English Dub Review: Handyman Saitou in Another World “Handyman, Saitou”

Overview

Based on the Japanese isekai/fantasy manga series by Kazutomo Ichitomo. The show follows the titular Saitou, who somehow embraces his new life as an adventurer in another world.


Our Take

While the obligatory first episode/pilot is meant to set the tone for the rest of the series, we’re not given a clear coherent plot so far on how the titular “Handyman” got zapped into this fantasy world as he joins an adventuring party with armored warrior Raelza, the fairy Lafanpan, and the senile wizard Morlock. As he begins his adventures, he makes full use of the skills he cultivated in his last life as a handyman.

Much like “Way of the Househusband”, the first episode is structured in time-skipped short segments, pieced together to fill in a half-hour runtime. At the very least, the animation and sound are on-point. Much of the plot so far relies heavily on how flawed the characters are in different ways so Saitou’s skills can shine in helping them with his skills.

While I dislike the Dub’s inability to translate the screen scrolls (forcing me to turn on the subtitles), I’m left wondering how Saitou ended up in his new situation. Hopefully, we’ll get our answers later on, but so far it wasn’t boring. I hope they keep going with this so we can get some unraveling answers since there doesn’t seem like a clear goal culminating so far, but hopefully that’s subject to change.