Isekai Cheat Magician – 04 – Dropped

Isekai Cheat treated us to an episode long fight sequences. Cassamir revealed his plans to manipulate Taichi for his own gain, even if Rin and Myura have to be raped in the process. Hurt Me More Girl… promised to get hurt more in the future. The Red Elemental was defeated by Taichi’s inner power in Taichi’s time of need.

It was barely animated, moved the plot forward at a snails pace and we learned nothing of consequence in the process. Two more villains and a third maybe villain were introduced during the end credits. I don’t know who they are, how they relate to the plot, and don’t care anymore. In short, it was a miserable experience.

The verdict: ICM has become a bit tricky to review. I have no interesting words to describe its visual style, and it’s awkwardly structured narrative is overshadowed by an eye gouging sluggishness. Who cares that the assassin’s decision to… do something? took three episodes to reveal, or that Rin and Myura’s relationship (and the pair’s relationship with Taichi) isn’t developed on screen when the actual focus of each episode is characters sitting or standing motionlessly in a room?

There’s no reason for me to write about it and even less reason for you to read about it. A Dr Stone drop, this is not…

Isekai Cheat Magician – 03 – Fruit PUNCH

After an awkward wet dream, Taichi and Rin are summoned by the Guild Master. While he motionlessly expositions the guild quest system, it becomes apparent that someone forgot to animate his lips. That’s okay. Rin and Taichi beat up a bar full of black market thugs off screen anyway.

Later, Rin and Taichi beat up a trio of assassins, and level up to Rank D. Then they have sacks of money for some reason before Myre asks them to join her party. Apparently we’re not supposed to laugh at a show for having characters ‘miss’ each other even though we, the viewer, have experienced less than ten minutes (and zero developments) of that separation.

It’s okay. Rin, Taichi and Myre go to a pear orchard and beat up monsters. Some lady kills animals and maybe a person at night and swears revenge…

Isekai Cheat Magician thinks it is better than Maou-sama Retry. This is not the case. It is dull because it is poorly paced, often not animated, and filled with generic characters who lack motivation, consistency, and context. Viewer discretion advised!

Isekai Cheat Magician – 02 – Lost Ones

Episode two devotes significant air time to the explanation of magic, power levels, magic user types and their characteristics. Rin is on par with the strongest mages of the realm but also has the unique power to control all 4 elemental forms of magic.  Meanwhile, Taichi is completely unique, having direct control over magic on a scale strong enough to defeat entire kingdoms on his own.

Following a few interlaced training montages that skip through the 3 weeks it takes Rin and Taichi to become skilled at combat, Lemiya and Myura reveal that ‘Lost Ones’ have arrived from other worlds before and, since Rin and Taichi were obviously summoned from another world, they probably need to track down the super mage that summoned them to figure out what is going on.

Call it a poorly paced mess, or fault it’s fannish compulsion to explain the details of magic, this episode successfully established its central characters, setting, challenges and immediate objective. Taichi lacks imagination and ambition, which make his absurd level of magic power a dangerous weapon if Lemiya (or someone else) can wield him for their own objectives.

On the flip side, Rin is creative and thoughtful enough to keep Taichi tethered. While her friendship with Myura could be a vector of weakness, Myura already considers Rin an equal. Perhaps even a friend.

Regardless, Taichi and Ren are ready to become adventurers, no doubt spending an episode or two fleshing out what that means, before setting out to find whoever summoned them and for what purpose.

Isekai Cheat Magician does not entirely feel like it knows what it is doing. In principal, this is a story of two friends who are both fish out of water. Taichi and Rin have a long history, which allows the script to play off their shared growth and conflicts.

For example, Rin’s ability to learn magic quicker than Taichi was a great chance to expand their relationship. Does Rin always do better than Taichi, does that bother him in some way, or does it flip the script on their expectations and change the dynamic of the relationship? Making Rin ‘more powerful’ than the hero could have been interesting in itself.

Unfortunately, Isekai Cheat Magician plays it straight. Taichi is the hero and he is the most powerful. Rin is his support and she gets powerful magic to lend that support. Evil is afoot. They will probably stomp all over it.

The verdict: ICE contains nuggets of interest. Rise of the Shield Hero aside, it’s not that common for characters living in another world to understand that outsiders can be summoned, and typically summoned for a good reason.

There was also a weird scene where Taichi kills a wolf and we get a close up of the wolf’s eyes as he does it. At first, alert but scared, then degrading to red lifelessness. Coupled with a scene of Rin killing monster rabbits, and ICE hints that Rin and Taichi (and the ‘good guys’) may not really be purely good after all. That seems awfully high above ICM’s head though…

As an episode, it was adequate but the abrupt jumps in time squeezed out any sense of satisfaction. As a show, there are glimmers of potential, but it is doubtful that ICM will come anywhere near that potential.

Isekai Cheat Magician – 01

In a time of desperate need, a great mage casts the spell to summon a hero to her non-RPG hard fantasy kingdom. Unfortunately, the magic circle is broken and the hero arrives far from the castle. Double unfortunately, the hero is Taichi, a modern day Japanese high school boy, who’s only defining trait is a narcissistic urge to sacrifice himself to protect his tennis semi-pro childhood friend Rin.

After narrowly escaping death at the hands hooves of a Bad Horse, passing adventurers exposition Rin and Taichi up to speed, at least, in so far as the world and basic adventure considerations are concerned. Then they all travel to a near by town and Rin and Taichi quickly learn that they are super OP magic users omg!

The Pros: Isekai Cheat Magician is drawn like garbage and the setting is lazy as hell. However, like several lazy as hell shows this season, ICM is so incompetent that it’s pretty easy to laugh at.  The Dialog too is pretty endearing. “Thats no ordinary horse!“

Though rare, ICM also charms with some neat details, like the fantasy cast calling attention to the tailoring quality of Rin and Taichi’s uniforms. It may mean nothing to us, but machine produced fabrics would be epically higher quality than any hand-constructed equivalents.

The verdict: It’s hard to say if the generic journey of high school friends through a magic world will turn out better or worse than a generic demon lord in a fantasy rpg world, or the equally inept adventure of generic nice girl in magic battle royale, but I’m willing to watch for now.

ICM isn’t terrible, objectively speaking. It’s just very very very dull, slow paced, and it’s only unique feature is casting friends to play off eachother in it’s other world setting.