ENGLISH DUB MID-SEASON REVIEW: I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too “Episodes 1-6”

Based on the Japanese light novel series, written by Miku and illustrated by Rein Kuwashima. The story follows the adventures of Yūya Tenjo. An overweight, short, and meek middle school kid who is bullied at school and tormented by his family, except for his grandfather who is the only person who cares for him. When his grandfather dies and leaves Yūya as the sole heir of his house. His parents expel him from home, forcing him to live alone. After discovering a hidden passage in his grandfather’s house, Yūya encounters a portal to a medieval fantasy world, where he obtains the power to change his life forever…

In a nutshell, the story is your by the numbers, Isekai wish-fulfillment male power fantasy in its purest form. It starts with an interesting premise of a protagonist who can freely move between two worlds, which is a rare sight in the Isekai genre, and the possibilities here would have been immense. But that’s where most of its originality ends. Parts of the show eerily gave off similar vibes to that Netflix Korean anime Lookism in terms of the early beginnings of the series. If you thought the ridiculous levels of abuse Harry Potter suffered at the hands of the Dursleys was beyond cartoonishly evil, wait till you see the abuse that Yuya receives in The Real World mostly by his family members and nearly everyone around him just for being fat and ugly. Upon research, this was written by the very same author who describes obese people as “subhuman” in previous works such as The Fruit of Evolution so I’m not surprised…

At the very least, by the end of the first episode, all of that quickly changes when the setup of the first episode pays off in the second. And feels like things were earned. A lot of episode 2 is devoted to Yuya understanding the mechanics of how to upgrade in that fantasy world which is similar to many other Isekai shows that use videogame/JRPG-like Mechanics akin to Rising of the Shield Hero. From there, only good things begin to happen to him with little to no limits/stipulations to his newfound powers and appearance change. He moves to a new elite school for special children where nothing bad happens and everyone is kind to him, women lose their shit over his newly changed appearance in both school and in public which can be potentially terrifying (If you’ve seen “Romantic Killer” than you can imagine the scenario of an unassuming teenager attracting the wrong sort of romantic individuals).

At one point Yuya becomes a model, while in the other world, a princess immediately asks him for his hand in marriage because he saved her, gets an adorably small black dog as a pet, and by the end of episode four nearly every conflict regarding his school life has concluded which probably would’ve worked better for a season finale, but after the other two episodes, some of the twists and turns within his world are about as shocking as finding out that the sky is blue while the fantasy world has potential plotlines that have decent setups for the upcoming conflict.

The second problem is the fact that there’s there’s so many damn supporting characters, it’s hard to remember all of them. Characters are more or less there to just react to Yuya doing things, and come across as a bit bland with one too many potential romantic interests because every single girl in this show (including background characters) only talks about Yuya’s newly changed appearance like giddy fangirls towards a boy-band. Or effeminate dudes with personalities that make cardboard cutouts look lively. It’s like watching a soap opera with almost zero drama/conflict unless there’s some big disaster where Yuya puts his newly acquired skills into action to save people followed by a dramatic “superhero landing” down a 4-story building.

In addition, some people might get frustrated by how Yuya thinks very lowly of himself, which can arguably be perceived as a humble/boy scout attitude. Also, the isekai aspect is more or less just a side story at this point. The power system doesn’t have any structure and the scenes where actual reading is involved may require turning on subtitles for at least 70% of the show since casual audiences can’t read Japanese Text whenever Yuya is reading his stats. And everything starts to feel made up as we go along, to fit Yuya’s needs. The dub also threw me off a bit due to Yuya’s Dub voice being Lee George whose voice is eerily similar to his previous performance as Yuuhi from Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer.

Overall, If this isn’t the ultimate self insert wish fulfillment power fantasy drivel, I don’t know what is… I want to like this anime and I hope it improves in later episodes as I want to know more in terms of lore, worldbuilding, and how Yuya’s grandfather got his hands on such magic, weapons, etc. Which to me should be one of the bigger mysteries in this show that deserves unraveling. And much like the aforementioned Lookism, it suffers from the same problems of trying to have its cake and eat it too by satirizing the hypocrisy of superficial beauty standards, while flaunting that physical beauty and ideal appearances are the only things that matter in interpersonal relationships. Unless they make an effort to change this repetitive dynamic in the latter half of this season, a lot of people are going to hate this show. So I hope the plot picks up with an actual endgame…