Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life: Dai-2 no Shokugyou wo Ete, Sekai Saikyou ni Narimashita

Isekai Wars: The Strongest Sage Strikes Back...or so you thought that it'd be better or at least decent. "Fool me once, shame on you. But fool me twice, shame on me." This is the best expression that is ought to be given to this contrived utter cliché of a source material, and this is given novelist Shinkoshoto's mindset of a sigma grind set author to pump out a new work each and every year since 2016 with the release of his very first series that got an anime adaptation in the beginning Winter of this year: Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja a.k.a The Strongest Sage with theWeakest Crest. And if you know anything about that show, it's basically a "nothing happens" show of the same overly used tropes you've seen about a billion times, but done on a very bare-bones level that's filled with all sorts of mediocrity. Fast forward to Summer and with Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life a.k.a My Isekai Life, all I can tell you is this: have the beginning section of the story skipped for no absolute reason why (exactly has how Shikkakumon started), and the main and tag-along supporting characters do a swap, ranging from a somewhat charismatic to an overworked, lifeless and emotionless Protag-kun, to support characters that are ousted and turned into helper creatures. And yes, you're reading that right, because this is all that the generic OP Protag-kun Yuji Sano has all that's going for him: a death in the real world that's basically laden to a reincarnation into what is now considered as one of the most stupid and illogical ideas used in an Isekai when the execution is just plain bad, get some monsters that somehow from reading a book, he's able to become a monster tamer and then be on his way. All of this happens for God knows why, because this has no story at all. Oh, I'm sorry, the story involves saving the world from the oh-so-trivial evil "Church is bad" cultist goons whom are SOOOOO desperate to take over the world. So cliché, so nice...NOT. Yuji Sano is the epitome of someone's bad dream of a wish-fulfilment reincarnation stage, because to be gone from the trenches of life is a benefit in and of itself, but the next life still doesn't grant him a bed of roses, and he comes into the fantasy world already chocked full of OP levels of magic strength, because why not. But when the main character displayed is emotionless and acts like a lesser version of Black Clover's Yuno that's blessed with power as strong as he comes, it gets trepidatiously boring after awhile. And truth to be honest, I admit that he does sound like Saito Soma when he gets serious (which VA Chiaki Kobayashi does a knock-out job), though at the expense of the belief or disbelief of maxing out powers like an MP meter drain was never once a bottleneck in the first place. But, the takeaway is that Yuji isn't a decent character worth watching, he's just a plot mover that personally I feel is more suited to the background, behind-the-scene tasks. He's not like Shikkakumon's Matthias Hildesheimer, whom is younger, displays much more personality, and is the perfect embodiment of a young, but not stooped down reincarnation wish fulfilment. But, this is not just all Yuji has going for him. Together with him are his most trustable allies of slimes and a white wolf they call "Proud Wolf" (because wolves are proud, yeah?) because mediocrity is the name of the game, and for someone who's continuously writing too many novels at any given time, it's clear that Shinkoshoto's idea only sells because Japan loves crap like these. However, as per Shikkakumon's standards, only one character is fun, and just like the red-haired dragon Iris doing her stuff in the background, it's the various slimes voiced by mostly amateur VAs around the ages of Gen Y-cum-Millenials, and they do provide the show's only source of entertainment to be useful to Yuji given his monster tamer skills...which come to think of it, why put out so much effort in the first place? I understand that it's to culminate experience, but there is a better way of getting noticeable, is this not true? But either way, it's a decent job for breaking the mold on a shell-shock state of the bare-bones story. It's not great, but not too bad either. After coming off of the somewhat mixed reception of Spring 2021's Slime 300 (that's another Isekai that IMO isn't generic at all), it pains me to say that even as a relatively new studio into the industry, Revoroot's production values aren't the greatest. Let's be clear: there were a lot of sacrifices when it came to the overall production with very limited animation, and even on that one episode where animators and artists go all out to create a bang (which it did to get featured on Sakugabooru), it just doesn't look all that appealing, but it did do just barely enough for the presentation to pass off as jobs being done. And let's face it, the AniManga industry only gets worse from here on out. Nevertheless, a show production being done is a job done, and what is presented here, it's fine but nothing to scream "noteworthy". Moving on. Easily the shining moment of the anime has to go towards its music presentation...or rather, just the OP/ED itself as the OST is just that unremarkable. Coming off from the heels of "Dragon, Ie wo Kau." with the medieval-fantasy like ED (which is still one of my favourites to this day), Non Stop Rabbit has once again given us a good song that at first, sounds just like a generic fantasy chord, but the appeal is that the more you listen to it, the more it is ingrained to the feels, and I certainly felt that slowly but strongly as one of the better OPs this season. And this same feeling trickles down to the slime-ful ED which is a heap that's chock full of entertainment and fun. There's even a reference to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody if you look and listen close enough, the legendary song sequence is unmistakable. But overall, this is just your tried-and-true standard Isekai reincarnation fantasy formula, bludgeoned to no end with no originality whatsoever thanks to Shinkoshoto being a giga chad to simultaneously write as much as he can, with a formula that's as basic and bare-bones as it comes. There's just not much sophistication, and the series has lots of misses than hits affixing the one positive that Shinkoshoto is somehow getting the attention in Japan. This is just the equivalent of being a couch potato and doing nothing, and don't you ever bother wasting time watching this laden crap full of subpar mediocrity.

Odd. I see a lot of bad reviews on this series but I couldn't disagree with them more. At surface level it does seem like just another sub-par Isekai with a OP MC and sadly these bad reviews only see it from the surface.. But under the surface there is something special and if you can't see it or understand it then you either A: watched a couple episodes then made your review or B: have really bad taste in anime and probably think persona 5 is the best jrpg ever made Lol! But I digress, this show is definitely special and has a heavy heartedcharm to balance the light heartedness of the slimes. You may feel like the MC has no character and lacking a solid back story, but to someone like me, someone who grew watched a lot of inuyasha and played a lot of ps1 jrpgs, the MC is more relatable to me than a lot of other characters in other anime. So, don't judge the series based on what you think it's about at face value because under the surface there is a charm that is rare, jrpg elements that are even more rare and a unsettling feeling that it's only going to get better and better as the story plays out over a few seasons. Read the manga if you are in doubt. -Zen

Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life is the epitome of mediocrity and repetitiveness that plagues almost all of isekai genre shows. This show is so bad that it is actually enjoyable, in the sense that you'd just laugh at the ridiculousness on display. It is as if you already know what will happen, but you can't help but go with the flow mindlessly. My advice is to go into watching the show expecting the worst. As you can already tell, the MC is a generic overpowered protagonist who basically dominates all opposing forces, and screams I'm basically a GOD. He has no emotions or reactions and isbasically lifeless. Every character in the series is so bland and exists solely to advance the plot that they have no distinguishing characteristics and are one-dimensional characters, and is a prime example of how not to write a character. One thing that also bothered me throughout the series is that even when the MC's MP is negative, he can still cast spells, which seems ridiculous and defeats the purpose of MP. Apart from fighting an evil entity known as Blue Moon of Salvation lurking in the shadows, there isn't much of a story to speak of, and it practically screams boring and fails to entice its viewers. Even the last few episodes where the story is reaching its climax and near the final boss stage, it wasn't really able to capture and entice the viewers that much. Everything about the show screams bad, from the art to the story to the characters, but that's also what makes it entertaining. The moral the story is trying to promote is that teamwork makes the dream work, which is not particularly convincing given Yuuji's status as a one-man wrecking crew. If you have high standards, I would strongly advise you to skip this show. And if you enjoy isekai trash, can tolerate the show's hilarity, and/or have low expectations in general, you're in for a treat. To be fair, the slimes are adorable, and they are one of the factors that help carry the show.

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