It’s that time of the season again. We’ve just finished up the summer season anime, and it’s time to take a look back at what we watched and if we would recommend it to other people. I didn’t watch a great amount of new shows this season. At least not new ones that ended. But I have watched a couple, and I would like to talk about some of  them for a bit. So without further ado, here’s what I thought of the Isekai shows that aired this past season.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

Souma has been summoned from modern day Japan to help a Kingdom that’s on the verge of collapse. Upon appearing he is crowned king and the previous ruler retires. Souma however, being from modern day Japan, isn’t exactly the kind of hero they expected to summon. He’s not a warrior, or a powerful mage or some great hero. He’s just a bloke that’s pretty clever, to put it bluntly. He uses his wit and social skills to convince the people around him, and recruit the right people for the right job. So far it seems to be a success. He has been able to gather allies, team up with multiple parties that were slightly adverse to a new king, and stave off the danger. A lot of my issues with this show retain more to my personal stance on politics. Souma feels very manipulative in the way he deals with people. A lot of his victories feel kind of cheap, almost as if all he does is manipulate the people around him into wanting to work for him. Maybe I’m too harsh on this show, but I struggled enjoying several of the episodes. I’d write this one off as a generic Isekai show with potential in the long run.

Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles

Seirei Gensouki follows orphan Rio, who gains memories from his life on earth where he, as Haruto, died in a freak accident. He was on a bus that got hit by a train. It’s borderline comical in how over the top it is. Either way, his memories slowly fuse into one person. After accidentally saving the princess he is allowed into the local magic school where he is mostly looked down upon. After getting into trouble he flees town and goes to visit the elves and spirits in the forest. He then moves to Yagumo, which seems to be more Japan-inspired.
I mentioned this in the image caption, but Seirei Gensouki feels like it has a fun story to tell, but just doesn’t get it out quite right. It also suffers from Kirito-syndrome, where the main character is somehow the coolest, most powerful person in the room. I’m a big fan of overpowered characters, but they need to have a good flaw. I found Kirito in the later seasons of SAO quite fun. He had to go through trauma to become more of a believable character. Rio/Haruto seems to breeze through life, collecting waifus wherever he sees the opportunity. I might buy the novels at some point to see if my suspicions that they have better pacing are true, but there’s several other novels higher on my wishlist, so it’ll probably take a while. For now, I would recommend this show, but set expectations accordingly.

Putting all jokes aside, when I started watching this season’s batch of anime I did not expect Tsukimichi to be along some of the more enjoyable shows. Just like Seirei Gensouki and Realist Hero it runs into some issues with its pacing. At this point in the reviews you might have realized that I am an absolute sucker for good world building and would not mind spending several episodes on one discussion about an upcoming fight (Looking at you, Tensura). Regardless, I’m not one to shy away from good action and some solid banter either, and Tsukimichi delivers on both. Makoto is sent to a new world, but the goddess in charge thinks he’s too ugly and banishes him to live with the demi-humans. It’s a bit harsh, but he does end up with some great companions because of it. He quickly makes servants out of two of the greatest creatures in the area and they start building up an empire in a pocket realm. Unfortunately for Makoto, things don’t go well since although he’s still very much connected to the goddess, she doesn’t like him.
Tsukimichi suffers from some of the same issues as the other two shows, as I mentioned, but I feel like it flows a bit better overall. Not to mention, the story hooks seem more interesting than in Realist Hero, and I love both Tomoe and Mio’s designs. All three of these anime show potential, but none quite seem to hit the mark. Regardless, I’d still recommend Tsukimichi, if only for the absolute banger of an opening theme. I can listen to that song all day!

But how did you enjoy these shows? Or are you not a fan of Isekai shows in general? I think the genre is coming into its own overtime, and we’ve left some of the bad ones behind us now. (that or I’m just not watching the bad ones). Either way, leave a comment on what you think down below and as always; thanks for reading!