Review of I'm Standing on a Million Lives

This series had the potential to be good but fell short in too many categories to be redeemable. The premise was clichéd in many ways and I almost didn't bother watching it because it seemed like just another trash Isekai that comes out every season. What convinced me to watch it was the unique spin where they split time between the real world and the other magic one. Coupled with the fact that they touted the protagonist as a messed up guy who is willing to sacrifice his friends without a second thought, I decided I would give the show a shot. I didn't havemy hopes too high, but I was still very disappointed.

Firstly, the animation was extremely poor. If an anime has a good story and compelling characters, I can usually overlook the quality of the animation but unfortunately, this show has neither one. The movements of the characters were atrocious and the style was extremely forgettable. A lot of the backgrounds were super empty and boring. The protagonist actually looks like an NPC villager. I honestly don't even remember his name and I finished watching the anime a couple of hours ago. The CGI was even worse and I feel like they didn't even need to use it much of the time. The game master hardly even moves, why didn't they just animate him normally? I remember in the last episode they used it for a car that never even budged an inch the entire episode. It's so random.

The characters were robotic and boring. Other than a few scattered moments here and there, there were no good dialogue or character building. The only one who was semi-interesting was the protag. I wish they would have gone in harder with his personality instead of just the occasional weird villain monologue. The romance was almost non-existent, thank god, this show would make a terrible harem. The side characters were beyond forgettable and sometimes downright stupid. Glasses girl was the worst by far in this respect. She was extremely irritating.

The story was intriguing but didn't really deliver. There was enough mystery to keep me watching, I wish they had given more time to the non-fantasy world though. I think it would be interesting to see more character development or consequences of their experiences in the other world. They kind of delivered on this in the last episode which was probably the best one, but I don't think it makes up for all the squandered potential in the previous episodes. They tried to tackle death in a meaningful way in some of the episodes but it felt very unearned for me. I don't feel like the protagonist has a right to feel bad about any of this stuff, he's the one who just assumed things. I will not be counting on this show to try and go into mental health issues correctly.

I'm not sure why, but I will probably watch season 2. I feel like there is a chance it could get better if it just improved its writing. And I am somewhat interested in where the plot will go and the overlaying mystery of the game master. That is not to say that I recommend it though, I don't even think this is worth a hate-watch, it's not quite bad enough for that.