In Another World with My Smartphone - Season 1

Adventure, comedy, fantasy and romance, these were the genres AniChart promised me. There was no mention of it being a mega-harem/ecchi anime series. On the other hand, it was clear from the first few episodes, even though I had not expected it to grow to such crazy proportions. Episodes ten and eleven are simply a powerhouse and a reward for fans of both genres to properly enjoy. However, I have concluded, mainly because of all the fan service and its density per episode, that I do not really need to see the conclusion, as I already know how it will be. The dialogues kill me, the interaction between all the girls and the totally futile main male protagonist Touya Mochizuki kills me, and the only thing that is missing to make it perfect is nosebleeds and the main male protagonist getting beaten up every time he gets into some always completely unwanted situation. An active group of girls hanging around Touya, sighing about how great he is, chiding him when he does not pay enough attention to them and competing for his attention - well, it is like a henhouse, and it gives me a headache after prolonged viewing. I like cute little girls and I am no stranger to the harem, though this is a shouty extreme show full of utterly insane dialogues and I just do not understand what someone as insipid as Touya actually does to deserve it. I guess it has to be how freaking cool he is, how nice he is, how he helps everyone, and how smart he is. Well, yeah, but only if he did not have virtually unlimited skills and abilities from the deity, especially his smartphone. That smartphone, which is practically useless because with his unlimited abilities he could easily do without it and figure out some new special magic to save everyone, he does that more than half the time anyway. However, because smartphones are just cool and trendy now, and they are cramming them into games so you can take a selfie with the main male protagonist during a zombie apocalypse, for example, and they help you figure things out, it is no wonder we need them in this show too. This is just a commercial shitfest trying to please everyone and trying to introduce us to another anime series set in a fantasy world. After all, that is very cool right now too. Anyway, it is really an incredibly eye-popping rip-off of, say, the aforementioned KonoSuba, except that the main male protagonist does not have the chops to finish half the jokes or be amusing at all. In other words, Touya is an example of what Kazuma would look like if he were a boring trope from the "ordinary student" category in any ecchi anime series, and the worst version of someone who is extremely upright, honest, hard-working and also gifted with godlike powers. Because Touya will save everyone, Touya will wrap everyone around his finger, even though Touya is not going to take advantage of anything, he is just going to act like a bull in a china shop and let his mega-harem grow bigger every episode without realizing he actually has one until the girls themselves just give it to him straight. Plus, by making the main protagonist the chosen one, a fantasy reincarnation of Chuck Norris and MacGyver combined, there is not a second of worrying about anyone or anything to get you pumped up - by which I mean that it is also, unfortunately, incredibly boring. Plus, the main male protagonist pulls problem solving out of his hat like rabbits and I am just waiting for him to make a bomb out of shit. This anime series just has nothing to offer me besides quite likable animation, and I stupidly believed for so long (it is supposed to be a fantasy adventure...) that it would get better (no, it got worse!). If you like ecchi and harem anime series and have never seen another Isekai anime series (or you are dreaming of a show that is a combination of all of the above), then you have just about found a five-star treasure. If you want adventure, romance, comedy (ok, with comedy it is the sense of humor that matters), an interesting and complex narrative, or maybe even character development, then run as far away from this as possible. I did it at the last possible moment. Dropped at episode eleven and 1/10 - purely for the animation. (27/02/2023) (less) (more)