English Dub Season Review: My Instant Death Ability is Overpowered Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

While heading to a school field trip, Yogiri Takatou’s (David Matranga) school bus is summoned to another world by a Sage who shows just how horrible she and this world are by killing the adults for petty reasons and telling the students they are to be trained as sages to fight demons and complete missions.  She only takes the gifted ones, leaving the rest, including Yogiri and his classmate Tomochika Dannora (Monica Rial), to die.  With no choice but to continue, Yogiri and Tomochika search for a way back to their own world, but Yogiri’s unnatural calm apathy towards the oddity unnerves Tomochika.  In truth, Yogiri is not an ordinary kid…he can kill anything or anyone he wishes just by willing it.

Our Take:

My Instant Death Ability is Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! is an anime adaptation of a Japanese light novel series written by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka.  It is written and directed by Masakazu Hishida.  It is produced by Okuruto Noboru, known for producing other shows like The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, Tomodachi Game, and Viral Hit.  Sayuri Sakimoto handled the character designs, and Hanae Nakamura composed the music.  The opening theme song is “Killer Bars,” performed by Hilcrhyme, and the ending theme song is “Haze,” performed by Anna Suzuki.  

In times like these, you really want to see the person you loathe the most bite the dust.  However, you can’t just simply walk up to them and murder them without getting yourself into trouble.  But what if there’s a way to kill them without actually touching them?  This one particular high school student has the answer, and it’s to die for.  This sums up the concept of My Instant Death Ability is Overpowered, the latest addition to the isekai collection that happens to have another OP protagonist shaking up the fantasy world with their unstoppable power.  That ability, in question, is the power to immediately kill someone with their thoughts, no matter how far away they are from that person.  On paper, this seems like it could be another fun and refreshing take on the popular genre.  However, regarding its execution, it’s another isekai adventure we’ve seen a dozen times before.

One thing I credit this series for is its approach to the isekai formula.  Instead of having a protagonist reincarnate into another world, My Instant Death Ability has the high school students transported into the fantasy realm.  I wouldn’t say this element is entirely new, as it has been done numerous times in other isekai shows, including Failure Frame and the recently released Suicide Squad Isekai.  However, it did offer a suitable change of pace for me after watching plenty of reincarnation isekai shows.  But that doesn’t make the show any more interesting or fun.  Despite some decent visuals, My Instant Death Ability was a lackluster experience that focused more on providing familiar beats than delivering enjoyment from those ideas.

One of its protagonists, Yogiri Takatou, is an overpowered character whose ability to kill people instantly with his thoughts, making him a force to be reckoned with.  The thing with OP heroes is that there’s a balance between stakes, humor, and entertainment.  While it can be fun to watch a seemingly indestructible protagonist wipe out everyone in one swoop, it can also risk being repetitive and tedious in their development as a show progresses, especially with the limitations.  In this series, Yogiri can use his instant death ability anytime but decides to use it only in emergencies, mainly when his classmates pose a threat to him and his classmate, Tomochika.  While considerate of the character, it’s not enough to overshadow Yogiri’s deadpan and empty personality.  As the show progressed, I started to become more and more bored of Yogiri using his ability.  Whenever it introduces a character who seems to be a threat to Yogiri, he can just murder them with his will without worry.  It’s not even in a humorous and creative way, either.  It was just,” Whatever, let’s move on.”  While other OP-related anime like One Punch Man have some enjoyment and charm to reinvigorate their concepts, Yogiri in My Instant Death Ability is one you don’t want to invite to the winner-take-all tournament due to his bland personality and the show’s low stakes. 

The only merit that helped maintain my attention regarding Yogiri is his origin story.  Before the events of the series, Yogiri was raised in a facility in the real world where he was raised by one of its workers, Asaka Takatou (Shelley Calene-Black), to study his mysterious power.  It’s an interesting approach to the element’s representation instead of having a character gain powers in an isekai world, along with David Matranga’s vocal performance as Yogiri.  By the way, while writing this review, I recently discovered that Matranga was also the voice of Shoto Todoroki from My Hero Academia and Casserole from Sweet Reincarnation.  It’s neat that Matranga has a solid track record in his dubbing roles, but it’s also a tad disappointing that his streak was halted by My Instant Death Ability regarding the character he’s voicing.

But what about Tomochika, you ask?  How is she compared to our less-than-stellar hero of the isekai realm?  Obviously, she’s the only character with enough common sense to guide Yogiri and survive the new world, especially with the assistance of her family’s guardian spirit, Mokomoko Dannoura (Joanne Bonasso).  However, that doesn’t make her more tolerable than the protagonist.  Regarding the humor and over-the-top reactions, Tomochika leaned toward the obnoxious side of her personality.  Despite Monica Rial’s promising performance as Yogiri’s closest ally, Tomochika is far from a terrible character, but her attempt at self-awareness came off more as groan-inducing than cleverly humorous.  The supporting characters didn’t fare any better either, including Daimon Hanakawa (Greg Cote), one of the classmates who joined forces with other sages throughout the season after confronting Yogiri the first time.

If there’s one thing that usually helps any isekai anime overcome most of its flaws, it would be the animation.  This is the second anime I watched that was produced by Okuruto Noboru, following the surprisingly good Viral Hit.  Obviously, I wasn’t expecting it to be as sophisticated and suitably detailed as Viral Hit since the style in My Instant Death Ability is more simplistic in design.  However, it’s not without its vibrancy that helped elevate its presentation and fantasy elements, even though it doesn’t raise the bar of its quality.  There’s nothing wrong with straightforward animation in anime as long as it has enough merits to make itself attractive, and My Instant Death Ability certainly has some amid its tiring isekai approach.

Overall, My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered is a by-the-numbers OP isekai anime that’s immediately killed off by its tedious approach to the formula.  As mentioned earlier, there’s nothing wrong with having an OP-related anime as long as it has something to keep the concept fresh and exciting, whether comedy or something else.  Unfortunately, this show didn’t provide any of that, resulting in a repetitively dull experience that made me wish I had watched something better.  Despite a fine voice cast and decent animation, the show’s lackluster plot, characters, and forgettable humor are enough to drop dead in its tracks and never recover, like the victims of Yogiri’s ability.  Fans of the source material will likely enjoy its anime adaptation for what it was.  Personally, it’s not my cup of tea.