Quality Assurance in Another World

Quality Assurance in Another World - Just Isekai and fantasy things, but gone technological to deter bugs, lags and such before its eventual release to the masses. What could possibly go wrong? In the world of video games, computer programs, and the like, I think that the underrated group of unsung heroes who have to always be commended for, are the software engineers. They ensure all the programs we use in our daily lives are free of problems, and that's no easy task given the insanity and complexity of the IT industry to thwart even the smallest of errors that will break the functionality of thefeatures we use on the internet, for better or for worse. And from the mind of someone who prefers supporting roles more than main ones, bringing about the fascination of seeing NPCs move on their own will to want to depict inconspicuous people doing stuff that's meant for players, this is mangaka Masamichi Sato's way of depicting it in Kono Sekai wa Fukanzen Sugiru a.k.a Quality Assurance in Another World, a Sword Art Online derivative that shows a different code of arms than what you might expect. Ask anyone on the IT side of relevant industries, especially who specializes in software engineering and mainly debugging in general, that it’s a never-ending tedious task to identify areas where bugs and glitches happen in real time enough to be alert 24/7 to issue constant reports and update developers on the never-ending growth of tasks to fix and repair so that the public won’t notice them, nor be affected by the annoying things that affect how the program should operate. This is more so the case for video games, be it console games, or in this case, using VR (virtual reality) to deliver neurotic games. And in this show, the series’ titular MC Makoto Haga is at the helm of doing his job as a debugger for a VRMMO game that is still in quality assurance development mode, until a moment arises that one tries to log out of the game, but they could not do so (a la SAO style) until all the game’s bugs are reported to ensure a safe exit. Down but not out, Haga gets to work with his debugger stone, a tablet that all character debuggers acquire to send their reports to the developers to get the many, countless issues fixed as soon as possible. The one anomaly, together with Haga, is a young girl named Nikola. Her living in a rural village just outside the borders of the Bayle Kingdom as a designated village girl NPC, she only does the simplest of chores that she’s programmed to do, until a weird-looking dragon comes to thwart the village, rendering Haga’s help as part of the enigmatic investigative squad, the King’s Seekers, to save her out of trouble. But being an NPC, Nikola is only programmed to live and die under the events of the game’s quests itself, so when she lives, breathes, and dies under her village’s event, somehow by hook or by crook, she lived to see the future thereafter of the decimation of her small village by the giant butt-crack-faced dragons, thanks to Haga who put in the effort to save her, even if he knew that she was programmed to invoke death. Forming an unlikely duo after Nikola survived her programmed onslaught, both she and Haga venture onto the game’s vast playing areas, going wherever it takes them: reporting bugs, finding fellow in-game debuggers from other companies, as well as the other elements that make fantasy the genre it is. As an unusual piece of literature, there’s some originality to be had here in QA Isekai Land. To pen a story about Isekai debuggers, I have to say that Masamichi Sato is a pioneer in this regard, having an Isekai fantasy be centred not so much on the tried-and-true trope of heroes vs. villains (though the show has elements of this for conflicts between fellow debuggers), but of actual professional work that goes into his one-of-a-kind series that hasn’t been explored much in AniManga. Sure, there’s actual video game-inspired series like Shangri-La Frontier that focuses on games that teach about the knows and the don’ts of video game design and balance, but none so much like what this show is doing, focusing on the backend instead with game development. When you add the context of the mangaka’s first serialized work being a short 4-volume series of 2016-2017’s Iron Buddy, which depicts a robot engineer working on his own robot, that even once had a collab with Astro Boy, Masamichi Sato certainly had a hand on being obsessed about the weird, but innovative stuff that no one ever takes a chance with to create something so original, that its Achilles’ Heel is how far this story could go in the long run. And this story…it’s the weakest aspect of the anime, if I’m being blunt and low-key honest. Sure, Haga’s serious commitment to debugging the game that he’s stuck in at least does feel fresh when in comparison to the character archetypes found in the anime, much less Nikola’s occasional “awakening” moments to deal with evildoers who see the in-game world as a place to do whatever the hell they want to. And what is the tactic, you might say? Nikola’s not just a regular village girl NPC, she’s one of the game’s neurotical consciousness, or the term commonly known as AI, whereby she’s known as Tesla (all you science geeks will know this famed inventor-cum-engineer Nikola Tesla), who is like the in-game mods to micromanage all players and NPCs to decide if they commit evil that’s calls for a ban. As Nikola, she can’t really do much, but as Tesla, the neurotical consciousness only feeds on the players’ debugging stones, which act as their lifeline in the game, and only does so when it detects players acting outside of the game’s justice parameters enough to kill them off in-game, banished to the depths of an endless black hole of blank code. The story can work around both Haga and Nikola alone, but with the focus on other players too (the more prominent ones in the anime being one gang of debugger murderers, as well as a furry debugger and an elf debugger), it just keeps dragging on and on to the point of staleness. The pacing is rather wonky, as well as its tone needing a lot of work with Masamichi Sato writing the series like a novel that despite its simplicity, is overtly too complex for its own good. The characters may be unique (heck, even Nikola as Tesla sure brings out some chuckles), but a little goes a long way, and this cast is definitely on the weird side. Moreover, everything else in the anime is just on the thread of being serviceable at best. Studio Palette already had an ousting of Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen a.k.a Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World’s sequel in the same Summer 2024 season, delaying the entire sequel up to a point because of production issues, when Silver Link was clearly still working on their current juggernaut that is the ongoing Yozakura-san Chi no Daisakusen a.k.a Mission: Yozakura Family, that the once primary studio had to discreetly wash their hands off the project to hand it over to the rather small studio for production assistance. And with this show being a collab with studio-cum-producer 100studio, it looks nice and alright with a game-like minimalistic art style with not much going for it. Trust me, Studio Palette is still not in the position to run a production house just yet, and giving the small studio 2 shows to work with simultaneously is an utter disaster, as is proven. The OST is just there, but forgettable at best. Not once did I ever get or feel anything, much less its accompanying OP and ED songs from Liyuu and NACHERRY that were both mediocre to decent. Sure, as a marketing niche, Kono Sekai wa Fukanzen Sugiru a.k.a Quality Assurance in Another World will speak a lot to the IT engineering Otakus within our midst, and even those who play video games for long to like this show, albeit on a biased level. But regardless of its target audience, this anime is quite the mixed bag for me: it’s enjoyable, but it’s also a slog to sit through at the same time. Ultimately (and ironically enough), as much debugging as the show is worth analyzing from a professional level, regular anime watchers just don’t see it like that, and only come for the entertainment, which, don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely some entertainment to be had, but your mileage will vary.

I really wish that I enjoyed this more than I did. At the end of the day, there just wasn’t much here that I enjoyed which is strange for me. To start the art style really doesn’t do a ton for me. It isn’t terrible, and I know there will be people out there who really enjoy the look of this, but I felt like there was way to much juxtaposed imagery for my tastes. The story initially would be interesting of a de-bugger trapped in a video game world, but it quickly runs out of ideas to do with the video game plot. Iteventually runs into a lot of common tropes without a lot of the charm that would typically come from them. The tone is all over the place as well, and I just don’t feel like it has a target audience and instead is just throwing ideas out there. It goes from a pretty innocent and cute plot, then randomly has an episode filled with expletives being bleeped out and strange sexual innuendos. Then the very next episode it acts like it never happened and is right back to kid friendly material. Ultimately it just doesn’t work. The idea is interesting to say the least, but I don’t feel like they tapped into the potential. Sure they would likely want to continue this according to the To Be Continued? Line at the end, but I can’t help but be a bit frustrated that they never really wrapped up a single one of its too many loose plot threads knowing that it’s possible it wouldn’t continue. It can be true that the anime is an advertisement to the source material in some cases, but even if this doesn’t get renewed I doubt very seriously that I would be interested in reading on to see what happens.

Really wanted to like this, but it falls short for a multitude of reasons. The show starts off decent, but quickly loses its footing and fumbles around trying to hack a redeeming story together. Going into this show with little to no prior knowledge, I had originally expected this show to be an adventure / Isekai anime, but with a video game debugging twist. The end result ended up disappointing me. What this anime delivers instead is a half-baked story with incomplete or abruptly ended plot points, and less than desirable characters. To further explain the first point, the story is a mess. Plot points and elementsto the story will fall through or abruptly end in an episode without so much as a second mention. The show is constantly bouncing around ideas and trying to see what will work for it, but it always ends up feeling half-baked in the end. Large developments with characters, or newly introduced characters / elements of the story will suddenly appear and leave as they are needed to serve the plot. As stated previously, this show would be much better served if the writers had taken a different approach. Instead of the hybrid isekai / adventurer style plot, it should have been a plot revolving around a seemingly normal person doing crazy technical / debugging shenanigans in an otherwise typical anime setting. It would have been a refreshing take on the genre and would have opened the door for great comedic moments as well. As for the second point, the characters aren't that great. The main character is just molded into whatever serves the current direction of the plot best, while also simultaneously holding on to annoying traits that make him a bit of a pain to watch. He's incredibly stubborn and dim-witted on multiple occasions. A couple of the other characters are annoying and don't really do a whole lot to the show except just be there to facilitate goofs or dynamics between the cast. They're annoying and the show would be better with them gone. As to avoid spoilers, they will not be mentioned, but you'll know em when you seem. The latter half of the show is worse than the former for these reasons in particular. This show is just OK. Middle of the road, lukewarm anime affair. Viewers may enjoy it if you don't think about it too hard and just consume it without much critical thinking. For those that want deeper plot points and character development, this show isn't it. It's a hit-or-miss and you may or may not like it depending on how you view anime.

It's great tbh... The animation could be better, but the rest is great. It's dark and comedic at the same time. The bad animation sorta adds to the dark theme making it kinna hard to watch altogether. The distortetd animation kinna warps the characters and creatures, making them like something straight outta uncanny valley. However, the concept of game and bugs wraps it all up, making it "understandable" in a sense. The other downside for this was the ending, it was basically cutting it off waiting for the second half of the story to be released, if you don't like annoying cliffhanger cut offslike that, then i don't recommend, but other than that I really liked it, and honestly can't wait for a season 2.