English Dub Review: ISEKAI QUARTET; “Join the Fight! Transfer Student”

Overview

A handful of new faces make their “dramatic” appearances, most of which are from a new franchise altogether

Our Take

Class starts up once again as Roswaal introduces the new transfer students teased at the end of the last season. The first one opens the door and just as quickly nopes the heck out of there. I don’t blame him. This young man is later revealed to be Naofumi Iwatani from last year’s isekai anime, The Rising of the Shield Hero. 

The other “student” is Chomusuke, a cat from KonoSuba. Everyone is immediately weirded out by the idea of having a class as a classmate, despite the fact they already have several demons and the literal Lord of the Undead as their classmate. They’re probably all upset because he’s cuter than they are and he can’t speak, and thus can’t retort to their jokes. 

With a new term comes a new seating arrangement. The cast will no longer be conveniently grouped by series anymore, so I hope you remembered who came from what by now. Ram remains seated behind Cocytus and, much to her chagrin, Albedo is seated as far away as possible from Ains. This is, as expected, immediately levied for comedic effect, and I have no doubt it may continue to be going forward. Additionally of note, the animal companions Puck and Chomusuke have adorably obtained their own seats in the classroom. 

Amidst all of these new elements to the show, one thing that you can still rely on is Aqua being obnoxiously haughty whenever the opportunity arises for her. You can also still rely on everybody else subsequently dunking on Aqua, along with her wailing. I can see how this sort of persistent whining behavior could be interpreted as kind of cute, but after one season of it, this act needs a bit of updating. 

Naofumi, who got himself lost in this new school world, ends up in a shed where Wilhelm and Sebas hang out and talk about girls. I hadn’t realized it until now, but I guess there are quite a few isekai stories out there with wizened, silver-haired butlers. This butler shed is an appropriately adorable reliquary where they may be safely stored, away from the antics of the “students.”

We also get introduced to Raphatalia and Filo, Naofumi’s beast-kin companions who have also gotten quite lost. They also happen upon some other characters, whereupon conflict ensues. These conflicts conveniently wind up on the baseball field, where a game is being played. You’d think this would be a high-scoring baseball game with all of these powerful beings playing, but almost everyone who steps up to the plate fails to hit the ball. I guess they can’t wrap their head around having to adhere to a set of rules for more than three minutes. A stray ball heads for Naofumi’s companions and we get to see why he is called the shield hero. Hooray for that. 

The animation style remains consistent with the simple but functional chibis. This style, along with the half-episode format, are both almost assuredly why the reason why they decided to crank out a second season before they could take the temperature generated by the first. It’s simple and effective nature makes it very easy to make. 

And that’s really what it is, and what it seems like it will continue to be in this second run. A quick watch for a quick laugh, even more so if you know all the source material. Let’s see what hijinks await us.