The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar

To begin with, this anime series is an adaptation of a Japanese light novel series that, like the anime series, does not start until two years after the main male protagonist appears in another world. It was probably an attempt at a marketing ploy (after all, Star Wars also starts with Episode IV) to draw attention to itself, and maybe the author and creator just did not want to start in the usual way, with perhaps the most boring passage of the whole narrative (because let us be honest, the beginnings and making up a supposedly original way for someone to get from the present to another world is pretty tired, and mostly involves the main male protagonist just kicking the bucket or it must be "magic" anyway). Likewise, it probably would not be anywhere as much fun to follow the beginnings of our perfectly ordinary main male protagonist, when all he can do is look up solutions to his problems on his solar-powered smartphone. I mean, there is going to be plenty of that in future episodes... So in the light novel series, they solved that particular problem by keeping that for the second novel and skipping it altogether in the anime series. For the attentive viewer, all you need is everything to be shown quickly in the opening plus a few flashbacks at the appropriate time... Is that a good thing? I do not know, however, I certainly did not mind it! So now we can go straight to the action and it is just another sub-par isekai, which I would subtitle "Cockblocked in another world with my SOLAR-powered Smartphone". I have highlighted the word solar on purpose because they repeat that word so often in this show to explain how a smartphone works for so long without worrying about charging it (apparently we simply need to leave it in the sun for an hour or so and then the smartphone is ready to use again - although do not let the reviewer DaweForeman know - he is ignorant of this...). ​​The smartphone plays a really important role in this show, the main male protagonist himself admits that his actually just a big cheater and self-critically admits that without searching for wisdom on his smartphone he would be just an ordinary nobody (I commend him for this self-criticism, the main male protagonist is OP, even though he is not actually OP). This is diametrically opposed to another with my smartphone-based anime series (my attempt at a modified title is a parody of that show’s title). In that other show, Touya is OP even without a smartphone, and he has superpowers which are embarrassingly straight from God himself, and the smartphone is only there just as a cool accessory to attract the youngsters - which is obviously garbage and the height of lameness. Here, the smartphone is a crutch, albeit a stupid one, even though it is still better than, say, "divine magic". Now, let us take a look at the girls. I hear Yuuto is useless at picking up women?!? I do not think so. Yuuto is in love with his childhood friend, the narrative hints at this more than once, and he even admits that because he is in love with his friend he does not want to be in a relationship with someone else. Is that weird? For someone who has been in love and knows how a person in love is usually oblivious to other partners (or even just oblivious to anyone who is not their dream partner) very much, this, on the other hand, is quite real. This is a pretty sweet way to (at least partially) refuse or ignore all the sexual advances from other people in a graceful way, and not in that typical way like the aforementioned Touya, who does nothing but suffer nose-bleeds. I think Touya is quite a useless main male protagonist when it comes to women! Yuuto is just loyal, monogamous, and perhaps boring... It is also worth noting that the "harem" in this show is designed to be more like a family, they call each other brother, sister, and father, and, in all honesty, if there was anything which smacked of incest even if the characters were not blood relatives - sorry, however, I really do not want to watch that... Personally speaking, I thought that there was some other nonsense and for example, at the moment when the battle was won by a camel that came out of nowhere, I thought about lowering the rating. However, I am not going to do that. I have seen the horror show In Another World with My Smartphone, mentioned several times before, and this is at least a level above that. 3/10. (22/09/2018) (less) (more)