Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku you desu!

Okay, Choujin Kokosei, the new anime from the studio Project 9. And I'm going to be honest, I had high expectations from this one. The premise wasn't that bad and I even enjoy the first episode of the series. Actually, I thoght that the story is kind of interesting, but unfortunately, that's all this anime is, a good premise because the development of that premise and the characters go from being good, to boring and ends up being forgettable but it's not secret that it was another bad year for the isekai genre. Okay, let's start with the sections: Story: As I said in the beginning thisis the best aspect this anime has. The story of a bunch of guys who are prodigies, each one being a specialist in a particular camp, and then suddenly land in a isekai world where the goverment of this is corrupt and they try to fix it, using they abilities it's not that bad I mean, there have been worst premises for isekai anime the last couple years so if you compare this one to others, it's pretty decent. Development of the story: And now, we have easily the worst aspect in the entire anime. The beginning could say that it is quite decent because they show us how our heroes land in the world and try to adapt to the customs of the people that live there. And they noticed that everything is wrong right there and apparently they try to revolutionize it. And after that, everything goes down, simply because what they do isn't that memorable, is so predictable, everything they do is not even interesting, also their performance are exaggeratedly executed, It reaches a point where you are simply disappointed to think what the next exaggerated moment will be, beacuse their performances don't give you a powerful, funny, interesting or even an entertaning impression. And if only the situations in which this develops were interesting but not because they are boring. The "comic" situations that happens around the animet aren't even funny, are just boring or annoyingly bad, because it feels like they do something either funny, attractive, sad or romantic they're expectating any good reaction from you but not, it's even cringy. The antogonists are weak and tasteless, the methods they use to defeat this tasteless antagonists are predictable or simply ridiculously executed (example is the episode 9, where they are fighting with the villian). And the last leg of this, is, again, boring, bland, and SOOOOOO predictable. So yeah, all the potential this had in the story is horribly executed in the development. Characters: I'm will sumarize them in one word: tasteless. Seriously, they aren't the worst part of the anime but they have nothing that will be memorable in the future. Starting of with: Tsukasa, the best politic in the world, and apparently this is the leader of the team. Wow, well let me tell you that if he wasn't the leader he will be the most forgettable of all. Everything around him is overreacted, even the most "sad moments".When he is decided to help the people, and talks as a leader, am i the only one who fells inconvincent? Am i the only one who thinks is overracting every time he talks?. And if he is not overracting he is just being dramatic. Litteraly one of the most dramatic characters I seen in a while and as I said, if he wasnt the leader he easily would be the most forgettable character of the series. Personally, I think Ringo and Shinobu are the best characters of all, or at least the least awful, because around the series they do what they are especialist in,many if it's not all the time they carried the team in the back and their cute moments are the least cringe or forced. It's a shame that they don't get the recognition they deserved it. And I could keep talking about all the prodigies, but they aren't that deep, they are just a bunch of guys who everything around them feels forgettable and cliche.The funny part is that they just appeared a few times to grab the main attention, the rest they are just in the secundary place where they deserved to be . Lyrule is easily the worst: Overact everything, she is bland and corny as hell, her motivations are stupid. She is the perfect example of the typical cliche girl in the other world who is in the anime because she is the typical cliche girl in the other world. Oh, I almost forget her awful romance moments with Tsukasa. Development of the genre: As I said before the comedy moments in this anime aren't even funny, they just feel forced and painfully executed. The romance here is ridiculous, it is evident that they only did it, beacuse apparently an isekai anime has to have a romance by obligation. The drama doesn't hit you it just feel, again, exaggerated and boring, and where they are not exagerating they are just blatanly and shamelessly copying from other sad scenes. The best example is the episode 10 they are just blatanly copying the mother scene from the first episode from Kotoura-san. AMAZING! At least if you are going to be exaggerated, bland and boring at least have the decency to be ORIGINAL!! God dammit! But if there's one thing I just can not tolerate of this one are the painfully AND CRINGY "ecchi" moments. None of this "ecchi" moments are sexy or funny or at least entertaining, they only did this, because apparently an isekai anime hast to have ecchi moments too. And if it were not enough they aren't even original, it just a bunch of cliches that I'm tired of. Music: I'm going to be honest, I like quite a bit the opening of this one, I think that the fact of using a group of idols singing this is nice, they are least have rhythm and are good performances. An the ending is nice too, I like the sweet melody and the strong chorus. But the background music around every episode of the anime is just forgettable, and can't even remember a single melody of the music, and I'm really trying so hard in remember a melody but I just can't. Overall: I said it before I had high hopes for this anime, I thought it would be better than many of the isekai animes of this time. But apparently a good premise can't defeat all the boring, unfunny, bland, cringy and mostly forgettable moments of this anime and all this led by a horrible development of the story and genre adding forgettable and exaggerated characters. This is not the worst anime isekai I ever seen, even is not the worst isekai anime of the year believe it or not, but not many anime have a good premise and the development is so terrible and forgettable as this one. I give this anime a 3 out of 10. And I just hope that the mediocre isekai anime are going to end soon. I really hope so.

Honestly, I’ve been looking over quite a few reviews - ya know, expecting to find something that aligns with what I thought & experienced - and, although I understand the “bandwagon” that’s going on here (a mix between what we’ll call “Isekai’itis” - a cultural mob-like vexation and/or loathing of the Isekai genre for the ‘milk-cow’ that it is, currently - and ‘anime-elitism’ that stems from a shared desire for “just another taste from the fruit-garden of the gods”, which is rather understandable as most of us have our fair share of incredible narratives or spectacular or state-of-the-art abstract animation and art styles, or evenjust ‘something that moved us’), it’s extremely unreasonable to project such high standards unto a show that, from the very start, was only trying to be “fun”. ‘High School Prodigies blah blah blah’ is a show about 7 supposed-geniuses that get “carted to another world” (aka “Isekai’d”) and, basically, put all of their expertise to work in... well... starting a bloody (figuratively and literally) revolution unto the “oppressive empire and their sovereign liege, His Majesty, The Emperor” - a being so impressive that, it’s said, the world and all its inhabitants exist purely to be sacrifices for “his majesty” (punctuation intended). ...I’m just gonna refer to the show as ‘ProdigiesXL’ from here. Anyways: ProdigiesXL is a show that aims to be ‘an adventure with tons of ridiculous feats going on, but with as little exposition as possible’—and it accomplishes just that. Even though ‘just about everything’ that the Group of 7 and Co. do happen to be absolutely super-human, you don’t really find yourself “sweating the small stuff” cos the show, itself, never takes itself seriously in this regard either. It’s just about ‘sounding awesome’ and ‘tying itself together (despite the “zero-exposition” policy it holds) perfectly enough that none of its “very obvious flaws” actually matter’. I think this is where many people really miss the point about this show: it’s a bit of a ‘super heroes/super humans’ vs ‘high school Isekai’ cross that wants to blend Magic/Fantasy with Modern-Day Realistic Tech (be it medicine, physics, or, lel, capitalism) - and I happen to think that it does an amazing job of doing so ‘as a Shounen’. That’s the thing: this is a Shounen Isekai that pits a bunch of Mary Sues against Magical Forces of Nature - and it does so in a super fun AND methodical way! Throughout the 12 episodes of ProdigiesXL, every one of the 7 main characters gets an arc mostly-dedicated to “them strutting their stuff”, and it never gets confusing nor ‘feel convoluted’, ya know? It’s interesting because: here you have a show that’s trying to do an enormous amount of things in an extremely-short span of time, yet it’s simultaneously trying to be balanced, episode by episode, in being both ‘digestible’ AND ‘simple-fun’. ... THAT’S NOT EASY, YO. The pacing of ProdigiesXL is insanely good—making the ‘enjoyment-factor’ an easy 10/10. Having said all of that: yes, the art and sound aren’t high-value. 7&5/10, respectively. The art was never ‘garbage’ or ‘inconsistent’, it just was never planned to budget for more than what it produced; and the sound was never a problem, and even the fight-scene folly was pretty good, but just like the art, they intentionally limited themselves to fit the budget - and they did so without damaging any of the ‘viewing-experience’. On top of that: with 7 characters and 3 rather-significant extras AND a good 4-8 bonus characters, between the 12 episodes provided... although I have no idea what/how the manga goes (or... is there a Light Novel for this? Nfi - but probably) and how much it [they?] elaborate on each character for the volumes covered, it’s fair to say that Tsukasa (the ‘politician prodigy’ dude with different-coloured eyes) is the main character for this season/show. The show advertises itself as “7 kids go Isekai’ing”, but it’s fair to complain about the fact that a large amount of the story revolves around him as the protagonist - which, to be fair, isn’t unreasonable as he’s both the ‘least’ and ‘most’ talented of them all, as far as the story thus-far goes, and he’s also the (what you could call) “sheep-herder” of all the main cast. These two points on the sound/art and the character-building are fair complaints—but I’d like to remind you all that ‘most Shounens are like this’ and you’re missing the point if you focus on ‘glass a bit empty’ rather than ‘glass pretty full’. ProdigiesXL is a really fun and light experience that manages to cram a ton of progression, characters, non-confrontational politics, and a fun blend of ‘magic meets science’ into an incredibly-digestible production. Action, mind-games, pseudo-morality that’s hard to object to or be challenged by but isn’t mindless either (“a story of the people, by the people!”-kind of thing), armies and heroes, fun fanservice & light-hearted and inoffensive comedy, and... most of all, I mean, even if the title says “Isekai prodigies have it easy etc”, ...for once they actually don’t. The balance in this show between ‘our overpowered protagonists’ and, what would normally be “the human steppingstones”, is more of a Back and Forth of power-escalation that is almost-always seen in Shounens yet very rarely seen in Isekais—that’s what makes ProdigiesXL a fun and good show! Yes, this isn’t “the next Fate; Zero” or “Re: Zero”, but it never intended nor was meant to be—quite the opposite in fact, as it simply had a goal of “an experience” that it knew (and budgeted) to deliver and, quite frankly, I believe it did - for me, at least. If I were judging on facts, comparisons, objective analysis, etc, I’d probably give it a 7/10—but I’m not, I’m judging on ‘what I think it wanted to achieve’, and ‘how well I think it achieved “exactly that”’. 9/10. Bravo, you ‘humble show that’s only desire was to immerse its viewers in the “escapist-equivalent” of junk food’. ... (Second season, please)...

“High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!” is what happens when You play too much Civilization with cheats on. One day a plane carrying seven highschoolers that are the best in their fields crashes. After regaining consciousness they discover they got transported to a fantasy world seemingly without any rhyme or reason. In that world they start helping people that showed them kindness only to end up leading a social and industrial revolution. Our main cast consists of: Tsukasa - head of the Japanese government. Seriously, who in the right mind votes a kid for the job. He is the leader of the coterie and…it seems that being a politician means that You are skilled in negotiations, non verbal communication and oh yeah… freaking military tactics. I don’t think the writers met a politician in their lives. He has a semi tragic backstory. Zero personality. Ringo - A genius inventor who travels with a damn mini nuclear reactor in her backpack. She’s timid, shy and has a crush on Tsukasa. She has a semi tragic, but really dumb, backstory. Otherwise she doesn’t have much screen time and I’m actually thankful for that because she’s easily the most annoying member of the team. Aoi - a… samurai? I have no idea what her deal is but it seems she travels the world to fight in wars with her sword. She’s able to dodge bullets and run as fast as a missile. No personality whatsoever. Shinobu - a dual class journalist - ninja. Seriously, it's as bad as You think it is. She acts as a spy for Tsukasa, is cheerful, has big boobs and terrible acting skills. Little personality. Akatsuki - in theory an illusionist but even before being transported to a fantasy world he seems to have some supernatural powers. Absolutely zero personality. Keine - every anime needs a big titted medic. It’s a golden standard. Just look at “Highschool of the Dead”. Apparently being a doctor means she can diagnose patients, perform operations, produce medicine and poisons. A bit of a mad-scientist type, is a bit fun but only for one moment in the whole show so I’m not counting that. No personality. Masato - Yeah… the only one I actually like. He’s a capitalist and an entrepreneur. He makes cash, he likes making cash and even got himself a disciple. Also… no personality. Did You notice a theme there? Yes. No one has anything remotely resembling a personality. They are just their function or title, dialled up to 11 and written in a way that it fakes a personality. Not one member of the coterie could be mistaken for a real human. They are just problem solvers with nothing going on except their tasks… well… maybe a bit of terrible “romance” with Ringo but it’s so bad I wouldn’t really count it. When it comes to isekai writing I think this one is one of the most lazy, nonsensical and just plain dumb. There is little logic to anything really. From the decision the coterie makes, to the reaction of people to the loose rules of what everyone can do, it’s just lazy writing. Do you have a problem? Fear not. Some will pull out a solution out of his or her ass without any build up, set up or any kind of Chekhov's gun. To be honest I think the writers don’t even know what a Chekhov's gun is. I think one of the most pathetic moments in writing is when Aoi runs along with a goddamn missile through a burning part of the city, keeps up with it and even is able to steer it once she mounts it. It’s so dumb it’s not even entertaining. The nonsense doesn’t stop there. Despite having shitty, primitive technology they are able to produce modern weapons and not the makeshift kind, we are talking about fully operational, grade A quality guns. Not only guns, drones, AA missiles and other modern technology including factories. The greatest mystery for me is… who flew the plane? Were there no pilots? If they were what happened to them? I need answers! This show also has the honour of having some of the most pathetically written villains I have seen in a while. They are lazily written and use cliches to establish the fact they are evil. We have a rapist and a fight junkie with no regards to anyone or anything that isn’t the emperor. Yes. It’s as boring as it sounds. All in all it’s really hard to get invested in the show. There are no real stakes because it’s obvious from episode 2 that everyone has plot armour thicker than a neutron star and there are no real negative consequences to their decisions. It’s just boring and predictable.

The decade is coming to an end and there is no better way to mark it when it comes to anime than to have the last season dumped with a bunch of Isekai anime. It certainly is the most defining genre of these past years gaining much popularity, as well as memage and ridicule from those who cross it’s path. And now here we are this season with seven-ish or more isekai shows (depending on how lenient you are with the term isekai), with the most terrible one being this one. Going past the trite part of the genre, the main hook/gimmick is that the bandof unsuspecting school students are actually world class prodigies. Each one coming from a certain subject, some of which make sense like science, medicine, and economics. While others not so much, such as the ninja and the swordswoman. Nevertheless they make use of their abilities to make do in their new nondescript fantasy world. The idea certainly isn’t a bad one as it gives each character a clear and defined role that corresponds to their strength. The Economist using modern economic practices and game theory to overturn the established monopoly. The Doctor bringing modern medicine such as antibiotics so that people no longer have to rely on drugs with harmful side effects like opium. The Ninja and Swordswoman for how stupid it is provide the muscle to the group in order to defend them from threats. However, as with most things, the execution has a lot to be desired. While I don't enjoy comparisons, in this case i will compare this small part to another isekai anime known as Dr.Stone (don’t @ me). Dr.Stone also has the same idea of bringing modern science and ideas to a more primitive people, but what makes Dr.Stone more compelling is that you see for the most part the process in which it is done. This show however glides through it, going from making simple mayonnaise to anti-air craft missile defenses. They do give some in story reason for it, but even the reason comes off as a bit half-assed. Not to mention that even though they are prodigies it is only to one subject which implies that they aren’t good at everything. It could have been a good way to showcase flaws or different traits in the characters, but since they are designated to their role it never happens, which could have been beneficial to fleshing them out. They just do what they are good at doing and it just makes the entire cast of characters and their actions feel flat and boring. The only thing that makes them a slight bit interesting is that they aren't all good messianic people. Some of them have thoughts and actions that can come off as outright horrifying. Yet that is skimmed across and the characters are brought up to be portrayed as righteous individuals when compared to the antagonists. The antagonists, who mainly consists of high ranking people in a generic fantasy empire, are a joke. It's not that their weak, but more so that the are so mustache twirling dastardly villainous that it's hard to believe they it's portrayed so seriously. Sure they are supposed to be cruel and oppressive but it's so over the top. And it’s that over the top-ness that they only have going for them, as they are as disposable as they come. With each new antagonist being just a higher ranking official than the last one as a means to “increase the steaks” as the show progresses. While the show is bad, it’s still quite enjoyable in a hammy kind of way. When a scene consists of a girl running alongside a missile and using brute force to guide it towards it’s target, it’s obvious that the show isn’t aiming for anything higher than cheap spectacle.

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