English Dub Season Review: I Shall Survive Using Potions! Season 1

Blah blah blah, there’s too many Isekais, blah blah blah, it’s a formula that’s been done to death. There’s not a whole lot left to even say regarding how there’s not a whole lot left to say. And “I Shall Survive Using Potions” is no exception. Overworked office worker randomly dies, gets a seemingly unusual power that might be useless but then turns out to be really helpful, they quickly rise the ranks in their new world, etcetera, etcetera, and so on and so forth. Kaoru Nagase (whose name is close enough to Kaworu Nagisa that it makes me do a double take) is one such overworked office worker, but instead of dying to a random mugging or exhaustion like some of her Isekai contemporaries, her death is a random chance encounter with a universal distortion that just…instantly kills her, with her compensation being a chance to reincarnate in a new world with some overpowered abilities. Not that the Opening gives much indication of that, as it spends a large portion highlighting Kaoru’s life growing up with characters who do not matter to the series at all. And her overpowered ability, creation of potions of any type in any container is SO overpowered that it’s going to need its own paragraph.

Okay, so, get this: Kaoru can spontaneously create potions that have any desired function and in any container, as mentioned. This starts by being in regular vials with multicolored liquid as expected, but then expands into making weapons and tools that are just assumed to have a potion stored in them somehow, and later just random quantities of liquid that Kaoru can just drop randomly on things or inside people, even being able to pop a dude’s head like a water balloon when he stabs one of her friends (none of which matter enough for a description, by the way). Add to that her Bag of Holding that can instantly move any object, including people, and she can basically create stuff that can do anything she wants and also just kill people if she damn well pleases. If there are meaningful limitations to this power, they are never explored. Balance this with her not wanting to seem like anything special while ALSO playing into the idea that she’s a holy agent of that world’s goddess, even when someone’s life is in danger, and she’s just a broken character across the board with unclear motivations that can get out of any situation she likes and just…chooses not to for unclear reasons.

There’s other stuff that drives me up a wall with this show, but that’s really all I think is worth mentioning to show that it’s not worth your time. There are dozens of other more entertaining Isekai shows coming out or have come out in just the past year that there’s simply no reason to even bother. They only end up making interesting choices with Kaoru’s abilities near the end of the show, by which point it has already wasted a couple hours of your time that you are never gonna get back. I really don’t see it getting a second season, so there’s no reason to keep up with it, and none of the characters are worth getting invested in, so it’s just a waste of time all around. Just leave it alone. Don’t bother, not okay, blah blah blah, I don’t even know what else there is left to say, so that’s it. Use your time left on this pale blue dot to watch something that will be more interesting. Like paint drying on a park bench.