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[series:4650#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): The basic premise of the generic isekai series is that you find yourself in a videogame-like world with remarkable talents and can basically do as you please. Here that premise has been expanded in an intriguing way: what if you could also bring these powers back to this world and make use of them here? At a stroke all sorts of new possibilities are opened up to us, and I was highly excited. All sorts of assholes who thoroughly deserve to be taught a lesson no doubt will be, but I have no idea how since this basically has never been done before. Some classmates casually beat and extorted him, others just ignored him. This show could easily have been ugly and disturbing, what with Yuuya's miserable life, but it didn't really bother me. Instead I wonder what Yuuya will do, since his grandfather taught him to be kind. One definite advantage Yuuya now has is that he has been transformed from a fat and ugly boy into a handsome, ripped one. He also finds he can trade magical items for real-world Japanese Yen, and becomes wealthy overnight (I liked the explanation of how this money had been doctored so that it would not 'create economic chaos'). The highly detailed character designs are an encouraging sign of what should be a serious plot with developed characters. I took lots of notes to keep track of the complex basic scenario. If it pans out, this may well be my favorite show of the Spring 2023 season. After watching episode one, I said to myself 'This is a ----ing cool show!'. Yuuya's streak of fantastic luck continues in episode two as it turns out that a girl he stood up for when she was being harassed was the daughter of the headmaster of a prestigious school and Yuuya is offered admission and free tuition. About the only problem is that the time he would need to devote to studying would be time he couldn't spend in the isekai world, but I suspect some skill(s) he attains there will fix that problem. To a certain extent this show is all about wishful thinking, but I'm enjoying it nevertheless. It goes into enough detail about how these wonderful things might concievably happen and I like the way there are two stories running side by side, the one in this world and the one in the isekai one. I'm glad to see that episode two was fun as well; often times shows which look good in their first episode quickly burn out. Yes, wishful thinking--but fun wishful thinking. Once you suspend disbelief about being granted all sorts of fantastic skills (chief among which seems to be good luck) what happens to Yuuya is believable and enjoyable. Basically, how might your real-world problems be solved if you could employ skills and tools from role-playing video games? In episode three the now quite dashing Yuuya is offered a real world job as a male model. If I'm not imagining things it seems that in each episode some sort of good fortune will befall him, and he'll enjoy them briefly but remain primarily committed to the game. In the isekai world he has rescued a Princess, Lexia, who is most grateful. The second half of episode four unnerved me, however. The fantastic stunts Yuuya pulls while fighting a bunch of motorcycle punks at the Ousei Academy were so incredible that there's no way anyone could watch (and many did) without realizing that there is something supernatural going on with this transfer student. Yet no one draws that conclusion. In episode seven someone observes that Yuuya's skill at catching fish is out of this world, but nobody draws the same conclusion here. Yuuya suffers a brief loss of confidence but shakes it off so quickly that I wondered why it was included in the first place. This all seemed rather amateurish and made me fear for the course the remainder of the series will take. On the other hand, what happened in the isekai realm was tantalizing. Yuuya has gotten himself summoned to appear before the King himself for a formal thank you for his rescue of Princess Lexia. Episode five was better; the manner in which Yuuya deals with a knife-wielding purse snatcher was not too incredible to be taken seriously. That was a relief. The fight with the motorcycle gang probably should have been saved for somewhat later in the series (or deleted altogether). He is assembling a harem of hot girls who he has done favors for using his cheat skills. In fantasy land Yuuya acquires a pet--what looks like a small dog but is actually a 'Dark Fenrir', a formidable fighting creature. He names it 'Night' since it is black, and can bring it back to Japan at leisure. In episode six Yuuya ventures into magic for the first time, and, as usual, enjoys fantastic good fortune. He uses his newly acquired ability to save the lives of three real world girls. Again, it's easy to forget--or at least it was easy for me--that down deep this is still the ugly, unpopular but principled guy we met back in episode one. His transformation has been so all-encompassing (and he does so little thinking about how things have changed) that the old Yuuya and the new one seem like two completely different people. It's kind of hard to sympathize with him, since he has enjoyed such fantastic good luck that all of his problems have been swept away. It's almost as if he has died and gone to heaven. In episode seven Yuuya meets Luna, another girl in distress in the dark forest, but she is keeping a secret from him. Back in this world, he faces off against a bear in a comical incident in episode eight. It turns out that Luna was not trying to kill Yuuya, as I had assumed, but rather was interested in Princess Lexia. When she fails and needs a savior, the thought occured to me that Yuuya would bring her to modern-day Japan. That was intriguing; an assassin from an isekai world trying to assimilate in 21st century Japan. But no, the actual fix was somewhat less ambitious. Still, I was enjoying this show. No wondering how long the episode would drag on here. In episode ten Yuuya is offered a chance to become the apprentice of a fearsome martial artist who looks like anything but. He learns of an existential conflict between the 'Divine' (good) and the 'Vile' (evil) that is underway in the isekai world. In episode 11 he finally gets his audience with the King, who is not amused by Lexia's proposal to Yuuya. I got a genuine laugh out of this scene. We learn of a plot to overthrow the King, and Yuuya is implored to help stop it. I would never be able to keep track of all the things people were expecting me to do if I were in his place, but thankfully I'm not and the show remains fun. Episode twelve takes place almost entirely within the isekai realm as Yuuya helps track down the ringleader of the plot--except it turns out that someone even higher than him was actually responsible. It dawned on me that there must be a second season to this show, because there are so many threads still unresolved. Indeed, what's the deal with that bit from the OP sequence where we see Yuuya and one of his girls in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic earth? No mention of such a thing has occured yet. But whereas a second season would be a drag for many shows, I was delighted to realize that one must be in the works for Iseleve. Well, it turns out that there was a thirteenth episode of Iseleve as well. I initially missed it and did not watch it until three months later. Yuuya gets into a fight with Ruti, an almost Godlike evil fighter/sorceror of the Vile group who was the real person behind the plot to overthrow the king. Ruti winds up another member of Yuuya's harem and, much like I had hoped earlier, will spend some time in modern-day Japan. It helps that she is actually the heir of a famous heroine and is back on the right track now. Nevertheless, the story still feels quite incomplete and unless the show got terrible ratings it would seem that surely a second season is in the works. The fact that I was delighted to stumble across an additional episode is indicative of how much I've been enjoying it. It's not a brilliant work of literature, but it pulls the right strings and is fun to watch. Last updated Friday, October 06 2023. Created Tuesday, April 11 2023. | ||||||||
