen again without me. Finally, thank you to the readers for being around every week; it's been a pleasure to fill you in on these past hundred-and-some weeks in anime.