Summer 2022
Finished
Kuro no Shoukanshi
God how do I begin to describe this show. Okay so more or less, Ucchi comes through as the MC Kelvin, who is reincarnated from another world - but in order to become a stronger person, he's given up his memories for extra stats. He's somehow charmed the goddess who reincarnated him (Melfina) and starts his life as a super overpowered summoner in another world.
I mean this is... A generic show? It's not really anything particularly special, the MC is made out to be a 'battle junkie' who thrives on adrenaline but his actual character is pretty much underdeveloped in the whole anime because he is essentially starting off with a blank slate and continues to be shockingly boring. After having finished the anime literally no more than a week ago, I actually almost forgot most of the plot points. Is it funny? Not really. Is it fun? Not really. In comparison to the LN, the anime has also been vastly sanitised (perhaps based on the airing slot?? Maybe because they wanted to appeal to a more general audience?) - you basically have almost no mention of the gore and the sex in the show. For example, there's a scene where it's heavily implied that the MC and his slave end up boning, and that's wiped from the anime.
My biggest gripe, and I've definitely mentioned this before - is one of the things that I cannot handle is any LN with an isekai OP MC lead who suddenly is launched into having a harem, which I've sort of grown numb to the more I've watched isekais. I don't think the harem in itself is the problem (shout out to World's End Harem where it is overblown and silly and edgy that it's amazing, or even to a show like Conception, which is unabashed about the fact that it is a harem show, but has a variety of female archetypes ((eg, not all innocent untouched virgins))), but it's the earnestness in which a lot of the authors tend to write themselves into simple and superficial relationships with an abundance of women - a majority of them who are somehow always virgins and also somehow absolute skanks for the MC. For example, in this, the MC picks up a half elf slave who happens to be cursed so that anyone who touches her becomes lit on fire. So that way, she's still a virginal slave who's literally indebted to her master forever. In the LN, there's a sequence that basically can be summed up with her thinking, I see no value in myself but I now see value in myself because you are here and I need to fuck you to prove my self worth. Female self autonomy and independence? Never heard of her. The LN also basically gives threesome scenes to the demon girl and the goddess. The sheer blatantness of these authors who go out of their way to keep their harem girls virgins are. Painful. I think Tsukimichi's brand of uncaring apathy definitely rankled me the most in regards to the explicit relationships, so in comparison, at least the MC does defend the women in his party, although it feels very much the type of, this woman is my possession and I own her because she can't really defend herself (almost like the relationship in Sekai Saikō no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru /Isekai assassin). The way that women are presented and also designed to fully be consumed by the MC and any other slight to her would 'tarnish' her is really truly one of the worst tropes I've had to consume in the recent years of isekai overexposure, and it makes me incredibly bored and mildly offended.
Anyway, this show was fine. The anime, graciously, blanks out all of the parts where there's a clear power balance and all that shit, although the underlying scumminess of the virgin women is still like a big cock slap to the face, but it's nowhere near as offensive and self congratulatory as the LNs tend to be. So yeah, there are ok parts, just not enough to mention it here. I do like the hint of further worldbuilding, especially with the demon king and all that, and Clive being a reincarnated guy, the incoming war, it's all something I'd like to know about. I wouldn't recommend this though.
Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Dai-2 no Shokugyou wo Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita
Okay I gotta say - I enjoyed the fuck out of this. Was it objectively good? Definitely not. But was it fun? Yes. Also bonus, no fucking harems and fanservice.
It's a little slow paced and honestly, the first episode is difficult to get through as an introduction to the show, but it serves as a beginner's point to Yuji's story - basically he's just a really OP guy who's trying to take down this secret cult (church of the blue moon?) and he goes around town to town with his slimes and his wolf and fucking shit up.
This wasn't very well received on r/anime due to how generic it is, but honestly I liked seeing how the MC would fuck shit up next, and the stupid amounts of back up plans the end of the world cults had. Also, the slime voices are so adorable in this - one of the small little quirks of this anime. Also I love Chiaki Kobayashi as the MC, his voice is always very soft and reassuring to me.
Honestly I can't say I would recommend this to anyone, but I can say that I enjoyed myself a lot more than when I was watching Black Summoner.
Overlord IV
Honestly I have to say, I feel like this is the most engaged I've been with the show since the first season - especially due to the lack of CGI used this season? I mean, S1 also came out in 2015 - which is. fucking ages. I actually still have fond memories of watching the first season, but again, it's been a while. That said, the last season actually came out a good 4 years ago, which is actually quite a big gap of time, although I've never been a massive fan of the show since S2 wasn't really as great as I wanted it to be. I spent a good amount of time just watching through and going - wait, lol, what the fuck happened? I guess I remember this person? Pulled up the wiki mid way through the episode to check up on the bits I'd missed. Anyway, this wasn't my first pick for things to watch, but here we are.
Overlord, unlike a lot of other isekai, isn't quite the story of your typical OP MC, in fact, it's actually quite a puzzling story because it really doesn't feel like it follows a lot of the conventions, even with stories like Arifureta. A lot of people call Overlord one of the examples of the edgy power fantasy, but I feel like Overlord really sits at the moral crossroads of a narrative focused around someone who genuinely isn't very likeable. To be frank, watching Overlord makes me feel terrible - watching the mass murder of a whole city with an MC who's physically unable to feel strong emotions anymore, who's only partially invested. There's a lot of otome game isekai instances where, people are reborn and punished because they treat the NPCs as NPCs and expendable, and often times, developing real human warmth and sensitivity is treated as a good thing. Not here.
Over the course of the story, more or less, Ainz has basically become the cold, indifferent guy (weirdly, contrasted with his comedic moments where we're like ooo sasuga ainz sama but he actually has no idea what's going on, which is totally played for laughts, while he continues to pursue mass genocide?) surrounded by his underlings who are canonically extremely evil and terrible people who seek world domination and he's sort of just along for the ride, but continues to comply with his ideas of perhaps, seeking something better in the world? seeking other players like him? It doesn't really make him likeable, even though the first half of the story shows him being relatively nice towards the dwarves, he becomes almost sad that he's not able to kill more dragons in order to carve them (again, wild disassociation from him being 'haha' but also like, they're just expendable to me).
i think the genuine effort put into wiping out the whole city was kinda crazy, i just feel like there's something about the story that feels almost nihilistic to me - but it's never really explored in favor of the high octane battles and judgement. in addition to the extensive political trickery and battles, sometimes it feels really hard to parse what they wanted to convey while omitting so much detail and world building and development.
that and the genuine effort put into wiping out the whole city was kinda crazy, i just feel like there's something about the story that feels almost nihilistic to me - but it's never really explored in favor of the high octane battles and judgement. in addition to the extensive political trickery and battles, sometimes it feels really hard to parse what they wanted to convey while omitting so much detail and world building and development. think for me, basically, this story sits at this weird crossroad where the story is basically telling you to be invested in the successes of Ainz and his compatriots, while they continue to do some really fucked up morally dubious shit in order to pursue... happiness?? Ainz's happiness? Even though he doesn't really know what he wants or what he's pursuing? It's like he continues to live in this world like it's a game, and it feels, strangely uncomfortable - the humanization of a lot of these people but are still killed off. I think up till now, a lot of the show had been, here are some bad people, Ainz is bad but these people are a bit more bad, and sometimes good people die. And then this plot point was, everyone dies because why not hehe. no vassal states, carrot and stick, everyone must die. should i feel joyous when mare and aura cutely wipe out a whole city and kill people? should i cheer them on? when people are murdered for political missteps, or are unable to save them despite their best efforts because of a cruel decision on the mc's part, what am i supposed to feel? also the whole climb and renner side plot, man, wild. Like someone else says, it's feels like the show is undermining it's own character - where there are lots of moments where Ainz has gone out of his way to be kinder, and gentler than everyone else has expected him, this whole back half of the story just goes out of its way to shit on you for having that idea and making him, imo, needlessly cruel. it feels like a kick in the teeth.
I feel like as Overlord continues to march into the the dense forests of its carefully woven narrative, the more i lose my connection with the story, and while the production of this season carefully delivers all the important points of what they want to convey, i myself feel wildly out of touch with the dimming charm of this show. i definitely enjoyed the first half of the season more, but the second half made me wish I'd never finished it.
Unfinished
Isekai Ojisan
No funding - but fuck me its some good comedy.
Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo
Listen. There's an uncensored version. What else did you expect?
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