English Dub Season Review: Isekai Cheat Magician Season One

Our Take:

One thing I tended to see pop up in the comments about this show was that ‘X show did it better’. While I’m not too familiar with isekai, as apparently I’ve seen the best of the bunch but not the more mediocre ones, but I can see where these commenters are coming from. This show, first and foremost, doesn’t seem like it’s trying anything new.

Isekai as a genre has become pretty standardized at this point, with the more standout ones being titles that actually challenge genre conventions. For example, Slime takes the single chosen hero conqueror narrative, and spins it in a way that makes the hero put in effort to build a nonviolent, nonhuman society. Re:Zero tries to challenge the chosen hero narrative, and has its protagonist work towards heroism, not just expect things to fall into his favor. These types of stories work off the usual tropes, but also expand upon them as well. Just because something is standard doesn’t mean that the story has to adhere to it. The subversion of solidified tropes has long been a way for any genre to evolve, to make sure that the same stories aren’t been told over and over again. While isekai is no doubt becoming an over-saturated genre, that doesn’t mean that there are no stories left in the genre to tell.

Granted, this series attempts a few things. Even though Taichi is the one and only chosen one, Rin is allowed to have magic and do her own thing. She isn’t the damsel, even if she is the romantic interest, and is allowed to have several moments of her own. While she works with and aids Taichi, she is not necessarily tied at the hip to him, and is allowed to have relationships and adventures that don’t really have to do with him. Her friendship with Mueller (romantic from Mueller’s side) is one of the high points of the series. Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing I can think of that

I’ve mentioned this several times in my reviews, several because this show keeps warranting it, but there’s a difference between telling the audience information and letting them learn it organically. This show doesn’t take the time to do so, at all. The villain rival felt threatened by the protagonist’s existence because of course he was. Naturally the ruler that approaches Taichi and the gang first is the good one, no question there. Appealing to the audience’s ideas of how things should be, as opposed to showing these conclusions organically, results in boring storytelling. It’s relying primarily on the audience to work the story out for themselves instead of having a story to tell. As a result, the majority, if not all of the cast, feel like one-note caricatures of themselves. It’s not enjoyable, because there’s no intrigue. You’ve seen this story before, just done better. Way better.

Basically, watch better isekai out there. Time is valuable, and there are series out there more worth your time.