English Dub Review: In the Land of Leadale “An Inn, a Tower, a Bear, and a Banquet”

Overview

Based on the Japanese light novel series written by Ceez and illustrated by Tenmaso. The story begins with an injured girl named Keina Kagami who was injured in an accident so badly that she could not survive without being hooked up to life-support machines. One day, those life-support machines stop functioning and she wakes up in the world of the VRMMORPG known as “Leadale,” and in the form of her 200-year-old Elf-girl avatar, Cayna. But something seemed a bit different than the game world she was used to…

Our Take

The plot itself sounds like a great setup for far for a first episode, but Canya’s (Pronounced “Keena”) situation pre-isekai doesn’t come across as fun though, as it seems that she was someone on life support Knocking on death’s door and was playing this particular VRMMO game as her form of escapism. She’s spent so much time in-game that she has quite a strong start with her extremely high skill level, and people have even heard about her old nickname which to her caused her some worrying.

Also, we’re left to assume that she doesn’t realize she’s actually being isekai’d (or even if that’s true). From her reaction, it’s easy to put the pieces together that her consciousness is trapped in the video game. I know this is a relatively new Isekai, but something about her situation feels eerily similar to Sword Art Online II’s video game-like mechanics & plot twist, only less tragic…

Overall, I’m rather interested to see if it’ll go any deeper into Cayna’s life and hopefully set itself apart from other Isekai stories. And given that this is from a relatively new animation studio called Maho Film who has a small yet decent track record in stuff like this. It could work as a slow-burn of a fantasy/adventure series with its relatively harmless nature, even if the opening left me with more questions than answers.