Tag: Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody anime cover art featuring the main characters
Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Cover Art

Overview

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody is yet another anime adaptation of an MMORPG isekai genre light novel like SAO, Overlord, Log Horizon, and all the others I don’t need to watch. And, like many of those, this one is pretty generic too and isn’t that good.

Do you know what makes the MMORPG isekai genre even more generic? That’s right, a harem. But this anime doesn’t just have any old harem, it has a mostly loli-based harem. Wow! What a generic trope! I definitely didn’t see something like that coming.

As you may guess from how generic this anime is, it’s pretty average overall. The first episode has some animation that looks like it came straight out of Berserk 2017, but if you can stop your eyes from bleeding after that, the rest of the series’ animation is pretty normal.

So what’s the plot about? Well, let me tell you (and there will probably be spoilers)

We have some generic guy whose actual name doesn’t matter. He works as a programmer on a video game and one day he falls asleep at work and wakes up within the game that he was working on. After quickly becoming overpowered, as every MMORPG isekai protagonist should, he decides to start his own harem mostly made up of children.

He also hides his overpowered-ness by pretending to be a merchant for whatever reason. Oh, and did I mention that even though this is a medieval fantasy game he uses a gun? Well, he uses a gun.

Characters

Satou is the overpowered protagonist mentioned above. Although he does have his own harem, he tends to view the girls more as his adopted children than anything else so at least he’s not that degenerate. While he appears to be in his teens like some of the girls, he’s actually older in real life which is why he views them this way rather than, say, how a teenager might.

Basically, he’s just your generic isekai protagonist.

Zena, 17, appears to be the main love interest of the series which is more acceptable than the other options. She’s a military mage who Satou rescues when he first finds himself in the new world. Unfortunately, she’s not part of the traveling harem so we don’t really get too much of her in the second half of the series.

Liza, Pochi, and Tama are all demi-human slaves who Satou rescued in a dungeon. Liza is part lizard, Pochi is part dog, and Tama is part cat. Liza is 18 and so she’s actually helpful, while Pochi and Tama, both 10, tend to just act like the children they are.

The next pair we meet is Arisa, 11, and Lulu, 14. Satou purchases both of these girls to add to his collection, I mean, he purchases both of these girls to save them from probably an abusive master (I forget exactly who they were purchased from).

While Lulu isn’t really anyone special, we learn that Arisa is actually a reincarnation of someone from the real world and that she has her memories from her previous life intact. Arisa is also able to use magic unlike most of the others.

The final pairing is Mia and Nana. Mia is an elf princess who is rescued by Satou from an undead mage. Nana is a homunculus who fought for the undead mage but decided to join Satou later on.

Arisa, Satou, and Zena (from left to right) from the anime Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody
Arisa, Satou, and Zena (from left to right)

Conclusion

Alright, so I know it may have sounded like this anime is terrible based on my distaste for the MMORPG isekai genre, but it’s a 5/10. It’s pretty average once you get past the first episode and it’s nowhere near as bad as In Another World With My Smartphone as far as isekai are concerned.

As I’ve mentioned most of my grievances already, all that’s left is to talk about the ending of the anime. So for one, every episode title works like this “[insert something about the episode here] that started with a death march.” However, the final episode is called “A Trip to the Underworld that Started with a Death March,” but there is no trip to the underworld.

Further, this final episode doesn’t even feel like an ending. It’s almost like there’s supposed to be a 13th episode with the actual ending, but there are only 12 episodes in the season so that’s not the case.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody never gets a second season so that ending might never make sense.