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Winter 2024 Season

11 January, 2024

Unlike the sequel-heavy fall, Winter 2024 brings us only Tsuki ni Michibiku Isekai Douchuu's second season as a continuation, but more than makes up with it with a truly massive eleven new series. isekai tensei, isekai shoukan, akuyaku reijou, reverse isekai, with or without easy world travel, from petting fluffy beasts to fighting demons and dragons, this season’s variety truly has something for every variety of isekai fan.

Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade Suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu comes with an appeal that’s in the background of many an isekai anime. Digimon and Monster Farm are of course as known for their monster taming aspects as their otherworldly ones, and Pokemon Amie and Refresh were beloved features of that game series. Mofumofu Nadenade does not come with its own bestiary, admittedly; one is reminded more of Ride-On King and Purchinov’s efforts to mount an array of fantasy creatures, especially as our current heroine, Nefertima (who died of overwork in her past life) does not actually stop at petting; all the better if you can take a ride!

She desires a slow life, and is getting one so far – but then again, she’s still a toddler. Gifted the power to make non-human creatures like her, she’s befriending princes and animals in the royal menagerie, and stopped a magic test involving a dragon fight with her personal intervention.

Although this particular country is currently treating her well, the god who reincarnated her did warn that humans were oppressing beasts in this world; one wonders what will become of it all by the time she grows up.

Chiyu Mahou no Machigatta Tsukaikata gives us two very interesting student councilors – one, Ryuusen Kazuki, who desperately wants to go home, to the point of yelling at the king once summoned. The other, Inukami Suzune, puts up a facade of perfection, but has long shared the deep longing for adventure which binds isekai fans and many characters alike.

Both of them befriend the shy and unremarkable main character, Usato Ken, who stays late at school on a rainy day because he lacks an umbrella; for all the hierarchical differences between them this isn’t a “betrayed by my classmates” show and they’re genuinely good people. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one’s perspective,) hanging out together meant stepping into the summoning circle together, and Ken was grabbed along with his classmates.

Also, while Ken’s summoning wasn’t intentional, he does have an aptitude for healing magic. At episode’s end, despite the king’s efforts to hide it, he’s dragged off by a frightening tutor, Rose, to study this skill.

Its a more promising start than the last couple healing isekai, but I hope the show will still include his classmates and saving the world and such, and not focus too much on his training. The title, however, does suggest otherwise.

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If what you wanted to watch bitter intra-class dissension in another world, however, Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou sugite, Isekai no Yatsura ga Marude Aite ni Naranai n desu ga more than fits the bill. A series which revels in edge, a class bus on a field trip is sent to another world, the summoner kills a couple students for annoying her, and the remaining ones who were granted powers in the other world leave the powerless ones to die as a decoy for a menacing dragon – along with one very overpowered MC, Takatou Yogiri, who was sound asleep through all of this and annoyed about not being able to recharge his switch.

Anyway, the MC kills the dragon.

Two of the treacherous students who return – students who, in fairness, did want to kill him and/or rape the love interest, Dannoura Tomochika.

The third, who desperately equips a slave collar to himself, Yogiri “spares” by making him give him all his stuff and go off to fight monsters. The deceased students’ claim to be on their second trip to this world is an intriguing plot thread – remembering how fun Isekai Shoukan wa Nidome desu was, I hope it did not die with them.

The second episode introduces a sage who nullifies the title character's power (not much else one can do with instant death, I suppose), along with one of Dannoura’s distant ancestors – a guardian spirit who blocked her from getting her own skill, which would have accidentally got her killed if not for Takutou’s intervention. Takutou uses his death powers liberally against various petty thugs, attempts to constrain them leading to blinding at best, killing anyway at worse; the story of Dannoura trying to navigate getting home with a psychotic companion might be more interesting. But Takutou does set some rules for his power’s use, and mostly restricts them to self-defense situations; we also learn that heroes are being pulled in from worlds other than Earth, and that there are those in this world who (not without cause) want to see every sage massacred.

High-level Dungeons and Dragons campaigns were often plagued by “save or die” replacing long and exciting battles; the 7th level spell Finger of Death, in retrospect, was probably a mistake. The mind battles and fake outs of Death Note prove that instant death is not always incompatible with an entertaining story, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned, and I don’t mean about the edge part; the power of instant death can make the conflicts on which any adventure story rests too easily resolved. It will take a talented writer to avoid these pitfalls; Sokushi Cheat has set a challenge for itself, and I would like it to meet it, although I am not convinced it can.

Kekkon Yubiwa Monogatari offers the classic, ever-popular fantasy of marriage to an otherworlder, with the twist that this particular otherworlder is also a childhood friend. Hime Nonaka, raised on Earth, moves away to another world to get married.

Haruto Satou, horrified by the prospect of losing her, follows through the portal, crashes the (arranged) wedding, and with a contract kiss (not the only one this season!) becomes her husband.

In this series, unlike many a romance, the wedding is only the beginning. I’m kind of reminded of Tonikaku Kawaii also doing a first episode wedding, but Nasa’s life is way more peaceful than Satou’s. Satou must fend off another group of far more monstrous wedding crashers with the Sword of Light, and after some cute mixed bathing, the episode ends with bells ringing and yet another battle; can the newly crowned Ring King actually protect his wife? At least he’s a nicer ring king than Sauron…

Akuyaku Reijou lv 99: Watashi wa Ura-Boss desu ga Maou de wa Arimasen may be the only isekai villainess anime of the season, although as with fall, villainess fans also have an impressive non-isekai series (in Loop 7-Kaime this time) to enjoy, along with a double reincarnation title in Gekai Elise which I may be mistaken in not talking about in detail. (Is that show actually different worlds, or just different time periods? It looks like the latter so far, but I’m not certain.) Lv 99’s first episode is a bit of a fake-out, even by villainess standards; we only meet the title character after half its runtime is spent on the heroine and an ordinary game play-through – the story of being late to school as the only commoner and sneaking in through a broken wall. Yumellia’s reincarnation is almost glossed over, truck-kun mentioned in a flashback.

Our actual main character shares the aversion to the spotlight of many a chuuni hero – consider Kage no Jitsuryokusha’s Cid Kagenou – albeit with more justification; a hidden boss might legitimately be missed. But a public level testing at her royal academy puts a stop to those plans; no one level 99 in a world where level 10 is impressive could ever slip under the radar. Can she survive?

If nothing else, she looks like she can.

Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu’s second season airs this winter, but as the start of a new arc, this episode was honestly pretty weak. Makoto being a good guy and protecting demihumans from thugs and bandits isn’t a bad thing, he’s the surprisingly nice hyuman (isekaijin) and all, but all it serves to do is have us meet a couple new characters and remind us that hyumans in this setting aren’t necessarily good guys; it doesn’t offer much of a hook for another adventure.

Far more interesting is the episode’s subplot – “love interest/harem member can’t cook, wants to learn” is normal enough in anime, to the point of being borderline cliché. Said love interest being a spider-woman working on photos from cookbooks (in Makoto’s own memory), and making mistakes like using emeralds in place of asparagus, is not. The demiplane is, if not completely unique, at least a concept which rarely if ever sees the kind of extended treatment TsukiMichi gives it, and Tomoe and Mio’s banter is always entertaining and brings back fond memories of Tenchi Muyou!.

TsukiMichi is still adapting a very good story – I know it from the manga, although the Light Novel is the original source – and whatever the weaknesses of this particular episode, we do have twenty-four more to look forward to. It gets better then this, I promise.

Unfortunately, Meitou "Isekai no Yu" Kaitakuki: Around 40 Onsen Mania no Tensei Saki wa, Nonbiri Onsen Tengoku deshita is not only the last isekai anime to premiere this season; it also, as an ecchi and a short series, was not picked up by any sort of simulcast service that would supply English subs. As such, my commentary is based on the raw, and I apologize if I misunderstood any of its story.

In any case, we don’t get any shots of the other world; the short begins with our MC trying to convince a fox girl, Mayudama, to strip and enter the onsen. At first she’s reluctant, calling him a pervert then enters only in fox form, but is too hot with her fur coat; only after being cradled against MC-san in that form does she (unsurprisingly, given the appeal of the show) assent to humanoid mixed bathing.

Ishura opens with a world, or at least a town, in ruins, and Soujirou’s rescue of our magic-using heroine, Yuno, from a robotic army (after she’s already lost everyone) is one of the coolest introductions to another world I’ve seen yet. Soujirou follows it with a swordfight against an entire labyrinth that has turned itself a massive mech – or a golem, to use fantasy parlance. A visitor from a distant world, lacking magic powers, he communicates based on Yuno’s “word arts” based magic; his world, after all, relies on physics. For all Yuno’s trauma, Soujirou’s there for the love of battle.

Although Soujirou looks like he walked out of the Sengoku era, his mentions of cutting up tanks suggests a modern day origin – we don’t get much in the first episode from his perspective, such as what he was doing immediately before he got here.

Moreover, neither character appears at all in the second episode, which is only connected with the first by its sense of naming (e.g. Soujirou the Willow Sword, Alus the Star Runner) and mentions of the “great labyrinth” and “true demon king”.

Sasaki to Pii-chan begins with the two title characters meeting – the former, an underpaid salaryman, the latter, a cute Java Sparrow… err, a star sage reincarnated into the body of a cute Java Sparrow. Sasaki buys the bird at a pet shop, not having the money for a dog or cat, then contracts with Piercarlo (or “Pii-chan” for short), obtaining both magic powers and wealth through between-world trading with fast travel, ala Rougo ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai no Kinka wo Tamemasu’s Mitsuha. He spends some of his newly acquired funds to open a restaurant in the other world, so he can cater to his pet’s expensive tastes.

But Sasaki’s own adventure is not actually spent in that world, nor is he long for the trading company job; after using his magic powers to rescue Hoshizaki, a government psychic, from an assailant, he’s roped into working for her bureau instead – ice magic works well with her own water powers. Also, his next door neighbor, a middle schooler, has yandere tendencies towards him. And his apartment is bugged – a test he soon passes, given his new powers.

With otherworlders, espers, and an author more than willing to throw in everything entertaining and worry about justifying it later, Sasaki to Pii-chan brings to mind Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu - I would not be in the least bit surprised to see aliens and time travelers show up in future episodes. Judging by the first (double-length) episode, we’re in for a fun ride.

And then we have the shows where people only go into the other world to fight off otherworldly invaders. Two of them.

Na Honjaman Level Up (or Ore dake Level Up na Ken in Japanese, Solo Leveling in English) is a manwha adaptation, in which the sudden appearance of another world leads to Hunters going on dungeon crawls to protect the rest of humanity.

I must confess, I think the anime’s popularity comes from the manwha, or perhaps later parts of the story; showing an under-powered hero is a nice antidote to the easy mode stories that have become a popular form of escapism in the narou-kei era, but dungeon crawling isekai are dime a dozen. For instance, last summer gave us Jidou Hanbaiki, Seija Musou, and Level 1 dakedo Unique Skill de Saikyou desu.

The execution is not bad – one feels for Jin-Woo’s determination to earn money for his family, or Joohee’s concern about him risking his life without the power to back it up, and there’s intriguing scene in which the adventuring party takes a vote on whether or not to go into a more dangerous (too dangerous; one is dead before the episode ends) dungeon. It’s not bad but has yet to really set itself apart from the pack, and the most memorable thing about it so far is either its country of origin or the use of statues as monsters; only time will tell if it can live up to the hype.

Mato Seihei no Slave combines isekai elements with ecchi harem ones, with a side of serious masochist appeal. The setting is one where the power to fight otherworlders called shuuki, from a dimension called Mato, rests exclusively with women, and none of Yuuki Wakura’s attempts at heroism can accomplish very much, despite his wish to avenge his elder sister, who died fighting the Shuuki. He does manage, at least, to contract with a heroine and become her slave.

He gets roped by his new owner into becoming a caretaker for a woman’s dorm… one in the middle of the Mato, protected by a barrier from the invading Shuuki. This is not complete protection, however; the second episode, in addition to introducing a size-changing harem member and Yuuki’s struggles in strip fighting games, witnesses a battle right outside the dorm when a couple kaiju-sized shuuki try to breach the barrier. How safe is this dorm? How can a slave function with so many owners? We’ll find out as the series continues; at least the girls are cute.

Finally, for the sake of completionism, it should not be forgotten that Hirogaru Sky PreCure! concludes on Saturday, January 27th; we’ve recieved a lot of backstory on relations between the Undergu Empire and Skyland in the last couple episodes, and for the sake of not spoiling some of the story’s most climactic moments, I will say nothing more.

This post, as originally written, excluded Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita, because, althoug its protagonist is revealed to be a reincarnation in the first episode, we do not get explicit confirmation that Ivy was from another world until the 11th episode. It's a cute fantasy series with a banger of an OP and ED, about a girl, a slime, and a surprisingly heartwarming journey, but as an isekai in particular I have relatively litte to say.