Review of Parallel World Pharmacy

tl;dr gets worse as the show goes on but still worth the watch. Another isekai for isekai summer, at least Isekai Yakkyoku tries to be a different sort of isekai by isekai'ing its MC into a pre-Victorian-era isekai as an isekai doctor/pharmacist instead of some kind of isekai combatant. Too many isekai's for you in that sentence? Welcome to how I feel about this summer. For all the people saying this is a unique idea: it's not. I'll give points for this being the first, considering it started serialization first, but it does come after the other two anime. Points for being the best one so farthough since both Cheat Kusushi and Yuusha Party were subpar to put it lightly. Where the other two failed Isekai Yakkyoku succeeded, for the most part. It has a good exposition, a plot that doesn't feel too forced, and characters that are at least likeable.

I don't want to go too far in praising the show. It's not some kind of genre-defining anime and it definitely has its faults. Top issue with it is all the characters are flat. His sidekicks could've been copypasted from any other anime and it wouldn't have made a difference. There's not really any change beyond initially doubting MC Farma before he brings them to his side with his sick pharma raps. And on the topic of his pharma knowledge I appreciate the effort that went into the research of actual drugs but just naming them doesn't help at all. Cue that overquoted Clarke quote about any sufficiently advanced technology. Lastly in the interest of not spoiling anything I'll just say that as the story goes on some of the resolutions lack the depth that I was expecting from the tone that the first episode or so set.

Isekai Yakkyoku could've really been great, with a little tuning of the content and characters but lacking that at least it's still average. Worth a watch if you're sick of hack-and-slash isekais.