Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

とんでもスキルで異世界放浪メシ

7.64(180K votes)

Ranked #1598Popularity #833

episodes

Type

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Jan 11, 2023 to Mar 29, 2023

Studios:MAPPA

AdventureComedyFantasyGourmet

Synopsis

Salaryman Tsuyoshi Mukouda is accidentally summoned as a hero to the Kingdom of Reijseger in another world to help defend against their enemies. Wary of the royal family's true intentions, Mukouda is able to talk his way out of the situation due to his non-combat skill, "Online Supermarket," which is deemed useless. However, this power proves to be anything but useless. With this ability, Mukouda is able to cheaply purchase food products and utensils from Japan—most of which are considered luxuries in this world. As Mukouda cooks up a storm using his ability, he catches the eye of the fearsome mythical wolf Fel. The legendary beast swiftly negotiates a contract to become Mukouda's familiar, unable to resist the delicious dishes. With Fel by his side, Mukouda travels the world, earning his keep as an adventurer and merchant all the while enjoying delectable meals. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

333,449 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

7.8/10

Average Review Score

70%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

KANLen09

Recommended

This show in a nutshell, sums up this perfect quote: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot, spaking about Life, Hilarity and Inspiration, Four Quartets "Little Gidding" Pt. 5 To say that novelist Ren Eguchi's Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi a.k.a Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is the now-famed studio MAPPA's first-ever undertaking of the Isekai genre, to have people say that this show is MAPPA's Peak-sekai, it's not entirely baseless at all. No doubt itis great in an overall package, and for the very first time, MAPPA DID knock it out of the park for showcasing a decent Isekai. I'm not going to paraphrase the same copy-paste tactics here, everyone, new or old, must have or has had the idea of the typical "summoned to another world" trait. And this is the same here for the MC: the 27-year-old Tsuyoshi Mukouda a.k.a "Mukohda", the mild-mannered but cowardly white-collar salaryman, and at the same time, a very proficient cook. Usually when Earth's people get Isekai-ed into another world, the "Hero's Party" group will consist of young high school students to help the kingdom in need to purge the demonfolk, typical Isekai stuff. But in this show, it's the typical round-up student crew and Mukohda himself who is arranged in line for this "Heroes vs. Demon Lord" story plot, and other than the 3 students, Mukohda himself has the power of "Online Supermarket", which in a battle, would be entirely useless, not being beneficial and a deadweight to the group. And it's with this intent that Mukohda simply ousts himself out of the Isekai race, convincing the nobles and letting him go scot free around the fantasy world. But, as it turns out, Mukohda's "Online Supermarket" ability is actually very versatile, and that it allows him to order food and food-related products, straight from Earth. Think of it as like the Hello Fresh, Blue Apron or Home Chef meal delivery service in the U.S., but Aeon for Japan. This enables Mukohda to use his skill and purchase ingredients and prep items, all of which serves also as buffing items to temporarily boost stats. And it's a fierce combination of utility and power (that thankfully isn't OP at all), so much so that from a very long distance, it got the attention of the legendary wolf-like beast known as Fenrir...who demands that the salaryman himself feed him a meal. And the meals are so good that Fenrir immediately asks for seconds, that Mukohda spends the rest of his manhours making heaps of food for its satisfaction, enough to earn (or rather, force) him into a familiar contract. Together, Mukohda and Fenrir (evenutally named Fel), they journey through the lands, encountering more monsters and gods from the Spirit Realm, granting him familiar contracts and blessings in exchange for his food and otherworldly goods. Cooking Isekai is a realistic adventure fantasy that's a gourmet comedy feast for the eyes, owing to its chill-pill, take-your-own-time slow beat that I honestly don't mind if the author knows what he's doing. And Ren Eguchi is intentionally making the series feel slow in regards to the overall world-building, so that the message will eventually wind up on what shows up on the plate itself, it's a mark of great balance between characterization and the atmopshere of the fantasy world around them. The characters are what shines in Cooking Isekai, because they are tons of fun. Starting off with Mukohda's first familiar, the legendary Fel has lived for over a thousand years, and his personality is owed to his extraordinary strength, agility, and magic that enables him to wipe out most monsters with little effort...VERY little effort, I must say, for more varieties of meat. To the point that he is very boasting of his pride, selfishness, and gluttonous, choosing to follow Mukohda just simply to eat his food. Being a meat-lover, he obviously loves meat and hates vegetables, much to the scorn that when Mukohda has to fix a meal that involves vegetables, he must be thoughtful to hide it by blending ingredients that mask the flavours of the greens, much akin to a parent feeding his/her child with bite-sized offerings that look the same, but taste the same and not too different as to showcase the yuckiness of the hated greens. Mukohda's second familiar is Sui, the slime that's of child-like adorableness. Initially met as a baby, with the typical conception that slimes are weak, it evolves by gaining experience through battle and eating trash from Mukohda's Online Supermarket purchases, and this is what Sui's uniqueness is noted for being a special exception. It is able to melt enemies with acid bullets, as well as create potions and weapons, while enjoying desserts and disliking spicy foods. Mukohda himself is a level-headed character, though he's seemingly the innocent one who has to tolerate both familiars that he's the closest to (or rather, it's Fel who's always giving him the never-ending troubles), making sure that they're well fed and tagged along like a parent does holding his own children along the fantasy ride. Remember that there aren't just monsters, but gods in the world too? One such Spirit Realm deity is Ninrir, the Goddess of Wind and the progenitor of Fel's Fenrir kind. Being notable by her long silver-colored hair and a huge sweet tooth, she is the first deity to grant Mukohda her blessing, giving him immunity to poisons, illnesses, and other negative status effects. But this is also due in exchange of an offering for sweets from his own world back in Japan. Due to her constant demands and frequent emotional outbursts, Mukohda refers to her as the "divine disappointment", which I thought was really funny, because her interest spiked the other deities to do the same towards Mukohda, draining more of his resources in exchange for their own tastes in desired offerings, amplifying the disappointment he had for the divine deities as a whole. It's a "dog-eat-dog" world for Mukohda, the disappointment that his familiars and gods must go first before him, but still coming out on his own inventions replicated like a MasterChef in another world and having the delight of his life, this second chance of a life is something that if you ask him of his thoughts, it's a life that he would not trade for anything else. The most surprising aspect is of the animation studio chosen, because generally studios are only contracted for the production jobs they are offered for all kinds of shows, and in Cooking Isekai's case, it's MAPPA driving the wheel for this show, under one of its low-key directors of Kiyoshi Matsuda. The director for MAPPA's rather subpar shows like Kakegurui×× (Season 2), Uchi Tama?! Uchi no Tama Shirimasen ka?, and most recently with Summer 2021's Re-Main (co-director with chief Masafumi Nishida), it doesn't feel like this man should be given the more recent high/top-priority shows like Chainsaw Man or Jigokuraku a.k.a Hell's Paradise, simply because his work ethic would not suit this show that he's working on. Nevertheless, the MAPPA magic shines here just the same like in the famed studio's recent shows, with gorgeous visuals and beautiful animation, especially in the cooking segments that will make one salivate at the mouth. Since when did food become so good to look at, since Isekai Shokudou and Shokugeki no Soma, that this show feels like a wild ride in fusing modern inventions for a medieval world. It's that engrossing in style and substance. The OST is just typical fine for an Isekai series like this. Van de Shop's debut Anisong sounds decent, and is a relative good time that mixes well with the alluring visuals. In the same vein, Yuuma Uchida's ED "Happy-go-Journey" sounds pedestrian as well, so no complaints there. Just a tad mediocre to the best that is just alright to my ears. Cooking Isekai is a breath of fresh air in the slew of copy-paste Isekai shows this season. Though this show is one of the best we've seen all season, thanks to it not being an OP power fantasy, but it's just simply, a campy, laid-back life of a good time. A good job there MAPPA, looking forward to your next Isekai rondo.

Episodes (12)

Filler Recap

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Community Discussion

M1c3f

Mixed FeelingsFunny

Ah yes. Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. A worthy name for a refreshing take on isekai. Or is it? I'm not going to beat around the bush. I could tell you in a 10.000-word essay written by Chat GPT that this is another tropy isekai with bland and shallow characters, stuffed into a story that can be summarized in two words that brings nothing new to the table. But I will focus on something else. Keyword: Bringing something to the table. This anime is going to drive you into insanity. At some point, I just couldn't bear it any longer. I spendall my savings and ordered a full-fledged industrial kitchen aisle and isekai-prayged that shit into whatever twisted universe this anime is real in. Here's why: The MC is the biggest doofus Isekai has ever managed to bring up. In fact, I don't understand why he himself is not losing his coconut doing what he is doing. The whole plot and therefore MC's whole existential purpose is to feed his little "family" which consists of an insatiable slime that devours everything that enters his jello body and an ever-glutenous demi-god wolf. Imagine if every damn Wendy's in Miami would offer free menus to the homeless. That's how much fucking shit he has to cook every day. Fortunately, my man is blessed with the most batshit broken ability the lord of Isekai has ever inspired his hack writers to scribble down. A portal to Walmart. Yes, this guy's ability is ordering stuff at Walmart, Costco, Target or Amazon you name it he can order it. After he sends his fantasy coins into the otherworldly Blockchain the ordered goods appear out of thin air conveniently packaged in a delivery cardboard box. Don't even get me started on all the food packaging his slime has to absorb. I wish the show would educate people about buying unpackaged food. Although every corn of pepper this guy orders comes pre-packaged in its own plastic seal. But I'm getting sidetracked. So how would you think MasterChef prepares his unholy amounts of food? Well, the title of the show could maybe cause the assumption that this anime is about camping. But oh my that's not the case. It's called campfire cooking because the only cooking utensil Isekai-Gordon dares to use is a mini camping gas stove. Yes, you heard me correctly this man prepares the amount of food you could use to turn every living person in Zimbabwe obese with, on a fucking camping stove. It would take him mere seconds to let a whole industrial kitchen aisle appear at his command. Yet that motherducker keeps boiling every single meatball he produces, every single grain of rice he cooks separately on his teeny tiny camping stove. My man spends the whole day cooking on a gas burner when he could just order a full-fledged kitchen. I swear you get ocd watching this show. If you need to get a quick tour into the psych ward or want to uncontrollably order kitchen appliances then go for it. Else, I wouldnt recommend.

101 found helpfulMay 23, 2023

SpRayquaza11

Recommended

There was simply no need to make Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill,(obviously a light novel you can tell by the name) an Isekai anime, It is an anime about food and Realistically speaking most food that is made mimics their real-life counterpart and the ingredients that make the Umai (tasty in Japanese) and keep the “Umami” come from Umami land. “Yeah? then why did you watch it?” Because it's an Isekai of course ...... Let's face it, This is not the first isekai food anime, I doubt any genre is left unscathed by the isekai Truck (hehe :p) so let's just jump into whythis exists and Actually make a compelling watch. All food-based anime does have a general formula:- 1)Have Mascots/ Hot girls 2)Make said Mascots/Hot girls Cream themselves while eating the “very superior Japanese Cuisine” (Seriously I am Indian so any Cuisine other than Indian is basically Weak AF salt and pepper bs). 3)The animation used in the food scenes Is equivalent to food porn. Now an Isekai setting is very clever for this kind of requirement, The Isekai setting makes the Creative allowance to have mascots basically limitless, here we have a God-tier legendary Wolf , a cute protectable, and very adorably voiced baby slime, Along with, obviously hot isekai goddesses who love sweets. The ability to anticipate and potentially look forward to the reaction of these mythical creatures reacting to our seemingly ‘Alien for them’ food, and the very spectacular animation and art in the cooking scenes does improve the watching experience and makes the otherwise dull setting into an actual passable and enjoyable watch. the absolutely loyal Isekai community, or rather, the unyielding evil sludge that would consume anything isekai (yeah that's how they look at us) was an easy sell which was a smart move by both mappa, who are running dry of cash, and the author who certainly made a buck with this, knew what they were doing when they made this one. The whole anime initially feels like a commercial for Japanese restaurants, I really can't think of any in-depth review, the Characters the Story, and the plot is easily just an average 5/10, No real story is in the makes and no character development is in sight for the already mediocre characters. it's just that the MC meets either a new character X makes some food with some weird-looking monster, Fel and Sui kill them monsters while the MC is cowering or running with fear, or the eat and cream moments. Sound and VA 9/10 Surprisingly well-made Ost along with really nice OP and ED which are chill and Upbeat, THe VOice acting of Fenrir and Sui is done well, and THe cooking is accompanied by really good gourmet sounds of sizzling and an ensemble of cookware clattering. As expected of mappa, many say that their animation needs work, but a few only know that the real magic that mappa brings with them is the OST and Music. (ever seen anyone hate chainsaw man or AOT OST? Those are just a few examples) Animation and art 8/10 I personally loved the art that was used in the ED, the art in the anime in general is ok at best but the budget climbs sharply during the cooking sessions with a real jump in animation as well. The fight scenes are never the focus but are done reasonably well. This is good popcorn fun for anyone, but I would definitely suggest bringing something more satisfying than popcorn when you are watching this, It will definitely make you crave some Food.

38 found helpfulMar 28, 2023