Anime: Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari

Review
Isekai no Seikishi is a very typical anime filled with action, ecchiness, harem, and other stuff that frequently wins the audience in Japan and many other places. While it brings nothing extraordinary or original, the series proves to take things in a good pace and with superb quality, making it worth to watch for those looking for action and for those looking for a more harem-styled show and yet it's not extremely excessive in neither of these concepts.

This is a tale in the veins of Tenchi Muyo, where Masaki Kenshi ends up in an alternative world struggling with recent wars. His skill with a mecha puts them in the role of an assassin, but during a mission to murder the princess Lashara Earth he ends up being captured and convinced to change sides. These events take him to work as an aide to the princess and travel to the Holy Lands, where he becomes a major celebrity with his insane strength and good will and also a major tool in solving the war.

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1. A typical, perhaps even classical, tale
   The young boy with secret/chosen powers that rises in a world filled with girls, boobs, mechas, and weird characters. The plot and setting itself are very, very typical, perhaps even too much. The cliches and scenes typical to ecchi animes are all over the place, sometimes overused and sometimes well placed. The whole show smells the most typical garbage that harem can provide, but in the end the story proves at least satisfiying. There are bits of tense moments, strategic fights, epic combats, and nice comedy. Most of the time the huge cast of female characters only act for fanservice, but they help the plot move on sometimes, giving joy to both those who look only for boobs and those expecting at least some seriousness.
   
   A standard harem gang
   Stereotypes are all over the place as expected of a harem show mixed with mecha. The chosen boy, the essential loli, the scientist girl, the savage girl, the innocent maid, etc. The whole gang together is nothing more than a harem cast, but they are a bit deep when left alone. Whenever the characters are taken out of the group and especially away from the protagonists, the girls prove to have some purpose that is not only fall in love with him. That's not a sign of great characters however, they are only around average with moments where they shine more and moments where they become dolls to serve the ecchi genre of the show.
   
   Typical, yes, but nicely executed
   Tenchi Muiyo, mechas, harem, ecchi. Nothing new here and nothing perfectly done. But the show is somehow different than others of the same kind. While most of these shows fails to deliver good action and completely loses the focus to only show perverted moments, Isekai no Seikishi balances things with more care and provide a good mix of ecchi, battles and bits of plot development. The length of the episodes is definetly a good point, never leaving a single episode for only ecchiness or only combat, with enough time to develop things with a better quality than what it was expected.
   
   OVAs with OVA-Quality Production
   Isekai no Seikishi brings an overall high-quality work. While the artwork style can be a bit too common for the japanese industry, the overall care and detail to the cast, setting, mechas, and so on is quite impressive. The colorful world filled with cute girls and nice robots is also aided by a great deal of quality animation, boosting its action scenes to put it on par with OVA-quality shows and a step above any of its contemporary competitors. This powerful production value also never loses quality as the show progresses, keeping a steady focus on delivering one of the most interesting animations of its time while still clinging to the typical and somehow nostalgic art style of the late 90's.
   
   It's not as great in the sound department
   Sound track is good, fits the show nicely and helps to create the needed atmosphere with a good opening and average background. While the voice-acting is a bit over the top and the effects are nothing special, the whole thing together is from average to good, never taking the show a step above, but also never compromising any of the experience. The voices of female characters can be a bit annoying, but this problem is shared by hundreds of other shows with young girls and their screechy voices.
   

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Comments
To be sincere, the show surprised me by the time I watched it. The first episode almost made me delete the series from my hard disk, but after the second I started to like it a bit. It's not a great show, it's mostly the typical ecchi stuff, but it was a nostalgic to watch it and at the same time felt very contemporary because of the good production value. I'm not a fan of ecchi, much less of harem stuff, but the show was worth its time and the 45min formulae is something japaneses had to take to heart because it makes things far better in terms of pace and development.

Those who do not care about watching some lame moments and are in the mood of watching some ecchi will definetly find Isekai no Seikishi amusing, but if you're not into any of this stuff, stay away because even if you like mecha, you'll need to withstand many moments that are not serious or mature.

I'm a mecha fan and have only recently heard of this. I see that this isn't typically recommended to mecha fans, as it's actually more of a harem, so I ended up passing on it the first time I looked it up. I saw the name pop up a few more times, so I became curious again and, since the current anime season is starting off slow with few titles that interest me, I decided to finally check it out and I'm glad I did!

I found that once I started watching, [real world] time just flew by. I ended up marathoning half the series in one night--it was almost morning when I decided to put it down. I should also mention that I finished watching the last few episodes of Cowboy Bebop (impressively powerful ones) before starting this up too, a show I couldn't really marathon for more than 2 hours. I thought Cowboy Bebop was good, but for something to get me this hooked, this much, has to have something special to it. I finished watching the series in another marathon the next evening. I can at least attribute this to good story flow.

It's pretty damn impressive for a harem. I don't know if it would've done as well if it tried to be a more serious show--I would've then treated it like NGE or that new one, Infinite Stratos, both of which I thought kind of sucked. I regarded the first half very highly and considered giving the show a higher score, depending on how much I enjoy the plot being uncovered and how well it ends, but unfortunately the second half was when the flaws popped up. Despite that, my overall impression didn't drop any because I was impressed by how well the story unfolded in a way that made sense, like explaining mysterious gadgets and having part of the story show what would happen should it malfunction, by having it actually malfunction.

They really make Kenshi really interesting, I have to admit. About 85% of the show is focused on/follows him and he just is able to entertain with his lively personality. His demeanor is hard to explain; he's just so awesome that nothing is a problem for him except that he doesn't have the same common sense as others in this world. It's kind of cheesy in a tasteful manner. I thought the hot-pot competition in one episode would've been lame, but it just helped develop the characters more in an odd way. To come up with a ridiculous plot, but make it entertaining, makes quite a statement that this is a cleverly written and directed show. It still feels like it's in the intro stage even halfway through with ~50min episodes... what kind of magic did they use? It feels adventurous, getting to see so many parts of the Holy Land. I don't expect much from a harem, but this has exceeded my expectation with its light mood and with depth, having an underlying serious plot which is being plotted while Kenshi is running around unaware.

As expected with a harem show, there's a good deal of ecchi fan service. I have never praised a show for good ecchi fan service and this is no exception. I just wanted to comment that I find that it's relief to get away from the typical fan service with the girls making funny voices and going "Kyaa!" with the fake embarrassed look and the lewd poses with the camera panning out with the background changing to something that makes for a photo or the blantant "voyeur" perspective camera angles. It's done in fairly good taste and isn't just getting camera angles on panty shots... all the perspectives seem to be from a realistic view point from a character's eyes and focus on character reactions rather than making it look like a porno.

All the girls were done pretty well. I really like all the different hairstyles. In the scene with him running past girls (who weren't yet chasing), I found myself checking out the girls and thinking to myself, that one girl on the left with the brown hair and twin tails was kinda cute. They did a good job making Yukine cute too. I have to say that her eyes mesmerize me for some reason. It reminds me of the younger Tenma sister in School Rumble, but those eyes, especially when her irises/pupils flutter, spin, dialate, shrink, and cross...

As for complaints, I, personally, don't like the OP--at least the starting chorus of the song, the topless sequence (makes me hesitate recommending this to others), and the animation quality towards the end, especially the sekijin battle scene in which the white one throws a ball of energy (poorly done). I also don't like when Kenshin turns into "serious/angry mode", but maybe that was done on purpose. The only thing that has left me puzzled is the limit break and a little more detail about the crystals wouldn't hurt, for how important they made them seem. It felt kind of rushed towards the end--ep12 felt epicly overloaded since so much happened that all the info didn't settle too well. There were two climaxes, one in ep12 and one in ep13, and they felt kind of flat and the show seems to ends in a cheesy open-ended harem fashion, but then adds an open serious end too.

It's something I'd recommend to long time anime viewers, especially those who've watched Tenchi Muyo, but isn't anything that would be considered a classic or great show. It's just a surprisingly entertaining harem show that can hook you with its bright whimsical characters, good storytelling/directing, and well done visuals/animation to match them. I have to say it kind of strikes me as a more Sci-Fi "noble" version of Utawaremono.

Basic rundown of scores and reasoning:
Visuals: 8/10 - bright visuals match the show's mood. The world is fairly well detailed, but a bit too blurred and lacks animation. I like how the world gets "deformed" by weapons and shows damage in the same scene. There was some CG that stuck out, like the main air ship pulling a Star Trek-like U-turn retreat. I especially like the character designs, notably the different hair styles. The sekeshi had interesting designs too: some sharp and sinister/aggressive looking, some graceful, some quick and agile, some noble looking, etc. Their image was fitting considering the pilots' characteristics. No complaints about the animation, except that smoke and explosions could've been better and some short scenes look terribly done (like the group charging at the former student council president at the gate), but it's not really noticeable on the first time watching. Everything looked sharp and clean, maybe too clean at times...
Sound: 8/10 - a huge high quality voice acting staff gives the characters life and standard quality BGM helps fill the silence. The BGM helped to give a dark creepy mood when the camera cut to the enemy flying fortress, helped to give a bright mood with a merry tune when the heroes showed up, and helped to create some tension during sekeishi fights, but whenever there was dialog, it seemed to fade out to the point of not being existent at times. Some sound effects, such as cannons firing, lacked meaningful bass/rumble and some hollow thunks of impact and penetration would've helped. A little polish here, especially with volume tuning, would've helped get the viewer into the show more, feel deeper in the current mood, and would've given the climax points extra impact. I would've liked more OP/ED songs, the OP song being a bit annoying to my ears.
Story: 8/10 - a tour of a world fairly rich in detail with unique culture and with a classic story of peace being disrupted by villains seeking to rule it all and banding together to stop them. This show would be fairly generic, if it weren't for the rich detail and unique "laws" such as Drafts of Ena and use of energy sources such as Ahou and related physics. The culture and different races and the differences with their world and the real world make it very interesting. I sometimes wanted to know more about certain things, but it was all explained in sufficient detail soon after it was introduced.
Character: 8/10 - a very large cast of cute characters which help fill the the menu of an ecchi harem with great variety. All the characters seem to have limited "programming", with few sides to them: duty, selfishness, and fall for the main character. Sometimes it's their duty/selfishness that gets them to fall for the main character, so some have just 1 side. The main characters have some sort of background, relation to others, or notable skill and villains have sneaky selfish motives of taking advantage of others. Overall, very defined, but the characters only seem to be memorable for whatever actions they perform that the viewer seems to like the most. A select few have a special side to them as an added twist, which even gives more depth to the story, such as one character's "weak period". Even all the cute furry animals served some purpose to the story and not just added for the sake of having them.
Value: 8/10 - masterful storytelling and directing marred by simply being an ecchi harem. It's very entertaining, is fairly original compared to others, and the ecchi fanservice stays more modest than other ecchi shows, which tend to feel like watching animated voyeurism. This stays clean enough in the moral realm to be recommendable to most fans of anime. The text based opening was kind of complex--I forgot about it until I saw it again at the end and saw the connection and meaning. There's a little inconsistency that you can catch if you pay attention, such as Kenshin being knocked onto his back forcibly by Gaia and the next scene showing him showing no signs of the shock, instead pleading for the others to retreat. It's good enough to watch again, at least to pay attention more to the visual and audio details rather than the story.
Enjoyment: 7/10 - the show hooks you, but somehow feels unfulfilling. It got me to want to watch more and more, but I never seemed to be satisfied. I don't know how to explain it, but whatever it is, it's this show's achilles heel.