Summer 2025

10 July, 2025

The summer 2025 anime season gives us only four new isekai series, alongside two sequels – which is probably about average this decade. Four are isekai tensei, one even putting re:birth in its title, to two isekai shoukan (at least for the main character – I still appreciate how Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari’s heroes arrived in different ways). Onmyou Kaiten Re:Birth is actually listed by some sources as an anime original, but its manga adaptation beat it to print: the other five titles all originated as web/light novels.

Isekai Mokushiroku Mynoghra: Hametsu no Bunmei de Hajimeru Sekai Seifuku, is, on one level, very typical; it’s an isekai tensei story where the main character becomes a demon lord and tries to conquer the world. We’ve seen that in Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken and Overlord and a bunch of other if less prominent isekai, right? Even a video game setting isn’t all that unusual – Overlord has one, to say nothing of the many, many other examples.

Video games, however, are a diverse medium in their own right… and isekai tensei heavily focus on role-playing games, or otome games in the case of villainess tales. Mynoghra stands out by its choice of genre; Eternal Nations, our main character’s game, is a 4X title. The 4Xs which give the genre their name are explore, expand (one’s territory), exploit (natural resources) and exterminate (rival powers); as of the first episode, our protagonist has not moved beyond ‘explore’.

I wouldn’t consider myself a 4X aficionado, although I’ve certainly had fun playing Civilization IV and Stellaris over the years; Civ IV’s historical setting intrigued me, but couldn’t compare to Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis’ historically faithful maps and start dates, and I moved on to grand strategy… though I suppose grand strategy is not without its 4X roots, as anyone who’s ever played Portugal in EU can attest. (still, not all nations explore, resources, although extant, are much less important, and expand/exterminate are mostly combined… but I digress.)

Ira Takuto, a world champion in Eternal Nations, and a sickly young man, dies and is summoned to its world, where he meets his favorite character, hero unit, and assistant, Atou. The dynamic between the two is really nice – it’s reassuring, it’s like meeting an old friend for the first time, they get along great from the start and she helps him adjust to life in this new world.

Of course, they’re the weakest nation, the civilization of ruin… and this being a 4X game, Takuto and Atou start with nothing more than a throne, a scout (who scurries so fast I thought he was running away, but Takuto can see through him) and a bit of mana. The Mazaram clan of Dark Elves, an exiled and emaciated group, petition Takuto for aid… he feeds them, and looks absolutely terrifying to the elves in the process. Their elder, who was not the emissary, is wary, and Takuto himself spent a lot of mana on wooing them… but a king needs subjects. Even if this particular king’s aloofness is really just a communication disorder… good thing he has Atou around to help!

A large part of isekai’s appeal is the idea of a do-over, of a new life, of becoming a stronger self and falling in love with someone better than even exists in the real world, or of bonding with someone during your adventures. But what if, instead, you became even uglier as a joke? Busamen Gachi Fighter’s protagonist, Yoshioka Shigeru, was never good looking – for a while, he had a decent life despite that, even getting a good job in sales despite his face, and showing a natural talent for it. But he was never good with women, and a false accusation of molestation and a plea bargain led to his life spiraling downwards; when he saw the forum post about the other world, years later, he had become a hikikomori.

And he didn’t take character creation seriously – I’d say “who would?” but then again the computer had prompted him without him pressing any buttons, just turned north and facing the window. -255 looks left him fatter and uglier than his Earth form; maybe he just couldn’t imagine being good-looking.

Then again it let him max out his other stats so… enjoy god mode?

Still, I think he went a little too far, and there are problems coming down the line… losing half one’s lifespan by going home is a unique twist, and authors don’t generally write irrelevant things into the 1st episode.

Shigeru wakes up in his underwear, in a house with three other isekaijin – one male, two female – which is soon attacked by goblins. He accidentally disappears the coin he touches – 1/10000 rounds down - so he generously lets his party divide the other 7 coins between them, giving up his share. They’re wary of him at first, but gradually warm up to him – the fight helps, because after a bit of difficulty with the initial goblins, he levels up and actually manages to use the stat points he neglected at character creation – a shame, that would’ve been a nice bit of struggle if it lasted more than a battle.

And then his class becomes ‘almighty god’ and, after helping one of the girls, the blue-haired Seika, string her bow and, when she fires wildly and misses, replenishes her arrows. Shigeru lets loose a single shot which wipes out the rest of the goblins.

No, that’s not a summon pictured above, it’s just how they drew his ‘Ultimate Strike’ arrow skill.

After the fight, a grateful Seika treats him to a hamburger, despite his attempts to ditch the rest of the party. Unfortunately, their hands make contact in the process, and the damage dealt makes him drop the burger… but she’s determined enough to give up her own as a reward instead.

If not for those debuffs Shigeru gave himself, they’d be a cute couple. As it stands… one can still see romance developing, and Seika (unlike the other girl in the party) is all over the ending theme, its one of those bishoujo EDs that were common back in the day (i.e. Lodoss-tou Senki or Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing) but that you don’t see often in contemporary anime.

Will he experience excruciating pain, get dismembered, and die? I can’t entirely rule it out… but if he does, I’m sure it’ll be his own fault for being such an idiot. This is why we keep our debuffs on the moderate and manageable side.

Onmyou Kaiten Re:Birth distinguishes itself through its setting; there are no elves here, just a futuristic setting which takes its cues from the Heian era, complete with incorporating Abe no Seimei as a major character.

Starting things off with a vision of the other world is one of those cool old isekai tropes you don’t see as much these days ~~that I could probably make a whole post on at some point~~. I associate the idea most with Tenkuu no Escaflowne, because of how much it plays with the concept of dreams and visions, but Fushigi Yuugi does it, with Suzaku flying around before Miaka opens the book, Juuni Kokki’s Youko dreams of what's to come as well, pull up an isekai show from back then and if they’re not summoned in the first couple minutes there’s a really, really good chance they’re sighting the other world.

Onmyou Kaiten begins with the main character, Narihira Takeru, running away in the other world and being rescued by a girl who appears busty, but in truth simply had a small furry creature in her shirt. When he wakes up from this dream, Takeru is tied to a pole and being beaten by delinquents… but, much like many a shounen protagonist, simply doesn’t know when to give up; the family motto is apparently “don’t admit defeat until you’re dead, don’t admit defeat even after you’re dead”.

Takeru spots the critter from his dream on his motorcycle ride home, rescues it from a truck-kun, and then crashes off a highway ramp to his death. He makes a scene in front of the girl from his dream – the 2000th time he's had it – but she doesn’t recognize him and freaks out. Onmyou Kaiten plays with time a lot - the setting, after all, combines both the past and the future - and the way by which the two had met each other simply hadn’t happened yet…

While Takeru’s walking around, despondent and disoriented, an emergency alarm goes off. Black mist is flooding the area, and that means oni – themselves from another world – are invading, the dimensional portals open from time to time. Unlike the locals, he’s not petrified by the mist, and he does his best to protect a kid from a monster many times his size… until mechs (or shikigami) and their pilots show up to rescue him. But he’s not content to be rescued and tries to fight them himself.

At least he survives the fight and befriends the mech pilots along with the girl from his dreams – she’s named Tsukimiya, and Takeru’s able to explain the earlier misunderstandings. But Tsukimiya herself is getting in trouble for Takeru interrupting the ceremony with the emperor, and Abe no Seimei shows up to arrest Takeru… and while they’re taking him away in his car, there’s yet another black mist incident.

Takeru thinks he’s Daimon Masaru of Digimon Savers, complete with punching,… no, stabbing an oni. And then a transformation, and a fully armored form resembling a shikigami – it’s not Agumon becoming GeoGreymon but it’s not far off. Seimei watching the fight with interest.

Unfortunately, he didn’t destroy the oni’s core, it stabs him through the heart, and he wakes up again at the festival. “Don’t admit defeat even if you’re dead…” it feels like we have some Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu stuff going on here, and it certainly fits the family motto!

In the second episode, Takeru… again manages to get himself arrested and introduce himself to characters he hadn’t met yet; no one celebrates this type of shounen hero for their intelligence. But he does figure things out a bit – he’s gone back 15 days before the festival he initially arrived at, and he’s determined to get strong enough to save Tsukimiya this time around.

There’s a lot of training, a lot of winning people over *again* through sheer determination. Atsunaga, one of the shikigami pilots (and a love rival for Tsukimiya) takes pity on him, gives him a painful power up, and helps him train – Abe no Seimei is only offering him a week to learn onmyoji skills. Though the female shikigami pilot, Yura, still dislikes him.

Atsunaga tries to keep him out of battle, and knocks him out the first time – he lost his senpai in one as a rookie himself, and he doesn’t want Takeru to be a burden. But Takeru’s weird ability to enter black mist without a shikigami helps out, and in the next fight he’s able to stop Atsunaga from what looked like a suicide attack with a ~~Masaru~~ Takeru punch, before getting in Atsunaga’s shikigami to win the fight.

Mizu Zokusei no Mahoutsukai begins with some very slow-paced water magic. And then we cut to the main character, Mihara Ryo, meeting an angel – the traditional isekai god was apparently too high ranking for this poor guy, I kind of feel sorry for him. Anyway, he’s dead, probably hit by truck-kun, although as we don't see the actual vehicle, I suppose it could’ve been a car. No quests for him, so he can do whatever he wants – and Ryo, unfortunately (for my entertainment value, if not for his own experience) wants a slow life. He gets a house, some food, and water magic to start out, along with some introductory books, and spends much of the first half of the episode in magic practice; its a breakthrough when he’s able to kill a boar with ice spears. But Ryo must leave the barrier to hunt, and there are more dangerous things out there; a giant bird, called an assassin hawk, does its very best to live up to its name, losing an eye and even evolving before it’s finally taken down. I can’t say I care for the direction of this show – too many drawn out scenes, too few words. But I can’t complain too much when a guy fights a bird, trains with a dullahan (after many fights to win its respect) and talks to a dragon before the first episode ends.

In addition to the four new isekai anime to premiere this season, Summer 2024 also gives us two sequels. Jidou Hanbaiki ni Umarekawatta Ore wa Meikyuu wo Samayou’s concept is as ridiculous as isekai tensei gets (at least in anime), but the story is not a comedy, per se, and treats the idea of a vending machine adventurer with as much seriousness as the inherent notion allows.

Still, dropping the vending machine pictured above onto a demon’s head is plenty silly in its own right.

Jidou Hanbaiki’s second season begins with an “Irasshaimase”, and then a male adventurer, Mishuel, becoming the vending machine’s apprentice, possibly with a crush on him, and wiping him down… Lammis, who usually carries him everywhere, is jealous. By this point in the story, our title character, Hakkon, has made his share of friends/adventuring party comrades, and is conceptualized as a ‘magic item’. The big but inconclusive battle with the Netherlord they fought to finish off the last season – the demon lord’s left arm (imagine Yu-Gi-Oh’s Exodia) has everyone concerned… so it’s back to the dungeon for round 2! The adventurers split into teams, with Hakkon, on the recovery team, supplying the refreshments. Some of them are elderly, but their skill, at least so far, has made up for any physical deterioration. We get a nice battle scene, complete with Hakkon using defibrillators not as medical equipment, but as general electric magic, in addition to the drop I mentioned earlier, and using telekinesis to spray water at the undead as well.

Vending machines can do so many things…

Unfortunately, the whole quest was a trap, and they’re stuck in the dungeon, which itself is leveling up from the battles therein, while the demon king is free to rampage in the outside world.

At the start of the second episode, the adventurers flee the current dungeon stratum, Lammis and Director Bear dragging Hakkon all the way back to the Hunters’ Association headquarters… which has also become a makeshift fortress/hospital for those villagers who survived the monster raid.

So we’re in for a siege, and there’s a hole in the village palisade. Hakkon helps out with food for the refugees, and teaches himself to kind of talk, although he can only use the syllables from his seven canned phrases. He reveals this ability to Lammis (or La-is), herself the survivor of a destroyed village, who’s pushing herself too hard and refusing to take some sorely needed rest – it makes her collapse from surprise.

(also she cute, and it’s weird seeing her without Hakkon)

Fortunately, Hakkon, as a vending machine, doesn’t have to worry about physical exhaustion, and is able to fight off the attacking frogmen with the classic soda + candy explosive combo. On the next day of the siege, he tries ice on his cold blooded opponents, but the points required to use his powers decrease disturbingly fast. At least they’re alive for now, and Hakkon gives everyone ice cream as a treat.

Is there a kind of vending machine that can really escape this kind of situation? Then again, is there anything Hakkon can’t do? I’m curious to find out.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari begins its 4th season this cour, airing its 51st episode – it’s nice, in this day and age, to see an anime not made by Toei or adapted from a Shounen Jump manga go so long.

The season begins with a journey to Raphtalia’s native country of Q’Ten Lo; her donning of a miko outfit at the end of last season had already led assassins her way, and more are on the horizon. And there’s the next wave and the impending battle with the phoenix to worry about. But Naofumi and his companions aren’t able to deal with any of that this episode; en route, they must pass through Siltvelt, where the Shield Hero is revered as a god. This is not without its own problems, however – Naofumi has his own mission, but is stuck in a gilded cage, forbidden from leaving the palace for fear of catching the public unprepared. There are those with political power who are quite happy running things on their own without a god intervening – one is reminded of Lord of the Rings when Aragorn returns to Gondor.

At the end of the episode, a lion beastman offers Naofumi a ship out – but he wasn’t in the royal audience and doesn't seem all that prominent, so can he really deliver on his promise?

I’ve really enjoyed Tate no Yuusha so far – I wouldn’t call it my favorite of the narou-kei era, per se, but none of the others I liked this much got this many seasons – and this episode wasted no time in giving us cool beastmen character designs and political intrigue. I can’t depart from the consensus that the first arc is the strongest, and that things quite aren’t as exciting after Raphtalia and Naofumi get their revenge, but I’m still excited for whatever comes next!

Although 9nine – Ruler’s Crown is not an isekai, it spends its first three minutes showing an in-universe fictional reverse isekai called Mobius Ring, before cutting to an incident at a fan event for the series. Although what we get of this anime within an anime is understandably rushed, I think I’d have liked watching it for real…

The use of the term ‘artifact’ at the episode’s end by one of the characters, which was also the powerup item in the series, has me curious about whether there’s more reality to the anime in question than I initially thought. It’s probably a matter of the anime and the powers sharing a common root in the local shrine and mythology, and has nothing more to do with isekai, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it anyway.

If you do watch, as of this writing, there are fansubs and an MTLed translation; be sure to track down the former.

As for me, I may be trapped indoors by the extreme heat, and wondering how much longer our own will remain habitable… but at least there are plenty of other worlds to hang out in this summer!