Twenty-nine year old programmer Ichirō Suzuki is in the midst of a “death march,” the final few days before a game’s release as he works out all sorts of bugs, foregoing sleep (and hygiene) as he scrambles to complete his work. Finally hitting an end point, he falls asleep in the office, but awakes to find himself in a world that seems to be a combination of two games he was coding, complete with powerful enemies, skills, items, and perhaps most hazardous of all, the bugs he never finished writing out.
The newest isekai anime that drops a character into a fantasy gaming world begins haphazardly: as a protagonist, Suzuki isn’t easy to root for (he’s pretty self-confident for a guy approaching his thirties without any prospects and the actor voicing him is a little annoying—not good for an episode where he speaks dialogue endlessly) and the drop into the gaming world is done without proper explanation. But that’s when episode one gets interesting. The series, so focused on bugs in the first half, demonstrates why: the mechanics of this world are at front and center in series, as Suzuki figures out what he’s able to do and use from a gamer’s perspective. And though I had to suspend disbelief for much of the leveling up given to Suzuki, I was totally engaged in the back half of episode one because far more than other isekai series, I felt a part of this one. The episode felt half-game/half-anime, and so for all it’s flaws, Death March provides something unique—and I think I’ll be coming back for more.
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Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
My hope for this show is that it’ll go the true Polygamy route like Smartphone did.
😂
Overpowered male protagonist? Check. Wish fulfillment as he escapes his “corporate slave” life (and becomes his younger self in the process)? Check. Advantage brought in from “our” world with his access to a “game interface” and knowledge of having programmed similar worlds? Check. Harem of cute girls? Not yet check but it definitely looks like we’re getting there.
Yep, it’s an isekai anime, all right. Which means I’m contractually obliged to watch it.
Well, okay, maybe I don’t *have* to watch it but I will go ahead and keep an eye on it. It doesn’t seem like this show is going for anything super thoughtful as it’s overall about as “standard” as an isekai anime gets, but I can roll with that for something silly and fun.
Well not every isekai anime has a harem….sure Sword Art Online and Konosuba did…and the Smartphone one did…..but not all of them 🙂 Digimon didn’t haha. I can’t think of other ones but I’m sure they are out there.
Of course harem isn’t a prerequisite for isekai but it sure does feel like a lot of recent isekai, especially from light novels, have harems in them. It’s largely due to the wish-fulfillment nature of that type of story and harems being a well-established type of wish-fulfillment in otaku media already, to say nothing of all the fantastic beings you can include in said harem when in a fantasy world.
Digimon = wish fulfillment for 10-year-olds
Death March = wish fulfillment for 15-to-??-year-olds
That is true. I would also add its more a worldly guys fantasy.
I would much prefer having all the powers and interesting experiences that come with being in a world like that, than having a bunch of girls following me around
I’m enjoying that every season there’s a new isekai anime coming out 🙂 I even learned what the term meant finally haha. Looking forward to check it out.
Haha I learned from Frank. I’m so disconnected with otaku culture the last few years. 😅
Same here