Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita
Short Synopsis: A man dies and is reincarnated as a sword in an RPG world, where he learns tons of sweet skills and is eventually wielded by a catgirl.
Wooper: Of all the fantasy anime to abuse the “RPG menu screens” trope, I think this one abuses it the hardest. There were around 25 shots here with no function except to list the abilities and levels of the show’s sentient sword protagonist, which typically required the use of the entire frame. Interestingly, though, this practice didn’t distract much from the flow of the episode, since its story revolved almost entirely around killing monsters and gaining their skills. There’s something satisfying about watching a sword fly through the air and run through enemies of its own volition, especially when the 3DCG used in its animation is so slick. The fun came to a screeching halt, though, during any scenes where his future wielder Fran appeared on screen. A catgirl, former slave, and now devoted follower of some guy who was reincarnated into her world just last week, Fran represents many of the things I dislike about modern fantasy series. It’s great that she’s free of bondage and ready to take fate into her own hands and all, but there’s no way a story this thin is equipped to make her anything more than a mascot. Even if her menu screens go berserk with experience points, she’ll be trapped in an anime that was never anything more than a telepathic sword simulator.
Potential: 10%
Amun: Oh come on now Wooper, this wasn’t that bad. One of my pet peeves on the new influx of slave isekais is how life-long slaves just behave perfectly normally without any trauma – Reincarnated as a Sword didn’t do that. Fran is clearly not reacting to the normal social/comedy cues, and I found myself appreciating that – it felt halfway realistic. Does it make for great dialogue throughout the rest of the show? Of course not, but this isn’t just your typical furry (or elf) maid slave that you’ll find in many other recent isekai. We’ll have to see if that’s a good thing or not. Some positives: the 3D animation was clean and as someone ambushed by the first episode of Goblin Slayer, I loved seeing the Goblin massacre. The story is very simple, but there’s a clear direction to it, so I’ll take what I can get. The biggest positive here is just the premise – a sentient sword off on an adventure is one I can’t recall having seen before. The downsides are pretty clear too. Without a doubt, as Wooper lamented, the wielder Fran is the weak link and will probably provide some quasi-service throughout. I don’t see this being anything other than a novelty show, but given isekai these days have to find some way to set themselves apart, I appreciate the effort. And the animation looks good (for now)!
Potential: 35%
Uchi no Shishou wa Shippo ga Nai
Short Synopsis: A young tanuki draws inspiration from a local rakugo performance after finding it tough to trick humans in the big city.
Wooper: Rakugo anime sure have it tough in the wake of Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Even when they belong to a completely different genre, as Ushi no Shishou does, their performance scenes will no doubt be compared to the mesmerizing stories found in that modern classic. Cutting away from the rakugoka mid-act to an imagined version of their tale seems like kids’ stuff, but to be fair, children may be Shishou’s target audience; there’s a segment after the ED that breaks down the episode’s (already simple) rakugo story for viewers who had trouble following it, which seems a very kid-friendly thing to do. Main character Mameda is a child, too (of the tanuki variety), and not the grating prodigy type, which might have been refreshing had the show been able to capture a country kid’s amazement at the bustle of early 20th century Osaka. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel it was successful in that task – both the human city of Osaka and the series’ supernatural elements (tanuki transformations, Daikokutei’s flying ship) were depicted rather plainly. There was a lot of emphasis on Mameda’s admiration for her prankster father, which led to her own desire to trick humans, but even that was consigned to flashbacks, and not particularly good ones. That’s the trouble with Uchi no Shisou – even though there’s nothing glaringly wrong with it, there’s nothing glaringly right, either.
Potential: 10%
Lenlo: Wooper isn’t wrong in anything he said. I feel like Shishou’s target audience is children, and it was very simplistic in its rakugo and presentation there of. But while he seems to have been bored by it, I found it a tad endearing. A little Tanuki being more confused and befuddled by the modern world than the humans were her tricks was cute, and the fox girl’s monologue on the passing of time and the old ways being forgotten to history was more poignant than I was expecting. It’s still not great, these totaled about 8 minutes of engagement in a 23 minute long episode. But I’m also not usually the kind of person to go for cutesy stuff, so Shishou had an uphill battle to win me over regardless. So yeah, for someone just looking for a cute, fluffy show this season, I expect you could do a whole lot worse than Shishou.
Potential: 20%
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
Short Synopsis: A girl dies and is reincarnated in her favorite otome game, where she must avert her deathly fate by seducing the Demon Lord.
Wooper: I’ve only watched the first of Villainess’s two available episodes, but I doubt the second one will do much to improve my initial impression of the series. It’s the hundredth anime in recent years to use the resurrection gimmick, putting an analog earthling (like you, the viewer) in a digital setting (like you, the viewer, play on your video game system of choice). As such, it has the privilege of skipping storytelling basics like characterization and setting establishment, since its intended audience is already familiar with the sorts of games it’s aping. Only this show seems to have missed the memo that it could skip all that, because it still goes about it in its own clumsy way – namely, tons of internal monologuing from its main character Aileen. These scenes held zero appeal for me, and the spoken dialogue was hardly any better, being ripped from both the reverse harem anime and otome game playbooks. Visually, the show manages to make nearly every one of its scenes a dull disappointment, with lazy brightness effects used in chandelier-lit balls and moonlit exterior scenes alike, and unimaginative layouts that had my eyes glazing over. The only redeeming factor anywhere in this first episode is a talking crow named Almond (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita), whose love of Aileen’s cookies gives him the sort of charm that no other character here can muster. If I were to die and be reincarnated in this anime, the first thing I’d do would be to find Almond and tell him to fly far, far away from this borefest.
Potential: 1%, strictly out of appreciation for Almond
Lenlo: Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz… Snrk! What? Where am I? What time is it? Am I still watching shitty video game isekai? Only this one is coached in some kind of period-drama dating sim? Except even with that slightly unique premise it still falls back on fantasy demon lord bullshit? Anime why. You had a shot here to do something new. Just make a video-game isekai but instead of RPG bullshit do a dating sim, complete with all the videogame trappings of the genre. Have some fun with it! Joke about routes, riff on it a bit and have some fun! Instead it just gives me exactly what Wooper says above: A dull, boring, whatever of a series.
Potential: 0%
