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2021 Anime Tier List

By DoubleSama | February 5, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

2021 Anime at a Glance

In today’s article, I’m going to be running through “all” the anime that started and finished airing in 2021 that I watched. There are a couple of things missing, and some others added you might not think count. But, I’ll explain those choices when I get to them.

Also, I previously wrote articles on the Top 5 Anime of 2021 (outdated) and the Worst 5 Anime of 2021 that go into more detail regarding the best and worst anime of the year. This article is more of a general overview of the year.

Something you may notice about this tier list is that it’s skewed towards higher scores. There are many more 7s and 6s than 4s and 3s. That’s not because I tend to score things higher (mostly). It’s more due to the fact that I primarily select anime to watch that I think I’ll enjoy.

I could easily even out my scores by watching more anime I know are going to be bad. But I don’t like watching bad anime that much.

Oh, and the farther left an anime is within a tier, the higher-rated it is. So the leftmost anime is the best of the tier and the rightmost is the worst. I don’t always do that with tier lists, but I did this time.

10 – Masterpiece

One of the first things to catch your eye when looking at my tier list is that I have no anime from 2021 rated at 10/10. There was one anime that came close, which I’ll mention in the 9/10 section. But I just didn’t feel like I could give it a 10.

9 – Great

The three anime I rated 9/10 are Pui Pui Molcar, Mushoku Tensei Part 2, and Sonny Boy. Pui Pui Molcar is the one I considered rating at 10/10. But, all of these anime, including Molcar, didn’t rise to meet the threshold for “Masterpieces.”

8 – Very Good

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation anime series cover art — Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

There were five anime I rated 8/10 in 2021. These are Mushoku Tensei Part 1, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S, Magia Record 2nd Season, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Arc, and To Your Eternity.

To Your Eternity has been bumped out of my top 5 anime of 2021 since I watched more anime from the year between the time I wrote my top 5 article and now. I also included the Mugen Train Arc as a 2021 anime because I watched the TV version, not the movie version.

Also, although I watched Mini Dragon, the short-form series that accompanied Dragon Maid S, I haven’t included it on this tier list because of how little content it had.

7 – Good

Nine anime were rated 7/10 in 2021. They are Fruits Basket: The Final Season, Non Non Biyori Nonstop, Horimiya, Laid-Back Camp Season 2, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, Nomad: Megalo Box 2, Attack on Titan: Final Season, Re:ZERO: Season 2 Part 2, and Wonder Egg Priority.

Attack on Titan: Final Season technically began airing in 2020. But that’s just because it was 16 episodes. It’s still considered a winter 2021 season anime, so I’ve chosen to include it.

Additionally, while I did watch the Wonder Egg Priority Special, I haven’t included it as a separate entry on this list. Instead, I’ve placed Wonder Egg Priority at the bottom of this tier to show that the special does bring the series as a whole down.

6 – Fine

Pretty Boy Detective Club anime series cover art — Pretty Boy Detective Club

My 6/10 tier has 15 anime, so I’ll split them up into three groups of five. The top five anime of this tier are Pretty Boy Detective Club, My Hero Academia Season 5, Higurashi – Sotsu, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, and My Senpai is Annoying.

You may say my Nisioisin and Shaft bias is showing, But I stand by Pretty Boy Detective Club being the best 6/10 anime. And although I complain about MHA a lot, I do still think it’s usually fun to watch.

The next five anime in the tier are Love Live! Superstar!!, The Aquatope on White Sand, Super Cub, Slime 300, and Heaven’s Design Team. There’s not much to say about these anime; they were all enjoyable.

Higehiro, How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Ω, both parts of TenSura Season 2, and Cells at Work! CODE BLACK round out the bottom of the tier. I gave both Tensura Season 2 parts the same rating, but I do think Part 2 was better than Part 1.

5 – Average

11 anime were ranked 5/10 in 2021. The first half of these are Ganbare Douki-chan, Mieruko-chan, Yuki Yuna: The Great Mankai Chapter, and both Let’s Make a Mug Too Season 2 and Let’s Make a Mug Too. Yes, I wrote Let’s Make a Mug Too Season 2 first because it’s better than Season 1.

The remaining six anime in the Average category are Azur Lane: Slow Ahead!, Cells at Work!!, SSSS.Dynazenon, Dr. Stone: Stone Wars, Kemono Jihen, and Last Dungeon Boonies. I think these six are significantly worse than the previous five anime of the tier, but not enough to be in the 4/10 tier.

4 – Bad

I only rated three anime at 4/10 in 2021. The “Bad” anime are My Next Life as a Villainess X, The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, and The Promised Neverland Season 2.

My Next Life as a Villainess is just one of those anime I don’t understand the hype around. Jahy is extremely boring, but not exactly bad aside from that. And I think we all know why The Promised Neverland is down here despite how good the first season was.

3 – Very Bad

Redo of Healer anime series cover art — Redo of Healer

The four anime in the “Very Bad” tier are Redo of Healer, So I’m a Spider, So What?, Deep Insanity: The Lost Child, and Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table. I know a lot of people are going to say So I’m a Spider, So What? is good. But it’s not. The anime is very bad.

Also, although I have Redo of Healer down in the 3/10 category, I think it’s more like a 6 or 7/10 as far as entertainment is concerned. That’s probably the bad anime I had the most fun watching in 2021 because of how absurd everything about it was.

2 – Horrible

The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement and Otherside Picnic are the 2/10 anime from 2021. 7DS: Dragon’s Judgement was an improvement over the previous season, but I’m still glad it’s over. Otherside Picnic had some good ideas but was very poorly executed.

1 – Appalling

The worst two anime of 2021 are Ex-Arm and Osamake. On this tier list, I put Ex-Arm above Osamake. But in my article on the worst anime of the year, I had their positions swapped. I think these are both so terrible that either one could be the worst of the worst.

Conclusion

I know there are multiple anime placements on this tier list that you don’t agree with. So let me know what they are in the comments.

If you enjoyed this tier list breakdown, let me know by clicking the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

What Is the Best Anime Opening of Fall 2021?

By DoubleSama | February 2, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

First Community Event

Starting in 2022, I’m hosting events over on my Discord server. Anyone who joins the server and accepts the rules is eligible to participate. You get bonus server XP and an event-specific role badge for participating. Come hang out with us.

For the first event, we did a bracket to determine what the best anime opening (OP) of the fall 2021 season was. This bracket ran from January 1st – 31st, with a new OP matchup for community members to vote on each day.

Our next community event is planned to begin on March 1st and will be another bracket to determine the best OP from the winter 2022 season. So if you’re interested in participating, you know where to go.

32-Seed Bracket

Since we did a single-elimination bracket over 31 days, that means we started with 32 anime. How I decided on which 32 were going to make the cut was I opened MyAnimeList and selected the 32 most popular anime of the season.

But, doing so cut out 3 anime I had watched during this season. So, I chopped off the bottom 3 anime on my list of 32 which I was pretty sure nobody in my Discord server watched and replaced them with the final 3 series I watched.

The seeding for the bracket was simply based on where each anime ranked popularity-wise. So the most popular anime of the season was the 1st seed and the least popular (of the 32) was the 32nd seed. The result was the following seeding chart (Japanese names used):

Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu.
Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu Part 2
Takt Op. Destiny
Mieruko-chan
Platinum End
Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru
Blue Period
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen
86 Part 2
Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi
Saihate no Paladin
Ousama Ranking
Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita
Shinka no Mi: Shiranai Uchi ni Kachigumi Jinsei
Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu
Sakugan
Taishou Otome Otogibanashi
World Trigger 3rd Season
Isekai Shokudou 2
Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu
Heike Monogatari
Build Divide: Code Black
Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru
Selection Project
Visual Prison
Muv-Luv Alternative
Hanyou no Yashahime: Sengoku Otogizoushi – Ni no Shou
Puraore! Pride of Orange
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Dai Mankai no Shou
Lupin III: Part 6
Yakunara Mug Cup mo: Niban Gama

Now that you see the contenders, I’d like for you to make a prediction regarding the OP you think should or did win. Also, how many of these anime have you watched?

Counting the Votes

I know it’s probably going to be hard to read the filled-out bracket pictured below. So if you want a better look at the matchups and the final vote tallies for each, you can check out the bracket here.

Let’s just highlight some of the interesting matchups from the first round since it would take a while to go through each of them individually. The first winner that I don’t particularly agree with is Mieruko-chan beating Puraore! Mieruko-chan won 9-4, but I voted for Puraore! in that matchup.

The next one of interest, at least to me, is that Lupin III: Part 6 defeated Mushoku Tensei Part 2 7-3. I agree with this victory since Mushoku Tensei doesn’t really have an OP. But I still expected Mushoku Tensei to get more votes.

The second round wasn’t all that interesting, so moving onto the third round, Komi finally defeated Demon Slayer 10-3 and Heike Monogatari finally defeated Mieruko-chan 9-1. My Senpai Is Annoying also beat Lupin III 9-2 and Takt Op. Destiny blew Build Divide out of the water 8-0.

In the semifinals, Komi beat Heike Monogatari and My Senpai Is Annoying beat Takt Op. Destiny. Of those four, I think Takt Op. Destiny was the odd one out. The other three OPs are far better, in my opinion.

Of course, that means the finals were between Komi and My Senpai Is Annoying. Komi won in the end and is also the one I voted for in this matchup.

Crowning the Winner

Komi Can't Communicate anime series cover art — Komi Can’t Communicate

Despite the fact that I didn’t watch Komi Can’t Communicate and don’t have any plans to watch it, I have to acknowledge that it has the best OP of the season. After watching all the OPs in the first round of the bracket, it was pretty clear to me that Komi was going to be the winner.

I’m not the biggest fan of the song used in the Komi OP; it’s alright. But what makes the Komi OP the best of the season for me are the visuals. The art and animation are great.

As for the second place OP, I have to admit I didn’t remember the My Senpai Is Annoying OP being as good as it was. It’s a good OP, and in my review of the series, I called it nothing special. I was wrong.

The Heike Monogatari OP (which tied for third place with Takt Op. Destiny) is the only OP to convince me to watch the series. I haven’t started Heike Monogatari yet. But I loved the OP and it looks like a very good anime so it’s been added to my list.

And the last OP I want to mention in this section on “winners” is probably unexpected: Build Divide. The Build Divide OP definitely isn’t bad despite losing in round 3. However, I think the song used for it is really good. I do like EGOIST so maybe there’s some bias there. But it’s still a good song.

Conclusion

Do you agree with the best OP of the fall 2021 season as decided by my Discord community? What about the other matchups? Are there any you would have voted for the losing option in? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this look at our first community event, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to participate in future events and discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heike tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

The Problem with Nagatoro’s “Sus”

By DoubleSama | January 28, 2022 | Comments 1 comment

The “Sus” That Started It All

It’s been a good 9 months since Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro aired, so I think I’m finally ready to write about Nagatoro’s use of the word “sus.” And while this article is going to focus on Nagatoro, my arguments apply to any anime that use short-lived slang in their translations.

So, let’s start by revisiting the fateful “sus.” As shown below, Nagatoro says “You’ve been acting sus this whole time.” to her senpai in one of the episodes. This caused chaos in the community online. And while I don’t necessarily think this is the worst offender, it’s an example of one of my issues with liberal translations.

I tend to prefer translations that are more literal. And while subtitles tend to be more literal than dubbed lines, translators still take liberties with them. Nagatoro’s “sus” is one such liberty.

Nagatoro saying "sus" from the anime series Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro — Nagatoro saying “sus”

In the official translation of the manga, Nagatoro refers to her senpai’s actions as “super weird.” And in a fan translation, she says “totally suspicious.” Based on that, “sus” isn’t a terrible translation for the anime to use. It means the same thing and it’s recognizable as being short for suspicious.

What makes this a “bad” translation choice in my eyes is the reasoning behind it. If we’re being honest, the only reason “sus” was chosen as the translation is because of the slang word’s rise in popularity due to the game Among Us and the memes it spawned.

If Among Us memes didn’t take the internet by storm, this translation wouldn’t have happened. Unfortunately for the anime, by the time it aired, Among Us memes were outdated and “cringe,” as the kids would say.

Cheap, Short-Term Victories

If Among Us and the memes spawned from it were still at the height of their popularity when Nagatoro aired, her use of “sus” probably wouldn’t have been as divisive. People would have thought it was funny (some people still did).

But since the meme had already died and the majority of people had moved on from playing Among Us, this translation got a lot of backlash. And that’s the risk taken when using short-lived memes within translations. They can increase popularity within a very short window. But outside of that window, they’ll typically be viewed negatively.

Let’s use another meme as an example. The whole Harambe thing lasted for a relatively long time as far as memes are concerned. But would anyone really think it’s funny if Nagatoro referenced Harambe in an episode? I don’t think so. The time for that is long gone and now it would just be viewed as desperate.

Sakura, Maki, Nagatoro, and Yoshi dressed as cat maids from the anime Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro — Sakura, Maki, Nagatoro, and Yoshi dressed as cat maids

Using a meme that’s out of style has a very “how do you do, fellow kids?” vibe to it. I’d also say that anime these days feel much more corporate. There are huge companies, like Sony and Amazon, buying up series left and right. And that definitely plays into what makes the appropriation of these memes feel even more disingenuous.

Did you watch The God of High School? It was a Crunchyroll (which is now owned by Sony) “original” anime that had Crunchyroll ads placed throughout the series. Imagine if an anime like that also attempted to rely on memes for cheap wins while already selling out.

I’m sure we’re going to see more anime do this in the future. If some random seasonal anime that will be forgotten in a month anyway happens to use a meme while it’s still relevant, it’s going to be a huge talking point (which, to be fair, still happened with Nagatoro).

Dating an Anime

The other issue I see with using memes and short-lived slang in translations is that it can date an anime. And unfortunately, when I say “date an anime,” I don’t mean it in a good way like “date an anime girl.”

What I mean is that it causes anime to show their age. Obviously, anime show their age in many ways. The visual style of a series can tell you when it was made. Or maybe if you see characters in the anime with flip phones, you know it was made, or at least originally written, in the 2000s.

With memes, however, anime can be dated on much shorter timespans. It’s no longer a matter of being able to tell which decade an anime is from just by looking at it. Now you can tell what year, or even season it came out in.

Nagatoro's cute smile from the anime series Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro — Nagatoro’s cute smile

Let’s say you’re watching Nagatoro in 2022. Nothing about it would really tell you when it was from. That is until you reach Nagatoro saying “sus.” Then, you’d have a good idea that it came out shortly after, or maybe even during, the Among Us craze.

And I think tying anime to events in the real world is somewhat detrimental. It breaks the immersiveness of a series, in my opinion. When I’m watching an anime, I don’t want to be reminded that Among Us was a huge online phenomenon. It’s kind of like how the translator for Netflix’s Evangelion subtitles added in modern politics. Nobody wants that.

One last thing I’ll mention in regards to dating anime is that some of these jokes simply won’t make sense in the near future. Sus will still make sense because it’s just slang for suspicious. But if the Harambe example I mentioned earlier was real, that would make no sense to a lot of people today.

Harambe died 6 years ago, by the way. Kids are watching anime now, and maybe even reading this, who have no idea who that is.

Conclusion

What do you think of adding memes and time-limited slang in anime subtitles? Should series do it? Or should they stay away and go with more traditional translations? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this discussion, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Toma for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month, as well as Key Mochi~ for supporting at the Senpai tier. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My Hero Academia Class 1-B Quirk Tier List

By DoubleSama | January 22, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

Class 1-B’s Quirks

I believe the first time we got to see the quirks of every student in U.A.’s Class 1-B was during the joint training arc with Class 1-A in My Hero Academia Season 5. We’d seen some of their quirks earlier during the sports festival arc. But I’m pretty sure we didn’t see them all until this past season.

Ever since the joint training arc, I’ve wanted to rank the Class 1-B students by their quirks on a tier list. So, that’s exactly what I’ve done today.

Class 1-B Quirk Tier List from the anime series My Hero Academia — Class 1-B Quirk Tier List

Now, before I break down each tier, there are some disclaimers I need to get out of the way. First, each character is ranked solely on their quirk. And second, the order each character is displayed within each tier is just based on their class seating number, not their rankings in relation to each other.

S-Tier Quirks

There were only two quirks I felt deserved to be placed in the S-tier. These are Kinoko Komori’s Mushroom quirk and Ibara Shiozaki’s Vines quirk. However, they’re both S-tier for different reasons.

The Mushroom quirk allows Kinoko to cover everything in her surrounding area with mushrooms of various types. That seems kind of lame, at first. But, these mushrooms can also be poisonous and their growth can restrict the movement of her enemies.

Those qualities alone probably would have made her quirk B-tier. What bumps her quirk up to S-tier is that she can even make mushrooms grow in the lungs of her opponents. Kinoko is a walking war crime. Her quirk allows her to disperse bio-weapons in the form of mushroom spores through the air.

Ibara’s Vines quirk is S-tier because it can do everything well. She can use it to attack, defend, run reconnaissance, and support herself and her allies in additional ways. It also has an extremely long range, allowing Ibara to do all these things from a safe distance.

The Vines quirk can locate enemies, restrict their movement, attack them, and physically stop their attacks all at the same time. It’s an extremely oppressive quirk to go up against.

A-Tier Quirks

I almost put Shihai Kuroiro’s Black quirk in the S-tier but determined that it’s not quite at the same level as Mushroom and Vines. It allows him to travel quickly while remaining hidden, which is great for reconnaissance and sneak attacks. But, that makes it slightly too niche for S-tier.

Nirengeki Shoda’s Twin Impact quirk has a lot of potential. After hitting an object, he can then cause a second, stronger impact to hit the object in the same place. We see him use this to propel objects at opponents from range. But, it would also be a devastating quirk for someone who’s physically strong to have.

Manga Fukidashi - Quirk: Comic from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5 — Manga Fukidashi – Quirk: Comic

Manga Fukidashi’s Comic quirk is in the A-tier because of how versatile it is. He can speak onomatopoeias and have their effects become reality. For example, if he yells “boom!” an explosion will occur. It’s not as versatile as Vines, but it’s still very strong.

Juzo Honenuki’s Softening quirk allows him to soften anything he touches into a nearly molten state. What makes this quirk so good is that he can soften the ground over a large area and effectively restrict the movement of his opponents. It’s hard to fight back against unless you can fly.

B-Tier Quirks

To start off the B-tier quirks, I’m going to group Jurota Shishida’s Beast and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu’s Steel quirks together. Although they have important differences, the basics of both of these quirks are that they greatly increase the offensive and defensive capabilities of their users.

Yosetsu Awase’s Weld quirk seems like it’s pretty useful. It allows him to instantly connect any two objects together that he touches. He could “weld” his opponent to a wall if he wanted. But, it’s still a very niche quirk, so I think it’s fair to put it in B-tier.

Pony Tsunotori is my favorite Class 1-B character (mostly because she’s voiced by Aoi Yuuki). Unfortunately, I can only place her Horn Cannon quirk in B-tier. She can fire horns as projectiles and even control up to four of them at once. That’s still not a particularly great quirk, though.

Kosei Tsuburaba’s Solid Air quirk is pretty cool. He can solidify the air he exhales to make platforms, walls, and more that are strong enough to withstand repeated hits. But it’s also restricted by his lung capacity so that severely limits how it can be used.

C-Tier Quirks

Togaru Kamakiri’s Razor Sharp quirk allows him to create blades anywhere on his body. These blades are also strong enough to cut through steel. He’s kind of like Mr. 1 from One Piece. That’s not a very oppressive or versatile quirk, though.

Yui Kodai’s Size quirk is my favorite of the C-tier quirks because I think it has the potential to be great. The quirk allows Yui to change the size of any inanimate object she touches. She can shrink a car, throw it at someone, and re-expand it to its natural size mid-air. Or, she can shrink a bunch of weapons and carry them around in her pockets for later use.

Setsuna Tokage’s Lizard Tail Splitter is primarily good for gathering intel. She can split her body into up to 50 pieces and independently control them. This kind of makes her the same as Buggy from One Piece. But I wouldn’t say this quirk is very good for much else.

Yui Kodai - Quirk: Size from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5 — Yui Kodai – Quirk: Size

Cemedine is the quirk of Kojiro Bondo and it allows him to spray glue that he can then harden at any speed he chooses. While it can be used to restrict the movement of his opponents, it’s far less effective at that job compared to some of the other quirks on this tier list.

In theory, Neito Monoma’s Copy quirk is very good. He can copy the quirk of anyone he touches, store up to four quirks in this way, and keep them for 10 minutes each. In practice, though, that means he has to physically touch villains who are trying to kill him if he wants their quirks. So, most of the time, he’d just be copying an ally’s quirk and won’t be as good at using it as they are.

Reiko Yanagi’s Poltergeist quirk allows her to freely control things that are up to the weight of a human. This doesn’t seem to include humans, though. If she could control other humans, it would probably be a B-tier quirk.

D-Tier Quirks

The first of three D-tier quirks is Sen Kaibara’s Gyrate. He can rapidly spin any part of his body, and he wears special drill gloves to make use of this ability. Without those gloves, though, it’s a pretty bad quirk. As far as similar quirks go, I’d much rather have Razor Sharp.

Despite Itsuka Kendo being the class representative, I think her Big Fist quirk is one of the worst quirks in the class. She can make her hands really big and they have enhanced strength. But Beast and Steel also increase their user’s strength in more than just their hands and provide additional abilities.

To be fair, Big Fist is strong enough to break through even Steel’s defenses. However, I still don’t think that’s enough to bring it out of D-tier.

Lastly, we have Hiryu Rin’s Scales quirk. I kind of see this quirk as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none quirk. While Vines is in S-tier because it does everything extremely well, Scales is in D-tier because it does most things extremely average.

Scales can be used both offensively and defensively, but it’s not particularly good at either.

Conclusion

And there you have it. Those are the 20 quirks of Class 1-B from My Hero Academia ranked on a tier list. If you’d like to fill out this tier list for yourself, you can find it here. Just make sure to tweet your list at me when you’re done.

If you enjoyed this article, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Does Life Before the Isekai Matter?

By DoubleSama | January 21, 2022 | Comments 0 Comment

What Matters Most in an Isekai Anime?

Today’s discussion was sparked by Toma in the DoubleSama Discord server saying that he wanted to learn more about Rudy’s past life in Mushoku Tensei. That comment isn’t something I agree with and so I decided I’d write an article explaining why I feel this way.

To start this discussion, I think it’s important to consider what you think matters most in an isekai anime. For me, the thing that matters most is either going to be world-building or the characters, depending on the type of series.

If it’s more of an adventure series, like Mushoku Tensei, world-building is key. And if it’s a comedy, like KonoSuba, world-building is less important and characters are key. But in either case, world-building is going to play a major role.

Rudeus "Rudy" Greyrat from the anime series Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation — Rudeus “Rudy” Greyrat

I know a lot of people may say that isekai anime are all about power fantasies. However, I don’t think that’s true. I think they’re far more about escapism. The reason I enjoy watching isekai isn’t so I can self-insert as some overpowered protagonist. It’s so I can explore a vibrant fantasy world.

If a fantasy world is built well, great. And if it also features a lot of good supporting characters, like Mushoku and KonoSuba both do, even better. But the protagonist generally doesn’t matter all that much to me. I want them to be funny in a comedy. Aside from that, I don’t really care.

So, this is what brings me to the main question of the discussion. Does the prior life of an isekai anime protagonist actually matter? Should knowing about their past play a major role in the story of the series?

Does a Protagonist’s Prior Life Matter?

The prior life of an isekai protagonist could give us a glimpse into why they think and act the way they do. That’s certainly the case at the start of Mushoku Tensei. Rudy is afraid of the world beyond his family’s property line because of the abuse he experienced from his peers in his past life.

That’s a fair point. However, has that actually mattered at all since the start of the series? We’ve gotten more of Rudy’s backstory as the anime progressed. But I wouldn’t say it’s had much of an immediate impact on his new life. He just knows he wants his current life to play out differently.

However, that could be said about 90% of isekai protagonists. One thing the majority of them have in common is that they were either NEETs or loners in their prior lives. And now, in their new worlds, they have friends and go on fun adventures.

Kazuma holding a saw from the anime series KonoSuba — Kazuma holding a saw

Kazuma in KonoSuba: NEET. Subaru in Re:ZERO: NEET. Rimuru in TenSura: Average salaryman. Momonga in Overlord: NEET. Sora and Shiro in No Game No Life: NEETs. Hajime in Arifureta: Loner loser. I mean, the subtitle of Arifureta even refers to Hajime as “commonplace.”

So, what’s my point here? That none of these characters are anyone special or interesting before they ended up in another world. They all lead extremely boring lives. That’s what makes them being transported or reincarnated in a fantasy world so good. It’s a chance for them to start over and live entirely different lives.

Also, consider how often the prior lives of these protagonists come up and how they reflect on them. In most cases, their prior lives are hardly mentioned, and when they are, it’s in a negative light. For example, Kazuma never mentions his prior life and Rudy only does to reflect on how much worse it was.

Why Prior Lives Aren’t as Important

There’s one reason I can think of for prior lives being important in isekai anime, and that’s for the mystery factor. Sometimes, why the protagonist appeared in the fantasy world is a big mystery. And, theoretically, if we knew more about their past, we might get some clues.

Obviously, this isn’t always the case, though. We know Kazuma died of shock when he thought he was hit by a truck (he was actually not hit by a tractor). And we know Rimuru from TenSura was stabbed and given the opportunity to have a new life by a god of some sort.

However, there are also those like Re:ZERO, in which the mystery surrounding Subaru’s teleportation to the fantasy world is a major part of the series. So, naturally, you’d expect that Subaru’s past is important, right?

Subaru Natsuki from the anime series Re:ZERO — Subaru Natsuki

Well, that’s where you’re wrong — at least for now. Unless some new twist occurs, we already know that Subaru’s previous life was unremarkable and has nothing to do with his teleportation. Instead, it seems likely that he was the victim of someone using magic in the fantasy world.

You see, even in the isekai where the teleportation or reincarnation of the protagonist is a mystery, their prior lives really don’t matter. So, rather than focusing on these prior lives, I’d much rather focus on how the protagonist develops within the new world.

Who they were before they arrived in the fantasy world is trivial. We know who they are immediately after their teleportation or reincarnation, and that’s what matters. From there, they grow and develop.

This is also true of any other protagonist in anime. We’re rarely with the protagonist from birth until death. We’re always joining them somewhere in the middle of their life. So why should it be any different with an isekai?

Conclusion

What’s your opinion on the importance of isekai protagonist backgrounds? Do you find yourself wanting to know more about them before they arrived in the new world? Or do you agree with me that who they were before doesn’t matter? Let me know in the comments.

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2021 Anime at a Glance

10 – Masterpiece

9 – Great

8 – Very Good

7 – Good

6 – Fine

5 – Average

4 – Bad

3 – Very Bad

2 – Horrible

1 – Appalling

Conclusion

First Community Event

32-Seed Bracket

Counting the Votes

Crowning the Winner

Conclusion

The “Sus” That Started It All

Cheap, Short-Term Victories

Dating an Anime

Conclusion

Join Server

Discord Community

Join Server

Class 1-B’s Quirks

S-Tier Quirks

A-Tier Quirks

B-Tier Quirks

C-Tier Quirks

D-Tier Quirks

Conclusion

What Matters Most in an Isekai Anime?

Does a Protagonist’s Prior Life Matter?

Why Prior Lives Aren’t as Important

Conclusion

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