Payphones. Nobody uses them anymore, right? So why are they still around? I know, you’re thinking that the authorities still haven’t gotten around to it, or something. Well, you’re wrong. The real reason lies in the doings of a secret society called PSYREN, who may use them to teleport you to another world. If you’re skeptical, consider the case of one Yoshina Ageha, your run-of-the-mill student from this day and age. Headstrong and athletic? Check. Has read on the Internet about so many potential apocalypses that his only doubt is which one will happen first? Check. Thinks he won’t receive a pension? Check. In existential despair? Check. Only finds some meaning in life when he is beating some thug senseless? Ahem, check. But his not-so-peaceful high school days are closer to their end than he knows. You see, there’s this girl in his class, Amamiya, whom he was close to in grade school. Well, this young lady was being bullied by her peers, as she politely informed them at the start of the year that they were all mindless puppets controlled by the PSYREN conspiracy. So one day, this girl vanished. Coincidentally, she had asked Ageha to help her the day before. And, realizing that PSYREN may be behind her disappearance, Ageha starts investigating them, and one fateful night, he goes to a payphone, and… What’s with that face? It’s all real, man!

Okay, this was a pretty intriguing watch! The isekai genre tends to be formulaic, to say the least, so remixing it with a bit of urban legend lore, contemporary existential anxieties, and Internet conspiracy theories is a very good move in my book. There are other things I like too. For starters, the visuals and the music are quite strong so far. On top of that, judging by the images that accompany the ending theme, four or five characters are going to be isekai’d, not just one or even two. Furthermore, the episode takes its time before the actual world-crossing starts, and the fantasy world has connections to some sort of conspiracy in our world. And I liked how Ageha’s skeptical view of his own future is explicitly connected to him being isekai’d. The nature and purpose of the trappings of the genre have been discussed a number of times, including on this very site, so it is cool that the show manages to incorporate that into the story. That said, I’d have liked more realistic family and high school dynamics for our main character, since everyone looked a bit like a caricature. I’m always wary of the street fight-oriented high school anime character. And showing us more blood than other shows of its genre did nothing for me either. It’s not too bad so far, but the very first scene after the opening shows us a thug with a bloodied face, so there’s that. Amamiya’s cry for help and the payoff for that were genuinely emotional moments I enjoyed. So I’m overall positive about PSYREN, and even if it has yet to impress me, it was a reasonably good time, and it could have potential, I think. I may continue, who knows.

PSYREN is available on Crunchyroll.