Review of I'm Standing on a Million Lives

This particular series certainly is a mixed bag of narrative elements. I'll start off by saying the series does have some unique features in that the premise for this particular isekai - a story where someone falls into another world - are certainly unique. Rounds three and four which our main character is introduced, are also well thought out regarding what the game master is asking for, and I really can't find any fault in those two rounds. In fact, I'd argue those two rounds and how they work out are definitely what draws the audience in There is also an attempt to utilize unique character typeswithin this series, but this is also where the series starts falling apart. Effectively, one can summarize the issue as the creator of this series decided what character archetype they wanted to work with, only not to work out the small details. These small details, in turn, are important to the narrative. That's, of course, the short story, with the longest being that some might pick up on a bit of an ableist attitude towards individuals who are socially inept, with the narrative effectively putting forth this idea that those with social issues can be fixed if they simply find some way to contribute to society ignoring the fact it is possible for someone who is socially inept at contributing to society while still remaining socially inept.

This particular issue shows the most in the main character, who the creator of the series attempts to present in a negative light from the very start, treating him and his social ineptitude as some sign of being a psychopath rather than simply being a pragmatic person regarding the way the world works. His hatred for the world ends up feeling like an extreme, something left completely unexplained, almost as if the person who created the series didn't actually understand those with social issues and instead looked at them through a biased lens of how they felt they could confirm. Of course, here is where I do admit that something may have gotten lost in the translation of the series in the adaption process and that the fault may not lie with the actual original creator but those taking their characters to the Manga.

The issue with not thinking through the details when it comes to the character types shows up the second most in the second character to be dragged into the quest in that we're informed she has an illness, which effectively is her entire conflict in the series with its own set of complications because the small details weren't thought out as well as they should. But effectively, with this character, we have a character with a mysterious illness that leaves her physically weak in the real world. What is the illness? Well, we never find out beyond the fact it is hereditary. This can be brushed off as something writers do a lot in stories they create because it's just easier not to have an illness that is named, and readers can go, "That's not accurate," but in this particular case, it informs her entire identity. Her worldview, like the main protagonist, is treated as wrong and in need of being fixed despite her reason for having the social issues she does is justified by her health issues.

Or perhaps it's not so much her worldview that is being challenged here. Still, the idea that someone with extreme health issues isn't justified for having the social issues they do because of their illness, and by that merit alone, the fact they have social issues is enough to deem them not to be a proper contributor to a functioning society simply which is its own can of worms and much more problematic than simply questioning this characters world view.

Speaking of questioning world views, the first character with social issues who can be described as socially functioning effectively has coping mechanisms that help her function, treated as if it is garbage because there is nothing wrong with depending on friends and no indicator at all that she'd ever been too co-dependent. This, in turn, begs to question what her purpose within this series is because, as another character states, she is effectively perfect only for the narrative to find ways to try and make her come across as flawed, which is problematic because the flaws end up being flaws within the game mechanics, not with the character.

As for the fourth character, she is more fleshed out than the others. In her particular case, her social issues aren't a problem with self but instead an issue with society, in particular a school system that allows such social issues to occur within their system. The first problem arises when - well, she's effectively a character we've seen before, the bullied character. Still, in this particular scenario, the whole bullying thing is downplayed, although how I won't go into it to avoid spoilers. She's also a character we've seen before who fulfills the role of the perverted geek, which seems more there because of the obligatory perverted geek than as a real narrative point, although it does try.

From here, some of this won't be a problem with viewers, but for others, it can be. For me, it definitely left me questioning if the person who created this is someone who actually understands people who have social issues or if they're working with certain talking points regarding certain beliefs regarding those with social issues. The latter is honestly problematic and something to be wary of going into the sequel series.