baltakatei

RIP the animation. I feel sorry for the original author.

I am glad the author of the original light novel got their story animated. If this story had been published before either Overlord (2010) or Sword Art Online (2002), then the story would have been groundbreaking. However, the only main advantages this show has over other isekai is the lack of any spiciness, beyond the usual smattering of damsels in distress and a blushing pair of twins. Everyone seems chaste, honorable, and hard-working. No sign of any harem development in sight. There does not even seem to be any political antagonist or obvious grievances against the status quo. The most likely source of conflict seems to be MCʼs overpowered state, yet the author has made him successful in keeping that off the plot table for now. Instead of Overlord’s murderous menagerie of a sexually frustrated succubus, underage loli vampire, skin-harvesting demon, etc., we have an elf maid, an elf, and a fox. Nothing complicated.

It feels like a television program designed by a public morals committee that I would show my conservative grandmother to fool her into allowing me to see more interesting shows.

Edit: dropped the series as of episode 8. Animation did not get better.

Damn. Now I want a solarpunk isekai.

Recommendation: I just finished The Terraformers (2023) which basically has all the bullet points. It opens with a rich kid being executed by a forest ranger for LARPing a carbon negative campsite on a private planet to eat some skewed rabbit. Wealth inequality is still an issue, but technology is crazy; people figured out Earth animals were people the whole time, and baseline Homo sapiens are treated as animals if commercial interests are not restrained by government. I would be a miserable monster living in that arguably better future simply because of my upbringing: I love me a good burger and feel squeamish about people being born from bioprinters. It really humbled me, making me realize the current status quo must change if we want to improve society for everyone; a typical Japanese isekai MC would be a complete fish out of water.

At least it wasn’t mayo or soy sauce.

Someday I hope to see an isekai that acts to humble the audience instead of cheerleading Earth culture. Imagine a Japanese high schooler MC waking up, ready to wow the world with Japanese cuisine, smartphone technology, and knowledge of modern medicine… only to realize:

• Most people are vegan and think MC is a monster for wanting to enslave and eat people (e.g. industrial farm cattle)
• Earth technology is inefficient and wasteful.
• 21st century medicine is their equivalent of bloodletting

I am sure it would not sit well with test audiences since no one likes being told their culture is bad, but even Earth cultures are incompatible across sufficient geographic distances and spans of history.

I actually hope he stays for the drama and character growth.

Without Carlo’s guidance, what will Dahlia do?

I also was thinking the same thing with the “trying to run from the oncoming rainstorm” metaphor for “You cannot run from the inevitability of death”. Dahliaʼs sudden desire to create raincoats felt like foreboding that she will want to create immortality-granting magic tools to help people like her father outrun mortality.

I think the author is communicating their dislike of senior coworkers trying to play matchmaker with their kōhais.

This is like your favorite bar removing all seating and converting itself into a vending machine with “NO LOITERING” signs plastered everywhere.

Edit: I cancelled my 7.99 USD/month subscription. It’s not a big signal, but it’s the only one I have that matters to SONY, the near-monopoly that owns the concern. Half the enjoyment I got was in seeing the immediate reactions of others to an episode. Now, without comments or reviews, I can’t even pretend that I’m not watching these shows alone. What’s the point of enjoying a show if you can’t talk about it with others?

Premieres sometime in 2025

Given the Tanabata 🎋 tanzaku in the image, I would guess sometime around 2025-07-07 or 2025-08-25?

Did the author finally get tired of her PS4? Or was it a PS5…

Veldora is a perpetual motion machine?

“This show is hot garbage. See you all here next week!”

That would explain the lack of pun explanations. Fansubs wouldnʼt be so lax.

Synology is a NAS Iʼd recommend. However, after you become more familiar with the command line and if you are building your own Debian machine with a motherboard that supports many hard drives, I would recommend something like this procedure; this applies especially if you are the only one who will be accessing the files and are just wanting a way to combine the storage capacities of multiple hard drives.

Yours!