English Dub Season Review: Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Childhood friends Tachibana Hinata and Jinguji Tsukasa were living the everyday life of office workers. Then, on the way home from a mixer, they were sent flying into another world by a mysterious being. Once there, Jinguji sees his best friend has been turned into a beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl…?!

The adorableness of Tachibana’s female form completely flummoxes Tachibana. But these two are each others’ best friends. To keep their relationship from being destroyed, they must defeat the Demon Lord as quickly as possible and return to their original forms. 

Our Take:

Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout is an anime adaptation of a manga series written by Yū Tsurusaki and illustrated by Shin Ikezawa. It is directed by Sayaka Yamai, with Toshimitsu Takeuchi and Masanao Akahoshi handling the scripts. The show is produced by OLM Team Yoshioka, the same studio behind other series like Pokemon, Yo-Kai Watch, and Summer Time Rendering. The musical score is composed by Takeshi Watanabe, and Aoi Yamato is responsible for the character designs. The opening theme is “Akatsuki no Salaryman” (Salaryman at Dawn) by Yoshiki Fukuyama, while Luce Twinkle Wink performs the ending theme song, “FA’NTASY to!”.

Following my experience with The Executioner and Her Way of Life and Overlord, I was ready to take on the world of isekai anime. I was prepared to experience ordinary people exploring fantasy worlds and using their newfound powers to protect them. However, I didn’t think I was prepared for something as bizarre as this series.

The show’s title alone speaks for itself. You got an ordinary guy who’s transformed into a blonde-haired girl by the Goddess of Love and Beauty (Jamie Marchi) in an isekai setting. If that isn’t enough, his best friend has to help him defeat the Demon Lord before they fall in love with each other. In other words, what you see is what you get, even if it is undoubtedly bizarre.

This concept is one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard, and I’ve seen plenty of absurd things in other movies and television shows. But, of course, it comes down to the show’s execution to see if its sense of enjoyment could correspond to its odd plot. Its first episode introduced the viewers to its usual isekai formula with RPG elements and fantasy scenarios but with a meta and romantic spin. The result is a fun and comical twist on the RPG/romance format that popularized the isekai genre in anime. Afterwards, the show maintains the consistency of its enjoyability and comedy to deliver a joyful surprise from start to finish.

The first season’s plot primarily consists of Tachibana (Khoi Dao/Laura Stahl) and Jinguji (J. Michael Tatum) encountering many strange predicaments in the isekai world while avoiding having romantic feelings for each other. Those include a jealous elf chief named Telolilo Lilili Lu, who’s hellbent on being more beautiful than Tachibana, a living suit of armor that strips people naked, and the princess of Ishruna, Ugraine, who forms a rebellion against her father, the king. This is all while attempting to find and defeat the vicious Demon Lord. It seems repetitive at first, considering how often the characters bicker or embarrass each other during their quest. However, the show found several ways to make the formula more entertaining than I thought.

One of them is the chemistry between the main characters. Hinata Tachibana is spoiled and careless but also empathetic and loyal, while Tsukasa Jinguji is a gentlemanly-like person whose tolerance is sometimes overshadowed by people’s actions, mainly Tachibana’s. The chemistry is far from original, but with the proper execution, it can provide some genuinely hysterical moments between the two distinct characters. Fortunately, that’s what Life with an Ordinary Guy has. The humor involving Jinguji’s freak-outs and Tachibana’s embarrassing circumstances are the key elements of the chemistry’s success, along with their character developments near the end of season one.  

The side characters were decent in providing comic relief, including Telolilo, whose personality reflects her sheer determination to outshine Tachibana’s irresistible beauty. Another character I enjoyed was Schwartz von Liechtenstein Lohengramm, another person who’s summoned by a Goddess to protect the realm. He’s humorously portrayed as a swordsman who hides his nervousness with his false sense of confidence. These characters helped deliver some levity in the narrative and comedy whenever Tachibana and Jinguji are in the background.

The chemistry shown is due to its energetic cast for the English dub. The actors involved did a solid job expressing specific emotions comically without straying far into annoyance. Admittedly, my biggest highlights were Laura Stahl and J. Michael Tatum as Tachibana and Jinguji, respectively. Stahl, known for her roles in shows like Rent-A-Girlfriend, had done wonders in matching the mannerisms of Khoi Dao, who voiced the male version of Tachibana. His stubbornness and whiny attitude would’ve been a pain to listen to, whether he was in his female form or not. However, hearing them come out of Stahl’s voice was surprisingly more hilarious than I realized. I also enjoyed J. Michael Tatum’s vocal performance as Jinguji, mainly for his hysterical freak-outs whenever he sees Tachibana doing something explicit, intentionally or not.

On the technical side, the animation done by OLM Team Yoshioka offers a solid sense of vibrancy in the visuals and action scenes. While there’s nothing unique about its isekai settings, the show easily compensates with its cartoonish slapstick and the characters’ hilarious expressions thanks to its style. The most notable ones regarding the latter are when the main characters transform into silhouette-like blobs whenever they’re in disbelief. The one that got my attention was Tachibana, who looks like Batman due to the magical tiara on his head.  

Overall, Life with an Ordinary Guy is far from ordinary, which adds to the surprising amount of fun the isekai romance action comedy delivers. Like many other isekai shows, its concept may be too bizarre for any casual viewer. But underneath the surface lies an entertaining and satirized take on the genre’s elements, including RPG and romance. From its humorous characters to the animation, the show is a fantasy knockout fit for an isekai fan. Unless a second season is unlikely, this is a solid start to the latest addition to the genre’s ever-growing collection.