Review of Summoned to Another World for a Second Time

Summoned to Another World for a Second Time? What is this, the anime version of Back to the Future, but shitty in every way? To be honest, ask any Isekai connoisseur if they enjoy as much trash as they like, because Japan will not relent and release more than one Isekai show like this, which begs the question: "When will the Isekai trends ever die?" And in this season, more than that reincarnated aristocrat harem of a fantasy show that turns out to be subpar-ly decent, there is one show that makes the cut for the worst offending idea of all: novelist Kazuha Kishimoto's Isekai Shoukanwa Nidome desu a.k.a Summoned to Another World for a Second Time, which has an interesting concept, but is laid off from the shitty ideas that we've come to expect from genuine, trash Isekai.

There is that small consolation knowing that the work itself is based off of the twist of an already existing, overused trope, because this idea genuinely hasn't been tried out before. Getting Isekai-ed to the same world twice is a pretty novel concept, since most copycat works that only do the process once have many in-between, and the majority of them all suck ass. So, this show does that process once with the whole "summoned Hero goes on a journey, claims a party of friends in the process to defeat the Demon Lord, then leaves once the job is done" shtick, and then comes back again to see how the world is doing. For once, I felt a sigh of relief, thinking that this show would be the differentiator in the sea of boring and mundane Isekai.

But nope, IseNido (in short) proceeds to ramp up the typical decrepit wasteland of what makes Isekai shows bad, by rehashing the ENTIRE "defeating the bad guy" storyline and plot once again, which makes the "Nidome" a.k.a Second Time around a lot more sufferable than it already is. So, good concept, but still based on the overused tropes that are a dime, a dozen.

The characters don't fare so well either. Almost all of them are unlikable, and that includes MC Setsu. Something about him shrugs me the wrong way, despite him being the capable Hero who has saved the fantasy world once, and now is doing the same thing again, which makes it twice in a row. The smugness of Setsu I don't care for it very much, but I understand that that's one part of his character trait of being unfazed, even when trouble brews around every corner. Not even the other characters could salvage the trash that this show already has, and for a very good reason: first-time authors nowadays, especially newbies, will use overused Isekai tropes as their launchpad, and no matter how bad or good the source material's going to be, we, the audience, will suffer immensely.

Hot on the heels of 2020's worst show to ever exist (a la Gibiate), Studio Elle is "miraculously" back from the dead as a hired studio to adapt this shitty Isekai trash work, and need I say more about what to expect from a third-rate, F-grade studio? With sloppy and non-cohesive animation to boot, IseNido heading for the waste bin is appropriate given how everyone in the staff team is treating it as such. Not even the music can save this show, because it's just that unmemorable, If the OP is some generic Shonen-feel song, the ED is some idol-like song that just didn't pop the way that it did. Maybe Me is probably one of the worst new-gen idol girl groups to be created in this modern day, producing songs that are just not that engaging at all since the days of Kaijin Kaihatsu-bu no Kuroitsu-san in Winter 2022.

This show can be written off without any issues, it's just trash, period. And let that sink in for every non-inspirational Isekai series that nothing will do to change the perception.