Rougo Ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai No Kinka Wo Tamemasu

Okay people. Time for yet another isekai series. Yeah, we are so tired of the trope of either the main character dies and gets reborn in the other world while retaining his/her old memories. And also the other one whereby they just get summoned as a whole. So how? Why not have the main character have the ability to travel back and forth between both worlds instead! That’s right. It does away with the need of killing the protagonist or getting stuck forever for the rest of their lives. And thus this is what makes Rougo Ni Sonaete Isekai de 8-manmai No Kinka Wo Tamemasu somewhat unique. But that’s so much about it. Main character has the ability to traverse back and forth between both worlds as and when she likes and thus her goal is to save up 80,000 gold so she can retire young. What’s the point of living until your golden years and have no money to spend, right? I hope that means she’s not going to sell her body to achieve that target in a quick manner! NO WAY!!!

Episode 1
Mitsuha Yamano falls to her death! Oh no! She doesn’t want to die yet. Well, wish hard enough and voila! Now she finds herself transported to another world! Wow! Well, technically she didn’t die. She wanders about as she remembers her circumstances. Her family all got killed in an accident and she’s not doing well in her grades. Then she got mixed up with some bad company who pushed her off the cliff. Well, well, her survival skills are only because she remembers what her nerdy onii-chan, Tsuyoshi said?! Eventually she has wandered for days and with no food and all, she collapses. Luckily this little girl, Colette finds her and brings her home where her family feeds and nurses her back to health. Too bad they don’t speak the same language, though. Next day, her injuries are seemingly healed. To repay their kindness, Mitsuha goes to help Colette collect edibles in the forest. However a pack of wolf stalks them. Mitsuha then has Colette climb up a tree for safety while she becomes bait to distract the wolves. Oh dear. Mitsuha trips. Is she going to die again?! Well, wish hard enough and voila! WTF she’s back in Tsuyoshi’s room?! She takes all the necessary items and contemplates about going back there. She’s not a dick so she returns to fight the wolves before they eat Colette. After a tough fight, Mitsuha kills one and has the rest running. She passes out and soon finds herself in floating in limbo. Then this maneki neko talks to her. So basically what I understand, he is some kind of God, huh? He was travelling and visiting many worlds when Mitsuha grabbed him during her fall. HOW?! Because of that, she obtained some of his powers to travel between worlds as well as healing. That’s right. She can easily go back and forth between worlds. Mitsuha wants to speak this world’s language and the cat is happy to give that power to her before resuming his world hopping adventure. Mitsuha wakes up in Colette’s home. Everyone is happy she is fine. Good thing now we don’t have to hear gibberish and we can all hear our glorious Japanese talk! To thank her for slaying the wolf, Colette’s father gives her some gold as monetary reward. Uhm, how much is it worth? Apparently enough to make Mitsuha think that since she can travel between worlds, she is going to get goods from Earth and sell them here to make a profit. And hence she is going to save up to 2 billion yen worth of gold coins so she can retire comfortably in both worlds!

Episode 2
Mitsuha cooks up a story she came from a faraway country on a boat with her friends but got separated and lost. She talks to the villagers to find out more info like how the lord of this domain is Count Claus Von Bozes. Seeing he is an important and influential person, she thinks of heading to the royal capital to begin her retirement plan. However Colette is against this and throws a tantrum. Eventually with Mitsuha’s smooth words, Colette sees her off with a smile. Halfway, she makes excuse to get off so that she can teleport back to her own world to take a bath. Yeah, the toilets here stink. This is also to help begin her plans as she starts selling her stuffs to get cold hard cash. She uses it to train some personal militia, Wolf Fang on how to use firearms and self-defence. Yeah, as long as they get paid, they don’t care about this little girl’s agenda. Since the other world’s gold coin also has its value, they also gladly accept. Mitsuha practises using various guns while reconciling with Tsuyoshi’s concept about not taking a human life. Because when scumbags try to kill or hurt your family, it’s okay to kill them because they’re no longer humans! Mitsuha isn’t just buffing up her self-defence stats as she also researches on the internet about medieval times since the other world has very similar systems. Mitsuha also does online business and sells whatever goods at high prices. She doesn’t want to go for volume over margin at the expense of everything else. What’s the point of life if you hoard money? That’s not what she wants. I guess this means she thinks it is okay to sell family heirloom that she has no use for at a high price and she believes her dead mom will understand. Enough to buy a motorbike and return to the other world! Yes, Mitsuha is all prepared to continue her journey and mission in the other world.

Episode 3
Obviously the guards won’t let Mitsuha see Bozes without an appointment. After noticing the route his sons travel and take, Mitsuha sneakily feigns an accident. The sons panic and bring Mitsuha back to their mansion where they treat her with great hospitality. Mitsuha continues her Oscar worthy act as she talks to the family and claims herself to be a noble from the Japan. Mitsuha Von Yamano?! She gives them a Swiss knife as thanks. I’m sure they’re fascinated with this creative artwork. As she plans to head to the capital, they let her stay for the night. Bozes introduces his wife, Iris as well as his children, Alexis, Theodore and Beatrice. As Bozes asks more about her background, Mitsuha further ramps up the lies. She and her brother were in some succession feud. Both their parents died so it’s natural her brother succeeded the throne. But some wanted her to succeed only because they have intentions of marrying their sons to her and take her fortune. Thus Mitsuha went on a journey and ended up in this country. She only has this necklace as her mom’s memento. She wants to live an honest life in this country and when she wants to sell this necklace, Iris becomes vocally against it. WTF she talking about how precious such jewellery are and some will kill for it?! But Mitsuha needs the money… Hence Mitsuha would sell it to Iris and use that capital to start a shop. The clincher is when she calls Iris her mom because she reminded her so. She also sells to the son her other knife and WTF they’ll also buy her underwear?! Hey, it’s still money! As they ask what shop she is opening, she would want to open a general store. She happily talks all the things she would like to sell and this reminds her of her happy days with her family. She starts crying for them as Bozes and Iris hug her. Oh, I don’t think that was acting but okay. The tears are real! Next day, Bozes has given her what she needs as the family sees her off her journey to the capital.

Episode 4
Mitsuha opens her general store in the capital. She eagerly waits for her first customers but none after 2 days. Is she doomed to fail? Then a group of girls enter. Saved! They take a look around and are puzzled at some weird items. Mitsuha tries to sell them shampoo and body lotion. They would have bought it had it not been pricey. Too much for a commoner. Mitsuha is so desperate to keep their company that she agrees to throw in some freebies as well as cook for them. Seriously! Hence she uses one of the samples on one of them and she is satisfied with how clean it is. Mitsuha then starts cooking for them but they get suspicious since she isn’t cooking over wood and she cooks fast. However it tastes delicious. So is she a witch? Oh damn, is Mitsuha opening a restaurant too because she cooks like almost everything from stew to steak for them! All on the house! Finally she gives them some chocolates as souvenirs and hopes they will spread the word about her store. The girls return to their head chef, Marcel to let them try the chocolates and he is amazed at how delicious it is. Then all of them confine with their master about this. They are especially suspicious with the fish dish Mitsuha cooked. Since this kingdom is located far away from the sea, it is not possible to have fresh fish. Hence Marcel is tasked to find out more. Marcel visits Mitsuha’s shop as he buys several items of interests. Mitsuha realizes the wrong items she stocked when Marcel explains why people in this town don’t usually eat fish. After demonstrating a few items, Mitsuha then demonstrates this knife on display in which she is selling at no profit at all. Some merchant calling she says but Marcel is convinced and buys it. But now comes the real challenge. Marcel explains his situation that the previous head chef fell ill and he was asked to suddenly take over. The problem is that his lord’s daughter, Adelaide Reiner will be holding a lavish ball as her debut. This is something important for aristocrats because if it’s badly done, you’ll never hear the end of it behind your back. Furthermore, his lord isn’t really a high ranking noble so the odds are stacked against him. Marcel is under pressure to make this ball go well but has no experience. That is why he needs Mitsuha’s help to make her fresh fish dish. In short, challenge accepted for Mitsuha. Uhm, I got to ask is she running a general store or an odd jobs agency?!

Episode 5
Marcel brings his masters to Mitsuha as she prepares some dishes for them to test taste. Obviously, absolutely delicious. Mitsuha doesn’t want to stop to be their chef but offers to plan the entire debut party! First up, she heads down to their mansion to train the chefs on how to prepare the food. Then she brings Adelaide back to her world to take some measurements and ideas for her ball dress. Oh damn! She can bring a human back to her world?! Once all the preparations are done, they are ready for Adelaide’s debut. Of course the guests look down on the Reiner family and don’t expect much. Wait till they get wowed by the stage performance. That’s right. Mitsuha using modern props and special effects to stump those snobs! From hologram projection to dry ice effects, definitely this debut is like no other. Of course the star attraction is Adelaide herself. She stuns the crowd in several of her outfits. Now Mitsuha goes in for the kill as she serves various types of fresh fish dishes. Sceptical at first but once they find them delicious, they can’t stop eating! Mitsuha gets a shock when Iris looks mad. Yes, Bozes and his family are also here to attend the party and Iris is not happy because she tried to visit Mitsuha’s shop but it was always closed. She thought she ran into debts and ran away! Of course Mitsuha was busy doing this party so she hopes Iris could visit next time. But now there’s another problem: Not enough food! Even if they made arrangements to have double the amount, looks like the guests can’t get enough of it. Hence Mitsuha improvises as she uses whatever leftovers as well as snacks from her world to make whatever food. After all, nobles can’t tell apart commoner food and think they’re some exotic food. True enough, the guests are thrilled with the new type of sweet desserts as well as French fries. This party is a huge success and everyone changes their perception on the Reiner family but now the pressure is on those with adolescent daughters to hold such great debut parties. Oh Mitsuha, you’ve raised the standard bar way too much!

Episode 6
Mitsuha returns in opening her store. Any more closed days and the residents would think she has closed down for good! Soon, a head chef of a baron comes in and rudely tries to get her to sell some fish because his master wants to eat this new dish. Of course Mitsuha says her shop doesn’t sell fish and Adelaide’s ball was just a one off novelty. He gets mad and is about to hurt her but here comes Iris. Saved by the lady. Loser flees. But now Iris wants to take Mitsuha back for ‘interrogation’. On second thought, not saved. Another day the shop is closed… The family asks her how she got the food and those presentation effects. Mitsuha piles on the lies so much so I think some contradict each other! Good thing they believe in her. Yeah, sounds so complicating. Later Beatrice talks to Mitsuha about having her to organize her debut party which is in 2 years. Mitsuha promises and to do even better with fireworks! Wow! Can’t wait. WTF Mitsuha hopes she’ll forget it by then?! OH MITSUHA, DO YOU NOT KNOW A WOMAN ALWAYS REMEMBERS!!! Beatrice then asks if she has dated or the kind of guy she likes. Mitsuha then senses something amiss with her questions and forces her to spill the beans. Apparently her brothers and even her father put her up to ask Mitsuha these questions! Mitsuha realizes she can use info to mislead them and agrees to work with Beatrice for a small price of gold. Mitsuha returns to her shop. But soon more drama because a wanted person takes refuge in her store. His bounty hunter soon shows up. Loser thought of stealing a knife and taking Mitsuha hostage?! Not going to happen! Because he runs off without paying for the knife, you bet Mitsuha don’t want to have such loss. The wanted person is taken down by a group of heroes. Mitsuha realizes they are mercenaries and is excited because she wants to request a mission from them.

Episode 7
The mercenaries introduce themselves. Sven is the leader and the rest are Sepp, Grit and Ilse. Mitsuha wants to hire them as bodyguards as she’ll be going to the forest to hunt to restock. As they start their mission, Mitsuha shows off some of her modern science in camping like putting up a tent and the tools needed to easily start a fire. Impressive. Then she has them test taste a few food she bought from the supermarket. Obviously way better than the ordinary foods here. She asks their opinions on it and they think with such exquisite taste, the nobles and even the military might buy them all up. Later Mitsuha wants to go bathe in the river. She dons her swimsuit but this causes a stir with the mercenaries. The ladies tell the guys not to look as they lecture Mitsuha how inappropriate such dressing would be. The hunt begins as Mitsuha even does some hunting herself with the crossbow. Yeah, those lessons came in handy. On the trip back, Mitsuha needs to answer the call of nature. She can’t teleport back and make it look suspicious so she’ll have to do it in the bushes. Too bad there’s a wild boar going to attack her. Run! It’s amazing she didn’t wet it all. She kills it with her gun so the rest come by to see as she cooks up excuses on how she kill it with her crossbow. Do crossbows make bang bang sounds? Mitsuha treats the mercenaries to a drink for a successful hunt and she is more than satisfied having to test research a few products. Then she shows them a swimsuit magazine from her world to prove that she’s not crazy in dressing like that! I bet that book will fetch a nice price but too bad it’s not for sale! Speaking about art, she is thinking of ways to make money like that. Can’t draw. Can’t sculpt. Hence she tries to use her abilities to create statues. Too bad they all turn out hideous! Surprise, surprise. Because somebody thinks such hideous statues would be good to ward off evil spirit and will buy them all! Oh Mitsuha, feeling both a winner and loser at the same time?

Episode 8
Mitsuha’s store is doing well with the shampoo being the best seller. A cute aristocrat girl, Sabine walks in to take a look. She didn’t know what the store was since it had no sign. Mitsuha realizes it is perhaps that reason why the store did not have customers in the first place! After she makes her purchase and leaves, Mitsuha notices a shady guy watching. Thank goodness he isn’t targeting the store. But he follows Sabine. Mitsuha can see where this is going and tails them. True enough, the baddie kidnaps her in the alley. Mitsuha confronts them and uses her fire arms to show she’s not going down with a fight. Luckily the knights come to arrest them. Yes, Sabine is the kingdom’s princess and she somehow managed to slip out from the knights’ watchful eyes to go visit Mitsuha’s shop she heard so much. Mitsuha now earns an audience with the king who is grateful for her in saving his daughter. Not one to miss a good business opportunity, she notices his bad eyesight and recommends him glasses. Amazing! He has his chancellor, Sahr wear it and now he doesn’t have to retire. Mitsuha is glad he’ll help promote glasses for her. As long as you can pay, she will provide you anything. Except girls. So sex toys are okay?! Just saying! One day, this arrogant fatty, Nelson Adler who is the president of his own company waltzes in and wants to take over her store. She somewhat agrees but tells him to return tomorrow. With Sabine a frequent customer, Mitsuha gives her a letter to be sent to her father. Next day as Nelson returns, he wants Mitsuha to sign the deed and he wants to take Sabine as his own too. Cue for Sahr to walk in and heard what is going on. Sahr then points out the harassment and obstruction he was about to make. Nelson realizes he is in deep sh*t and promises to stay out. Worse, Sahr revokes his royal permit. Now Nelson is tasked with monitoring all merchants in the capital and this helps protect Mitsuha from those trying to take her down. This in turn leads to many arrest of those involved in human trafficking as Nelson’s company is a hotbed for such criminal activities and corruption. But those captured took their own lives in prison. The king wants to investigate further as well as Mitsuha’s origins. She is no ordinary girl after all.

Episode 9
Alina approaches Mitsuha as she has trouble brewing in her small family restaurant, Paradise Restaurant. Apparently some son of some large restaurant wanted to court her but she rejected him as she is in love with her co-worker. As expected, he couldn’t accept this and his dastardly father hatched a plan to financially ruin her restaurant and make her run to him for financial dependency. Worse, some of the workers resigned and thugs were sent to beat up and injure her father’s dominant hand, disabling him to cook anymore. Mitsuha agrees to take on the case as she goes to see Alina’s parents. Obviously dad’s decision is to hire another chef but Mitsuha cautions about hiring an experienced one since the baddie might slip in their own to further sabotage. Hence her strategy is to reopen the restaurant with the current staffs. She has Alina’s dad teach the remaining staffs how to cook. Then Mitsuha spreads the word about this Yamano cuisine. So, basically omelette rice or Hamburg steak? She also hires those mercenaries as waiting staff. Soon business picks up as free advertising from word of mouth spreads. As expected, bad guy doesn’t like this so a few days later he brings a few guards with him to arrest the restaurant owner for serving fake Yamano cuisine. To prove it is not genuine, he has Marcel taste the food. At first Marcel looks furious as he calls out for the owner of this recipe. When Mitsuha shows her face, he complains of not teaching him this dish! As she allows the staffs to teach him, the place is soon visited by the Bozes family and the king himself! OMG! Mitsuha points out about thugs beating up Alina’s dad and just like that, the bad people get arrested. Paradise Restaurant continues to boom with nobles frequenting it. Mitsuha makes a small margin from all this but it is understandable since the restaurant was facing hardship. But it’s still money and it’s well worth the effort than ripping off rich folks?! Oh Mitsuha… Wondering how Colette is doing, she writes a letter saying she’s fine and this brings Colette a lot of joy.

Episode 10
Uhm, Mitsuha having a BBQ party with Wolf Fang? Is there going to be some flag? Meanwhile Sahr reports to the king and cannot find anything suspicious on Mitsuha. Yeah, given all those recent events on how she handled everything, isn’t that suspicious enough?! Oh well, no proof. Seeing she bears no ill will towards them and that Sabine is fond of her, no use pursuing this. Time to move on to a more pressing matter at hand. Soon Mitsuha is called to have an audience with the king and he right away tells her that war is coming to his kingdom. He wants Mitsuha to take Sabine out of the kingdom until the war subsides. It looks like the nobles at the borders have betrayed them and the enemies are using monsters in their military. Hence they have no time to prepare the troops. Mitsuha will not abandon her store so she will stay and fight. But her dilemma now is whether to teleport Sabine to Earth for the time being. Soon she attends the war council meeting led by Marquis Aiblinger. He mentions the enemy will arrive tomorrow and their plan is to hold out the castle. When a suspicious messenger arrives to report, he is actually the enemy as he fires his crossbow! Mitsuha would’ve died had not Alexis protected her! Though, she still got hit in the arm and kills the enemy by shooting her gun at him. I guess her bullets can penetrate his armour. Mitsuha is done playing nice and will go all out. First, she teleports Alexis back to her world to get treated. Then she talks to Wolf Fang’s captain about hiring them for this job and she will pay them handsomely. However he cannot believe this isekai crap and refuses! WTF Mitsuha driving the Humvee trying to kill him?! Oh, she’s testing it out but she could’ve handled it in a better way before she teleports him and the vehicle to the other world. Now you believe? They recon the area and find a line of stuck caravans. Lots of scared children in it. Hurry, the goblins are coming. Even if they got the boulder out of the way, there is the rapid river across. Mitsuha and the captain go shoot some goblins to buy time but WTF are they immortal?! Now I understand why they’re taking their time walking slowly without a care in the world!

Episode 11
Apparently head shots kill them so I guess better start shooting. Too bad they don’t have unlimited ammo and the goblin wave is seemingly endless. Mitsuha gets an idea as she teleports home to get her fireworks set. Then she lights a wall of fire and throws all her fireworks. So this random puny explosion wiped out the entire goblin army?! What BS! Of course this monster army is just a small one and there is the main troop to deal with. That is when Mitsuha wants to hire the rest of Wolf Fang for this job. So these 60 strong men are all prepared to go to the battlefield in the other world. Mitsuha becomes their commander and rallies them with her motivation speech. Uhm, she’s going to war in that ball dress?! Oh well, got to look good. And can she actually teleport the whole group of Humvee?! APPARENTLY SHE CAN!!! Mitsuha returns to the palace’s courtyard as she has Wolf Fang station at strategic parts of the kingdom. The people are filled with hope seeing their goddess Mitsuha fighting for them. The enemy is now before the kingdom’s gates. They send a messenger to negotiate but Mitsuha orders to snipe him! Though, he is not killed. It might be barbaric but Mitsuha claims the enemy doesn’t deserve to negotiate after they attacked and plundered many innocent villagers. She continues sniping some of the soldiers and those who control the monsters. Of course, all only to wound. As some villagers were forcefully conscripted, they are spared from the sniping because obviously they are not well armed like the proper military. When a bunch of wyvern riders enter the scene, Wolf Fang now show off their artillery might as they gun all of them down from the skies! No chance! But it’s not over yet. Now a huge dragon pops up. Seeing Mitsuha’s shocked face, I figure she didn’t see this coming.

Episode 12
The dragon attacks but Mitsuha uses a drone to project a hologram image of herself to be as big as him. Since the dragon is in no mood to talk, Mitsuha orders Wolf Fang to fire. Yeah, those puny shots might not look like it is doing any damage but it is slowly chipping his scales off and annoying the hell out of him. However the dragon can put up a defensive barrier. Holy sh*t! Mitsuha can easily teleport the Humvees away from the breath attack?! Mitsuha notices that he can only do either one so the trick is to make him do his beam breathe again and when he does, Mitsuha fires a bazooka into his mouth! At this point, the dragon has taken too much chip damage as he flies away scared, fearing for his life! With that, the enemy also flees. And that is how Mitsuha won the war and brought glory and peace to the kingdom! She soon gets to have an audience with the king. After the king has granted Bozes the viscount title for Alexis’ bravery, Mitsuha then cooks up some exaggerated drama about Wolf Fang and in short, needs some hefty reparations for them. She thought she might not be able to raise that amount but surprisingly all the nobles will help chip in and in no time Mitsuha is able to deliver the promised payment to Wolf Fang. Mitsuha also has a wish and that is to become a citizen of this kingdom. Obviously she will have their protection and it would be easier for her to do business. After a ceremony to make Mitsuha into a viscount, the king wants her to accept it on Alexis’ behalf but she declines. Confer it to him in person. Yes, Alexis is alive and recovered enough to attend this ceremony. Mitsuha soon pays a visit to Colette. Yeah, those hugs are still killing her. Anyway, as a viscount with her own land, she invites Colette to come work for her as her retainer to learn lots of things. Colette takes up the offer. With Mitsuha now a noble I guess it’s sad for many she has to close her shop and now runs a different business. I guess she can earn more as a ruler-cum-politician. The honest way? Only God knows…

Money Hoarder: Show Me The Money!
Well, I think Mitsuha will be able to reach her goal in no time at this rate. My fear is that Mitsuha might become greedier once she reaches her retirement goal because by then, any amount will never be enough! Bring in more money! Sure, Mitsuha doesn’t look like the kind to get corrupted by money. But there is always that chance. It is after all money that Mitsuha wants. There’s also another part of me that firmly believes because now that she has her own land to rule, being one who cares over the things in her possession, Mitsuha will certainly grow further away from the mentality of earning more money and instead put her effort in protecting and improving the wellbeing of her subjects. So much about retiring young because now she’ll have to work for life! Oh well, considering those big ‘FIN’ words at the end, safe to say they’re not making another season. Maybe.

At this point after watching so many isekai themed animes, I’m not sure how I’m feeling now. Especially about the story of this series. I’m not exactly bored but at the same time I am not actually thrilled while watching the entire series. Well basically, this series doesn’t really have a strong plot to begin with. Many episodes felt like mini arcs or standalones. As such, this is both good and bad. Good because we don’t need to strain our brains to keep up with whatever convoluted plot or shenanigans in which the producers might pull the rug from under our feet with some sort of plot twist. Besides, it is about Mitsuha trying to save up a lot so with such random adventures, it works and keeps the interest of viewers somewhat fresh. And because of that, it also serves as the series’ downside since that is just what it is. Mitsuha saving up. That is all.

Capitalism. A romantic word to some but a dirty for others (especially those who couldn’t reap its benefits). I’m not saying that I am willing to put this series on par with anime series with economic themes like Spice And Wolf. Nope, this anime is nowhere close to that. But from time to time, we do hear Mitsuha explain briefly about her marketing and capitalism techniques in making her sale. Interesting but they are all pretty basic. Feel free to hit up the reference books and do more of your own research if you are ever so interested in making more money. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that Mitsuha makes it sound so easy as she conducts her business. Like in many animes that deal with a particular theme, the downside is that they make such topics look simple whereas in reality it isn’t. There are a lot of risks and downside even for a simple general store or business that Mitsuha is running. Obviously Mitsuha succeeds because she is main character and it is all part of fiction. That’s why she can still keep smiling and have lots of spare change at the end of the day despite the discounts and special deals she gives her customers. Yes, she’ll reap bigger benefits and profits when they bring back more customers and businesses in the future.

Secondly, the people in this other world is not so business savvy. That’s right. Noticed how many if not all isekai shows are usually backwater medieval kingdoms? Because schools of business and economics do not exist in this world, Mitsuha takes advantage of that business sense by conducting her business here. Hey, you can’t say she is ripping her customers off since she provides genuine products and services. And who is to say that she is overcharging? Are there such price control laws here? Thought so. And with these people being so awed at Earth’s products and technology, it is no doubt that they will always frequent Mitsuha’s store for novelties and surprises. This is why Mitsuha is such a successful business girl. I mean, do you see her doing such business or anything in her own original hometown of Japan? That’s right. I bet she’ll be breaking a lot of laws and doing business in Japan is a cutthroat and dog eat dog world. Better scam, oops I mean do her business with ignorant, oops I mean nice people of the other world. Call her a con artist or a suave person, she has a way with words (and lies!) and perhaps that is an important aspect for anyone wanting to do business. Yeah, charisma helps smooth things over to close the deal.

The other thing I want to point out is Mitsuha’s ability to traverse between both worlds. While it sounds unique at first, the more I think about it, the more it starts to scream BS and plot convenience. Especially she grabbed God’s balls (isn’t that why he screamed?!) and suddenly got that power. Wow. Speechless. But hey, at least it saves the trouble of killing off a cute girl! Now with such convenient skills, she can now have the best of both worlds. So to speak. This gives her unlimited access to do whatever she wants and of course conveniently bring whatever technology she deems fit. So am I saying that I prefer the kill-off-protagonist-make-him-reborn-again-with-his-old-memories or the summoning one better? Nah! But seriously, this one feels a lot worse and even more so as I have seen there is no limit on what Mitsuha can transport over. Yes, this means I believe she can even teleport the entire world altogether! With no repercussions like long cooling down periods or shaving off years of her life! Just flick her wrist and consider it done. But I have got to remind myself that it is this feature that is disgusting and not Mitsuha the character. She’s just using what she has to her advantage. Yes. Basically, hate the sin and not the sinner. By the time maneki neko God dude returns, Mitsuha will already become the new God!

As for the characters, Mitsuha as the main character is your typical girl trying to lead a normal life after a tragedy befalling her family. Damn, usually such isekai main characters, the tragedy befalls on him/her. But instead her whole family is wiped out and how is a young girl like her going to fend herself in Japan? Ah yes, as seen already, the isekai treatment. Life has to move on and thus we quickly see Mitsuha moving forward and working passionately towards her retirement goal. Well, assuming inflation is non-existent! We see her character being chirpy as well as adapting well while making sound business decisions. Might sound a bit unrealistic but I’m going to assume that Mitsuha has a knack for doing business. Hence she could be the next Warren Buffet of Japan if she actually pursues this seriously back in Japan! And you thought money can’t buy happiness, huh? Yeah, look how happy Mitsuha is making her money! Look at all those ka-chings rolling in her eyes! Well, if she introduces the concept of computers, software, paid subscriptions, I’m sure she can not only retire now but her flow of money will never even stop! Oh before I forget, the reason Mitsuha may look like she is getting her money so easily instead of slogging, it’s because of her methods she lets the money to the work. There’s this saying if you don’t let money do all the work, you’ll be working for the rest of your life. So yeah, maybe that is why Mitsuha seems quite successful even though the concept of investment in this world is alien. At least monetary investment does not exist here.

So as not to make Mitsuha like some absolute genius because that would be stretching her character too far already, hence the only member of her family that ‘survives’ is her brother. At least in her imagination and flashbacks. From time to time, you see him pop up because it is to tell us that Mitsuha knows about all these stuffs is because her nerdy brother once taught her all about it. Wow. Amazingly she remembers all of them! Now that is pure crap! But anyway, this is the reason why she is able to get by in this world thanks to remembering her brother’s words. How convenient. All his trivia and knowledge is not wasted as Mitsuha has put them to good use and that ensured her survival. Heh. Not even schools and universities could teach such priceless knowledge! Thank you Tsuyoshi onii-chan! Furthermore, seeing her spend more time in the other world, it only begs the question of the people she knows from Earth. Her teachers, friends and the likes not concerned about her? Oh well, she just lost her family. Let’s leave her alone for now. Yeah. How convenient to let her do what she wants without raising any suspicions. Including why she does not turn up for classes or seen public often! Yeah. Let her hole up in the room until she feels fine to come out! How convenient.

More on Mitsuha especially about her self-defence training. Yeah, I want to scream more BS here but I guess she needs to learn fast about survival and self-defence so as to stay clear and away from that damsel in distress trope. I mean, we’re going to make Mitsuha a strong independent woman, RIGHT?! And holy f*ck, after a few training with Wolf Fang, she’s a freaking pro now with firearms. I don’t know how intense the training was but don’t tell me she too has a knack for such! I’m sure the captain didn’t go easy on her just because she’s a cute little chick. It’s the money he’s more attracted to. And so with Mitsuha knowing how to defend herself, this helps elevate her status and perhaps steal a few girls’ hearts and make her be their onee-sama or future potential lesbian lover. HAHAHA! Oh, who am I kidding? Mitsuha is your God! And now to cement that legend of hers with the final arc of easily repelling the enemy armed with only backwater weapons. Yeah, not even monsters and magic can beat the might of military arsenal!!! Bringing a gun to a swordfight? I’m sorry, did you write the rules of war? All is fair in war. F*ck yeah! Mitsuha the Goddess of War! MitsuhAres… Sorry, bad pun.

As for the other characters, they are most likely a miss. Due to the nature of the series, many characters come and go. Some like Colette may be seen once in a while but it has no important bearing on the rest of the story or in Mitsuha’s life. I’m guessing Mitsuha needs a break from her or she’ll break her bones with her bear hugs! Yeah, is that Colette’s running joke? Thankfully she is not forgotten in the end and a small reward to have Colette by her side. I wonder if Sabine is able to relinquish her princess title just to be with Mitsuha. Will she be able to fool around as she does in her shop? Well, Colette and Sabine rivalry could be one to watch… As such, the many characters Mitsuha met in her journey is so that she could build rapport and relationships. Of course we all can guess it is a basic business strategy because it’s nice to have your friends help cover for you in times of need. Despite many of such characters only playing a minor role, each of them has built a small network for Mitsuha and in that context, all of them have been great importance to her. So it’s either you be her good friend or her enemy. You won’t get far as the latter because as seen, she uses her smarts and well timed connections to put you down for good. So think twice if you haters want to go up to this girl. No, make that the God of your world! Remember, Mitsuha shows no mercy to scumbags and has no qualms to kill if you are willing to go that far.

Art and animation are pretty standard and basic. Mitsuha and many of the female characters have your typical cute 2D kawaii look so are we going to complain about it? Of course I have to also point out the CGI effects. Thank goodness they are very rare here do not permeate the entire series. However the CGI quality varies. Some look passable but others look like sh*t. The bad ones for example include that river those refugees were trying to cross. Uhm, you call that a river?! I thought it was some magic spell flowing across! Some monsters too were in CGI but that is only when they are in hordes. Yeah, animate them small enough so you can’t see how bad the CGI is. The passable ones are like the Humvees and while not perfect, at least they aren’t giving sores to the eyes. Imagine people laughing at the militia because of bad CGI! Don’t let that happen! This anime is done by Felix Film who did Aharen-san Wa Hakarenai and Urasekai Picnic.

Voice acting is also standard as I recognized a few seiyuus like Jun Fukuyama as Tsuyoshi, Tomokazu Sugita as Bozes and Sho Hayami as the king. Some of the other casts are Rika Nagae as Mitsuha (Olivia in Asobi Asobase), Rika Tachibana as Colette (Karyl in Princess Connect! Re:Dive), Kaori Maeda as Sabine (Shizuku in Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai), Kaori Ishihara as Adelaide (Avrora in Strike The Blood), Satomi Akesaka as Iris (Esdeath in Akame Ga Kill), Yuji Murai as Wolf Fang’s captain, Fukushi Ochiai as Marcel (Kimura in Karakai Jouzu No Takagi-san) and Bin Shimada as Sahr (Gengai in Gintama). The opening theme, Hikatta Coin Ga Shimesu Hou by Kaori Maeda is your generic upbeat anime rock music. Not really that exciting for me. Luckily the ending theme sounds much more amusing. Yappari Economy by Yabi x Yabi has this jazzy and Broadway vibes. Sounds playful in nature and got to love those double bass lines.

Overall, this series is just passable in my books. Pretty standard. Another isekai genre, that’s all. Nothing to shout about. Not completely exceptional and at the same time not completely bad. Yes, middle fence answer rearing its ugly head again. Can’t hate Mitsuha for living out her life like a typical overpowered isekai main character because she’d be dumb not to take advantage of that. Not only that, she is business savvy and making more money than I am!!! OMFG! How can I not envy this girl again?! Oh right. It’s all just fantasy… Sighs… While Mitsuha is happily living her life out and even making tons of money, here I am slogging at my usual day job and just barely making ends meet. Yeah, I suppose this anime is supposed to inspire us to go into capitalism, huh? Sorry, I’m not as cute as Mitsuha nor do I have anything of value that others would want. So did I make the wrong investment choice? Oh you know, ‘investing’ in watching anime?! Forget about even saving up for my retirement. As I calculated, I should be able to retire in about 5 years after I die!