How far can Sylvia and Lucas stretch the definition of “isekai” in their seasonal roundup? Let’s find out!

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The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.

Prime Video streams The Ghost in the Shell.
OceanVeil and Netflix stream Chainsmoker Cat.
HIDIVE streams The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World.
Netflix streams Thunder 3.
Crunchyroll streams everything else.

Lucas


Sylvia, our Executive Editor Extraordinaire Lynzee is taking a much-deserved break this week now that we’re on the other side of the busiest three weeks in anime for the year, the overlapping Anime Expo weekend and the beginning of summer seasonal premieres! Which means that you and I can finally give a certain class of internet commenter what they’ve always wanted: our unfiltered opinions on this season’s isekai without any influence from ANN’s editorial team and their anti-isekai agenda!

Is what I would say if I were a conspiracy theorist with an axe to grind. However, the folks running this anime website have always given us a lot of rope in this column, and this season’s isekai offerings largely skew from strange-but-middling to bad if not outright offensive. Still, I’d love to go through our quarterly isekai roundup with you, and maybe get a little extra spicy now that there’s one fewer editor behind the desk to review this column before it goes live!

Sylvia


You know, Lucas, for a second there I was on board with the prevailing wisdom that this summer is one of the most stacked anime seasons in recent memory. So I’m glad I could hop on both this and the romcom sampler to remind myself of how much dreck still gets made. I feel more grounded now. More centered. More accepting.

I mean, seriously, lots of good stuff this season! I hope we get to talk about it more in the future! But right now we have to roll up our sleeves and scrape the bottom of the isekai barrel. A barrel that seems to get deeper each year.

You know, Sylvia, maybe we did our column on anime moms too early! I’m sure if we had waited just a couple of months, the mom from From Overshadowed to Overpowered: Second Reincarnation of a Talentless Sage who’s introduced boobs first would have completely reframed that conversation.

A take on the “New Game+” sub-genre of male power fantasy isekai, Overshadowed to Overpowered is a really weird and whiny show, where the MC complains constantly about not being as good at magic as his peers, despite being celebrated as one of the four best magic users in his era. Maybe his tune will change when he’s reborn 400 years into the future when people suck at magic, but would this work even still be considered an isekai if the same-face protag-kun didn’t have a wholly unnecessary chip on his shoulder???

In a sense, it’s a potent take on a familiar Kind of Guy. Someone who has it all but can’t be satisfied with that, so he makes it everyone else’s problem. Like here he is with a cute surrogate daughter who cares about him enough to put her life on the line, and on his deathbed, all he can think about is emasculation. It’s pathetic.

And maybe a story could run with that into a narrative that confronts this small-minded thinking, but I don’t think that is this story.

So sadly, this falls into the “technically competent but ideologically repugnant” category for me.

Sylvia, please, you’re not giving Overshadowed to Overpowered enough credit! These characters contain multitudes! After all, the MC’s cute surrogate demon daughter isn’t just his daughter; she’s ALSO on track to be a Big Sister type love interest after he reincarnates! Unless, of course, this MC ends up with the barely clothed girl he rescued from slavery! What riveting, original, definitely not scummy content!!!

But yes, studio EMT Squared can put as many layers of polish on Overshadowed to Overpowered as they want, but its flaws are too prominent to ever be overlooked.

Some polish is appreciated, though, especially when compared against the lack of it. And I’m not talking about the proficiency of an adaptation. I’m talking about basics. These isekai are getting even lazier, and I do not know how that is possible. The World’s Strongest Rearguard keeps its hero in his regular-ass business attire for the entire premiere. Couldn’t even be bothered to throw a single gauntlet or pauldron on him. Like, what are we doing here?

He wears this suit in the second episode as well, and I’m beginning to think he’s hogging all the fabric in this fantasy world to keep it intact! After all, what other explanation could there be for supporting characters that are implied to be hardened warriors walking around in fantasy crop tops???

Also, why is there just a regular-ass couch in this video game fantasy world!!? Rearguard is so confused in its worldbuilding and execution that I’m genuinely surprised it made it to air.

It’s so lazy! And look, it has me complaining about isekai fashion choices before I even broach the subject of human-turned-demihuman slavery. I’m turning into that menswear guy.

Safe to say there isn’t much of anything in here that appeals to me. Just ye olde isekai trash executed in the most boring manner possible.
Meanwhile, Tomb Raider King bugged me for a similar reason. They got our guy wearing a hoodie and a tracksuit for the whole excursion. That doesn’t exactly scream “tomb raider” to me. That screams “8 a.m. college class.”

To push that metaphor even further, to me Tomb Raider King screams “Solo Leveling but with a couple of changes so the TA doesn’t catch that you copied someone else’s work.”

There is just SO MUCH wrong with Tomb Raider King that I genuinely struggle to find a place to start. The MC does nothing endearing in the first few episodes and I have no desire to want to watch him succeed, there’s a plot hole in him traveling back in time and his apartment being swallowed up by a dungeon tomb that I guess he forgot appeared, and his first real fight after reincarnating has him fighting a giant CGI snake monster…after an almost visually identical giant CGI snake monster killed him in the first episode.

At my most charitable, I’ll say that there might be a hook in these tombs utilizing different fables across cultures in their challenges, but why would I ever put up with this edgelord nonsense when I can a far more entertaining application of these kinds of cultural ideas in works like Hunter x Hunter and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?

Basically! It, like many isekai series we’ve covered in this format, is mean-spirited without anything to say to justify it. Everyone in Tomb Raider King comes across as a smarmy asshole. I don’t need any more of those in my life!

I guess it’s cool that Tomb Raider King sticks with a Korean dub? There’s some novelty in that on Crunchyroll. But it balances that out with the presence of stat screens: the opposite of novelty.

Oh god, I think I need a palate cleanser after talking this much about Tomb Raider King. Thankfully, The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World feat. Dante from Devil May Cry is fun at least!

Sure, it continues the annoying trend of adding “-ess” to a gender neutral title to denote femininity, but otherwise it’s a pretty fun, dumb watch that focuses on a twenty-something going on a camping road trip in a fantasy world after immediately failing out of her role as a summoned hero. I don’t know if I’d ever watch this if it wasn’t assigned to me as a part of this column, but I at least liked it more than I thought I would!

It did not barrage me into hating it, so for that, Foodie Saintess finds itself at the front of the pack so far. Sure, you could argue it displays a similar lack of imagination, but I appreciate the absurdity of throwing a whole-ass camper van into a stereotypical RPG setting.

Plus it would be difficult for me to hate Laid-Back Isekai.

Not to mention that it’s making a STRONG case for having the cutest ED animation of the season! Yeah, Foodie isn’t, like, “good,” but it definitely gets brownie points for not having immediately heinous social politics.

It’s literally about a girl who just wants to grill!
I also put Heroine? Saint? No, I’m an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! in the same category of “not exactly good, but inoffensively entertaining.”

Do note my pro-maid bias, though.

While I do agree that this one definitely maid a better first impression in its opening episodes than just about everything else we’re going to talk about tonight, All-Works Maid is so frustratingly close to being good that I think I have stronger negative feelings about it than most of these other anime!

A reincarnated gifted-and-talented kid choosing to follow her special interest and become a maid rather than the destined hero is such a good premise with the capacity to offer commentary on what kinds of labor are valorized by society, destined hero myths, and the tension between labor as fulfillment vs exploitation; that I can’t help but be upset when, at every opportunity to express something interesting, All-Works Maid instead choses to double down on being a parody isekai! All the pieces for a great show are here, and I’m so upset that there isn’t even an effort to put them together.

While you’re not wrong, I would like to point out that she does a Sailor Moon transformation into maid mode, and that’s at least as good as one robust/developed theme.

But yeah, unfortunately, it is a comedy where most of the jokes don’t land. That’s a problem. Preferable to the valorization of slavery, but a problem nevertheless.

There’s also some capacity for some GL shenanigans to take place in All-Works Maid, and I’ll gladly take a kinder stance on this cozy watch if it transforms into a queer cozy watch!

Especially considering that the isekai (and romcom) with the highest production values from this season, Hanaori-san Still Wants to Fight in the Next Life, is AGGRESSIVELY heterosexual, much to the dismay of the reincarnated demon lord and reincarnated hero who are sipped together by everyone around them despite being teacher and student (ew).

Hah, we covered my thoughts on Hanaori-san last week thanks to some genre crossover. While not bereft of sin, it has more going for it than many of its peers in isekai-land. Especially in the character design front, since I’ve been harping on that constantly in this column.

Yes! This is one of those rare-ish isekai/romcom genre hybrids that gets to appear in both of these seasonal round-up columns! While you and Chris did a great job covering all of the highs and lows of this show last week, the two cents I’ll add is that I’m probably setting myself up for failure by watching the English dub of this anime.

While I appreciate that every cast member is giving it their all, the localization uses “internet words” extremely liberally and, as a result, every character sounds like they’ve been building up their Reddit karma since 2013 (when the clearly influential here Devil is a Part-Timer came out), and this choice is actively distracting. Normally, I love when anime incorporate current slang into localizations to give them a more temporal quality, but in this case, it instead feels like this show was made by and for internet denizens.

I can’t say I cared for the show’s sense of humor and joke delivery in sub form either, so maybe those localization choices are appropriate lol.
But I think we’ve enjoyed our pretty okay isekai respite for long enough. It’s time to dive back into the grip of much crueler hands. GoHands.

The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System, but he sure doesn’t know how to look like an appealing anime for your eyeballs.

Regrettably, I still have a conflict of interest that prevents me from voicing my opinion on The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System publicly, but I’ve been informed that a woman with a yandere vibe shows up at some point. That’s neat! I hope she and the jester girl get along!

Also, how about that hair! That’s certainly one way to depict hair in an anime!

That’s the GoHands Special (TM). As much as I love me an evil woman, she is not enough to outweigh the near-nausea I get from this studio’s unfathomable penchants for style.

It’s also yet another bland story about a dude with a chip on his shoulder in a world full of assholes. Oh no, he’s the wrong class. Oh no, his daddy kicked him out. He only picked the smartest and most powerful class in the world! He is the god gamer. They just don’t get it. He’ll show them!!

Just another exhausting male power fantasy. Albeit with a clown and GoHands‘ usual GoHandsness.

I will say I’ve seen worse-looking horses in anime! However, if we’re going to focus on any isekai woman in this column, it should probably be Yuri Suzuki from the 90s shojo isekai Red River, which now has an anime!

Do the first couple of episodes of Red River make a great first impression? Not exactly…but it’s still neat that we’re getting a Red River anime in the year of our lord 2026!

It is one of the vanguards of the older version of isekai that we covered proactively back in June. Nobody expected it to receive an anime adaptation in 2026, so that in itself is cause for some celebration. Modern isekai has run its course so definitively that studios are reaching way back into their shojo bag of tricks. I am very on board with that tack. But it would also be nice if the anime adaptation had any zhuzh in it.

Of course, it’s not uncommon for isekai adaptations to look uninspired (we’ve mentioned several examples already), but it hurts extra here given that artfully adapted shojo manga are few and far between.

Agreed, though for me it’s more the early narrative beats that frustrate me. I know that Yuri has a whole hero’s journey arc ahead of her, but did both the first and second episodes need to include Yuri nearly dying, lamenting not being able to see her family anymore, only for her to be saved at the last minute by a nearby man? I understand this was written in the 90s and should be graded on an appropriate scale, but it’s really hard for me to watch a woman be so passive in her own story in 2026.

Yeah, those tropey qualities are very much products of her time. Like, it’s kinda hilarious seeing the prince sling her over his shoulder and just walk her out of a scene like she’s a fish he caught.

But I mean, this too is a titillation for Red River‘s intended audience, and it makes sense to toss some of those spices into the opening act. I’m still interested in where Yuri’s story is going. Plus, the Anatolian setting is unique for this space. No half-measure worldbuilding here.

Hey, if hitting the bottom of the isekai well means that the genre somehow reverts back into historical fiction and a means to empower women, I’m all for running this well dry!

And with that, I believe the only new isekai of the season we have to talk about is Thunder 3, which I am once again not able to comment on too extensively. Though, do I wish I could! A lot is happening in this title, and I have so much insider info that I wish I could share!

Thunder 3 surprised me! Firstly, because it is not the third season of a show named Thunder, which is what I initially thought. But also because it has a unique visual style, a goofy sense of humor, and a well-constructed premiere that sells you on its premise.

Like the moment where the little sister isekais herself into a world full of normally proportioned humans (and aliens) was legit cool! It’s using the contrasting styles to create the scene, and I love the halftones accenting the comic book effect.

Again, a little creativity goes a long way in this space.

I actually sat in on a bunch of interviews over Anime Expo weekend where Thunder 3‘s director spoke to how they pulled off this overlapping art style, and I can’t wait for those pieces to go live! This is such a specific work, and I’m so curious to see how it lands!

And I think that takes us to the end of all of the new isekai for the season! Are there any returning titles that you want to comment on? For instance, I’m always down to remind people that effective worldbuilding does not absolve Jobless Reincarnation of its repeated efforts to normalize pedophilia!

The less I say about Jobless Reincarnation, the better. And certainly the returning lineup looks much stronger with its new seasons of Re:Zero, Saga of Tanya the Evil, and Slime Time. Those are known quantities and heavy hitters. But they also reveal just how “meh” most of the new offerings are. There are slim pickings.
Which is why I’ll use this space to cheat the definition of “isekai” more than a tad and recommend Though I Am an Inept Villainess to everyone. It’s Mitsue Yamazaki directing a bodyswap imperial court drama full of bright colors and lion poisoning. It’s good.

Plus, there’s a title drop in the first episode. Who doesn’t love a title drop?

Sylvia, I am a sucker for a good “politics of the court” drama, and I would love a good Freaky Friday spin on that genre! While the first two episodes of Inept Villainess are a bit expedited in their resolutions and characterizations, by the end of them, there are a lot of interesting pieces on the board, and I’m very curious about how the players involved manipulate them to their advantage!

Or, you know, if Reirin can best girl her way out of the (so far unearned and unexplained imo) prejudice directed at the body she now inhabits!

And you know what? Nobody can stop me from recommending Goodbye, Lara in the isekai column. What is an isekai if not a fish out of water story, and what is The Little Mermaid if not the original fish out of water story? It’s flawless logic.

You’re right, Sylvia! Lynzee left us with the keys to this place, and I think she would want us to hype up works like Goodbye, Lara! Similarly, I’m sure she would want us to talk about anime like Chainsmoker Cat and the new Ghost in the Shell anime, which transport me, the viewer, to worlds where catgirls and weed and robot lesbians exist respectively.

There are isekai everywhere for those with eyes to see.

The first two episodes of this season are a midquel of sorts. Much like how episode 0 of the second season focused on what Sylphie had been doing since she was separated from Rudeus, these two episodes are all about what Eris has been up to since she left Rudeus’ side.

If you want a more in depth breakdown of these two episodes, check out the preview guide entries I wrote about them but, in general, this side-story is the tale of how Eris gains intense focus, strength, and tenacity through her feelings of fear (of Orsted) and inadequacy (towards Rudeus). She is a wild dog, putting all she has into chasing an impossible goal: defeating the most powerful swordsman in the world—the one who nearly tore her beloved away from her.

However, this relentless drive is also a double-edged sword. She must learn to keep her focus and also control it—hone it to a point aimed only at her enemy’s throat and not the world around her. That is her arc in these first two episodes—and it is told fantastically well.

Now as for episodes 3 and 4, I hope you’ll forgive me if I climb up on my soapbox for a bit—I promise it all ties together.

Far too many misunderstand what Mushoku Tensei is and what it is trying to be. It’s not the story of a reincarnated person from our world becoming a hero; it’s not even the story of Rudeus becoming a better person. While Rudeus does do heroic things from time to time and his personality has improved vastly compared to the social isolation of his first life, that’s incidental more than anything else. Mushoku Tensei is, at its core, the tale of a deeply flawed man finding happiness.

To be clear, we aren’t meant to look up to or idolize Rudeus. He is a pervert who has lusted after the underage, obsesses over the misogynistic ideals of female purity, has no issues with child slavery, and has even kidnapped and (accidentally) tortured people. He is also a stalwart friend, a dutiful son, and a loving husband. He helps those in need when able—asking at most a fair compensation for his efforts, and sometimes, nothing at all.

It’s okay to hate Rudeus—to be completely disgusted by him. His flaws and charms are laid bare for all to see. The point is not to champion Rudeus or even necessarily root for him. All we are meant to do is understand him in all his complexity. He is captivating as a character because he is so mired in inherent contradictions.

And at the center of all this is the implied moral of Mushoku Tensei: If someone as objectively flawed as Rudeus can attain happiness, maybe someone as imperfect as you or I can too. It’s that kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy at the end of the day.

Episodes 3 and 4 are the way of reaffirming this as the show’s core theme. Rudeus has attained all he set out to way back in season 1. He has gathered his scattered family from across the world and found love not once but twice. Yes, all this came at a dire cost, but now, there is only one goal: to live happily.

For Rudeus, this means two things: treasuring both of his wives in their complicated poly relationship and protecting his greater family from harm. Of course, this is harder than it might seem—and on both fronts to boot. Both Roxy and Sylphie feel uneasy in their relationship with Rudeus. Both fear that, if Rudeus were to choose only one wife, it wouldn’t be them.

On the other side of things, Rudeus has lost so much—his father, his mother’s mind, his hand, and even his first love—he fears losing anything more. He is bound and determined to become so powerful he won’t lose anyone or anything he treasures ever again. Of course, the fact of the matter is, this is a fool’s errand—and even attempting to gain such strength risks missing out on the hard-fought happiness he has already gained. And luckily, part of him realizes this as he can give up on his immediate research and spend time with those he loves—even if only for a single night.

Episode 1 Rating:

Episode 2 Rating:

Episode 3 Rating:

Episode 4 Rating:

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation III is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

To prepare for his role as the Senzai dancer in the troupe’s upcoming performance of the Okina, Oniyasha must focus on purifying his body and resting his mind so that he can be at his utmost best. This, of course, is almost impossible for Oniyasha to manage, the little bundle of nerves, curiosity, and perfectionism that he has become as of late. So, this episode begins with Oniyasha stealing away in the night to practice alone by the light of the moon. His father is expecting so much from him, but what exactly is the secret ingredient that Oniyasha needs to transcend his current limitations as a performer?

Alongside Oniyasha, we get to learn just a little bit more about Kan’nami this week, and it is fascinating (if not at all surprising) to see how the boy and his old man seem to share the same instincts for learning and invention. Kan’nami has spent his entire life learning the different disciplines and perspectives across many different art forms, and the old mentor of the troupe describes him as a man who “destroys what Sarugaku has become, builds it back up, and then destroys it again.” One of the fundamental laws of artistic creation that everyone must eventually learn is that there is no such thing as true, achievable perfection. There is either constant pursuit of improvement and new perspectives, or there is stagnation and resignation. While it is true that artists of all stripes must eventually settle on something good enough to actually be shared with the world, the fundamental irony of perfection’s impossibility is that we only ever get better if we insist on pursuing it anyway.

Little Oniyasha is becoming wiser to these truths by the day, but he still has a long way to go. All he can really do, for now, is his best, which leads us to the climactic sequence of the episode: Oniyasha’s dance in the Okina. This is executed very differently than the very stylized and expressionistic dances that have highlighted previous episodes. Here, we’re stuck in the very real and (relatively) grounded reality of the wooden stage, the audience, and Oniyasha himself. The boy moves with practiced fluidity, and the direction opts to go for a fairly locked-in camera that watches mostly from the middle distance, as if we were sitting right there with the rest of the locals. I am fairly certain that Oniyasha’s movements are made possible with the use of a very well-composited 3D rig, given the very obviously digital nature of the less detailed background characters, but the result still looks quite a lot like more traditional rotoscoped animation, which is quite impressive.

Just before his father takes the stage, we see a brief glimpse of the oceans that Oniyasha is beginning to conjure with his work, a sign that he is beginning to tap into his unrealized potential. When we finally do see Kan’nami in action…well, this is where I am still not sure how to feel. I like that the episode emphasizes his very subtle, restrained choreography, which stands in contrast to the oversized emotional effect he is having on both the audience and his own son. That said—and this could absolutely be down to me failing to appreciate the cultural and symbolic nuances of this quasi-ritualistic performance—I was expecting more from such a thematically pivotal scene as Oniyasha discovering the depths of his father’s power as a dancer. While still a very good episode overall, this feels like the first time that The World Is Dancing has had to tell us just as much as it is capable of showing us to get its point across.

Still, given how successful the Okina performance was for the troupe, it seems like everything is coming up Oniyasha for the first time all season. Of course, our young hero has to go and loudly call out the attending shogun, Yoshimitsu Ashikaga, as “the sex guy” that he met during his funk of ennui last week. Then again, Oniyasha does end up with a personal invite to the shogun’s mansion that merely leads to pretend threats of immediate and gruesome execution, so things could also be much worse.

Instead of being greeted with the sharp end of an executioner’s sword, Oniyasha is given something much more profound: A mission. The shogun needs something that can reach beyond laws and might to unite the people of Japan, and our hero is just the young seedling that he needs to plant in the garden of the nation’s future. This certainly isn’t where I expected things to go by the end of just this fourth episode, but I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. We know that this lad is going to go down in history as one of his culture’s most influential voices. The kid’s going to need to get a move on soon if he wants to start building those centuries of artistic influence and all.

Episode Rating:

The World Is Dancing is currently streaming on
HIDIVE.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.