English Dub Review: Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement: “General Store Mitsuha”

Overview: Mitsuha (Trina Nishimura) devises plans to entice her customers with her products, not without running into a few hurdles along the way. 

Our Take: The preparations of Mitsuha’s general store get up and running with the utmost haste. There is a missed opportunity in not fully exploring the logic and challenges of stocking certain items for a store. While that is worrying in not properly tackling all legitimate hurdles of running a business, it benefits the pace. Also, thankfully the general thought process behind her inventory is touched upon, remedying that issue to an extent. There is no dilly-dallying as she traverses another critical aspect of salesmanship: merchandising. 

Getting the word out to potential customers is the struggle she faces in being a new business on the block. It is endearing to see her go through comic levels of desperation in figuring out how to market. The society she finds herself in is an archaic one, of course. So, highlighting advanced products, like shampoo and their cleaning use for ordinary citizen’s less-than-hygienic circumstances, is a straightforward and effective strategy. 

Mitsuha’s futuristic wares also further drive home the inconvenient transportation and outdated technologies the world has. It establishes the challenge in selling people on foreign and unfathomable items. It even touches on the people’s ignorance in a funny way through her customers misconceiving her to be a witch.

With any groundbreaking establishment, word will inevitably spread, which is her plan all along. In this case, it makes its way to Chef Marcel and the royal Reiner family. With Marcel intrigued, Mitsuha’s academy award winning acting is put on display and to amusing effect in selling him on her goods. It sets up her next challenge in catering for a royal bash that will define his daughter, Adelaide, and her future.