Review of Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

"Acquired Title: Buffoon" The anime industry is no stranger to Isekai anime. Hugely popularised by Tenchi Muyou in the previous century it has come a long way for better and for worse. Death March is another of those fantasy cliche harem Isekai with an OP MC not unlike last year's infamous Isekai Smartphone. Where was Death March different? Was it better? Is it watchable? Let us see. Starting off strong, Death March started off with a guy named Satou who is a 29 y/o programmer and is transported to a fantasy game where he becomes OP almost immediately. What I liked about the starting was that itdidn't jump off straight into the harem action and instead gave a small backstory about the MC. Sadly it was completely washed out by (guess what?) all the harem action that followed and till the end we followed one formula: Problem occurs, Satou learns of it, Satou solves it, Girl gets picked up and attracted to Jesus-kun, next episode. This formula to be honest completely exhausted my interest and dropped the score down to a 6 to which it still stands. The story I've got to say tries to be unique but since it throws all these cliche situations and doesn't stop using the same formula repeatedly it falls short of a good score. Frankly I couldn't be disappointed more than this. I had expected the story to be way better than Isekai Smartphone but even though it DID improve it didn't improve to the point I'd hoped it would. Does that make it good? No. Simply because it was too lacking in the story dept to amaze me.

Death March mixed two things I strongly started to dislike as I watched more anime, Lolis and harems. I was a fan of the latter before but quickly lost interest due to the lack of innovation in the genre. Death March is a perfect example of that, wasted potential. It had bright looking caracters but that's all they were. Flat. No personality apart from a few unique features and a hard on attraction towards Jesus-kun for some reason. Now the show does have it's good points even though they are few in number. The soundtrack is good and nice to hear and fit the theme perfectly, quite shocking because Death March failed in almost every other aspect. It's art was vibrant and all but it's few fight scenes let me down and the fight scenes themselves felt short and half-assed. They could have done a much better job with that.

Flat Characters, weak story, OP MC. What else is there to note about Death March? Nothing more since that's all that this and other modern Isekai anime are about. It's hard to come by good Isekai these days simply because the SAO effect is still on going and I can't wait for the next decade when hopefully this trend dies out and we get some actual innovation in the anime industry for once. Needless to say I didn't find Death March enjoyable and apart from a few minutes was boring to watch. Characters like Arisa had a lot of potential because of their "could-be-amazing" story especially since Arisa's backstory was quite unique and if explored could do much better but no. They had to focus in Satou's oh so powerful skills and the way he picks chicks just HAD to get extra screentime. I won't be surprised if we get an OVA and the same goddamn formula is used there as well. Mark my words, this WILL happen. You see if it doesn't. That is, if this shovelware even GETS an OVA, which unfortunately looking at Japan's taste in OP Characters is all but unapproved of.

What could Death March have done better? It could have made the characters more believable and given some personality to them instead of using then as Waifu material which I'm sure the otaku masses will still gladly feed on without noticing that the characters are a textbook example of how characters SHOULDN'T be made and that Death March is such a huge tribute to last year's Isekai Smartphone. I already got started on that before so I'll try not to spew more on Isekai Smartphone. Now since I do my new format reviews, I do not do the scores until after I'm done writing but I won't be surprised if it gets a 5 or way less. Frankly if you force me to be the most conservative person out there I will say this then "Death March could be considered mediocre since it does most of the things bad but since that's how almost all Isekai anime are like this it's considered mediocre" since that's unfortunately the case with the anime industry today. Since when were such anime considered mediocre I'll never know, but eh, I'll have to mark it that way then else it'd be unfair to other Isekai anime like Isekai Smartphone.

Looking for a good Isekai to watch? First off, good and Isekai have never been further apart. Now that statement was an exaggeration if I do say so myself since as with everything in this world there's always exceptions. Isekai anime weren't always as shit as they look like in this decade and you don't need me to tell you that if you are a long time anime watcher. If you ask me a recent Isekai that WAS good I'd gladly recommend KonoSuba to you not because it's just so funny and it ranks third in my favorite comedies but the fact it's a refreshing take on the Isekai genre simply because it is a middle finger to the Isekai genre itself. It parodies and takes those Isekai cliches and makes fun of them. Meanwhile another good Isekai you could watch is Isekai Seikishi Monogatari which is a Tenchi Muyou spin-off (the title I mentioned earlier) and is frankly my personal favorite Isekai since it not only has a proper centered plot but it divides the episodes into two parts the first being all the fanservice and the second being all the plot so it helps as everyone gets what they want.

Whatever the matter. If you do choose to watch the anime I recommended or instead decide to watch Death March or Isekai Smartphone, keep in mind that this is a genre heavily influenced by the SAO effect and that it doesn't look like that effect will hold down soon. Yet there's still light at the end of the tunnel. Will we see a good Isekai sometime soon? I sure do hope so. As for now, time to wait for the second season of Isekai Smartphone (groans inside)

Overall Rating: 4.2

P.S: I rarely do my best girl columns since I made my new format but I'll bring it back next time since I didn't find anyone in Death March interesting. Maybe Liza was a bit fun to watch in the earlier episodes and Nana was cute but no one interested me much to call them the "best girl". So apologies hardcore Otakus.