The Great Anime Marathon of 2020! #41 – #45: More Isekai!

Now that I’ve revealed a tiny bit of the web novel I’m developing, I thought it’s time for another round of isekai in this anime marathon series! This time, we’re going to go for some of the more well known isekai series that are out there.

The following is a spoiler-free list of anime I’ve seen this year in no particular order:

#41: Sword Art Online

• Season 1 – Whatever the hell the latest season is meant to be, including OVAs: Complete series to date (dub)
• Sword Art Online: The Movie: Ordinal Scale (dub)

Let’s start this off… Sword Art Online is not horribly bad and it’s not all that great… it’s just good in the overall scheme of things. It does have its moments, particularly through the Phantom Bullet and Mother’s Rosario arcs, but for the most part, it’s meh.

I tend to find that this series gets brought down heavily by its main character, Kirito, who isn’t so much a Mary Sue as people like to call him, but is just plain boring. The only time when I ever found him interesting was during the Phantom Bullet arc when he was actually facing the demons of his past and the reminder of his past actions, but aside from that… meh.

Asuna ends up being a much better main character than Kirito and when Sinon is hands down my favourite yet criminally underused character in the series. Both Asuna and Sinon struggle, grow and change over time while Kirito is just Kirito pretty much all the way through the series. Nothing really changes and he doesn’t really grow, he’s pretty much the exact same character from the first episode as he is in the last episode where you see him talk.

It’s all a very interesting premise, but the execution of a lot of it is pretty horrible. Though, I guess there is a pretty good reason why this anime is so popular for the most part. Most people who just consume and don’t want to think about the anime they watch beyond its entertainment value wouldn’t even think about any of the criticisms I have about the series as being anything worth complaining about.

#42: Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

This one may be a surprise to some, but not for others, but I absolutely loved Gun Gale Online in every way. Unlike Sword Art Online that seemed to squander its premise for the most part and go all over the place, GGO is razor focused on its story.

The characters are all on point, the setting in GGO is awesome, the battles are all excellent. Hell, there’s very little about this series that I can complain about. It’s just a whole lot of fun all the way through. I wish the rest of Sword Art Online was this well built and this much fun to watch.

It’s all about a girl who just wants to be cute and her talking pink FN P90 that is never explained!

#43: Wise Man’s Grandchild

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

This is one of the lesser known series on the list, but it does have that idea of a character who uses his brain which I like. The idea that scientific knowledge of the elements and other factors can make you a better magician is really interesting to me. It’s also a kind of thread that I find in some other isekai like Knights’ & Magic.

As a result of Shin’s monstrous magical abilities, he constantly surprises and scares the hell out of everyone else, which is always entertaining to watch. The only big problem with this series is that it’s a single season and it ends when it’s just about to get good.

#44: No Game No Life

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

With the light novel release of this being suddenly disappeared from Amazon along with a few other series, I thought it’d be a good idea to talk a little about this anime.

Like a lot of anime out there, this series has a set of overpowered/genius protagonists who completely steamroll their way through everyone and everything, however, the way they do it is very entertaining.

To Sora and Shiro, games are their life and the world they’re both transported to allow them to do what they do best. This is a series that takes two codependent shut-in NEETs and sets them loose on a world that revolves around solving all conflicts by playing games.

Naturally, these two end up ruling the kingdom within a few days… and next, the world! The problem is, like many isekai out there, we never get that far!

Which is too bad because the way our two main character go about their quest for world domination was really interesting and the light novel ban is complete bullshit. To hell with Amazon and their digital book burning practices. There’s a disturbing trend of Japanese media being disappeared and censored from storefronts around the world and I really do not like it at all.

#45: Goblin Slayer

• Season 1, including OVA: Complete series to date (sub & dub / OVA: sub)
• Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown (sub, viewed during second lockdown)

Now this is a series that deserves all the praise it can get. Goblin Slayer is smarter than people give it credit for… I’m talking about the people who simply judge the series by its first scene and don’t bother thinking about why that scene exists in the greater context of the story being told.

It’s extremely simple. Goblin Slayer does only one thing… he slays goblins. Why? Because goblins are a threat to everyone but the work of slaying goblins is seen as dirty, lowly work by most adventurers and generally not worth their time.

Goblin Slayer is the man who gets down into the dirt and muck and does the job that needs to be done to protect the people and prevent tragedies that befall on regular folk like he use to be in his childhood.

There will always be a group of heroes who will be recognised for their efforts in slaying a demon king that arises, but very few people speak of a lowly slayer of goblins who performs an equally important function in society.

If you haven’t seen Goblin Slayer… you need to see Goblin Slayer.

UPDATE (2020/8/10): Also, watched Goblin’s Crown… it was alright, not as good as the series. Felt more like it was setting things up for the next part of the story rather than it being a thing of its own.