Summer 2022 Season, Week 1
10 July, 2022
Six* isekai TV anime are airing during the summer 2022 season, and all have completed their initial episodes, so it’s as good a time as any to do an overview.
*Seven if one counts Hataraku Maou-sama’s second season, but as it’s a reverse isekai series and I never got into the original – too slice-of-life for my tastes – I won’t be covering it.
Slimes and monster raising have been in some very good isekai anime – alas, probably better ones than Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life will be.
It's hard to know what to say about it as an isekai yet, because so far the main character’s past life has only appeared in brief flashbacks. The story kind of jumps into the middle without a real beginning; Yuji’s already a tamer and offering to use a very high-level dragonfire spell to save the city of Phantasm from an invading army.
And then the hero moves on. He’s got some cute slime partners and a wolf.
The 2nd episode is very different from the 1st, which is perhaps why they were released together; rather than saving a city, we move to typical adventuring party activites. Getting the group together, going through traps, a slime almost getting stabbed. And a nice reference to Monster Farm: Enbanseki no Himitsu with throwing the slime up for observation, with the main character in Golem’s role and the slime in Suezo’s.
I fear this show will be more like the 2nd episode than the 1st but the adventure has to lead somewhere.
Overlord also returns for its fourth season this summer, the simply titled Overlord IV.
Albedo is cute, Ainz dakimakura and all. I’d fall for her but her advice is often a little too evil...
Anti-human sentiment is far from rare an isekai, especially when the title character is no longer in a human body; it makes yet another appearance here.
Ainz gives orders to establish an orphanage in order to educate skilled individuals while prevent technology from leaking to the opposition, and also to provide for war widows, who would staff it. Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken got a whole story arc and some major characters out of its orphanage, I wonder if Overlord will do something similar.
There are some interactions with adventurers, is an elf rescue arc coming? Or are they just contracting with adventurers’ guilds and trying to absorb them. It’s nice to see Ainz-tachi again, but this episode feels more like a re-introduction than developing whatever arc is coming, and I haven’t read the light novels (as I don’t personally care for Overlord’s prose) so I might be missing some signs. Lots and lots of administering Nazarick this week.
Isekai Ojisan is a series boundary between a regular and reverse isekai. Usually the latter term is used for an otherworlder coming here, but the title character in this series is an earthling who already had his adventures; the series starts with him having returned home.
He’s still speaking the other language, his spells don’t work, but then his wind one does, had to use Japanese and not the other world’s language. His nephew didn’t believe him at first.
There’s lots of adjusting to the last 17 years of time passing. 2000-16. Ojisan is sad that Sega lost the console war. Tsunderes didn’t exist yet so he didn’t get that the elf had feelings for him. Plus he has an orc face.
He’s able to show his memories on video. Has a portal of holding, gives the nephew a dagger, shows off his gems and stuff. Tries a Youtube channel. Made a shock marriage proposal in the other world but then ruins it by selling the ring for treasure.
I only read the start of the manga (I believe the rest wasn’t translated at the time, and then I forgot about it) but this one looks really promising.
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari, the first isekai anime with a slave-owning protagonist, was often treated by its detractors as a fantasy about owning a harem of slave soldiers who were cute girls. It’s really not; he buys Raphtalia at his lowest point out of desperation and trust issues, slavery exists as a bonding mechanism and power-up despite the master offering to free them, and they even eventually kill the slave dealer responsible.
Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo is the anime said detractors were thinking of.
I remembered the sex from the manga, but not the gore. It was probably there, just less memorable in black and white.
The main character, Kaga Michio, can’t log out and tries a bunch of voice commands. This is a VRMMO type of series, and (like many other protagonists, 100-man no Inochi's Yuusuke a recent example) he’s horrified by the revelation that he killed people. Slavery in the initial village is mentioned to be the punishment for thieves, with the profit from the sale split between own family and that of the victim’s.
We learn that Roxanne “consented to sex with whoever became her master” at 20:10, which, to say the least, is not how actual slavery worked. But I guess that’s part of the appeal, it’s about people who can’t really interact with others but can spend money finding a partner or partners, it’s not usually a fantasy for sadists.
And now he’s gotta gather the funds. Also a pretty nice ending theme, might be best ED this season.
All of Kelvin’s memories of this world are lost, so what’s the point of Kuro no Shoukanshi being isekai? Then again, I’d probably trade my memories for an otherworldly adventure too.
Although the Japanese word for summoner is in the title, it’s still an isekai tensei; Kelvin is the one that does the summoning.
This one has a menu complete with a start button. The main character’s level 1 with weak stats, and he brings around the significantly stronger goddess of reincarnation, Melfina.
Kelvin is seriously just Konosuba’s Kazuma. But Melfina’s happier about this circumstance than Aqua, treating it as a vacation, and also just a disembodied voice; he doesn't have enough MP to summon her.
With a declaration like this (and a memory-loss plot for that matter) it's hard not to be reminded of Tsubasa.
Kelvin lies about his class because summoners are so rare and doesn’t want public interest, instead goes around as a ‘green mage”.
He gets beat up by a slime, this is why you don’t use melee attacks when a level 1 mage. But at least he deals damage eventually!
Kelvin names his slime Clotho. And then there's some slime on slime violence, it’s like when all you have is a low-level Pidgey. Complete with slime cannibalism.
There’s a slave market with a half-elf towards the end of the first episode, but he can’t afford her anyway.
The main character of Isekai Yakkyoku loses a sister to illness, she’s placed in stasis or something? In response, a boy grows up into an exhausted, overworked doctor, who then wakes up in another world.
Falma, in his new body, is related to the Medicis archduke (this pseudo-European aspect can sometimes gets a little silly) and born into a hereditary pharmaceutical family, with no memory of his current life. He was saved by the god of medicine and given his holy mark. He loses control of his water magic, sprays it out the window. But the maid/assistant girl Lotte is happy, as he accidentally watered the garden for her.
There’s a chemistry based magic system, and Falma can make elements and simple molecules. His power level makes him a god or a monster, and he makes way too much water once again. He has no shadow, scares his tutor, and with that the episode ends.