Uncle from Another World

Oh man, this might be the anime that is noteworthy of the worst production values of all time. Not the way that the anime was presented, but of the behind-the-scenes horror that's just as, if not even worse than some of the AniManga industry's corporations (i.e. Aniplex) with the outsourcing production mayhem and the "We blame China for COVID" PR disaster that had the show delayed numerous times. Plus, the fact that this was ONLY released on Netflix, and you can already tell that Isekai Ojisan, while undoubtedly a great show, is the pinnacle of unprecedented levels of a disaster in the making. The term "Isekai"has been around for more than a decade since the days when SAO made huge waves to make it known as the pioneer batch to kickstart the trend of adaptations that we'll come to see in forthcoming years, with a slew of similar shows like it that more often than not, are copy-paste iterations of one another with no creativity to them whatsoever, creating a drought of subpar mediocrity. It's the rare few that are the exception of their own thing, utilizing the well-known tropes and executing in a way that feels fresh, and these shows are why Isekai still has a chance to be discovered of new gems to come, such as the case of this anime right here: mangaka Hotondoshindeiru's Isekai Ojisan. Truck-kun, death that transports you to the other world, fantasy tropes with magic, Isekai Ojisan embraces these tropes to a degree. But it's the execution itself that makes this show special, because this is the case for 34-year-old Yousuke Shibazaki, otherwise better known as just Uncle (Ojisan). The uncle of nephew Takafumi Takaoka, who went to visit him after he had woken up from a coma after 17 years, of which this time was spent delving to the fantasy world of Granbahamal. Having just woke up, all Uncle could mention was magic incantations to be used both during his time in the fantasy world and in real life freely. The downside however, is that Uncle has an unattractive appearance that barely changed since the time he transferred to the fantasy world, being frequently mistaken for an orc and treated extremely poorly by the other world's inhabitants, so far as such to the point where he had to continuously wipe his own memories to maintain his sanity. The most unique thing about him is that Uncle's a diehard SEGA fan, using every inch of his know-how of classic games on the Genesis/Mega Drive and Saturn consoles to use for strategical purposes, but also being devastated that Sony and Nintendo are the dominant forces in the modern day where SEGA is nothing but its former shell. Yet, everything that Uncle has going for him, the nephew Takafumi has been sacrificing his entire life waiting for his return, and when he does, he did the one thing that is quite the unexpected: open up a YouTube channel to log of Uncle's "Let's Playthrough" adventures of the fantasy world, and also through his magic ability. How uncanny is that, though I suppose this is to be expected for a college kid who has little to no funds, riding off of a rather nice apartment that has limitations because of bills he needs to pay to sustain his daily living, which Uncle is able to provide the source of easy revenue. Right from the get-go, Isekai Ojisan means business, and I mean, business...in the comedy sense. Uncle is such a comedic trope, embracing his autonomy and knowing how to act in the many situations he's been dealt with. But when it comes to romance, he has an aro (a.k.a aromantic) personality, which is an umbrella term used by people who don’t typically experience romantic attraction. If you consider the time that he was beset to another world, that will be 1997, at a time where Eva a.k.a Neon Genesis Evangelion just wrapped up its initial season, and with the influential anime containing the now well-known terms like tsundere, it's apt that Uncle isn't really in the know about things like love and romance, and this is trickled down to the people that he met in the fantasy world. Starting from Suzailgiererzegalnelvzegilreagranzelga Elga (or better known as Tsundere Elf), she is the princess of the elves, the first person whom Uncle rescued after saving her from a dragon, and immediately develops a crush on him. Though with the "tsundere" term not being well-known at the time, Uncle misinterprets this as basic harassment onto him and takes it upon himself to rectify her behaviour. Despite this, Tsundere Elf is kind, always seen defending Uncle against slander and blackmail, which causes close lovey-dovey moments between the two that the mutual love will never be realized. This is the same for Mabel Laybelle, the holder of the mythical Ice Sword capable of defeating the Flame Dragon. Remember that Uncle defeated a dragon to save Tsundere Elf from trouble? Yep, it's this same dragon that Mabel was supposed to defeat, taken down by Uncle with his magic powers. Since her only motivation was defeated by someone else that she didn't expect to see, she becomes a reclusive NEET, encouraged by Uncle to develop her inner desires. In the fantasy world, you can't forget about the Hero party trope, and this comes in the form of priestess Alicia Edelsia, swordsman Edgar and berserker Raiga, where Uncle once accidentally helped them to complete difficult quests, only to backtrack because he felt that it would tarnish the effort of cheating against the system and wants them to gain like they always should. Honestly, Uncle has no short of characters that exact tropes, but are also well-written for its comedic stance that knows no limits. And in the real world, this is brought to Takafumi having his own set of issues: coming off from a broken family, with parental divorce because of the dealings with their comatose Uncle for 17 years, only that once he comes back to life, it serves as his route of escapism. Though he may be very invested in the girls that pop across his Uncle's life, he has one going for him: the childhood friend Sumika Fujimiya, though he's oblivious that the reunion with her having a crush on him, obstinately forgetting the fact that the once bullied child was at the peril of her hands when they were young. I guess you could call this trait "like Uncle, like nephew" because though Takafumi isn't as dense as his Uncle and being able to identify the traits of romance throughout the fantasy world's journey, towards Fujimiya ironically, he isn't treating her like one. For sure, this journey between Uncle and nephew is anything but conventional, and hell, it makes for an interesting Isekai that stands out amongst the pack of the generic and trashiness of copy-paste works. This goes the same for the choice of the studio, which is a relatively new face in the AniManga industry: AtelierPontdarc. For reference, the manga has a very distinctive art style, that to replicate it onto the small screen proving a challenging feat at best, and the decision to go for new-and-unproven staff would result to be both a blessing and a curse for the entire anime as a whole. If you were to criticize the animation, just even a teensy bit, yes, I agree it looks like a PowerPoint slide show, but that is where the charm of the show lies: its simplicity, backed by such strong visuals that at the very least, does the manga some justice. But if you are to criticize the anime overall, you need not look further than the production staff team. Such as is with director Shigeki Kawai, this is his first full-on directorial role after being episode directors for A-1 Pictures produced shows like SAO, Darling in the FranXX and Blend S to name a few, and bear in mind that it was a full drought of nearly 4 years since his episode directorial on SAO: Alicization. Kenta Ihara being scriptwriter-cum-series composer at least sets the bar of being relevant in the times of how the anime should be paced, and for that, it's a decent job. Kazuhiro Oota is the character design-cum-animation director veteran, so anything he touches turns into gold (as is the case for the recents like Re:Zero Season 2 and Dororo). Last but not least, I need not mention the brillance of Kenichiro Suehiro being the music composer, he has been absolutely killing shows with some of the best OST music in recent times a.k.a. Golden Kamuy, to the most recent Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!. But, paying close to director Shigeki Kawai, that is where the anime drops its balls hard, citing COVID complications to hide the fact that Isekai Ojisan was to an extreme extent, incomplete even before the episodes were given the green light to be aired on TV. Whether the episodes were outsourced or done in-house, this is definitely a blueprint and a warning advice to producers working around the clock to rush and get deadlines done within the eleventh hour. It definitely set the tone for us the audience, that to experience a unique show like this and follow it weekly, would not take a mere seasonal 3 months, but drag it out for thrice the time allowed: 9 months. That to me, is just lackadaisical commitment to think that anime production, at least to the production staff, is mere child's play, or is it that they REALLY faced unforeseeable circumstances, which likely wasn't the case. The music is rather decent, I would say, with Mayu Maeshima and Yuka Iguchi's OP and ED put together. But where it shines is how the credits are portrayed: the OP is a call-back to the Sega Saturn console, from the start-up boot sequence to the games included and shown, which speaks volumes about the Saturn's large and well-thought-out game library in Japan (as opposed to the North America and Europe counterparts), while the ED is just a mesmerizing scene of a night view with stars in the sky. Most people, millennials and older, would definitely recognize that the SFX used were all sound chimes used in the Saturn's home splash screen, which adds to the sense of Uncle's nostalgia of the time that SEGA regained a foothold on the console wars against Nintendo, NEC (with its PC Engine / Turbografx-16) and Sony at the time where the Mega Drive was D.O.A, and the Saturn reigned supreme until the PlayStation rolled around. Nevertheless, this is a cool touch that makes Isekai Ojisan really stand out for its jab at the Isekai and fantasy themes quite well. But still, at the end of it all, I still have to chime this fact home: if a show's basically unfinished, even to the point where episodes are literally chased to completion days before their actual TV airing, might as well delay the shows to give more breathing space towards the people who are working their damnedest to bring them to the small screen. But that's the bread-and-butter of the AniManga industry, and it's sad that there's no changing this exploitative industry of its shortcomings. With that said, despite its limited release on Netflix, please give Isekai Ojisan a try. It's great Isekai/fantasy fuel for comedic entertainment, only beheaded at the expense of absurdly poor mismanagement.

Well, I don't really watch much of the Isekai genre because I find most of them usually very boring, but this one is on another level. First of all, it's a comedy with very clever writing. It's a story about uncle that was transported to another world, but he wasn't all powerful at first.... he was considered as an orc in that world and was sold for a 3 coins that is equal to 0,3 yen (I don't really remember the exact price, but you got it). Further more, many funny things continued to happening with him and after 17 years he was transported back tothe real life, and he...... yeah... can use magic in the real world, but he need to use Japanese now to make it work instead of the language that he was used in the Isekai world. He got along with his nephiew and now they are living in the apartment together , yeah, not in the magic world with garem. That is pretty much it. You may actually wonder how is that possible, if he is in real world now, what's the point of making the anime of him being there, there are nothing interesting and you are wrong there. He still can use magic in our world, so that's not it, right? But don't give a high hopes, it's not like he's going to make some baddass stuff with his magic powers, he's just a normal 30 years uncle, who was playing videogames his entire life after all. But how is that supposed to be interesting, you may wonder. Well, you need to see that in person, it's not like I'm used to laugh at anime at all, but this one was able to make me laugh several times, you need to give it a try..... One of the best Isekai anime for my opinion after all.

In a nutshell, Isekai Ojisan is mid. Is it good? Comedically, yes, it is. Is it good beyond that? No, its mid. I've seen praises like " As good as Konosuba or even better". Just no, get off the pipe. I've seen people say the same thing about trash anime like Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu. Everyone wants the next Konosuba, I get it, but no isekai has even come remotely close to dethroning it, comedically speaking. Did I enjoy Isekai Ojisan, yes, but like so many other isekai lately, it goes nowhere, it has zerostakes. There are no baddies, it's just story telling for 13 episodes, okay cool, when did anime become so absent of basic plotline that adventure anime should have, like Konosuba has, like Slime has, like Re Zero has. The powerhouses of this genre are on top because they actually have basic story lines that drive the show forward. Isekai Ojisan would be so much better if it just gave us something to care about. By the end, we were just going through the motions to finish it and be done with it. That's bad story telling. Animation 8/10 - Unique to a degree, and beautifully drawn at times, with no CGI I believe? If so, very hard to notice. Mabel scenes were peak. Sound 7/10 - Decent OP, forgettable ED, with good voice acting. Story 5/10 - Beyond episodic storytelling, there is no plot. It's an uncle watching TV of his past with his nephew and the nephews' friend for 13 episodes. Characters 8/10 - Really enjoyable characters through and through, but without something at stake, Mabel, Sui, and Uncle are wasted IMO. Enjoyment 7/10 - Enjoyed the comedy, but the series as a whole fell flat due to a lack of any story development. At the end of the day, the series gets a pass, and will likely be enjoyable to a wide swath of people. If you want more than comedy through, you might be disappointed.

This was a interesting watch. It's essentially a watch party of the nephew and his friend following the uncle fantasy stories (which he experienced in his "isekai" hospitalized period). Are fantasies more fake if it's being told over a screen, over another screen? It's quite a refreshing take, though my interests in the anime fluctuate across episodes, I think I quite like it. Its comedy can be tropey, random, niche at times, it's for people who can't hold grudges against failed attempts at comedy to enjoy it, I guess. Though I think it has some really good jokes such as turning into the teacher during thedebate. I feel the characters are the representation of tropes itselves, which feels distinctive but also feels extreme that can give out-of-touch vibes making it impossible to care deeply about a character. I get it. This anime doesn't take itself very seriously. And the way the show choose to display itself signifies it doesn't want to be taken seriously. I like that they sometimes give way for serious moment to bloom, though I'm quite disappointed that they didn't go full bonkers on the last fight (which they tried to be serious, I just hope it to be more serious and to come more suddenly). In the end, I think it's a good show. Cute characters. Funny unc crazy about ancient stuffs which I couldn't give a shit about. I felt a bond when I'm also invested in the uncle fantasies stories, making me a member of the uncle watch party. So to answer the question, Fantasy does feel fake if it being told over 2 screens. But does feeling of authenticity matter, really? As long as it's enjoyable, anything goes for me.