Review of I'm Standing on a Million Lives

Isekai's are still around, and I may be one of the few people that still enjoy them. But there has to be an appeal there for me to get involved. Some shows are unique in how they approach the genre, like a restaurant in another world or retiring in another world. But more often than not, the isekai genre, as of writing this, is headed out. Now what does this have to do with "I'm Standing on a Million Lives" or "Million Lives"? It's not that this show has an inherently bad premise or is incredibly boring, because I found myself entertained for a portionof it...at least enough to watch and not drop. It's more that it's unable to stay on track and ends up sabotaging itself via means that were meant to make it seem original.

This show makes an obvious attempt at being fresh and dark, but ends up losing itself in an identity crisis. It's clear they wanted to show a dark and disturbed world, and I suppose at times they do. More often than not though, I had no clue what each character was thinking. They ignore key elements while spending too much time on insignificant posturing, losing even more potential for an interesting plot.

There are some redeeming elements of the series that come from the citizens of the alternate world. Their consistent nature with the random events occurring allow for a unique plot on their part. Fortunately this allows for a counter to the main heroes inconsistent and illogical actions. Had it not been for the side stories of the other worlders, this show would have most certainly been a complete waste of time.

One "other worlder" girl, named Kahabell, is a knight that the heroes end up traveling with. She ends up helping them in a variety of ways and behaves in a reasonable manner, albeit unconventionally. Her story was a redeeming factor for the series, and though we do get to spend a significant amount of time with her, it just reminded me of how bad the main characters are. For some odd reason, she identifies with Yuusuke (the main protagonist), and ends up spending most of her story with him. This leads to an interesting potential romance between them, but of course it can never be since they are from two different dimensions/worlds...not to mention the significant time difference between their dimensions (one week in his world is like a decade in hers). Still, I found the breakdown of their relationship that never was, very touching. Later on in the series, and many alternate world years later, after Kahabell's already married and had children, the two reunite. In this scene, Kahabell reflects on her life and their time together, and realizes just how much her life has changed since they last were together. She realizes how old she's gotten and just how different her life is now as a house wife. She admits to Yuusuke that she's always been in love with him and takes the kiss she wasn't brave enough to take a decade earlier. It's both touching and heartbreaking to say the least, since they clearly love each other but are separated by time and space. It's stories like this from the citizens of the alternate world that kept me watching, but it's no thanks to the main characters, and is in no way redeeming enough for the main plot.

I'd say the top issue I had with Million Lives was the main characters. At no point during the series did I feel much of a bond between the team members that get transported to the alternate world, nor did I care for any of the characters as individuals...other than a few. They sucked as a team, and they suck as individuals. On several occasions, opportunities for growth would arise, but was always tabled for some other "original" story telling device...and the story telling method was worse than if they had just chosen to be predictable. Predictability isn't always a bad thing if you know it will benefit the story. Surprising the audience does nothing if the audience doesn't care or understand what the characters motivations are. The team member that bothered me most was the main protagonist, Yuusuke. I literally fell asleep listening to him drudge on about how he hates humanity. His story arc is literally just "Me, me, me...let me talk about me and my thoughts some more". For some odd reason he refuses to get along with his team and consistently talks down to them, although they also don't have great personalities either. His reasoning for his deluded ideology regarding humanity was not only flawed but inconsistent. Some people he's okay with, such as his home town friends or the citizens of the other world, while others, like the residents of Tokyo or his team, are the "absolute worst". If you ask me, this protagonist might as well have been an empty shell, because even the worst of humanity can still have conviction.

The team he's with isn't much better. One of my least favorite of the teams members, Yuka, is introduced in the strangest way possible. Yuusuke comes in per the Overseer's request and sees Yuka being held down by some girls, that are bullying her presumably, with her bra exposed to their cell phone cameras. Now a normal viewer understands why he ends up rescuing her and destroying the bullies' phones to get rid of the lewd pictures. But instead of gratitude, Yuusuke ends up being chastised for destroying the bullies phones and is labeled a pervert by the girl he rescued! Apparently he ruined her chances for popularity... To add to her already unlikeable personality, she's a streamer that is entirely focused on herself. While in her self delusion, she spreads negative rumors about Yuusuke to the other girls in the party (Iu and Kusue) and of course they take her word for it rather than Yuusuke (who they've known longer and were rescued by), and end up shunning him. I literally cannot find one redeeming personality trait for Yuka...it's just endless sarcasm, monotony, and complaining from this girl.

Illogical actions of the main characters are a constant throughout the series. As brief as my explanation of events was, it perfectly describes the upside down world the writers of this show are living. Scenes and actions don't make sense, and characters don't follow any sense of logic. Eventually Yuka admits Yuusuke did try and save her, and wasn't actually a pervert, but the other girls just shrug it off, and neither girl apologizes for ostracizing him. To make matters worse, the girls on the team don't seem to understand how useless they are without Yuusuke and he never really gets any form of gratitude from them. Moments that could have been heartfelt apologies, redemptions, or moments of appreciation are instead just glossed over. Emotions, other than anger and despair, appear to not even exist in this show. I can't explain how frustrating all of this is while watching.

Even when a new team member joins, the previous players behave like jerks, not even bothering to explain the world to them. I suppose this is for the sake of comedy, but the new member's frustration is obviously expected after being transported to a world they don't understand, while being ignored by their other party members. One of the more positive members, Keita, is introduced in this manner, but is, of course, written off as hopeless by the other party members. The irony here is that his backstory was the only intriguing one, considering he's had the hardest life of the group. In a battle though, he's the first one to run in and fight, which isn't always the best move but shows his bravery at least. The girls consistently call out their male counterparts as dumb or illogical, when they end up being useless and never put forth any of their own plans. It's not that there isn't truth to their statements, I just don't want to hear it from the characters that aren't any better.

As I mentioned earlier, there aren't many redeeming factors of this show. The action isn't particularly exciting to watch, the music was fairly generic, and the plot was confusing. Since the side stories/characters are apart of the series, I can't say that the show as a whole was a waste, but the main characters and plot took some getting used to (to say the least). I scored the series as average due its inconsistency, with some parts fairly enjoyable and the rest being mind numbing. How you decide to take that is up to you. I can't say that I recommend it as a whole, but some of the side stories are actually worth watching. I get what the creators were going for, and appreciate that direction. I just wish the dialogue, characters, and plot had more appeal. I supposed there's something for everyone, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear some people love this show, but, to me, it was nothing more than a wasted opportunity.