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I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World TV Special Review – Review

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When last we left off in the TV series proper, Yuuya had defeated his first Vile—Yuti, the divine archer’s disciple—and we got a few scenes of in the credits showing what happened next. The first part of this special expands on those epilogue scenes. We see Yuti adjusting to life on Earth—joining a club and making friends—even as Kaori meets the fantasy world side of Yuuya’s harem in turn. Then, the special continues on with a dragon, curing Yuti of her remaining possession, and fighting the next member of Vile, the corrupted Divine Fist. And somewhere in there Yuuya saves a kid from getting hit by a truck and the girls of both worlds take a bath together.

Needless to say, a lot happens in this 48 minute TV special—too much. It’s like the anime equivalent of reading a wikipedia summary. In two episodes of runtime, we cover what feels like three separate arcs of the story. None of the big reveals or emotional beats have time to land and be processed. It’s just a series of events strung together at breakneck speed. Or to put it another way, the pacing is terrible.

There is also some major power creep in the special when it comes to Yuuya—despite the fact that he was already one of the most powerful existences in the fantasy world. He not only tames an ancient dragon, but also gains his own Vile form. Neither of these power ups seem earned either. He didn’t gain them by overcoming great trials or experiencing personal growth—they’re just things he accidentally stumbled into. This anime is a power fantasy, sure, but he was already ranked just below the physical manifestations of good and evil. Now, with two Vile defeats under his belt, it’s hard to even pretend at any sense of tension when he heads into battle.

All that said, there is some good to come out of this special on a story level. Yuti’s scenes of acclimating to life on Earth work. She is a young woman who lost her father figured and was corrupted by a need for revenge. On Earth, she is so far removed from those events, she is able to start healing. In between bouts of fish-out-of-water humor, we watch her reconnect with her love of archery (and all it means to her on a personal level) through the school’s Japanese archery club. It’s a solid evolution of her character and works as a mirror to Yuuya’s own journey. Yuti lost her way in her world and finds it again in ours just as Yuuya lost his way on Earth and found it in the fantasy world.

The other thing the special does well is give us a better sense of the conflict between the Vile and the Divine. We get a few scenes in this special of the Vile talking to one another—discussing their plans and goals. We also see why they are currently winning the conflict between good and evil in the fantasy world. While the Divine are expected to be good and moral, they are living beings who can be killed by exploiting that fact. Similarly, as people, they can be corrupted by their own personal wants and desires—be that for revenge as in Yuti’s case or by their need to be the best as with the Divine Fist. Free will and human nature are being used to bring down the world. It’s a sobering thought.

As with the series proper, pause at nearly any point, and the resulting screenshot looks great. There’s a ton of detail in both the foreground and background while the characters’ designs are crisp with both shading and highlights to give them some additional pop. It’s once the show is in motion that things get dire quickly.

All the budget saving animation tricks are there. There are freeze frames galore where the camera pans across a static image in lieu of actual animation—sometimes with speed lines around the edges or screen shaking to give the illusion of movement in fight scenes. Action scenes cut away at the point of impact, preventing the need for any complex animation. Super wide shots are utilized to make it so no details need to be drawn on characters. Closeups are used so that the only animation needed is the blink of an eye or the movement of a mouth—and having a character’s face take up the whole frame prevents any need to draw a background. It’s simply an anime that looks painfully cheep in motion—even if the art design and quality of each individual frame feel like the opposite.

Lastly, the music present is a mixed bag. There is no new vocal opening or ending song—or even a reuse of the TV series’ themes. And while the background music fits properly wherever it is used, there are more than a few scenes where music is omitted entirely—and not to the show’s benefit.

With this TV special, I had hoped that I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too had learned from the mistakes of its first season and was ready to kick things up a notch. Instead, all we have is the same type of deceptively bad animation and a story that is markedly worse due to its pacing. It’d be nice if things would change for the better in the upcoming second season but after watching this, any such hopes are well and truly dashed.

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Zoids Franchise Announces New Zoids: Chaotic Century Manga – News

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The official X (formerly Twitter) account for Takara Tomy‘s Zoids franchise announced on Friday that a new manga tentatively titled Zoids: Chaotic Century Kanketsu-hen (Zoids: Chaotic Century Final Chapter) is currently in the works. More details about the manga will be announced at a later date.

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Image via Zoids franchise’s X/Twitter account

The Zoids: Chaotic Century manga by Michiro Ueyama ran in Shogakukan‘s Monthly Coro Coro Comics magazine from 1999 to 2001. 

The first Zoids: Chaotic Century anime premiered in 1999.

The anime franchise most recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in July 2024 with various projects such as a pop-up shop tour, cast talk shows, collaborative menus, and anime releases on streaming services.

Takara Tomy announced the Zoids Wild project in 2018 as the latest installment in its Zoids franchise. The project includes anime, manga, model kits, and two Nintendo Switch games.

 Naoto Tsushima launched a manga crossover between the Zoids and Patlabor franchises titled Zoids x Patlabor -Code Name B.U.D.D.Y.- on IMAGICA Infos‘ Hero Comics website in August 2025. 

Sources: Zoids franchise‘s X/Twitter account, Oricon News


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Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend Film Announces Text Story Bonus Item for Moviegoers – News

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The staff for Seishun Buta Yarō wa Dear Friend no Yume o Minai (Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend) film, the latest anime of Hajime Kamoshida‘s Rascal Does Not Dream (Seishun Buta Yarō or Aobuta) novel series, revealed on Saturday fans who see the film in the first week of release will receive a bonus new text story written by Kamoshida titled Seishun Buta Yarō wa Tea Garden no Yume o Miru (Rascal Does Dream of a Tea Garden).

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend bonus short story announcement image
Image via Rascal Does Not Dream anime’s X/Twitter

The short story follows Sakuta, Mai and Shoko after a shopping trip. Keeji Mizoguchi illustrates the short story.

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Image courtesy of Aniplex

The film will open in theaters in Japan on October 16. The new film is teased as taking the story towards its finale. (The film shares the same name as the 15th and final novel volume.)

The staff will hold an advance screening of the film with the cast on October 4 at the Shinjuku Wald 9 theater in Tokyo.

The film’s returning cast includes:

Sōichi Masui returns to direct the film at CloverWorks. Masahiro Yokotani is also back to oversee and write the script, and Satomi Tamura is again designing the characters. The band fox capture plan also returns to compose the music. Aniplex is once again distributing the film.

Tōko Kirishima performs the song “Turn the World Upside Down” in the film and the theme song “Suihei-sen wa Boku no Furukizu finale” (The Horizon Is My Old Wound: Finale).

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (Seishun Buta Yarō wa Bunny Girl-senpai no Yume wo Minai), the first television anime based on the light novel series, premiered in Japan in October 2018 and aired for 13 episodes. The anime adapts the story up to the fifth novel volume. Aniplex of America streamed the series on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and other services.

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl (Seishun Buta Yarō wa Yume-Miru Shōjo no Yume wo Minai), the anime film that adapts the the sixth and seventh light novel volumes in the franchise, opened in Japan in June 2019. Aniplex of America and Funimation Films screened the anime in the United States. Crunchyroll began streaming the film in June 2025 with both English subtitles and dub.

The film Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out opened in Japan in June 2023. The film sold 118,108 tickets in its first three days and earned 175,648,924 yen (about US$1.28 million) to rank #4 in its opening weekend. The Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid film opened in Japan in December 2023, and ranked at #4 in its opening weekend. The film sold 119,000 tickets and earned 164,594,554 yen (about US$1.11 million) in its first three days.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus (Seishun Buta Yarō wa Santa Claus no Yume wo Minai), the television anime adapting the light novel series’ “University Student Arc,” debuted in July 2025. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired, and is also streaming an English dub.

The original novel series has over 3 million copies in circulation. The Yen On imprint of Yen Press publishes the novel series, and Yen Press publishes Tsugumi Nanamiya‘s manga adaptation. Yen On published the Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend novel volume on January 6.

Sources: Rascal Does Not Dream anime’s X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie

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Suikoden Anime to Stream on YouTube with English Subtitles – News

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The official English YouTube channel for Suikoden: The Anime, the adaptation of Konami‘s Suikoden II game’s story, announced in a video on Saturday the series will stream with English subtitles on YouTube for free beginning October 6 with new episodes on Tuesdays.

The stream will be available in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Ireland, parts of Africa and the Middle East, and in New Zealand and Australia. The staff have listed the full region availability on the anime’s X/Twitter account in English.


Ani-One Asia has also licensed the anime.

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Image via Suikoden: The Anime’s website

The anime debuted on October 3 on Tokyo MX at 11:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT), and will debut between October 6 and October 9 on 31 other channels.

Konami describes Suikoden II:

Our story’s hero and his friend Jowy are members of the Unicorn Youth Brigade, which participated in a drawn-out border dispute between the Highland Kingdom and the City-States of Jowstown. A few months earlier, a truth agreement was signed between the two forces, both of which were happy to see an end to the fighting. However, hidden under the momentary peace the fires of a new war continued to smolder…

Previously announced cast members include:

Yūzō Satō (credited as just YUZO on the anime’s English website) is directing the anime at KONAMI animation, the game studio’s anime studio. NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan anime and music production department member Ryō Hino serves as the producer and production manager.

Michihiro Tsuchiya (PriPara, ClassicaLoid) is overseeing the series scripts. Fumi Ishikawa from Konami Digital Entertainment is credited as the game character designer, Arata Suzuki from Konami Digital Entertainment is credited for the original drafts of the anime character designs, and Ryō Yamauchi (My Master Has No Tail; Please Put Them On, Takamine-san!) is the anime character designer. Yoshikazu Iwanami (Psycho-Pass, Ghost in the Shell Arise) is the sound director, and Kōji Nakamura (EUREKA SEVEN AO, Ping Pong live-action film) is composing the music.

Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, the HD remastered release of Konami‘s classic role-playing games Suikoden and Suikoden II, launched for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam in March 2025.

Konami released the original game for the PlayStation in 1995, followed by the sequel game in 1998. The series has five main installments and five spinoff games.

Konami is also developing the new mobile and PC game Gensō Suikoden: Star Leap, which launched for iOS and Android on August 7 in Japan. The game is also slated for PC via Steam. The developers assured players on August 7 the will have a release in English, French, German, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional).

Source: Suikoden: The Anime‘s English YouTube channel and X/Twitter account

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