I'm Standing on a Million Lives

What first attracted me to this anime was the title. I'm Standing on a Million Lives. I just had to know, would this story have a plot as evocative as its title? After finishing the first season, my answer to this question is mostly yes.

I'm Standing on a Million Lives is an isekai in the vein of works such as Welcome to Japan, Miss Elf and Shunkan Lyle in that they travel back and forth between worlds. Wherein a prototypical isekai work the other world serves as an escapist backdrop for the hero to play around in and usually come out on top, with accolades and an arm-full of women I'm Standing on a Million Lives is different. The isekai world here functions a lot like a game, (Hitman in particular) but its purpose is not to give the heroes a playground where they can traipse around and feel good about themselves by winning at life. The heroes here fail. A lot. And the choices they are forced to make in the other world are sometimes deeply uncomfortable or traumatic. In direct contrast to works where the other world is the escape, here the other world forces them to directly confront aspects of their selves they'd rather turn away from.

One of the things I found fascinating about this work was that many of the aspects of the other world can be read as metaphors for what the heroes are going through in the real world. Yuusuke, Kusue and Iu are children on the cusp of adulthood being forced to choose a path for themselves for the rest of their lives. The other world is a place where they can explore their options and experience which path is right for them. Yuusuke who doesn't know what he wants to do in life can try out many different jobs to see what is right for him. Although it may look like there is only 1 clear way to clear a task there are actually infinite possibilities and as long as they look for a way together they can achieve it. I'm Standing on a Million Lives opposes the idea of a solitary hero. This isn't a game they can win by working alone. Although it may take them all taking their own solo journeys at certain times they are all working in concert to achieve a goal for the collective group. It asserts that working together is not only the best way to survive, it's the only way.

Notice that I've been saying "heroes" and not hero. That's because I'm Standing on a Million Lives has no one single hero. It's an ensemble cast and each of the 4 main party members established in the first season are fully realized characters. One gripe I often have with isekai properties is that the female characters often feel like props or simply static archetypes. That is absolutely not the case here. Although there are 3 female characters and 1 male in the ensemble it is NOT a harem. The girls don't hate Yuusuke but they certainly aren't tripping over themselves for him either. These girls have their own goals, desires, insecurities and flaws and the show gives them the screentime to have their own time in the spotlight. We, the audience can't count on any one character always saving the day because in their own ways, each party member is the main character of their own story. And this made for a much more engaging watch since you never actually know how things are going to play out. The 4th party member, Yuka was less developed than the others on account of showing up later in the run-time but I still found her nuanced and very likeable all the same.

All in all, the characters in I'm Standing on a Million Lives were standout and ultimately serve as vehicles to disseminate the main point of the story as a whole; what is the value of a human life? So the series asks this question but does not commit to fully answering it. I'm leaving room for this to be explored further in the second season but I personally felt that it could have been a stronger running thread throughout the entire work and been more effective overall if more of the plot threads revolved around this idea. A lot of the backstories and character motivations don't directly address this and it really only starts to become more relevant once the plot twist is unveiled. That being said when asking a question like "what is the value of a human life?" there is the potential for the story to get really bogged down and unbearably depressing like Bokurano did so I'm actually really grateful for the amount of brevity we got in I'm Standing on a Million Lives. Although there were some pretty bleak and depressing moments the showrunners somehow managed to keep the overall tone light and airy with some well timed gags and colourful character quirks. In this way the show manages to be thought-provoking without being preachy or hitting you over the head with its morals.

I have some qualms with the series like Yuusuke's character arc being kind of all over the place but the things I liked about it vastly outweigh my gripes. Quirks like being able to equip any equipment from previous jobs that have been mastered and not being able to pick up other people's weapons were so charming to me. It's not just a silly wish-fulfilment fantasy romp, there is real substance here and commentary to be made on society and humanity as a whole. Overall I found I'm Standing on a Million Lives to be utterly engrossing, thoughtful and hilarious at the same time. And hey the very fact that this is an isekai and I liked it should be considered extremely high praise. Can't wait for season 2!