English Dub Season Review: In the Land of Leadale Season One

Based on the Japanese light novel series written by Ceez and illustrated by Tenmaso. The story follows the previously bedridden Keina Kagami finds herself in the world of her favorite VRMMORPG—titled Leadale. After the life support keeping her alive fails, her soul ends up reincarnated in the body of her high-level character, “Cayna,” she proceeds to notice that the world of Leadale is different from what she remembers playing.

As she comes to learn, two hundred years have passed since she last interacted with the world. However, this does not sadden Cayna—as it means that a new journey awaits her, filled with exciting prospects and unfamiliar faces all waiting to be discovered.

On the technical side, Maho Film was involved with the animation while the series was directed by Takeyuki Yanase, with scripts overseen by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, character designs handled by Toshihide Matsudate, Eri Kojima, and Kaho Deguchi, and music composed by Kujira Yumemi. The opening theme song is “Happy Encounter” by TRUE, while the ending theme song is “Happiness in a Miniature Garden” by Azusa Tadokoro.

Isekai, whether you love or hate it as a sub-genre has limitless potential. The ability to have wish fulfillment and escapism to the level that it provides is simply impossible to achieve in any other genre, this success allows imitators to be spawned and ways to be a bit more wild and inventive while attempting to set itself apart and has led to various sub-genres to pop up within isekai. And in this case, Land of Leadale is an isekai anime focused on power fantasy and comedy. While the humor itself is lighthearted, the story is basic and inoffensive, yet rather uninteresting…

The real meat of this story is essentially about the female protagonist Cayna who ends up reincarnated in another world and goes on adventures, helping people and having fun times with her quirky family set in the titular world she’s stuck in. The plot is similar to Overlord only nowhere as dark or sexual as Overlord can be at times. Leadale attempts to further differentiate itself by having Cayna become a magical hyper-capable entity who can summon weapons, objects, creatures and servants on the fly. She goes around the world taking quests, killing bandits, meeting NPCs created by former comrades, etc. There’s almost no investment or challenge for her to make us give a shit when she encounters an obstacle. The only two interesting things it has going for it has to be the world-building and small hints of Cayna comprehending her newfound existentialism.

Because Cayna is the main protagonist, she essentially carries this anime on her shoulders. She gets the most screen time and the majority of the supporting cast is overshadowed by her presence. Cayna at her core isn’t motivated to level up her character or beat a game. But mostly wants to be there to learn about the world she’s now stuck in. Consequently, Cayna’s adventures often take her to meet people and taking on quests that require her to use her in-game skills, knowledge, and the ability to access items, spells, and creatures she’s tamed and it’s structured with video-game-like mechanics as if you’re on the journey with her in the game which could make or break it’s an appeal.

The artstyle and character designs are passable, and the titular Land of Leadale contains lush lands with old-style architecture and towns crafted from RPG aesthetics. And given that there’s been past Isekai of this genre with sometimes similar backgrounds & scenery that keeps inventing new shades of green in its forest settings, there’s nothing strikingly unique about the art style at all. Supporting characters such as her kids within the game’s universe “Key, Mai-Mai, Skargo,” among others only have minor roles throughout the show, and their character development is very limited if any. This anime treats them like side quest NPCs than party members or companions.

This isn’t by any means the worst anime isekai of the season. There isn’t anything fundamentally bad with this show, but there isn’t anything good about it either. If season 2 becomes a reality, my hope is that this show will learn from these particular mistakes and do something narratively and dramatically interesting. Season One suffers from almost the same problems as Pupil of the Wiseman because there’s no major villain (despite being hinted at in the Intro), no agency, no risk, no stakes, no motivation, and almost no plot other than trekking the world just for the heck of it. And sometimes, the comedic aspects were enjoyable at times but forgettable at most…