This review contains spoilers.

This review was originally written on Sep 26, 2017.

A first impression. We get it from anime's synopsis, source material and sometimes even from the "thumbnail" and title alone. Something that can start a huge buzz around a particular work and can make it the most famous and the hottest show of the season, huh, sometimes even a show of the year, be it 2016's Erased and Re:Zero, or it can doom an anime from the very beginning, which the most recent Hajimete no Gal's a great example of. And in the case of Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni, it's certainly the latter. Many people've been drawn back because of how it presents itself. At first, it looks like your generic tasteless and meaningless show in an overused isekai setting, which has become something like a subgenre on its own. And even though judging a book by its cover is very superficial, I'll try my hardest to truly show you that, in this instance, that saying's enormously right and also why this anime deserves nothing more than hate and contempt.

We'll start with the least odious aspect: the production values. While they're not as bad as the characters and plot, which I'll discuss later on, the visuals and music are the embodiment of the word passionless. It's relatively easy to spot that there's no love or effort put into either of them.

The art style is merely uninspired and devoid of personality. Cutesy and painfully mediocre, that is what it is. I think that I have seen these types of plain backgrounds, bright colour palettes, and cute character designs in quite literally every single isekai show that does not have any unique qualities nor any interesting quirks in its animation. A perfect example of that "uniqueness" is No Game No Life's animation, which bombards us with the brightest and the most blinding colours in the universe. I tried to overlook that, and for a decent amount of time, I thought that the art style and animation used here were not bad. I thought of it as the only thing in this show that did not sink below the level of being so-so. Surprisingly enough as the series progressed, for some weird reason, which I am assuming is the lack of funds, the condition of it, went downhill drastically. From being mediocre, then by having junky and choppy frames in some scenes, to in the end becoming less of animation and more of a drawing made by an eight-year-old kid in Paint, with sketchy character outlines, their expressions and actions.

We can say the same about the sound. While the art style and animation are bearable and eventually become abysmal, the sound has to take the cake for being the part that sank this ship called production value, below the level of being middling from the very beginning. An opening, which while I do not dislike J-pop, has nothing more to offer than being your typical and generic anime opening #2321. The ending, which has somewhat grasped my interest with its interesting enough concept of having the main female characters sing the same annoying song in different episodes thus creating a few versions of the same song. And finishing on an imperceptible soundtrack, that I do not know if even exists. These songs are not even to the slightest degree pleasant-sounding or worth remembering, and it feels like they were thrown in randomly. There is also one thing that bugged me and made me question my ability to hear correctly, and that element is the sound objects make when they interact with a character or the environment. We can hear it very commonly in later-ish episodes, where for instance an ordinary (walking) teddy bear while shaking his head, would make a beeping sound and boobs would make a sound of a trampoline.

Now onto the more important parts.

Starting with the premise, the very first and easily noticeable handicap. The premise is what will draw potential viewers in and will make them watch the first episode. It is the igniter of every single anime, movie or any other type of medium. Without at least a semi-interesting setting, it will be impossible to make an enjoyable piece of entertainment. And with this basic concept, which everyone knows since they were born, Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni, is a perfect example of how not to make an intriguing premise. Touya Mochizuki, whose problematic existence I will bring up later on, was accidentally killed by a bolt of lightning sent by God himself. The boy appears in a heaven-ish place and the omnipresent being apologises to him, a random human child and as an apology, he wants to revive him in the eponymous "another" world with his wished item, which is again the eponymous smartphone. See where the problem resides?

I know that it may sound flat, but it lies within this setting's level of uncreativity and stupidity.

And it can be seen in the quality of the writing. Every single episode falls into one simple scheme: Our main character finds someone in need, whether it be some random girls, or some unimportant kings and noble people, offers them his help and saves them from oppression, thus making them fall for him. But how does he do that? Is he such a charismatic personality that everyone wants to be with him? Well, God offered him two reality-bending abilities, the strongest plot devices you could have imagined: his newly given godlike powers and his smartphone. And while his Jesus level might be rather self-explanatory, his smartphone can enhance the magic, transfer it and be used as a magic item, which makes little to no sense. This episode structure can be seen at its fullest in the 4th episode when Touya saves the duke's brother from poison in about a minute, with the usage of that one spell that no one could use. In an instant, everyone in that room starts clinging to him in the blandest way possible. It ideally shows how pathetically lazy is the plot itself. There is no thrill, no excitement, nothing. What is the point of creating a problem when it can be solved in a blink of an eye? For our plot to progress? It does not happen since we do not have a clear goal. So what is it? The only thing that seems to matter is expanding our main character's harem with cardboard cutouts and making more and more beings worship him as a God after a short showcase of his powers. The same can be said about fight scenes, and do not get me started on them. They are the most pointless moments in this show. If a monster or, in a worse scenario, a group of humans attack our group of main characters, they are a non-existent threat since Touya is always there to save the day in one single move. Nothing encourages us to dive into this wacky world, which by the way, is terribly built. The cause for that is Touya's ability to teleport. It leaves us dumbfounded since we do not know exactly the place where our characters are teleported to and how far they are from their previous location.

And even if there were comedy anime series with lousy concepts, they were done in a somewhat proper manner, by putting a huge emphasis on the comedy and its characters, the two aspects which Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni does not comprehend. The comedy is plainly awful. On some occasions, the whole joke is some stupidly forced fanservice scene, which the creators are trying to push down your throat, while in others, it is a stupid oneliner that has little to no sense and is not funny.

And now, the characters.

Starting with the icing on the cake, the pinnacle of this show is Touya. He is your ordinary young boy who after being transported into this dull fantasy world became the worst type of character you can find within anime as a medium, the "overpowered" protagonist. I dislike that word as it has been thrown around in a meaningless fashion, but there is no better way to describe this kind of character. And while we have some decently made "overpowered" characters, there is an enormous amount of terribly written ones, and a splendid example of such a protagonist is Kirito from Sword Art Online, the Jesus-kun. Touya shares a very similar facial line, hairstyle or even the type of clothing that Kirito is wearing, but with a different colour. Touya, whom from now on I will refer to as Jesus-kun the Second, just like his predecessor, has to live with the burden of having an enormous amount of "charisma" that attracts any brainless female character from across the ocean. It is a very cheap trick to make him into a "relatable" character. He is like every loser's dream and the perfect version of themselves, which they cannot and will not be. Jesus-kun the Second is a one-dimensional, bland and empty cardboard cutout with zero personality and motivation whatsoever, just like the original. He is a shell with some gold sprinkling on top of it, while on the inside he is simply a hollow and odious abyss of nothingness. He has no redeeming qualities, just like...

The female cast. I hate this kind of character with such an intense burning passion that it is unimaginable. While characters like Touya and Kirito are pure laughing material since they can do everything, it is quite funny to see them pull some deus ex machina bullshit out of nowhere. However, the girls surrounding them are just pitiful. I will not go on and describe every single one of them as it would be truly pointless since none of them differs from one another. The only thing that is unique to each of them is their name and appearance since all of them are reduced to the role of being something like an achievement or even an object for our Gary Stu to collect throughout the series. They have less personality than a bag of potatoes and are simply a bunch of one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, insulting to every single girl on the face of Earth. These human wannabes are here for only one goal: to be Jesus-kun the Second's harem, suck on to him like a leech and keep on blushing whenever he compliments them or breathes at them.

I hate both of these character types as they are honestly worthless and offensive in every manner possible. Watching them interact with each other was agony in itself, but could there be anything even worse than that? Oh boy, you have seen nothing.

The episodes from 8th to 11th, are what I would consider the most pain-inducing amount of time spent in my entire time. At the start of the 8th episode, we are greeted with a scene that began the period of a new low which Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni hit. We get an entirely forced fanservice scene, which while tasteless and unnecessary is not utterly dreadful and might be easy to overlook. After some other terrible scenes, we spend some time in the episode following an unimportant hollow "background" character, and in the end, we get a new addition to Jesus-kun the Second's harem. In the 9th episode, we are treated to a scene when I started crying. Around 15 minutes into the episode, Leen, an unimportant harem member number #421, while being invisible, starts sexually harassing a character introduced to serve as a joke. It was a moment when I shed a tear. A tear of agony and torture of how deeply can something fall. Then we have yet another showcase of Jesus-kun the Second's might by finishing a randomly implemented evil guy in a second. The episode ends with the scenery of a beach, and you know what it means? And so rolls in the first beach episode (the 10th one). We have utterly horrible and tasteless fanservice of the main female cast and some background characters reduced to the role of a boob shot material pretty much consistently throughout the 21 minutes of the episode. The 11th episode shows us how the animation from average can go downhill at the speed of light. But even that was nothing in comparison to a scene where a cyborg sex toy (I am not even joking, that character is introduced to us like it.) pushes her tongue right in the Jesus-kun the Second's throat, and the gorgeous cutouts lose their minds. As for the 12th episode, I am speechless. Confessing love in the fakest and most childish way possible and a random deus ex machina, but I guess I should have expected that.

So, did I enjoy Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni? NO. I think I have never been in a situation where an anime gave me emotional instability. From laughing my ass out at horrendous and cheesy episodes to a moment when I nearly destroyed a glass of juice, which was standing right next to me, with my bare hand. The only word that would correctly describe what was happening to me would be, dying. Every single episode, every single minute and second of this 12-episode series was painful to the fullest meaning of this word, causing me to suffer massive mental and physical damage, from nearly everything in this show.

In conclusion, Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni is by far the laziest, most awful, insulting, and borderline idiotic anime brought to our screens. One-dimensional cardboard cutouts with the same amount of personality as a pair of wellies, weak production value and terrible ideas, executed horribly. This show is nothing more than a stinky pile of cliches and insanity lying so lowly that it reached the core of our planet. I would not recommend this show to anyone unless you are a masochist.