English Dub Review: In Another World With My Smartphone “Moving, and a Dragon”

Welcome back to the anime where even killing a dragon is dull as dirt.

Out of all the movies and shows, I have watched and review, I find reviewing In Another World With My Smartphone the most difficult at times. It is because it’s so good there’s too much to say and it isn’t because it is so blissfully awful I wouldn’t dignify the series with a response. It is just so milk-toast bland. It’s the typical sword and sorcery harem series with a capital T. The girls are your bargain bin archetypes, the main character is a Mary Sue and the world is so undescriptive that it fails to differentiate itself from any other fantasy world in fiction. How can one continuously talk in depth about what is quite literally the bare minimum a team can produce to make a story such as this?

OVERVIEW

Since last time where Touya solved the fatal poisoning of a king in less than 5 seconds, he and his girl gang have gotten a new mansion to call their own. But it’s not too long before they are asked by their king to travel to the kingdom of Mismede so that Touya can use his null magic “Gate” to let their king travel there safely and have a meeting with Mismede’s king. Side note, Gate’s parameters for working is that Touya needs to have been to the location he is traveling to so that a gate can open there. That sounds like it may be a hindrance but you see how insultingly powerful it is when during their mission towards Mismede, Touya uses Gate to let the girl’s shower in their mansion without the other members in their party knowing. That’s equal parts aggravatingly selfish of them and mind numbingly contrived. Other than that, and a few non-important romance beats with a character we don’t know and don’t care about that’s the adventure this week. Oh, and the team fights a dragon.

It really is astounding how this world can have animal hybrid people, gelatin monsters and fire breathing dragons but our hero faces everything with the same dull pleasant indifference. It sucks out any tension from the events in the story when the characters give off no interest in the events themselves. It doesn’t help when any conflict that may arise for Touya is so swiftly dealt with I almost question why Touya just didn’t run there on his own. With his overpowered null magic that should be more than possible. This indifference also extends to the harem aspect as Touya is written to be so thick and by contrast, all the girls clearly love him and are all intentionally fighting for his affection. It’s paper thin in terms of characterization and plotting and it makes you have to ask yourself. Why should I care if the anime itself doesn’t seem to?

OUR TAKE

This show has become an honestly decent sleep aid for me with how uninvolving and toothless it is. Touya’s overpowered and indifferent nature transforms a magical fantasy anime to the stalest anime on the scene this season. There are many other more interesting and more engaging anime this season to watch. Don’t waste your time watching this dull bit of nothing.