The Great Anime Marathon of 2020! #51 – #55: Did I mention I watched some Isekai?

Damn, I’ve been super busy lately. However, the marathon has been continuing, thus I must not stop posting these before the end of the year! Here comes another set of isekai and isekai-ish anime… because it seems to be popular these days, lol.

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

#51: Log Horizon

• Seasons 1 – 2: Complete series to date (dub)

I’ve been meaning to watch Log Horizon for a very long time but never really got around to it until now. Yup, it’s an isekai, yup it’s very much like Sword Art Online in which are large group of people are trapped in an RPG world for an extended period of time.

However, unlike SOA, we’re stuck in this world throughout the entire series as the mystery of the world slowly unfolds. The cool thing about this series is that it’s actually very smart in a lot of ways and focuses on community building above all else.

Thankfully, Log Horizon is getting a third season coming out… next year? The year after that? It’s hard to tell when, but it’s happening!

#52: Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

This is a series that, in my mind, had a lot of potential, but ended up falling flat on its face. It’s the story of an overpowered protagonist, however, he never ends up doing anything interesting, just the usual thing that I’ve seen too many times in other isekai.

On top of that, it devolves into the whole harem thing too quickly and then just abruptly ends as the adventure literally starts and they move out from the starting area. It has potential, but all of it is wasted.

#53: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

• Season 1 – 2 including OVAs: Complete series to date (dub)
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion (dub)

This is a fun series to watch and is more RPG world rather than isekai. It has an interesting world and interesting cast of characters with some cool action, though it’s not perfect.

I really enjoy DanMachi but it does kind of flounder overall, especially after season 1 where the progression of the overall story seems to slow to a crawl and the sequence of events are more drawn out.

#54: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

A side story that takes place during the events, weaving themselves in and out of the main story from DanMachi season 1, Sword Oratoria is, acceptable and that’s all. It’s a nice addition to the series in that you get to see what certain characters were doing but nothing of consequence really happens.

I realise I’m being pretty critical of the series, but I do like it, it’s just that it’s not up there as one of the best. It’s a good quality show that deserves respect for what it does.

#55: GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There!

• Season 1 – 2: Complete series to date (dub)

Here we go, the first modern isekai I watched, GATE. This series is a guilty pleasure of mine and I love every second of it despite it featuring some of the most horribly overdone tropes.

Gary Stu protagonist? Check. Harem of fine exotic ladies? Check. Overpowered good guys? Check. A story that goes exactly how you think it would? Check.

There are no surprises to this series, however, the reason why I watch it isn’t because it’s some ground breaking spectacle. The reason why I love GATE is that I absolutely love the idea of a modern military fighting a fantasy medieval army with dragons and such.

It’s such a fun concept which works all the way through, and, yes, there’s a sense of Japanese nationalism and it’s overly glorifying the JSDF and the sense of a modern military and government as being “entirely good” to a point of it being too much.

However, there is a case to be made that despite the flaws of the modern world, our civilisations have come a long way to what they once were, where slavery and such things were seen as acceptable and common place.

Hey, I just want to see a dude firing an RPG at a dragon and an attack chopper taking down armoured knights. I like what I like.