Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys it’s August which means it’s time for another arc and this year we’re doing the Isekai arc. Over the last few years anime has become saturated with stories about a normal human being transported from our world and into a new world. This setup is nothing new, it’s been done a number of times in the past but as of recently it’s been popping up more and more and over the years authors have changed up the setting to make their stories more unique and stand out from the crowd. Take Konosuba for example. Rather than Kazuma be this chosen hero meant to save the world he’s instead a rookie adventurer who’s stuck with some of the most useless party members, has no redeeming traits, and isn’t some chosen hero who is destined to save the world. He’s just a guy who died under hilarious circumstances and chose to be reincarnated in another world with a goddess who causes more trouble than she does help. Changes to this setup are great and are what we’ll be focusing on throughout the month of August starting with one of the most recent animes, In Another World With My Smartphone. Based off a light novel written by Patora Fuyuhara in 2015 and continuing to this day, we get asked the question of what would happen if you bought your smartphone into another world. The anime was produced by Production Reed in 2017, a studio that was quite big in the 70s, 80s, and 90s but went quiet around the 21st century. Let’s see if this old school studio can adapt to this new generation. This is In Another World With My Smartphone.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Another World” by AOP. It’s good, at first I didn’t really care for it all that much but as time went on I started to get into it. The instrumental is awesome and I like the dance dance revolution feel it gives off.
The ending is “Junjou Emotional” which sung by the various female characters in the show. The song maintains that upbeat feel from the opening but is a little slower and has a sweeter feel to it. It’s almost like the girls are gathering up their courage to tell the MC what they think of him. Overall, it’s an okay song. Didn’t really grip me like the opening but if you like it cool.
Episodes 1-4
The anime opens up with our main character Touya voiced by Katsumi Fukuhara speaking to God who accidently dropped a bolt of lightning which struck Touya and killed him (what an unfortunate series of events). God apologizes for this mistake and surprisingly Touya is very calm about the situation (cool as a cucumber). God plans to resurrect Touya but according to the rules he can’t be resurrected back on Earth so instead he’ll be resurrected in a new world filled with magic and God allows him to bring one item he wants from our world with him (I chose the AI girls. (AI girls): What! (Nitsuj): If I’m going to suffer I’m going to make sure I bring as many people down with me. Misery loves company). Touya chooses his smartphone and God even makes it so he’ll be allowed to call Him any time as well as alter the map and navigation so he’ll know where he’s going. He wakes up in the fantasy world (looks like the world of Konosuba only less colorful and so far less funny). He meets a strange tailor interested in his clothes (you’re sick) and wants to buy them from him (again, you’re sick). Touya agrees and exchanges his clothes for clothes befitting this new world. He then heads towards an inn where he sees two cute peddlers getting swindled by bandits. Touya interferes where we find out that God enhanced his physical abilities so now he won’t die unless something crazy happens (like Deadpool level crazy) and beats up the bandits to save the girls. The girls reveal themselves to be Elze (the tomboy) and Linze (the polite one) voiced by Maaya Uchida (Irina from Highschool DxD) and Yui Fukuo. The three form a good friendship and even take an elimination quest together where Touya goes the traditional MC route and uses a sword and they teach him a little bit of magic where he discovers he has an affinity to use all the elements (which is of course rare in this world. When God hooks you up He hooks you up). He also introduces ice cream to this world.
In episode 2 Touya, Elze, and Linze are heading to Alephis the royal capital to deliver a letter. Along the way they befriend a traveling warrior named Yae who joins them on their quest after Touya saved her from some bandits and then the group saves another girl named Sue the daughter of the duke who was traveling when all of a sudden a wizard attacked her carriage with lizardmen (hello, obvious new harem members who will fall in love with Touya just because he’s nice and saved you once. Such true love). They all make it to Alephis known as the city of lakes (so it’s this world’s version of Michigan. Quite a step up from being known as Ohio’s backyard) where they take Sue and her father thanks them from the bottom of his heart. He then talks about his wife and how’s she blind from a known illness and wishes he could find someone with the null magic ability to cure her (look no further). Touya says he can cure her because thanks to God he has the ability to learn any and all magic in this world including null magic (this guy is basically, Jesus). Touya cures Sue’s mom allowing her to see again (I haven’t seen a character so OP that it’s almost laughable) and as a reward he and the girls receive 40 million yen and coins which will allow them to pass through any checkpoint with no problems and be allowed access to the duke’s facilities. After business is done there, Yae makes the decision to join them on their adventures because she admires Touya (and she obviously has a mad crush on him).
In episode 3 Touya introduces shogi to the people and they love it. After this the group takes on a quest to eliminate a dullahan in the grounds of the old capital (now they’re copying Konosuba). They manage to defeat it and decide to search the ruins when Touya detects something hidden beneath them and think it might be some kind of treasure. They reach the spot of the treasure only to discover it’s not treasure but instead some weird bug-like creature that can absorb magic, is impervious to physical attacks, and can regenerate from just about anything (the prototype for the Terminator. Where’s Arnold when you need him). After stealing the red core from the creature and destroying it the creature finally dies and they report their findings back to Sue’s dad who also wants to investigate this strange creature and the ruins. As the episode ends Sue’s dad heads out to visit his brother who has been poisoned and asks Touya for help.
In episode 4 Touya manages to heal the brother of Sue’s dad (because he’s the next best thing to God in this anime) who happens to be the king and then proceeds to find the culprit responsible for this poisoning. Balsa, a count to his majesty believes that the king was poisoned by Olga a beastwoman who was sent as an ambassador from the beastmen kingdom to form good ties but in truth it was him (it was so obvious even a blind person could see it from space). Balsa didn’t want the king to form good ties with the beastmen because he doesn’t like them (racist) so he planted poison on the king’s wine glass and then pinned the blame on Olga. With the king out of the picture this would make his daughter Yumina, next in line for the throne and she would be forced to marry someone ASAP. What he wasn’t expecting was Touya to come in, use his detection skills to sense the poison exposing his plan, and then using the slip spell to stop his escape (that slip spell is slowly becoming the most overpowered spell in the show and I’m okay with that). After exposing and capturing Balsa, Yumina is impressed with his skills and wisdom and has become smitten by him. So smitten by him that she announces that she wants to marry him and the king approves (very quick on the son-in-law aren’t you your majesty? Well he did save your life). Touya is against this because one, they don’t know anything about him (outside of the fact that he’s nothing short of a god) and two, Yumina is 12 years (calling the cops). Of course in this world it’s normal for minors to get married and Yumina has what’s known as the Mystic Eye of Intuition which analyzes one’s character. Yumina can find no evil motive in Touya at all (he tries to get the girls to take on slime quests. How is that not evil?) and because of this everyone trusts her choice in picking Touya to be her husband. Touya uses the laws of his world to justify his stance on not marrying her so they decide to hold off on the marriage until he turns 18 which is in 2 years. We also learn from God that this world supports polygyny (so let me get this straight. This world has magic, animal girls, allows you to marry lolis, and supports polygyny. This is every otaku’s dream world). So Yumina leaves the palace and joins Touya’s party in order to make him fall in love with her. We see her earn her keep on the team as she’s a master at archery, can use magic, and can even use summoning magic. Later on, she teaches Touya how to do summoning magic and he summons a white tiger known as the White Monarch which is the strongest of the beast summons because it’s a heavenly creature. In order to form a pact with the White Monarch, Touya must show her his magical energy by touching her. He does this and his energy is so high and powerful that he causes the White Monarch to pass out with foam coming from her mouth (did he just cause a tiger to orgasm?). With this the White Monarch accepts Touya as her master and he completes the pact by giving her the name Kohaku. Kohaku wants to be by Touya’s side always so she transforms into a cuddly tiger cub that you can’t help but find cute.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 starts off with the group finally going on a slime quest (https://youtu.be/tv4KQbDaCfM). They’ve been asked to investigate the mansion of this scientist who was studying and developing slimes (I sense a fetish. (Baron): Hey, slimes can do a lot of kinky stuff. I remember this one time back in college, I met a slime girl in science class. One night at a party we got wasted and went up into her room where she did this amazing thing to my butt that I’ll never for- (Nitsuj): Baron! Come on man, damn! I don’t wanna hear all that). They enter the mansion where on the first floor they get attacked by green slimes (those are the slimes that dissolve clothes. (Corbin): Hey, green slime, that takes me back. (Nitsuj): No! I don’t know where this story is going but hell no). They manage to escape them by going up the stairs and the slimes don’t chase after them because of territories. While on the stairs they run into lotion slimes who can produce slippery lotion when threatened (Baron: That’s another good thing about slime. You don’t need to worry about lubrication). The girls fall down the stairs and the green slimes are there to greet them and we get our clothes dissolving scene. After this fanservice the group continues exploring the mansion where they come across boob slimes who attach themselves onto girls with small breasts (who needs breast implants when you can have slime implants?) and they finally come across the final slime the scientist poured his heart and soul into, female slimes. After concluding their research they burn the place down with the slimes inside (sayonara, nakama). The second half of the episode has Touya earn more points with Yae, Linze, and Elze. We find out that Yae has a brother who she loves and respects dearly and says that he and Touya are a lot alike. With Linze he helps her master a new spell called Bubble Bomb (https://youtu.be/oFs3lOqr1UE) and picks out a cute dress for Elze to wear and bring out her charm more. At the end of the episode, Yumina receives a letter from her father asking her to return home with Touya as he is to be knighted for his services in the last episode.
Episode 6 starts off with Touya and the others going to his mansion which was a gift from the king as a thank you for saving his life and whatnot (huh, all this time I thought Yumina was his reward for saving him). While in the mansion Touya invites the other girls to live with him and unbeknownst to him, he made it sound like he intended to marry all of them (he established a harem without even realizing it). As they all settle in they receive a visit from Sue and her father (oh is she going to join the harem too? We’ve already got one loli, might as well go all the way now) who talks about forming a treaty with the beastmen kingdom in Mismede but the journey there can be quite dangerous so they want to use Touya’s gate to travel there and back safely but Touya can only use the skill if he’s been to that place. So, they load him on a carriage and have him go to Mismede. Of course, they don’t plan on having him travel alone, as a captain from both parties along with their armies will be accompany Touya on his journey along with his harem (yeah~, let’s go get us some animal girls for the harem). On their journey they capture bandits, help Lyon a captain who has the hots for Olga pick out a gift for her, and fight a dragon where Touya kills it in a pretty good fight scene.
At the start of episode 7 Touya gives the body of the dead dragon to a village so they can harvest its body and sell them off to repair their village (a little dark but I’ll just consider this dragon insurance). They do give Touya one of the dragon’s fangs as a thank you. After this they finally arrive in Mismede where upon hearing how the group defeated the dragon asks Touya for a fight. Touya wins the first fight in a matter of seconds using his slip spell (this spell has become the most OP moves I have ever seen and I love it). The king demands a rematch where he bans the use of the slip spell (spoiled sport) and this allows the two to have a fair fight where Touya wins in the end again. That night at a banquet, Touya gets dragged to a room by a stuffed teddy bear named Paula who takes him to meet Leen who has the appearance of a petite girl but is actually an elder fairy. She shows off her null magic called Program which allows her to issue commands to inanimate objects (like getting a chair to move on its own. (Corbin): Or using it on your blow-up doll for some nighttime fun). Once Touya copies her null magic and tells her he can use all the elements, she wants to make him her apprentice but he refuses and takes his leave. The next day he uses that dragon fang to create his new weapon, a gunblade (which is actually more practical and better than FFVIII’s version). In order not too seriously hurt anybody he loads the gun with rubber bullets (it won’t kill you but it’ll hurt like a bitch) and even makes guns for Linze and Yumina (Yumina picked a good one, Linze not so much). After creating the guns, they decide to go eat but Touya senses someone watching him. Touya chases down the stalkers and discovers that they’re spies sent by Yumina’s dad to keep an eye on Yumina to make sure she’s alright. They beg Touya not to tell her and he agrees to do it. We end the episode with Touya, Linze, and Yumina eating some spicy curry.
Episode 8 gives us a series of short stories and events throughout the episode. We first start off with Touya introducing everyone to bikes (first cellphones, then guns, and now bikes. I’m just waiting for him to introduce the helicopter). After this Touya goes into town where he saves a young pickpocketer from pick pocketers by shooting them (I love how he doesn’t hesitate to shoot people). He finds out that the young pick pocketer is a girl named Renne who lost her mother when she was born and her father went out to slay a beast some time ago but never returned (he dead). Feeling sorry for her, Touya offers her a job at his mansion (if you want waifu status you gotta start from the bottom) and she accepts. In the next story Touya takes Yumina and Sue to Mismede where they spy on Lyon and Olga who are out walking the town with Lyon trying to put the moves on Olga but being too afraid to go in (earn yourself some glory man and just do it). It’s only until Touya confronts Lyon on his feelings does he say what needs to be said and Olga is more than happy to be his girlfriend (they will have such cute children). In the last story, Leen comes to visit and tells Touya about a creature similar to the one he and the others fought back in the castle ruins attacking and destroying a village in Mismede. Leen suspects that the creature is a Fraze, an ancient demon creature that almost destroyed the world in the past but has no proof to back up her claim. After saying this she tells Touya that she’ll be staying at his place from time to time while acting as the ambassador for Mismede (we’re just call her the part-time waifu). She then says she wants to go look at some ruins is Eashen which is where Yae is from, but since Touya hasn’t been to Eashen he can’t open up a gate to arrive there. So, Leen teaches Touya recall, a skill which allows to read the mind of others (somewhat) and he uses this to read the mind of Yae where he sees images of Eashen and creates a gate which takes them directly to Eashen.
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9 the group is in Eashen with Leen and as you would expect the place is a shout out to Edo period Japan right down to the very last detail (while Eashen has a king, each land is governed by a lord). They make their way to Ooedo and head to meet Yae’s father in order to get a clue on where the ruins are but once they arrive in Ooedo they sense that the town is depressed (they found out taxes have been raised). They arrive at Yae’s house where they meet her mother (who looks nothing like her) and find out that her father has left for the battlefield because Takeda invaders are advancing on their land (wow, they even got warring lands down right) and the soldiers of Ooedo are making a stand at a fortress but according to rumors it’s only a matter of time before they fall. Touya and the others rush to the fortress where get to meet Jotaro the big brother Yae and we see that the Takeda army is composed of zombies (it’s Nioh all over again) thanks to the oni mask they’re wearing. Touya takes them all out with ease. Yae’s father and the lord of Ooedo believe that the man behind this invasion is the dark strategist Yamato Kansukay who is using ancient artifacts or magic (what’s the difference) to control an army of the dead. Touya decides that his next move is to infiltrate Yamato’s castle and take him down. The only problem is he doesn’t know where it’s at (Google it). Luckily, Tsubaki, one of the four generals of Takeda who is working with the other generals to defeat Yamato knows the way. Touya, Leen, and Tsubaki get into the castle by turning invisible, free the other generals, and go to fight Yamato where it gets revealed that he’s using some evil eye artifact to control the dead but Touya steals that bad boy, destroys it, and in the process kills Yamato as well freeing the good people of Takeda and restoring order to the land (but where’s the slip spell. I need my slip spell). After saving Takeda the generals tell Touya and the others that the ruins they’re looking are located in the sea off an island on the coast.
Episode 10 is our obligatory fanservice episode (we’re at the beach so by anime law they are required to have a fanservice episode). We get to see the girls in swimsuits and have some playing around in the sand. Touya also invites a few others from the kingdom to enjoy the beach so we get to see our adult female side characters in bikinis as well (lolis, teens, and milfs. This anime is covering all of its bases in the fanservice department). Touya dives into the ocean and finds the ruins but they’re too far underwater and can’t be reached by just swimming to them. Touya wonders if there’s a spell to help you breathe underwater (no, but we have air bubbles) and Kohaku suggest they summon the Black Emperors for help. Touya manages to summon the Black Emperor who is Genbu of the Saint Beast (oh~ that’s why Kohaku is a white tiger. I wonder if Touya will get the other Saint Beasts as well?). After being summoned Genbu tells them that Touya must defeat them in battle in order to get their help so he uses his most powerful spell, Slip (yeessssssss~) and enchants one of his bullets to put the Slip spell on infinite loop every time they get up (that’s so cool and funny at the same time. This spell has literally become the greatest spell of all time). Genbu finally admits defeat and become Touya’s servants with him naming the snake Kokuyou (I would have named it Burakkubi) and the turtle Sango. In order not to cause trouble because of their size, they shrink down into a floating baby turtle and snake (because that’s not going to raise suspicion at all. I can’t wait to see him walk the streets with a dragon wrapped around his neck like a scarf all while a baby phoenix rests on his shoulder. It’s going to look cute but badass at the same time). He takes a break and hangs out with his harem who have been itching to have fun with him on the beach and then he goes to explore those ruins where he gets teleported away to a mysterious garden and meets a girl named Francesca who doesn’t wear pants (topless is so yesterday. Bottomless is where it’s at).
We start episode 11 with Francesca putting on some pants (inviting him to do some dirty stuff with her. Do some gardening Touya) and then explaining to Touya that he’s in the flying Garden of Babylon (I’m pretty sure he’s in Laputa from Castle in the Sky) which was created by a scientist named Regina Babylon (why? Why build a flying garden? I mean it’s cool but why?) and Francesca is the garden’s control terminal meaning she’s a robot (okay, now I know where in Laputa. Miyazaki is going to roast this anime). She’s been in this garden for over 5,000 years now (no wonder she wants the D so much. She needs to be watered) and with the arrival of Touya she has decided to transfer ownership to him as well as be his loyal servant because he passed the pervert test by telling her to put pants on (you are a very strange robot in need of some serious upgrades). Touya brings the others onboard where Leen says that Regina must have been a descendent of the Partheno an ancient civilization that created magic spells, devices, and artifacts (and these creations no doubt became their downfall). While Touya and Leen talk to Francesca the girls go off and have a girl talk where Yumina tells the girls to marry Touya along with her (she approves of the harem). It turns out Yumina had this conversation with the others when Touya got his mansion. She knows the others like Touya (yeah it’s hard to miss) and also knows it’d be selfish to monopolize Touya herself especially when she knows she herself won’t be enough to satisfy him (astoundingly she’s right). That why she proposes that they all marry Touya (the honeymoon night will be awesome) but the girls are still a little flustered (and tsundere) with their feelings and need a little more time. Back with Touya and Leen, Francesca reveals that there are other floating islands that make up Babylon and each one has a robot girl like Francesca (hopefully not with the same mindset as her) and she has no way to contact them or know where their location is (then the search for Babylon shall begin). The others return (with their faces as red as a freshly harvested tomato) and Francesca completes the registration with Touya by kissing him (tongue and everything) to get his genetic code. As you would imagine the girls are shocked but this gives Linze the motivation to take the initiative and tell Touya she loves him and kisses him (way to go Linze).
The final episode starts with Francesca becoming Touya’s maid and moving into the mansion (well we’ll never run out of sex jokes with her around). After this, we focus on Touya’s love life. After the confession from Linze, Touya locks himself in his room not answering her feelings (https://youtu.be/EYWbatgKN4g). Yumina comes in where she’s mad at Touya not because Linze confessed and kissed him but because he hasn’t kissed her yet knowing full well she’s the official wife (pick your battles Yumina). She demands that Touya kiss her and not having a choice in the matter he kisses her willingly (he’s shown his true colors. Take him down). He than says that he likes Linze and after Yumina reveals that Linze was in the room thanks to the invisible spell, he answers her feelings and says that he accepts her as his fiancée. The next day Touya has a duel with Yae and Elze where the loser has to listen to the request of the winner. They have a straight up fight where no magic is used (which means no slip spell. Why must you torture us?) where Elze and Yae win and asks to be given the same treatment as Yumina and Linze (they’re strong girls but when it comes to their feelings they’re as shy as Shy Guy showing its face) to which Touya asks to be left alone for a while to think about this situation he’s in. He goes to the garden of Babylon to be alone where we see he likes all the girls and is happy they think about him that way, the problem is he isn’t sure he can make them all happy (well you’ve been doing good so far). Francesca comes by and plays a message from Regina (who is a pervy scientist) and seems to have the power to see into the future and has actually been watching Touya’s adventures and everything. She offers him some advice and tells him not to think about it too much and just go with it (yeah man, do what Rito from To Love-Ru is stalling to do). Realizing he needs more advice (from someone who isn’t a pervert) he goes to talk to God and the God of Love herself (she’s the one responsible for having Touya walking in on the girls changing. Good job) who tell him the same thing but only in a more contextual non-pervy way (see? Even God approves of the harem, that’s all the support you need to start a harem) and he finally has his answer. He gathers the girls up where he tells them he loves them all (good start) but has no intention of marrying them (bad finish), at least not yet. He considers himself not mentally ready to take on the responsibilities of marriage (something a lot of people learn the hard way) but when he has matured and is ready he’ll happily ask each of them for their hand in marriage. They all accept this answer for now and everything returns to normal. We wrap up the season with Touya walking the streets and helping out a white-haired boy around his age named Ende who has an odd coin and seems to know what Touya’s smartphone is.
Final Thoughts
Well this was a bad watch. Years ago, this might have been viewed as a good watch. But by today’s standards this is bad. The story has no direction, the action and music aren’t that impressive, the world is basic and doesn’t seem all that interesting, and the animation isn’t really all that great either. The biggest downfall of this anime are the characters. They are dull, uninteresting, and each one is a walking trope. Touya has got to be the blandest character I’ve seen in a fantasy/harem anime. Outside of being a little bit perverted and a good guy, this guy has no personality whatsoever. He’s just an overpowered bland character who’s easy to forget. Also, no. Just because he’s overpowered doesn’t make him interesting. Saitama from One Punch Man is overpowered yet I don’t find him bland in the least. Mob from Mob Psycho is overpowered but I don’t find him bland either. Saitama and Mob both have personalities despite being overpowered beings and we get to explore their personalities and characters to make them seem more real and relatable. Even if Touya wasn’t overpowered, he would still be a bland character who I would forget within seconds. We never get a chance to explore him as a character or find out about his life before coming to this new world or what his goal in this world is. Touya is pretty much Kirito 2.0. Strong and powerful but bland and uninteresting as far as characters go.
Final Score
In Another World With My Smartphone earns a 3/10. I really had high hopes for this anime but I just get nothing from this series at all. This is a series I can’t recommend to others as it just does things too poorly for my taste. If this series had come out years earlier before the isekai boom began it might have been a hit but in today’s world it’s just dull. This was not the way I wanted to start off the Isekai arc. I wish I could go back in time and restart the arc from zero with a much better anime to review.
(Seras): Oh I think I have just the anime to help you with that.
To be continued next week
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