Fluffy Paradise ep1: A boring isekai show about a doormat office lady being reincarnated as a little girl who needs to snuggle every fluffy animal she sees with no consideration for her own safety or common sense. Her obsession with animals is relatable, at least, but the show itself is a sleep-inducing parade of wonky-looking animals with a subplot about the lead's secret god-given powers to befriend critters and judge humanity. It's so generic and inoffensive that it just makes me depressed - but to its credit I knew exactly what I was getting into from the title and artwork alone, so I'll take responsibility for my poor life choices here.
Gushing Over Magical Girls ep1: Magical girl antics with a pervy twist, as the heroine - a magical girl fanatic - ends up being recruited by the bad guys and realises that she actually enjoys slapping the heroes' bottoms and sadistically humiliating them more than she likes having opinions of her own and not being annoying. Unfortunately I didn't find the content sexy in the slightest; the girls are all school age and they're drawn to be extremely skinny with detailed lines for their bone structure under their skin, none of which is something I find appealing in a fan service show. Especially because the (largely stupid) teasing isn't at all consensual. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to latch onto once it was clear that the fan service at the core of this show had missed the mark, so I won't be coming back for episode two.
Chained Soldier ep1: A put-upon school boy with a weird hairstyle is dissatisfied by his life in a Japan where women are given superpowers and men are treated like second class citizens, until he falls into the parallel dimension where the super-ladies work to battle monsters. At that point the hotshot of the unit which rescues him needs to enslave him using her superpower in order to win a fight, which subsequently requires him to subject himself to an awkward non-consensual (on both sides!) raunchy kiss scene as 'payment' for his services. He ends up agreeing (again, kind of unfairly) to continue to help them and is made to be the group's caretaker, setting everything up for this slavery-themed Love Hina formula to wallow in misandrist oppression fetishism and feisty teens in military uniforms (which more resemble idol costumes). Erm. Well. It's someone's fantasy but it's not mine. No thank you. At least the animation was ok, unlike...
My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! ep1: This is nice, I'm getting all of the worst shows over with at the start so that everything I watch later seems much better! I wasn't expecting anything good from this one from the title and it managed to meet my expectations perfectly; it's cheaply animated with the characters frequently going noticeably off-model, and everything that happens is daft. Nobody in this show acts remotely like a real person and I wasn't entertained for even a single moment. What a waste of time.
Delicious In Dungeon ep1: A bunch of hapless adventurers attempt to 'live off the land' in a fantasy dungeon whilst hopefully (eventually) rescuing one of their friends from certain death. Not the most gripping formula, but one with which I was already familiar thanks to the enormously popular manga. I liked the rounded character designs and generally understated, mature tone of the comedy; it gave the show a strong identity even though at its core, it's extremely simple and relies on a few repeated gags interspersed with serious descriptions of made-up fantasy meals. One for the older audience, it's a decent show to relax with at the end of a busy workday.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic ep1: I didn't completely hate this generic isekai about a boring (yet handsome) guy who accidentally befriends two more successful kids at his school and ends up dragged into another world with them. The designs were good, the boring tropes were sped through quickly and overall, there wasn't any uncomfortable misogyny or slavery fetishism; overall it seemed like a reasonably capable entry in the oversaturated isekai genre. My main complaint is that the show kept building up drama about protecting the ultra-rare healers in the other world and acting as though the impending training regime was going to be awful - but never properly explained any of the details. A strategy to keep me watching, perhaps, but one that was doomed to fail when nothing else stood out enough to make me think that investing more time would be worthwhile.
The Demon Prince of Momochi House ep1: Speaking of oversaturated genres, it feels as though it's been a surprisingly long time since the last memorable 'normal girl has to live with a bunch of otherworldly creatures/guys' show. I generally like the formula enough to go easier on these titles, especially when the source material is shoujo manga, but honestly this isn't a revolutionary effort and I'll probably forget it ever existed in a season or two. It wasn't outright bad. My partner kept complaining that the guys weren't hot enough, though.
Sasaki and Peeps ep1: This first episode was extra long and at first I wondered why, as it seemed to be a feel-good 'older office worker finds a weird talking pet' show. It then genre-hopped and became one of the 'isekai investment simulation' shows which have been popular recently, then genre-hopped again and became a peculiar Men In Black-style setup about secret organisations for people with superpowers. It certainly wasn't dull. Sasaki himself was a bit too much of a pushover to be engaging as a lead but the series itself was ok. I'm glad I watched this episode so that the weird English title finally makes sense, at least (I can now stop waiting for Miyano to show up).
The Unwanted Undead Adventurer ep1: I have no idea why this exists. We've already had would-be adventurers being reborn as skeleton knights, zombies and lowly trash mobs. Delicious In Dungeon made somebody being eaten by a dragon much more compelling even as a throwaway backstory motivation. We've had hundreds of monologuing reincarnated losers too. And while the character art is fine for the 2D segments (if unambitious), most of this first episode involves a cheap-looking CG skeleton slowly wandering around bland CG backgrounds alongside cheap CG visual effects and CG monsters. In other words, the show is ugly and isn't doing anything unique enough to justify having been made in its story or characters either. I guess some people out there must enjoy these weird endless monologue shows, but surely they flow better (and look better) in their original format without all the cheap CG? I'd like to see more daring adaptations where the anime staff mix things up to work properly in a visual medium.
Ishura ep1: Disney+ didn't want me to find this but thankfully I knew to search; I imagine that almost nobody is watching it with the amount of promotion it hasn't had. Which is annoying because it makes Disney's simulcasts look less successful. And the show itself isn't bad! An overpowered swordsman from another world (presumably ours) ends up in a fantasy world and teams up with a recently traumatised spellcaster (who kind of resents him). It has violence, stakes, ridiculous swordplay and actual character motivations, so I can overlook the ugly CG robots this time. Definitely the best of the isekai selection so far.
