Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 30, 2023 07:46 AM (LZ7Bg)

Posted by: Mauser at May 30, 2023 07:16 PM (BzEjn)

Posted by: Mauser at May 30, 2023 07:18 PM (BzEjn)

Posted by: Mauser at June 03, 2023 03:49 PM (BzEjn)

Posted by: Mauser at June 06, 2023 07:34 PM (BzEjn)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Maybe more, as I've got 8 of them in the queue...

AKA Kamikatsu: Working for God in a Godless World.

Of all the entries into an alternate world, this one had to suck the most. Our hero, Urabe Yukito, is the son of a cult leader, and has been raised since birth to be the chosen one of their god, Mitama. Needless to say, it really sucked to be him, and he doesn't even believe in Mitama. That suck is about to come to an end, because Dad decided the ritual to get Yukita to prove his holiness and emerge as the new leader of the cult is to have him bound in a barrel with only his head sticking out, and be thrown into the ocean. Supposedly he will return in three days because he is so holy. Yukito looks upon it as an end to his suffering. As his life flashes before his eyes, not a single scene of anything good appears. He silently wishes that if a god really exists, he would prefer to be reincarnated in a world with no gods or religion, so he can make friends and lead a normal life.

Which is where he basically ends up.

He wakes up by the side of a stream where a cute pink haired girl is trying to revive him, but with instructions that are apparently from a sex manual that she has read, but doesn't really understand. She apologizes profusely and swears to take care of him until he is fully well, and let him eat for free in the restaurant she and her sister run. She introduces herself as Alural. Her older sister is Siluril

Looking around at the rural medieval town he is in, he assumes that he's in some kind of game world. But it turns out there is no guild for him to join, no stats screens, no quests, no magic, gods, or quests. No levels to be gained from hard work. Although he does gain the friendship and good will of the rest of the village when he over-harvests the grapes they sell to a nearby winery, and shows them how to make their own. Life settles into a routine of working all day and drinking into the evening, and it's not bad.

But then they visit the Capitol, and Yukito witnesses an End of Life ritual, which seems like a cross between ritual suicide and an execution. To his horror, he learns that when the country orders it, people are expected to kill themselves. Rob, one of his best friends from the village explains that their village is treated differently, which is part of why they are despised by the people of the capitol, who popularly think they should all be disposed of because they are deviants (Thought criminals for not wanting to die, or something, it's not 100% clear).

Shortly afterward, the village is raided. Both of the girls and a number of the guys are taken. Yukito rushes to the capitol and discovers he is too late, everyone but Alural has been hanged, and since there is no room on the gallows, she is put to the sword. Yukito tries to save her, and is run through for his trouble. As he lays there, bleeding out on the cobblestones, he crawls towards Alural and touches the necklace he gave her, the only thing that transferred with him, the symbol of his cult's god, and prays out loud for Mitama to save these good people who were kind to someone as worthless as him.

And it works. Mitama appears as a child-like being clad in light. And is so happy that Yukito has finally called on her that she gets very perturbed to find that he's dead. Mitama consumes all the executioners with tentacles that drag them to hell, then gets right to fixing up Yukito, and apparently everyone else at the same time. The crowd of onlookers, having witnessed a miracle simply turn about-face and leave.

While the rest of the village celebrates their return, Yukita is very troubled by the fact that he has probably turned the entire government's anger on himself and the village.

Upstairs, Alural is with Mitama, trying to force her to wear clothes, and demands to know what her relationship is to Yukita "Since you were hugging him all naked." And she has no idea what the answer of God means. Mitama doesn't help matters by simply saying it's for life, and Alural is shocked, because her only possible interpretation is that Yukita is already married then, and to a little girl. It breaks her brain a little (To the point she's wondering if somehow she could be turned into a little girl if that's what Yukito likes. Ew.) While Alural is freaking out, Siluril explains to Mitama that Alural is in love with Yukita. Mitama sets her straight, mostly, saying that it's good that Yukita has friends like her.

Later, Yukito is asking Mitama just how extensive her godly powers are, and when she claims omnipotence, he suddenly starts thinking in Isekai game terms again, and that Mitama herself is his cheat code. But when she sets out to prove how powerful she is, she totally fails. She then pulls up her own information, and sees that she has Zero followers, so she has no power. (Yukito apparently doesn't count, which pisses off Mitama, who used the last of her power to save them all.)

Suddenly news arrives that Imperial troops are on the way to investigate the incident in the Capitol. Yukito panics trying to figure out what he can do, but finally resolves that he will introduce religion to this godless world so that Mitama will gain followers and power so they can protect the village.

Roy becomes the first follower, although his vision about what that means is more than a little questionable.

Yukita starts making plans for how they will launch building their religion, which is ironic, since that was the fate he was resisting for his entire previous life, but Mitama has her own ideas, which go embarrassingly poorly. If there's one thing that makes me cringe, it's this kind of embarrassment porn.

Yukita then sets up a sort of demo to prove Mitama is divine. This is also cringe. And since Yukita is NOT a true believer, he's trying tricks like what he calls "The Barnum Effect". (Why he would have no faith at this point, since he knows everyone was dead but for Mitama, I don't understand. Even if his upbringing DID leave him utterly cynical about religion).

Mitama though ruins the act with arrogance, just to fuck with Alural over her voluptuous figure. This makes no sense because earlier she told her that she was glad she was a friend to Yukita. Why act jealous now?

Next he attempts a stage illusion, and a few other "Miracles" that fail horribly, until even Mitama's ego starts to flag.

But, like Chekov's gun, this cute, CGI fox creature who totally doesn't fit the style of the animation, which has been running around the town for the last two episodes becomes sick after eating some rat poison. The sisters are heartbroken. When all other efforts fail and the critter dies, Mitama resurrects it.

Achievement Unlocked: Perform a Miracle.

The sisters become followers, and Mitama who was completely depleted by the resurrection experiences a flood of power. Completely beyond what one would expect just by the numbers. Yukita suspects it's because they became followers after seeing a miracle, as opposed to Roy, who is just a perv.

Alural makes a request. She believes all the executioners were "Just doing the jobs they were assigned" and asks Mitama to bring them back. She does, although Bertrand, who was the chief executioner is the only one who comes back naked... and female.

Okay, that's two. I'm kinda iffy on the rest. Maybe one more to find out what the deal is with Bertrand.

Posted by: Mauser at May 29, 2023 10:39 AM (BzEjn)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

This format is getting a bit hard to justify with most series already being up to six episodes....

So, "Starting life in another world with my big sister," yeah, another questionable title translation.

Opening scene is after the adventure is already established, but it then jumps back to the beginning of the setup. Which is pure Isekai Trope. Our hero, Ikusaba Asahi, pushes a little girl out of the way of a car and gets killed. Looking down on the scene from the darkness, he's satisfied that the girl is alright, is annoyed that the new game he was waiting for hadn't come out yet, and misses his sister, Maya. Suddenly a light appears that sucks him in and dumps him on a outcropping outside of a medieval town, and a dragon flies by.  Then they totally hang a lampshade on the fact that there are signs in English and everyone speaks Japanese. Interesting to me is the total lack of divine intervention - No goddesses to explain the situation. But he's played enough games to know what to do, he sells his non-functional phone to get his starting gear and shows up at the adventurer's guild. And of course, there's a cute girl receptionist. Everything is going according to plan....

Then when he goes on his first quest to hunt "Killer" bunnies, he randomly encounters a huge wyvern just as he leaves town....

In the pressure to not die, he finally pulls up a stats screen, and while most Isekai'ed heroes have SOME cheat skill up their sleeves, he's got Level 1 rock throwing, which is useless. Where most people might be crying for their mommies about now, he calls out his sister's name, and she is summoned. She suddenly powers up, and kills the wyvern with a single punch.

She has a massive obsession with her little brother, it seems. Turns out he's merely in a Coma. As she waited faithfully by his bedside, he talked about the other world he was in, so she decided to join him.... by bashing her head against the wall until she was out too! And it turns out she has no idea how to get back either.

The story then resumes where it was at the opening, where Maya totally steps on Asahi's attempt to defend a village from the Three Orc brothers. (BTW, Maya's adventuring outfit borrows a whole lot of cues from Yoko from Gurran Lagan, but with the middle ages twist.) Asahi may be the nominative hero, but the story is about Maya being the one who is totally OP (and perverted towards her little brother).

Unfortunately, Maya's power gets attributed to Asahi, so he goes flying up the guild ranks, which he can't really justify, and which could get him in serious trouble. And of course, rather than say, registering Maya with the guild and getting everything straight, they set up for future hijinks by deciding she needs to keep her skills secret and keep pretending it's really him.

The end scene shows the big rival, a hot demoness who is so overpowered she's bored. She sensed Maya's arrival, and hopes to fight to the death.

In the second episode...

The demoness basically one-hits the top adventuring team who left to take her on in the previous episode. Asahi sneaks out of the inn to try to take on quests on his own so he can gain EX and be stronger on his own. And Maya... she is seduced by Asahi's still warm blankets.... It's so over the top it's actually funny more than creepy.

The adventurer's guild girl is named Tanya. She has tanned skin and pinkish hair. She presents Asahi with two quests that his inflated "Ogre Class" rank qualifies for, which would surely kill him. He somehow manages to impress her by asking for something simple, close to town so that he can come back quickly just in case of an emergency, so she gives him a mushroom picking quest (with a beware of bear warning).

Of course the bear shows, and chases him, and out of the blue, a bolt of magic blasts the bear, and the shockwave sends him flying into a pair of breasts. Only it's not who he expected, it's not Maya, but the demoness. She seems tickled by Asahi calling her big sister. When a dozen bears show up, she throws him in the air, one shots them all, and catches him. Killing that many bears provokes the forest guardian, the Kaiser Bear, and he's heard of her, referring to the demoness as Kilmaria of Corruption. After she one-hits the Kaiser Bear, she identifies herself as one of the Demon King's six generals. Then she reassures him that she won't hurt him, because she has zero interest in fighting weaklings. But then she asks if he's heard of an adventurer named Ikusaba Asahi, because she's heard about this guy flying up the guild rankings and all the one-hit kills he's made, and she'd love to fight him to the death.

He tries to sneak off, but he drops his ID/rank coin from the guild, and she sees it, and reads his name... Seems like the jig is up....

But Maya has a flash of Spidey-Sense! Will she get there in time?

Of course, it's only episode 2.

Kilmaria is flying after Asahi as he's running away ("That's cheating!"), and a sudden blast splits them up, sending Asahi into another pair of breasts, but there's no mistaken identity this time.

Kilmaria comes over to confront whoever interrupted her fight with this legendary hero. Maya says she felt that Asahi was in danger, that his virtue was threatened....

The look on Kilmaria's face is priceless!

They come to blows! They are both shocked that one hit didn't end it!

Their epic battle is totally off the scale, and they're evenly matched! But eventually Maya prevails. However Asahi won't let her finish Kilmaria off (After all, she saved him from bears several times).

The episode finishes with them returning home, having dinner made from the mushrooms, and Maya taking a bath that might be more visible on a BlueRay.

All in all, I found it funny, and the OP promises lots of cute girls. That they drop to a lower art style for reaction shots is a little cheap, but okay. And they managed to set up the series in two episodes, which is rare. I imagine that some people might be turned off by Maya's over the top brother fixation, but it's played for laughs rather than being as creepy as some other shows.

Posted by: Mauser at May 14, 2023 12:20 PM (BzEjn)

Posted by: Mauser at May 28, 2023 02:41 PM (BzEjn)

Hide Comments | Add Comment