-This review contains spoilers (does it matter though?).
-"Why would you expect anything out of this show?" simple, because I am stupid.
-In hindsight, I feel like the time I spent watching this show could have been used on something better, like finally catching up on OP or just watching other seasonals. Mistakes were made.
My experience with I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too (This is the first and last time I'm going to mention the full title. Nobody has time for that), was bizarre. It was fun in the moment, but now it feels like time wasted. It is mediocre, and neither the world, art, or the story was particularly engaging, but the continuous onslaught of random bullshit and cringe in every episode made it impossible for me to give it up. I was astounded at how a work could be everything and nothing at the same time. It is pretty amazing isn't it? to have thirteen episodes where nothing happens except one losing one's mind gradually week by week thinking, "why am I here?". Unironically, this show made me feel like I was watching this stagnant crap again , but that is way better produced and the women don't have the personality of their boob size. Isekai cheat is like a chameleon. It's ugly, and it changes as it pleases without a single care, the latter being something it has in common with its MC Yuuya, who is one of the most blatant self-inserts I've laid eyes on. As a whole, This show is like the origin story of the "After" series (someone's Harry Styles fanfic , in case you don't know the lore). Cheat Skill is ultimately just like that, a fanfiction that you can use to escape reality, all while wondering just what the hell goes on inside the the mind that made it come to life. As if the shameless act of the author beating his own meat every single episode wasn't enough, there were 13 episodes of what I'd describe as mostly white noise. In the end, I am wondering what even was the main plot of this travesty.
Sincerely, my expectations when watching this at first were none, but during the first half of the premiere, my dumbass believed that I was going to find a possible gem. I didn't. The characters all feel like fodder and I cannot see myself remembering their names or even appearance in a few months. In shows like these, the selling point for me at least, isn't the fantasy world but the cute girls. That being said, while the female cast looks cute (they all have same face syndrome,it is hard to make any of them not so), it doesn't matter since their personalities are akin to a paperdoll. They have zero character because said character boils down to their one prominent trait. You have your nice girl, the outgoing classmate, the rich blonde girl, the tsundere, the teacher, and a few others that are just as boring. While I don't find any of them annoying, I also don't find any of them endearing. The model was close but ultimately the show just didn't bother. If the girls aren't there, then surely the rest of the cast can save the show right? no. The rest of the characters are just as useless and bland. It would be repetitive to talk about the supporting cast when all of it is most of the same. They exist to masturbate the MC, and that's it. The only thing I see myself remembering from this show (besides the ending song. I like it), at least for a while, is the MC and not for anything other than the immense dissapointment I feel over his wasted potential. Yuuya is a weird character cuz he feels like the biggest self insert of all time, but also like a human once in a blue moon. In shows you mostly have your perverts, your dumbasses, overpowered badasses, and your nice guys, but Yuuya has to be a whole ass category by himself. This guy is a mix of every single thing you can think of. It feels like if the author couldn't decide who they wanted to be, so they put every single trait in a blender and rolled with it. It's like when you go to an ice cream place and go ham on the top ups only to end up with a stomachache cuz not everything can mix well. Yuuya is a Gary Stu, with just enough traits for the average person to feel bad for him. In the first episode and for the most part up to episode 4, I had empathy for this character. When you try to look at the MC from the POV of someone who had just recently been treated as less than human for being obese and unnatractive, some of the shenanigans that come after might seem within expectation, even as things that were "deserved". Key word, "some".
Even when knowing what the title is, and that this was an isekai, I can't be the only one who after the first half of the first episode (you could even argue episodes 2 and 3. I still had some hope in those), thought that this could potentially be about this guy becoming better by his own effort and gaining his life back or even getting a dream and chasing after it (the model plot line anyone?no? ok). It feels like wasted potential, and it pains me. It could have been a good starting point for a coming-of-age story, but it ultimately had to be what it was advertised as, a wish fulfillment fantasy. There are some moments in the show that I honest to god thought that were going somewhere, and that looked like potential character development. In episode 2, Yuuya wasn't comfortable eating a crepe because he thought he would become fat again. Part of me thought, "just work out later , imbecile" and another part of me thought about how this action was very on brand with someone who clearly has a bad relationship with food. In that episode and up to episode 4, it is also understandable how him being perceived as attractive or having his company sought after was weird for him (body dysmorphia after insane weight loss is very common). This is behavior that does match someone who doesn't have much self-esteem and who has probably been treated like garbage, hence why I will not get tired of saying that his character and self-growth story would have been much better received and more entertaining than watching his harem of boring ass girls grow and him pulling off stunts that are almost impossible for the majority of the population. I remember laughing my ass off when in SAO Kirito beat Suguha in a kendo match, even though she had experience while he had none. This show takes my suspension of disbelief even deeper into the abyss by making Yuuya be a master of everything. Anything you can think of, he can do. He was: a Model, a Master Chef, a Forest Ranger, Bear Wrestler, Pocker Master, a Firefighter. There are not enough characters to write every single thing this abomination called Yuuya can be. The guy was putting seasonal firefighters to shame when he saved his wives from a fire. It's insanity. As if it wasn't painful enough to watch the show slowly deteriorate every episode, the entirety of the anime's narrative (can't speak for the light novel) spits on the one thing it could improve (the MC) because it makes everything about his looks. Everywhere he goes, random people wet their panties over him, no men or women, or literally anyone is safe. This gets annoying fast and gives me the impression that none of the things he did could have been achieved if he was overweight. Kaori talking to him and wanting him to join her school, sure. Other than that, hard to believe, within the current story anyway. To make this point even more believable, in episode 11 Yuuya said he wasn't the kind of person Kaori and the others would accept, and the girl changed the subject ASAP. I was laughing my ass off. Oh, what a tragedy. It is what it is, garbage.
There is not much else to talk about. The show doesn't look good, you can tell the staff was overworked and tired of drawing this trash for probably less than a dollar per cut. The "animation" is almost nonexistent, given how many slideshows there are (episode 12 was a Power Point presentation of GRASS). Isekai Cheat has more slides than any of the Power Point presentations I've done in my entire school life. This anime somehow managed to look worse than what I would arguably call the weakest show in the art department this season, Hell's Paradise. It is just so fucking bad. From comedy skits being just a character standing while screaming, to action scenes so fucking blurry that I wonder if I even have my glasses on, to constant exposition scenes where the subtitles move more than the characters in the shot. It feels like an insult to art in every single way. The cinematography, if you can even call it that, is no better than an average Indian soap opera. To make it even worse, to save money the show abuses shots of the character's faces zoomed in so that they don't have to draw the rest of the body. This is reminiscent of all the times I've drawn headshots to avoid drawing hands. Amazing. Unironically, this show is honestly carried by the furries (just like the old Deviant Art days). The dog, the piglet, and the alpha bunny were mostly the only saving grace.Unrelated, but it was pleasant to watch animals being animals (for the most part), considering I watched this astrocity this year.
Anytime I hear someone say that SAO is the worst anime of all time, I am going to have to recommend this. There are levels even in mediocrity and Isekai Cheat is in no way comparable to the former. In fact, shows like Isekai Cheat are probably why I don't even watch isekai, it has the majority of the tropes that tend to put me off. To add insult to the injury, there isn't anything to take away from this show. It is cheap with every letter of the word, and besides the random shit that happens in every episode, it is just you watching the author's wet dream of getting shredded and impressing every girl he comes across.
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