General Anime Impressions: In Another World with My Smartphone

Synopsis

The story tells of a young man named Touya Mochizuki; not much can be said about him but one day he is suddenly struck by lightning. When he awakens rather than being in heaven, he finds himself face to face with Kami himself who apparently has made a mistake and had killed him accidentally. As token of is apology Touya is granted with the opportunity to be reborn in a fantasy world and not only that, he may have one wish granted.

His wish? To be able to bring his smartphone with him to the new world. With a little something extra given to him by Kami, Touya soon awakens in a new world and thus begins his journey of knights and quests.

The Good

There is a lot of potential to be found with the beginning of the series and generally well done world building in each episode along with character development. The protagonist has some slight differences to him from the generic male character type that is found in most reality to fantasy realm type stories and it is a refreshing thing. With other protagonists that most general type to be found is the otaku type of male that ends up with a grand power and levelling up as the story goes or the smart type of protagonist that works in the shadows and isn’t some “chosen one.”

For this series, Touya seems to be a somewhat even mix of both event though in the following episodes he did show the generic oblivious and slightly perverted factors that have been found in bundles with protagonists in the same concept as he is.

Speaking on concepts, the concept of him bringing his smartphone to the fantasy realm is something new with this genre, most often than not the protagonist is for some barely explainable reason is plopped into the realm and is left to figure out his “special abilities.” The use of the phone in the series is both clever and amusing in equal plots and the plot as the series progresses still maintains a semblance of sense that many other series seem to inadvertently mix up.

Overall, the flow and execution of the plot was well done and the concept is an interesting point to look towards in the series. Touya while having some of the generic protagonist qualities still has some interesting points to him and his development along with the world building is both understandable and well put together.

The Bad

As the series progressed it’s easy to see that the potential that it had in the beginning was slowly dwindling down to non-existence. There were so many different scenarios that the plot could have taken with such a quirky yet fascinating concept but instead, it went to the path that many, many fantasy animes similar to this have gone, the harem route.

It is not to say that there is anything necessarily wrong with that route, but the overuse of this trope and the general laziness that was applied to it in the series does not leave the best of impressions. Most often than not, the protagonist in these types of stories end up being borderline gary-sues with female characters falling left and right for him. At the rate that the series is going it seems that the same is happening to it as with other series.

With Touya having his smartphone and implementing it with his magic, it ends up making him an overpowered character which renders the side characters who go with him as his buffers. On the note of side characters, the female character who act as Touya companions, while having their own individual qualities and talents have also been reduced to harem type characters who subtly fight for Touya’s oblivious affections.

Overall, a potentially interesting anime was wasted and instead turned to a rather overused harem type series with the protagonist slowly growing into a borderline Gary sue and rendering the side characters as either useless or buffers. In addition to this, the art and animation is considerably general along with the plot of the series.

Conclusion

While the slight change in the usual main protagonist was refreshing at first, that feeling slowly dwindled down as the series progressed and showed itself to be taking the harem route and have rendered the other characters as buffers and generic female love interests for him even though they too have their moments. The concept of the series is still interesting however even with the potential that it held in the beginning ended up being wasted.

The plot is not overly complicated and is interesting enough that a viewer could be interested on what happens next. The world building of the series is also well written and the development of Touya’s abilities is also not too farfetched. Generic and simple are some largely used words to find with this series.

RATING: 5.5/10