Fall 2022 Season, Week 1

10 October, 2022

With merely three new series this cour, half of Fall 2022’s count, some have pronounced the Winter 2022 season the “death of isekai”. I strongly disagree. There are an awful lot of genres which would kill for a consistent three new anime every season, and all of them have good reasons to be isekai series. Akuyaku Reijou nanode Last Boss wo Kattemimashita, like the rest of the villainness sub-genre, is about avoiding a Bad End and therefore relies on foreknowledge of events from the perspective of someone who played the original game. Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute spends most of the first episode on Earth, with a truck-kun encounter immediately preceding the ending credits. Only Tensei shitara Ken Deshita could be done similarly as a straight fantasy story, but those almost always stick to human or demihuman protagonists; a magic talking sword is just so strange and far from our regular experience that perhaps making him a reincarnate from our world is necessary to make him at all a relatable protagonist.

It would be a bad thing if publishers were to turn away isekai manga and light novels, or not commission adaptations of them from anime studios, on the grounds that “audiences are tired of isekai”, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I personally think it’s healthy if skill-heavy, Narou-kei fantasy stories don’t feel a need to throw in an earth-based protagonist just to follow trends. Last season we saw Kuro no Shoukanshi, with a protagonist who gave up his memories of Japan, and Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life only giving us brief, wordless flashbacks; if the equivalents this season, like Noumin Kanren no Skill bakka Agetetara Nazeka or Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou sareta Beast Tamer opt for a this-world protagonist, have fans of isekai in particular really lost anything?

Anyway, on to this season’s offerings.

I don’t want to generalize too much about Akuyaku Reijou (or ‘villainess’ as it’s conventionally translated) stories, as I’ve only read a couple and it’s a sub-genre with its share of devoted fans. But my impression of ‘typical’ for the subgenre is that it involves a protagonist – one shy and asocial back on Earth, and who’s developed a menacing reputation already in the other world – trying to be nice to everyone and make friends, because their life quite literally depends on it. The full title of perhaps the most popular villainess story, Hamefura, Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta… or in English, “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom”, accurately sums up the dilemma for villainess protagonists in the finest traditions of light novel titling. They’re stories where the main character knows the end is coming and has to avoid it, but doing it comes anything but naturally to the protagonist, and actions are often misinterpreted in the world of elite academies.

The title of Akuyaku Reijou nanode Last Boss wo Kattemimashita or “I’m the Villainess, so I’m taming the final boss” similarly cuts right to the point, if one substitutes “romancing” or “seducing" for “taming” anyway.

Aileen is very much not Katarina; her solution isn’t to make friends, but to switch sides. And what the actual demon king or his minions actually think about this aspect isn’t particularly important to her; she gives his crow an anesthetic treat and takes it hostage before trying to slip him a love potion. The crows, horned dogs called Fenrir, and other cute animals of the demon’s forest are certainly a part of this show’s appeal.

She slowly wins over said demon king, loudly and publicly proclaims her disinterest in the prince, defuses an attempt to blame her for kidnapping the heroine, and even gets her family out of financial trouble. She definitely avoided the default route after only three episodes, but I suspect greater trouble, perhaps involving the game’s original love interest, lies ahead…

Being reincarnated in another world as something other than a human has proven fodder for some of the most outlandish (and frequently parodied) isekai stories, of which Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken and Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? are probably the most famous. And like those forebears, Tensei shitara Ken deshita starts its protagonist off in the wilderness, albeit not in a cave.

But while Rimuru befriends the monsters around him, and Kumoko must struggle to survive, the unnamed title character of this series chooses violence. Repeatedly. He is an object, but not an inaminate object; with a variety of telekinetic and other skills, he spends most of the first episode traveling increasing distances to hunt and kill monsters while waiting for a hero to pull this excalibur from his stone.

The term “murderhobo”, coined as a pejorative for a certain overly combat focused style of tabletop gaming, is an apt description of his personality; his main concern is in killing monsters to get stronger and acquire more skills. But one should not forget that, while criticized in tabletop gaming, this sort of behavior is rewarded in many popular video games and all but mandatory in some – there’s an appeal to a world of nothing but fights and in trying to become stronger, a frustration to one’s raw powerlessness that many an isekai fan can relate to.

His apprentice and eventual wielder, a twelve-year-old named Fran, is introduced far more sympathetically – a catgirl slave freed because the sword burnt up her contract with fire magic, who has every reason to desire strength and wishes to be the first of her species to evolve. In practice, however, she is even quicker than her partner to attack; there is a scene in episode two where the sword actually prevents her from killing some thugs at the Adventurer’s Guild, as it’d cause too much trouble.

Unfortunately, the 2nd episode has said Adventurer’s Guild, We do get a nice fight, and a funny scene of the title character learning to his horror that he’s no stronger than store-bought weapons. But this wouldn’t be the first isekai anime to combine exploring the concept in a fantastic first episode with a frankly generic rest of the cour. I hope Fran and her sword’s quest for power and evolution will contain some more interesting adventures.

Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute begins with the tale of Nishino Akane, the teenage ex-show business daughter of a wealthy family, whose tightly regimented life reminds me of Youko from Juuni Kokuki; sometimes, one needs to leave the world they were born in to find any sort of personal emancipation. Although she’s gone through plenty of danger, including an incident with a stalker and the paparazzi, and overcoming past traumas and revealing her true self might become a major part of her story.

Except that, despite the extensive fakeout, she’s not the main character; the main (and title) character is Tadano Minoru, a classmate who sits next to her, refers to her as a ‘named NPC’ and causes Nishino no end of frustration by perpetually forgetting her name. An otaku desperate to become stronger and surpass his limits, a martial artist frustrated by the limitations of the human body, who wishes to become so strong he could survive a nuclear war. He rescues Nishino from being kidnapped by some thugs linked to her father’s business enemies and doesn’t get hit by truck-kun until the episode’s end; we don’t actually ge to see a glimpse of the other world until after an early ending theme and him giving himself his very chuunibyou title (which replaces “Stylish Boukan Slayer”, the one he uses on Earth – or “Stylish Ruffian Slayer” as the subs have it, which translates the meaning if not the incredibly chuuni mixing of languages.)

This cour has had a bit of a scattered start, and Akuyaku Reijou nanode Last Boss wo Kattemimashita has aired three episodes as of this writing, Tensei shitara Ken Deshita two. Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute has only shown its first as of this writing, and as much as I appreciate establishing who the characters were on Earth before getting reincarnated, I do wish I knew more about its setting. Guess I’ll find out later this week.

In general, I tend to drop fantasy series when I see a hint of school life; the regimented world of education, even at a strange and magical institution, strikes me as the antithesis of the adventure which draws me to the genre.

Anyway, I’m now starting the 3rd season and 45th episode of Mairimashita, Iruma-kun!, whose charming cast and fun setting makes up for what I’d otherwise find to be significant flaws. Sending humans into the demon world dates back at least as far as Dante’s Inferno and demons are so common in isekai that “demon king” is probably the most typical antagonist – and they appeared often enough in Dungeons and Dragons, the inspiration for so much high fantasy (whether isekai or otherwise) as to spark a religious fundamentalist backlash in its country of origin.

But the demon world itself, as opposed to demons within a broader fantasy world, is far rarer: Kyou Kara Maou is the closest example I can think of, but that world also has plenty of humans. The demon school Bablys in which Mairimashita, Iruma-kun! Is set does share the hostility to humans of Kyou Kara Maou’s demons, complete with a school song about killing them… with all the problems that implies for a secret human transfer student, the adopted grandchild of the influential demon Sullivan.

Apart from reintroducing the characters, Iruma must also deal with standing out now; the last season’s conclusion made him a little too much of a school hero. As for the new arc, I can’t say there’s anything particularly remarkable in the context of school anime about desperately needing to rank up or getting special tutoring, alhough this show has a knack for parody as well. Mairimashita, Iruma-kun! handles things with its trademark charm, introducing, among others, a crybaby tutor named Vepar who starts floods and is definitely not a gijinka Vaporeon.

Finally of note this season is the first minute of Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana – The Teardrop Crystal. The show is not an isekai, it has a same world protagonist, and the scene in question is a dream sequence likely relating to the franchise’s video game origins – but between falling through the sky and stars and having its quest explained by a summoner, it sure fooled me at first. One nice fake-out before a this-world fantasy series begins.

Maybe it’s not the explosion of the immediate past, but it looks like we’ll still have some nice isekai these next three months to enjoy.