Anime: Sokushi Cheat ga Saikyou Sugite, Isekai no Yatsura ga Marude Aite ni Naranaindesu ga.

The bulk of anime stemming from light novels are so derivative, they are compelled to elongate their titles to such an extent that they substitute as the pitch of the premise. This particular instance fails to distinguish itself even in this regard, for its premise has been played out to death (isekai with an mc that has broken powers), and its execution leaves nothing to be desired.

So this isekai, one of the ten isekai airing in the same season (remember the time when even two felt excessive?) attempts to grab you through anime references and a genre savvy protagonist. Essentially, it openly acknowledges its derivative nature to such an extent that every individual within the narrative appears to know what being transported to an alternate world is all about. He plays along as though following a script he has long since memorized.

Basically, the show skips all the parts where the characters have to come to terms with the fact they are in another world, to adjust slowly to this new reality, and to carefully train the superpower they are given so there won’t be any mishaps in its usage. Because who cares about proper build up when the sole reason this anime was made was to joke about how derivative it is? So yeah, five minutes into the isekai venture and everyone knows everything he has to do, doesn’t care about the world he was kidnapped from, and he knows how to use his powers by opening a videogame screen. Yes, it’s yet another one of those isekai where everything plays out like a videogame. They go as far as infodumping their superpowers in the middle of a battle just to further point out how they are nothing but the gimmick of that power.

Needless to say, characterization is stuck at the first dimension, since everyone is reduced to a mere caricature and resigned to their fate as nothing more than a narrative device. Everybody just accepts they are in a videogame and they agree to do missions because they have no control over the situation, so they play along like the puppets they are. Don’t you love passive characters that are just reacting to situations instead of charting their own destinies? This is further exacerbated by how most of them die at the drop of a hat, thus no attempt is ever made to make you like any of them. Also free will is an afterthought since most of them are easily brainwashed, mind controlling collars are a thing, and you can’t have isekai without slaves. Nobody has agency and everyone exists as a plot device. Usually as no more than an obstacle for the main character to overcome.

Speaking of the main character, he is written to be the antithesis of your average shonen hero. He doesn’t care about protecting anyone, he doesn’t hold back from dispatching his enemies, and he doesn’t seem motivated to do the most rudimentary of tasks for any reason beyond necessity (he sleeps through most of the first episode). Save for the exception when confronted by some chick with big boobs. His priorities are set straight. He might possess some appeal among the cynical viewers who got bored of traditional protagonists, but he is so unmotivated to the point he becomes just as dull as the ones he is trying to set himself apart.

The show does the usual trick of presenting every enemy as way worse than him (ranging from sexual molesters, to ruthless murderers and cocky manipulators) as means to make him come off as the lesser of two evils. Yet, this does not make him a good character. In fact, it doesn’t make anyone a good character; it’s a cheap trick to make the bad guys bad and the good guys good. So much for pretending to break new grounds.

Death is ever-present in this show, since anyone can die faster than Thanos snapping his fingers. This does not mean it’s better than any show where nobody ever dies, since because of the sheer frequency and expeditious manner in which lives are extinguished, robs each demise of its gravitas. They just happen for the sake of showing someone (usually the protagonist) meaning business. Yet, no matter how many times he does it, it always feels equally cheap and forgettable, and the mediocre production values don’t help. I can go as far as telling you, the point where you will decide to drop the show is the same point where you won’t be able to take another rushed death without yawning.

The show will often attempt to come off as a revengeporn type of deal, with the bad guys trying to kill the main characters for little to no reason. Then he will respond by killing them all, easily and without batting an eye, by using his instant death ability in a manner bordering on the ludicrous. Such as by escaping an ice prison by ‘killing’ the ice, neutralizing someone’s magic by ‘killing’ her magic staff, and defeating a horde of undead by ‘killing’ what is already dead and thus immune to death. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not meant to, it’s supposed to be funny revengeporn. Only the novelty swiftly wanes after the umpteenth iteration across a mere three episodes. There is never any tension regarding if the protagonist can survive or not, and you are never given a reason to care about all the people he insta-kills.

Bottom line, it’s a completely forgettable isekai, the kind that is written on the fly just for the sake of selling a few thousand copies before it’s thrown in the trash before the next isekai is written in a hurry to replace it. You got a myriad superior alternatives that lie in wait, so don’t waste much time in watching this shit.