Seiichiro Kondou is a diligent salaryman who wrestles with receipts from day until night, even on his days off, so that before he knows it, he’s closing in on thirty with no life to speak of. One night, as he drags his weary body home after yet another futile battle, he hears a girl screaming down a dark alley. Being a stand-up kinda guy, he sprints toward danger in the form of a glowing magical circle, and attempts to rescue the teen from the isekai summoning. But instead, he ends up tagging along. Oops. Fortunately, the bureaucrats of the kingdom of Romany have a basic sense of decency, so while the “Holy Maiden” heads off to train in magic and prepare to save the world from the centennial miasma-induced plague, the officials whisk Kondou off to a meeting where they offer to provide food, shelter and a lifelong stipend by way of apology for the mixup, while also offering to grant any other request he may have. That’s when Kondou proves just how much of a corporate slave he’s become and finds himself asking for work. Oops again. Fortunately, it turns out the accounting department doesn’t really do much apart from drink tea, take long lunches, and grant every budget request without blinking. But rather than embrace the easy life, Kondou is horrified! Where is all the money going? And more importantly, where is it all coming from in the first place?! There are mysteries to be investigated here, and, armed with some incredible nutritional tonic that banishes his fatigue, Kondou sets out to solve them and whip the kingdom’s account books into shape. But why is that handsome Commander always watching him?
I can’t say that I’m normally very excited about either accounting or isekai, but this one is off to a surprisingly decent start! A salaryman getting dragged into a summoning circle due to the combination of his chivalry and exhaustion makes for a unique twist on the isekai mechanism, and made me chuckle, while his sage advice to the “Holy Maiden” (which I’ve not spoiled here) is one of the most sensible things I’ve heard from a character in the first episode of an isekai. I also found the persistence of his addiction to work, and his use of a magical infusion to fuel his continued workaholism when finding himself in an unknown world, to be actually pretty realistic; it’s both believable and compelling. What will it take for Kondou to actually let go of the corporate drone mindset? Can he break free of what was slowly but inexorably killing him in his old life? This is likely where Handsome Commander-san will come into the picture, as this is a BL series, after all, though the romance element is conveyed in this episode solely through the ED animation featuring the two men chastely holding hands and exchanging glances. For poor Kondou right now, nothing could be further from his mind than romance! (Unless it be with his abacus; he’s very excited about that abacus…) The animation is pleasant, with nice grown-up character designs that lean toward realism rather than wish-fulfilment, again emphasising that this is a drama rather than a romp. All in all, a very solid start to the series! For my part, neither isekai nor Boys’ Love are usually my jam, but I like how the episode engages with workaholism, while Kondou is a likeable enough guy that I want to see him catch a break. So I’ll tune in for another episode or two at least and see how it goes!
Isekai Office Worker is streaming on Crunchyroll.
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