General Impression: Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku

Synopsis

This is the story of Suzuki Ichirou a 29-year-old programmer who suddenly wakes up transported into a fantasy RPG as a 15-year-old named Satou. While thinking he is dreaming he is dreaming he finds himself swarmed by lizard men and uses a 3-time-use special power (meteor shower) which results in him becoming very high level.

Deciding to hide his level, he travels to civilization in hopes of meeting new people and finding a way to “wake up” until he ends up saving a young woman from a wyvern and thus begins a tale of a regular man ending up in a fantasy realm

First Impression

The most notable thing about the first episode was that it took the time to establish some background and personality on the protagonist before he is shipped off to the fantasy realm. This is highly rare for an isekai story so it’s rather refreshing how it establishes a background for the character rather than skimming through it. What makes it work though is the way that it connects to his establishment in the fantasy realm. However, as great as the build-up was, the transition was by far the weirdest/most award transition in an isekai story this writer has ever seen.

With the way that the character’s backstory and skills were established, you can’t help but find different aspects of him interesting given how Suzuki handles and analyses his situation. The way that the setting he is placed in along with the monsters and the battle scenes helped this aspect along. What brings down the positive aspects that pop up when Suzuki wakes up in the fantasy realm. For one thing the whole thinking it is a dream, the over-powered qualities and saving the girl in the end, it’s clear there are going to be more than a few general cliches to be found in the series.

General Impression

Ok, let’s just get this out of the way first, the whole group of lolis? The characters alone are rather cute, but then in comes Arisa and what could have been a solid family type of isekai basically bombed the moment she tried to sleep with Suzuki. Honestly, there was a solid flow going on with the story combining the elements of gaming to the world-building of the fantasy realm, then everything just about bombed around Arisa’s arrival. Since then, there were some interesting points but the flaws of the series is rather glaring.

For one thing the focus is just about going all over the place, Suzuki has solid strategy work and the way that he has a gaming screen is still and interesting point but the way he uses it, and the timing just flops. Then there are the girls. It’s nice that there is some solid back stories to them and development in terms of skills, but there were one too many suggestiveness and play on the typical female character to really enjoy them. Still, at the very least, there is some interesting dynamics on them.

The highest point of the series is how different it is from most isekai stories in terms of mindset. With most isekai stories, it’s on how the protagonist develops his skills and turns into a highly powered character. Here, Suzuki is already overpowered but shows some analytical work with his abilities which is helped by the game screen factor. Basically, Suzuki takes on a more building development rather than add on. It had weird timing and the pacing could have been done better, but it had its moments.

Conclusion

First, this is not a terrible series, it has cringe moments/factors and the flow and pacing could have been done better in some parts but there are some rather good points. There was a strong premise, a solid establishment of the characters and a good world-building. And while the timing could have been done better, the way the series establishes the game screen in how Suzuki strategizes his next move or manoeuvres things to work his way. So, while the relationship work of the series between characters basically flops around, the other aspects such as the strategy work, development and world-building stay strong.

Rating: 6/10