Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Isekai animes have pretty much become the bread and butter of anime these days. Just when you think the trend can no longer keep going, they find a way to pull people back into the hole and show everyone how much money they can make and how there’s more creativity to explore with this genre. Some are good, bad and in-between, but there are a few out there where you’re not sure where they fall in at and one of those isekais is I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives. Based off a manga written by Naoki Yamakawa in 2016 and still on going to this day, this was a series that really didn’t get that much of spotlight shined on it over the years. It was definitely a series that tried to change up the isekai formula and bring something new to the genre. While it managed to find a fanbase people were still torn on what to think of this series. In 2020, the manga was given an anime produced by the newest anime studio Maho Film. They were founded in 2018 and were the guys who gave us If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord so they were no strangers to introducing unique animes to people. Let’s review this anime and see where it falls. This is, I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives.
Opening and Ending Theme
Our opening is “Anti world” by Kanako Takatsuki. This opening is alright in my book. I like the instrumental and flow of the song and Kanako sounds good as well. The only downside is I feel like she’s singing too quietly and getting drowned out by the instrumental.
The ending is “Carpe Diem” by Liyuu. Looking back, I probably should have put this on my Top 11 Anime Endings of 2020. I really did like this ending. There’s a very deep message here and seems to perfectly capture the struggles and issues our main characters are going through. Seizing the day and taking control of life to make the future better.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts with our main character Yuusuke voiced by Yūto Uemura (Hiro from Darling in the FRANXX) beating up some monsters with a wooden stick (I like him already). We turn back the clock to where Yuusuke was still in our world and see what his life was like. He was a loner and antisocial. He didn’t interact with anyone or anything and doesn’t seem to have any goals. The only joy he seems to get out of life is playing videogames. One day while he was on clean-up duty he gets whisked away to another world (still better than getting hit by truck-kun). He meets up with two of his female classmates Iu voiced by Risa Kubota and Kusue voiced by Azumi Waki (Rem from How Not to Summon a Demon Lord) before a naked blue man with half his head missing appears (scene here: https://youtu.be/_QdraasctZM, well that’s going to haunt my nightmares). The blue man reveals himself to be the Game Master (and here I thought you were the missing member of the Blue Men) and tells Yuusuke that he must fulfill the quest of a village chief along with the others. Once that quest is fulfilled that’ll get a new party member who will help them on the next quest and they’ll keep going until they have 10 party members to complete the last quest. The reason why Yuusuke and the others were chosen for this is because someone they know from the future chose them. Yuusuke gets his class which is a farmer (HA!) and the Game Master takes his leave. Iu and Kusue bring him up to speed on just what the heck is going on. At the beginning Iu was brought to this world where she became a wizard (you’re a wizard Iu) and completed the first quest. Once the quest was completed, she was returned to our world where she was told to become friends with Kusue. When Iu went back to the other world, Kusue was there as well and became a swordswoman (wow, these guys got the best classes). The two would complete the second quest, return to our world and were told to be alone with Yuusuke as he would be their next party member. As they travel to the village they come across some goblins where Yuusuke discovers that he and the rest of his party are weak (the characters of Hai no Grimgar are laughing at you). We see that they can die in the game but can respawn after 30 seconds as long as one of them is alive (if they all die, they die in real life. Scene here: https://youtu.be/7YLPU8dZS0k). When they rest for the night they get attacked by a troll (and I’m talking Lord of Rings troll size not Harry Potter troll size) where Iu gets eaten and Kusue lost a hand. Because Iu got eaten she can’t respawn until the troll is defeated (then she’s going to be out of action for a while). Yuusuke and Kusue arrive at the village where they find out the village elder wants them to defeat the troll, which will be impossible for them (they’re under-leveled, their weapons suck, their wizard is gone, and their warrior doesn’t know how to properly use a sword and is missing a hand). Yuusuke decides to go out alone and level grind leaving Kusue in the village where we see that even despite all the danger he’s in, he still likes this world more than Tokyo.
Episode 2 starts off with Yuusuke leveling up. He reaches level 9 (he’s leveling up fast. I like that) and we learn that before moving to Tokyo he lived out in the country with his friends (man, I bet that was a culture shock). He did make a vow with his friends that once they graduated high school they’ll meet back up and dig up a time capsule they left behind when they were kids. As Yuusuke was leveling up, the village got attacked by the troll and Kusue got eaten (they’re screwed) meaning it’s all on Yuusuke to win (and they’re screwed hard). Yuusuke arrives at the village and finds a log post where he learns that Kusue has a frail body making her feel like she’s a burden on everyone, so she’s hoping that by coming to this world she can become stronger. This makes Yuusuke realize how selfish he’s been for most of his life (I personally call it laziness and his fear of failure). Yuusuke soon comes face to face with the troll and runs away with the troll chasing after him (just thank God it’s not an internet troll). Just when the troll is about to pounce on him, he kills a nearby goblin to reach level 10. This causes all time to stop and Game Master reappears to congratulate Yuusuke for reaching level 10. As he reward, he gets a new class and this time it’s chef (you donkey). Now this class actually turns out to be more helpful than we expected. For starters, Yuusuke has knives now and being a chef gives him internal knowledge of all common beasts rank C or lower as well as methods for cooking them. Using this knowledge, he aims for the stomach of the troll and slices through it with his knife allowing Iu and Kusue to revive (scene here: https://youtu.be/jpiiL4Eg4gw). Despite the three of them being back and knowing the troll’s attack pattern they still don’t have a surefire way to beat it. They finally manage to beat it with Yuusuke distracting the troll which allows Iu to come from behind and kill it with a wind spell directly into its head (scene here: https://youtu.be/8hOS7lSbE-0. Oh, damn). With this the quest is completed and Yuusuke gets allowed to ask one question. He asks what they’ll do after the tenth quest is completed. He along with the others get shown a powerful dragon that will appear in their world that they must fight. They return to their world where no time has passed, and they go about their own business with Yuusuke walking Kusue home (did I mention she doesn’t like boys?).
In episode 3 after Yuusuke parts ways with Kusue, he receives a call from the Game Master (who may or many not be drunk. I’m convinced the VA was trolling everyone on set with this performance). He gives Yuusuke his next mission which is to rescue a girl named Yuka voiced by Makoto Koichi a game otaku who is at school getting bullied by other girls. Yuusuke saves her in a rather strange and funny series of events that involves sneaking into the school at night, going into the girl’s bathroom and breaking phones (it works in context, I swear. Scene here: https://youtu.be/rLm0LfTwGPM). Yuusuke walks her home where she’s more creeped out by him than infatuated with him (he has that effect on people). 2 weeks soon passed and Yuusuke and the others get isekai’d to the other world where Yuka joins them as a fire wizard and their revival period has increased from 30 seconds to 40 seconds (um, usually when you get more party members the revival period decreases instead of increasing). Their mission this time is to traverse 5% of the map and deliver some goods to Radodorbo within 40 days. They get attacked by giant bugs (kill them with fire) where Yuusuke manages to beat it and finds a loophole into using the weapons of others (scene here: https://youtu.be/RliK6iXFF9A). After that, we focus on Iu who didn’t have the best childhood. The town would talk bad about her family (well to be fair, her dad was an asshole) and this caused her to get into fights with other kids. Her only friend was an older girl named Sayuri who tragically died and everyone said it was because she had an ugly face (wow, that’s got to be one of the worst reasons for dying I’ve ever heard). She wakes up with a cold sweat and hugs Yuusuke asking him for help.
Episode 4 starts with Iu’s backstory. It starts with her talking about her friend Sayuri who committed suicide because people were bullying her (why? She looks alright to me). When Iu entered elementary it was her turn to get bullied. Not by the students, but by the teachers. It turns out Iu’s dad and uncle were part of a biker gang back in the day and caused all kinds of trouble (and apparently they never grew out of it). The teachers (who were students bullied by Iu’s dad and uncle) held a grudge and decided to take it out on Iu (proving that they have no life if they’re bullying a little girl who can’t defend herself). Luckily, her classmates defended her, speaking out against the unfair treatment she was receiving. Iu soon came to see her friends as her one and only strength (without them, she would just collapse). Iu confesses that she hates coming to this different world because it takes away her strength and leaves her with nothing. After that, the anime refocuses back on the mission where the group finds out it’ll take them 30 days to reach Radodorbo because it’s on the western edge of the continent. In order to get there in time they’ll need horses and they find out they can win some in a martial arts tournament (you know, people normally expect money in these kinds of tournaments). While in the forest leveling up, Iu gets captured by some bandits. Yuusuke decides to focus on the mission while the girls go to save Iu (a douchebag move on Yuusuke’s part but he’s thinking logically here. He knows he can’t defeat the bandits and even if he did he would be penalized for attacking humans. That means, the most logical choice is for Yuusuke or one of them to finish the mission as soon as possible and save her). Kusue and Yuka get captured (scene here: https://youtu.be/Evsak7nGonA, no surprise there), so it all comes down to Yuusuke winning the martial arts tournament ($10 says he loses). Yuusuke manages to level up and unlocks a new class which is wizard creature a class he really doesn’t get (then you best start learning Mr. Unpopular), but it causes monsters to be more persuaded by his words (for example, if he says someone is behind the monster, that monster will believe him). Yuusuke enters the tournament and loses within 5 seconds to a female knight named Kahvel (scene here: https://youtu.be/rjYou-4N5Us). Yuusuke tells her about the bandits where she and the knights raid their hide out and rescue the girls. Yuusuke gets one horse as his reward for helping capture the bandits. Kahvel offers to travel with the group and train them in the ways of the sword (thank you, Kusue needs the training). Also, it gives her an excuse to slice people up as she enjoys slicing through people (okay, she’s crazy. What else is new?). They accept and are given a carriage for their travel.
Episodes 5-8
A good chunk of episode 5 focuses on Kusue and her desire to get stronger and stop being dead weight (yeah you should stop being dead weight damn it! You’re our main fighter and you’re the weakest person on the team. What sense does that make?). Just like Iu this world takes everything away from her. Due to an illness Kusue is physically weak, so she decided to focus all of her attention on studying to better herself and give herself some value. This other world unfortunately forces her to be a physical fighter (and in a world where stats are everything, this has got to be her worst nightmare). As if that wasn’t bad, she has to get over her fear of killing other living beings. As the group continues to travel, they come across a caravan being attacked by werewolves where Kusue steps out to help them and Yuusuke believing that this might be part of their mission. They defeat the werewolves with Kusue getting a kill single handedly using a very clever trick (scene here: https://youtu.be/HucOPE3MmdA, good job). We see that the caravan was carrying prisoners who are heretics that worship this god called Arteros. His religion is outlawed in the nation and the heretics are to be executed for their actions. This puts the group in a tough spot as they’re not sure if rescuing these heretics is part of the mission and the goods they were asked to transfer or if this was all just one big fluke and they’ve wasted their time.
The group decides to travel with the other caravan and deliver the prisoners to Radodorbo where they’ll save them at the last minute from execution (good plan). During their travel with the other caravan we find out that the reason the religion of Arteros is outlawed is because some radicals are preaching against the king (sort of) who the people love undyingly despite his somewhat messed up dictatorship that benefitted his country and people and destroyed other countries. Yuka speaks out against this dictatorship angry at the knight of the caravan (Yuka, are you trying to be the most hated character in this anime because that’s what you’re doing). The next day the group continues to travel where they’ll be cutting it close to reach Radodorbo. Luckily, the knight shows them a short cut through a mountain where he set them up and leaves them behind in the cave of the mountain which is filled with traps and puzzles (we’re getting Legend of Zelda up in this mountain). Having no option, the group continues through the cave trying to solve the puzzles and traps. Along the way, Yuusuke falls down a trap (scene here: https://youtu.be/LmrHOD8BIVQ. The old wall push. Classic and effective) and gets separated from the group where they continue without him (it’s time they start doing things on their own). They manage to reach what appears to be the final trap which is a door guarded by gargoyles (not to be related to the ones from Gargoyles).
Not much really happens in episode 7. Yuusuke manages to climb his way out of the pit he got pushed in (although he did fall a number of times. Scene here: https://youtu.be/OFMfI6gDPKI). Back with the others, Kahvel and Iu take on the gargoyle where Kahvel gets fatally stabbed, so now it’s up to Iu to defeat the gargoyle (because let’s be honest, Kusue and Yuka ain’t gonna do shit). By a stroke of luck, Iu steps on a bat which causes her rank to go up and she becomes a warrior (warrior mage. Not one of my favorite combinations). Iu fights hard where she loses an arm, but still manages to defeat the gargoyle just as Yuusuke caught up to them (scene here: https://youtu.be/cpoHhArdZYY). While Iu may have gotten the victory, it’s Yuusuke who gets the glory as he saves Kahvel’s life. He falls into a deep sleep from overusing MP but wakes back up where he believes that the group might have been wrong about the prisoners being “the goods”. In the past quests everything was vague, so who’s to say that the prisoners are “the goods” when it could be anything that’s considered a good. Despite this new revelation, Kusue doesn’t want to leave the prisoners to die and Yuusuke still believes that there is a possibility that it could be the prisoners who are “the goods”. After thinking it over he says the group should split up.
So in episode 8 they split into two teams. Yuusuke, Kahvel and Yuka go after the prisoners while Iu and Kusue continue on the main road and hope they come across someone who needs help delivering some goods (I expect nothing from this). The rest of the episode focuses on Yuusuke’s group where they find the caravan of the prisoners and save them all while getting revenge on the knights who crossed them and preventing a war between nations (scene here: https://youtu.be/pMp0bNENmhQ, the lesson here is don’t fuck with adventurers).
Episodes 9-12
At the start of episode 9, Kahvel gets her revenge on the knights by killing them (scene here: https://youtu.be/EnPPrqxSCoI, with extreme prejudice. Again, I refer you to my previous lesson from last episode). Yuusuke’s group continues to Radodorbo where along the way Yuka believes Kahvel has developed feelings for Yuusuke (scene here: https://youtu.be/QVy3xrXWnHQ. https://youtu.be/s-aInKCWnnc) so she tries to set them up and keeps failing (your dating SIM logic has no powers here you passive aggressive otaku). Yuusuke’s group eventually reaches Radodorbo with a day in a half left where they give the prisoners sanctuary at the church, sell the weapons of the knights they killed, and present the served heads of the knights they killed to the kingdom representatives which turned out to be “the goods” all along (wow, Game Master is sick). Iu and Kusue arrive just in time to see the first half of the mission is cleared and they still have enough time to do the second half.
Not much happens in episode 10. The group splits up from each other to cover the remaining 5% of the map they need to complete the second part of their quest. However, a snowstorm hits and everyone gets caught in the middle of it. With the group separated and not wearing clothes fit for this kind of weather the question is will one of them be able to stay alive long enough to complete the quest and survive the cold. As the episode goes on we see how each member slowly succumbs to the cold until it comes to Yuusuke (obviously) and he falls down into a ravine where he dies. Now the question, is anybody else still alive or is this the end?
In episode 11 not much really happens. We see Yuusuke regain consciousness thanks to Yuka who’s still alive after finding her determination and will to keep going (scene here: https://youtu.be/qTcbDZw_WG0). Yuusuke explores the place only to keep coming to a dead end each time until he comes across a giant earthworm (who poops out radioactive turds. Its poop is glowing green, that’s not normal). Thankfully, the worm doesn’t attack and instead just dugs up tunnels by eating dirt. Yuusuke follows the worm hoping for a way out but another worm closes in behind him ready to eat. Things don’t go well for the others. Kusue finally succumbs to the cold and passes out unable to revive and Iu accidently walks on a lake and falls into the water. This just leaves Yuka who comes across a magic user riding a giant striped cat (no, she is not delusional, this is all real unfortunately) who gives her a ride and helps her get the 5% of the map they need to complete the quest. With the quest completed everyone is revived and get to ask the Game Master one question. Yuka asks him what is this other world and he says it’s a parallel world, similar to our world but different in many ways (well I can clearly see that). Game Master explains that in the future they found a way to monitor parallel worlds as long as that world holds some similarity to our world. This explanation causes Yuusuke to freak out because he just realized he actually killed real people (who were trying to kill you as well so I say fair game).
So in the final episode everyone returns to their world where Yuusuke is still in shock over the fact that he killed an actual person (get over it. You’re always going on and on about how you wished everyone in the city would disappear. You can put pin to paper but can’t do it. Weakling). He receives a text from the Game Master asking how it felt to kill someone. Yuusuke deletes the message, so the Game Master visits him where we see the Game Master is just a small girl wearing a sundress and a strawhat (similar to that of Luffy’s hat from One Piece). Yuusuke says he didn’t like it and if he had known that the world they were in wasn’t virtual, he wouldn’t have done it (yeah, because killing someone virtually makes it okay). The Game Master then takes Yuusuke out to a restaurant where they’ll meet the next player, Keita. Keita along with his younger brother are about to burst in and kill an ex-drug dealer by order of a yakuza. Yuusuke manages to stop them and even takes out the yakuza with the help of the Game Master. Keita and his brother escape and the yakuza gets arrested. After this, Yuusuke and the Game Master chat for a little bit on the roof about life and who’s life is more valuable than others (honestly, I really don’t care what they’re talking about. It’s just the main character trying to sound philosophical and it’s nothing I haven’t heard before). This wraps up the season with the promise of a second season coming in July 2021.
Final Thoughts
I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives is a unique series. It’s a lot different from the other isekai animes I’ve watched and I applaud it for adding something new to the genre. The main character Yuusuke isn’t your squeaky-clean hero character. While he’s not a bad person he’s not afraid to do bad things to achieve his goal. He has a realistic personality that makes him relatable and makes him come across as a real person. We may not agree with everything he does or his line of thinking sometimes, but that’s what makes him such a good character. He’s flawed, he doesn’t always have the right answer and sometimes his actions and way of thinking are cruel and wrong, just like a regular person. The other characters really don’t give us much to work with. They’re okay, but when compared to Yuusuke they fall behind badly. Iu has her own little tragic past she’s working through, Kusue is fighting to overcome her limitations and become a strong person, and Yuka just seems to be there (yeah, I didn’t care for her all that much).
The anime starts off well but starts to get pretty boring near the middle and end. This is largely due to the fact that the anime added in a lot of filler to stretch out the last arc. Seriously, this anime only covered 12 chapters from the manga and I have no idea why they added in so much filler. The animation is alright, nothing special there. The music is decent, the fight scenes aren’t really that great, and there’s a good laugh here and there throughout the anime that I enjoyed.
Final Score
My final score for I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives is a 6/10. I liked the anime and thought it was okay. It’s a unique isekai series that I recommend to anyone who enjoys a good isekai anime and is looking for something new to the formula. What challenges will Yuusuke and the others face in the next season, I can’t say, but it should be interesting. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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