Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter

This show is not good, but it is very funny. Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku follows the story of Seiichirou, the salaryman who's favorite thing in the world is working and poppers. He gets accidentally isekaied to a fantasy world as an unintended tagalone to the holy maiden/romance novel FL, and then accidentally starts a romance with one of the holy knights. Said holy knight, Aresh, finds Seiichirou after he overdosed on poppers in an alleyway, and the only way to save Seiichirou from overdosing is to make out with him. Truly, we are witnessing great advancements in fujoshi technology. As wonderful as that abovesummary sounds, most of this show is pretty boring. The animation quality is Not Great, but not exceptionally terrible--just the usual lack of production values you expect from BL. Soundtrack didn't piss me off, so that's a plus I guess, thought the OP and ED are annoying average. Aresh and Seiichriou have zero chemistry whatsover. Aresh is at least marginally interesting as the younger, brash, but still eager to please seme, and the age gap of seven years IIRC is interesting in concept. But Seiichirou is soooooooooo not interested in Aresh for a majority of the series. Seiichirou has one love, work, and it shows. I had a hard time rooting for their relationship when Seiichirou just does not give a fuck. Beyond the minor puppyisms, I also wasn't a fan of Aresh's overall personality, as he went to the Amon Witch Hunter Robin and Lantis Magic Knight Rayearth school of Semeism. Which means, Aresh is pretty cold to the point of boredom for me personally. Overall story is not great. Nothing really interesting going on, besides the novelty of a story about an accountant solving problems with his accoutantisms. I do like how they gave the FL some kind of arc, and she's a more dynamic character than either of the two leads easily. I didn't love how Seiichirou had to explain her character arc to her, though. I would've been a lot more into this story if it was about Yura with Seiichirou and Aresh as background yaoi. I think it's potentially compelling to have a traditional female lead in a romance isekai story start understanding that she is something of a rose bride, and fighting against systems that appeared friendly but are actually her enemy. Yurius understanding his role in the system at large, and learning to overcome his worst parts for the sake of Yura. Yura becoming much more mature and carving her own path, separate from the religous path laid out for her. Can you tell I really didn't give a shit abotu Seiichirou or Aresh? Because I really didn't. There are some other funny moments, and Seiichirou's deadpan nature is good for comedy, but I just did not enjoy this one.

“Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter” is what happens when an interesting character idea is isekaied to a bland, boring world. I don’t have much XP when it comes to BLs. To be fair I’m not a fan of most romances. I find most of them cringe, creepy and in some cases borderline toxic. This show is the last category when it comes to the “romance” part. Despite that I still had some hopes for it. I actually found the premise interesting. A story about a corporate slave that just can’t stop working, even in another world, so he getsa job at the royal accounting department. That was interesting. I do have a friend that is an accountant so I am aware, at least to a point, what kind of plot you can squeeze out of that. I was hoping that this would be a show, that despite the toxic relationship between the MC — Seiichirou (I’m gonna call him Sei for short) — and his love interest — Aresh — will at least have the common decency to portrait the importance of proper accounting, by showing what happens when You eff it up. I guess to a point it tries to do that but ultimately fails. It’s like someone who has very little knowledge on the subject tries to make it a jumping point for the plot. It of course crashes and burns. Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use these terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page… PLOT is the surface-level events. What, when, where, how and why (externally) things are happening. STORY is why (internally) things are happening and what internally happens to the character during the plot. So… according to Wikipedia: “Isekai is a sub genre of Japanese high fantasy fiction that revolves around a person or people who are transported to and have to survive in another world.” This aint it boss. This show doesn’t have a world. It has a static stage with NPCs that mean nothing, do nothing of importance and only wait for their turn to do their part to make Sei the bestest boy ever. Think about it. One of the main plot points is that Sei reorganizes the accounting department and fights against wasteful spending. Spending that is said to be standard and the precedent is basically standard procedure. Do you really think that any sort of organization, being it a nation, faction or even business would last long in such circumstances? The kingdom was bleeding money and not one person noticed before an anemic otherworlder arrived? How? I get that some of those people were just caring about their own asses but there are people there who should care about finances. The prime minister and the king being the obvious ones. Not one person thought that maybe spending money on unidentified shit is a bad idea? Same thing with the abacus. In our world the origins of this tool are said to be in Babylon at least 400 years before Christ. That is about 2425 years before the year I’m writing this. The world Sei is stuck in has magic, metal works, probably a banking system (those are at least 4000 years old as of writing this text) and yet not one person thought of creating a tool for counting? How? Why? I mean, I know why. Because this world is a stage for Sei to be amazing by doing basic shit, because the writer isn’t very skilled. Furthermore the commander of the squad that specializes in magic and conventional combat — Aresh — is very young, too young for his station. Before his interactions with Sei, it is implied that he avoided some of his responsibilities, pawning paper work on his second in command. Not even doing the bare minimum of reading it before sending it off. How is this incompetent twat in a position of any sort of power? He’s 22 years old. Who the fuck gives so much power to an emo kid? This kingdom is designed in a way that it would fall a long time ago if it was an organic, living, breathing creation. It does not portray Sei as competent, all it does is show the kingdom as incompetent, full of idiots and deserving of a fall. No matter what he does, someone will be amazed. Apart from maybe 3 characters that don’t have much screen time, every non-villain character acts like he wants to work Sei’s shaft more than Aresh. This show is an excellent example of how you should not write a world. Even if you want to concentrate on the interactions between Sei and Arash, you need an interesting world to have any sort of stakes and obligations for them. Without it the plot lacks any sort of conflict and becomes just a boring, flat, self insert fantasy about nothing. To be completely frank, Sei himself isn’t a bad idea. I would even say that he is written more competently and with more nuance than your typical isekai protagonist. Just don’t get your hopes too high up. The main problem is how he is used in the plot department. I’ll get to that. For starters he isn’t naive about his situation. Unlike the holy maiden — Yua — whose summoning he got entangled with, he is aware that the kingdom is probably hiding something from them. Yua is young and idealistic and doesn’t even entertain the possibility that he might be right. In the beginning. She does come around later. Sei is skeptical about the whole holy maiden business and worries about the only person who shares his experience. I liked that. It even gave me hope that besides the BL aspect this show will have some really interesting and uncommon themes and plot points as an isekai. Something that actually reassured me in that, is the fact that Yua is summoned before shit hits the fan. It seems she is summoned because there is a vacancy in a position that needs to be filled for morale reasons. Maybe the inhabitants of this world are unable to use a certain kind of magic or skill so they need to use summoning to have a user. Maybe later they want to use said user of magic in a eugenic type of experiment and treat her as a breeding mare in hopes of having a steady, cost efficient way of having that magic on hand. Maybe they would even try to manipulate Yua and her perception in hopes of having her volunteer for such a project. That would have been awesome. Boy… do I feel dumb now. Another thing I liked is that Sei isn’t an overpowered, omnipotent protagonist. The opposite is true with him. He is in constant danger from the very air of the new world. Because he was summoned by accident he doesn’t have protections Yua has. He is vulnerable to magic that is everywhere. He even almost dies because of drinking too many magical energy drinks. Now, there is a problem with that plot point. He seems to function mostly fine for the most part of episode 1. Only at the end of that episode his magic sickness is revealed. Why? It would make more sense if he had noticed that he feels off ever since the summoning. Anything that would make me think that it’s more than just his acclimatization to the new world. His weakness is a constant plot point for the rest of the show so I guess it’s not as a big deal but I still find it strange. He’s also not an idiot. He is aware of Aresh’s feelings toward him and does have some reservations about reciprocating them. After all, he does seem to want to return home. Another thing that isn’t frequent in isekai protagonist these days. If I had to name one thing this show is worth watching for is Sei himself. Unfortunately, the plot underutilized him and in effect makes most of his screen time rather boring only allowing him to shine in the first 2 and last 3 episodes. As much as I like Sei, his love interest — Aresh — is another can of worms. He is a terrible character. I would even go as far as saying he is a manifestation of what a 13 year old would think is cool. He is a 22 year old in a position of power that should require someone with experience in combat, magic and politics. Not to mention at least basic knowledge of logistics. He seems to be skilled with the first two but is shown as someone who has problems with connecting with people. Many people react with fear or at least uneasiness when encountering him. Not exactly material for a leader of an entire knight order. That said he doesn’t seem to be heartless or an asshole. He’s just cold to most and that might be a reason he might be misunderstood by his coworkers and people from different departments. Shame that aspect of him wasn’t explored at all. What is explored is the fact that Aresh is a really toxic boyfriend. For starters he has an unhealthy habit of invading Sei’s personal space on a regular basis. To the point that in the later episodes it interferes with Sei’s work and planning. Despite being younger than the MC, Aresh is aware that he is in a position of power in their interactions and isn’t exactly shy to use it for his wants. There isn’t much I can write about him because at the end of the day he is boring and predictable. After the first 3 episodes you’ve seen most, if not all, ways he interacts with both Sei and other people. That said there is a silver lining in his writing. We do see him change during those 12 episodes. It starts off small. Even the characters in the show notice and call it. It’s not much but I will take what I can get in terms of competent writing at this point. I wish it would be more organic but I guess because of the circumstances he is forced to save Sei they’re interaction couldn’t have been more subtle. Now… the thing I have a problem with is using intimacy as a way of keeping Sei alive and healthy. On one side I respect the idea of an unorthodox use of magic. On the other hand… It all starts when Sei overdoses on magical energy drinks. Aresh is forced to use healing magic unaware (like everyone at this point) that he has no resistance to magic. Because of that he is forced to “familiarize” (his words not mine) Sei with his magic aka… have an intercourse with him. And here is a problem with that scene. Aresh asks Sei for his consent (nice idea, I approve) and he gives it. But… There is a problem. The situation gives no room for denial. Sei either has an intercourse with Aresh or dies. That is not a situation in wich he can exercise his will unless he’s suicidal. Another thing is that Aresh asked for consent because Sei was in a condition that allowed that. What would happen if that was impossible? He would just rape him? I mean… in this case I’m not sure if you could call it rape, he is saving his life after all. Still this sort of things require some nuance in later episodes to not make me think the writer has a rape fetish. We get none. Furthermore in later episodes there are a lot of scenes where Aresh kisses Sei without warning or gets him to sit on his laps, even getting in the way of his work. I will admit the idea is intriguing but the execution is half baked, devoid of nuance and almost childish. The same problem is with the “romance” part. Sei is basically dependent on Aresh and his magic if he wants to live. The whole world is full of magic. Magic that is poisonous for him. We do get a throwaway line that Sei is slowly building immunity but we don’t really see that in action. We don’t see him interacting with substances or places that almost killed him earlier and being able to withstand it or at least have less of a negative effect on him. This isn’t a romantic setting. It’s more like codependency bordering on slavery than something romantic. Again, the idea has potential but lacks nuance and it’s fully the fault of the lack of skill by the writer. Unfortunately this show is a waste of a good character (Sei). The romance is creepy. The stakes are minimal. The world is not a world but a bland stage to make Sei seem like more than he actually is.

This was my favorite anime of its cour. I looked forward to it every week and it did not disappoint. It was adramatic, it was funny, and I had a good time. The characters were easy to root for and entertaining. I liked that the focus was less on the typical holy maiden part but on the guy who accidentally traveled with her, which allowed for things to feel a bit fresher. I also liked that the romance was part of the adult cast which also allowed for things to feel fresher to me too. I would definitely watch a season 2 but if wedon't get a season 2 then the ending was good too. If you like MLM slash type anime, then you'll enjoy this one. If you want something a little less melodramatic at times you might get frustrated by this one.

You don't often see yaoi or yuri isekai. But fortunately, the romance is not omnipresent in the anime. There are no kissing scenes every ten minutes or a steamy scene in every episode. The 12 episodes are well-paced. Isekai Office Worker handled its isekai aspect really well by clearly highlighting the differences between the two worlds and the impact they can have on the protagonist and the saintess. That includes differences in work culture, religious issues, tolerance to “magicules,” or simply technological progress. I also liked that the transported characters actually want to return to their own world to reunite with their daily lives andfamilies — isekai stories tend to completely brush that aside. The supporting cast is just as interesting (especially Valtom). The character designs are appealing without being particularly memorable, and the backgrounds do a good job supporting the overall atmosphere.