Overpowered Characters In Another Anime Fantasy World
Fantasy anime coming out of Japan right now are on a roll with regular dudes from our world dying and reincarnated/appearing in another world as a super-strong hero/anti-hero. Mostly based off of light novels, they often have harem anime aspects too. Plenty of escapist fun from our society and all of its problems. Nothing wrong with this either, but if this continues if might get kind of boring as the themes are too familiar. Still, several of these series are very entertaining, quite original, and pretty fun to watch. This kind of theme isn't unique to Japan, and fantasy stories like this have been done before in western fiction (e.g. Guardian of the Flames, Narnia, etc.), but based on the number of light novels being translated, they resonate with western audiences too.
Here is a brief chronology of the shows, and some of these are still running, being on season 2 or 3.
Fall 2015
Going back two years, the most interesting of the bunch is Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World. The hero here is a hikikomori named Subaru Natsuki. The guy blinks and appears in the other world. While he doesn't have super powers, the guy is stuck in time loops that he must break out of by doing all the right things or he dies in the attempt and it resets for him to try again. His power is that he cannot die, but he runs the risk of going insane. The character develops over time and becomes more likeable, less cocky and headstrong. Interesting side-characters and a plots make this the most interesting of the shows.
The next most interesting show is The Saga of Tanya the Evil. In this show, Tanya is a reincarnated salaryman who was murdered and then confronted by a Being X who basically wants to re-educate him for his lack of belief in a supreme being. So he is reborn as a girl in a WWI to WWII industrial level world that has magic. Here he becomes a soldier to advance in society and get the life he wants. Fighting as a warrior mage uses his cunning, business thinking, and he finds he is quite adept with superior magical powers. Still Being X keeps popping up and I'd like to see a second season.
Overlord is the only show here with a true anti-hero as the protagonist becomes his in-game persona of an undead wizard/lich. The show has an interesting start as he adjusts to his new form and world, but I find that the show starts to lag in the later season as he is just too damn powerful. There are hints of a powerful hidden foe, but the human kingdoms are mere ants to this guy. I have to say it has been pretty entertaining though.
Konosuba was a show that is pretty darn funny, playing up fantasy tropes and saddling the hero with some female sidekicks who are eccentric and counter-productive a lot of the time. This is a pretty popular show that is very fantasy RPGish, much like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. One of my favourite shows for the humour in it. Who doesn't like Megumin who only does the most powerful explosion magic. The characters make this show great.
Knights and Magic another show where the hero is reincarnated as a boy who goes onto build giant magical power robots in a world where these are the most powerful military machines. This was a fun mecha/fantasy show with the main character always inventing better mechs, but the character is flat and doesn't develop at all. Mechs are the star of this show.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is airing at the time this article is being written. I had doubts about this one as it is about a salaryman who is reincarnated as a lowly slime after being killed in our world. However, so far, the show with a talking slime has been really fun so far. The hero has crazy powers that are still developing, but the fact he is fundamentally good, and there are all kinds of powerful potential enemies and allies make this quite interesting.
Finally there is In Another World With My Smartphone, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, and The Master of Ragnorok and Blesser of Einherjar. These shows are entertaining, but weaker than the shows I've mentioned already. If you like this kind of fantasy anime, then have a watch, but I'd watch these last.
All of these shows are on Crunchyroll and I hope you enjoyed this article. Follow me on Twitter a @Tostzilla or my feedburner for this blog.
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| Photo attributed to snake3yes. Used under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). |
Fall 2015
- Overlord
- KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world!
- Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World
- The Saga of Tanya the Evil
- In Another World With My Smartphone
- Knight's & Magic
- Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody
- The Master of Ragnorok and Blesser of Einherjar
- How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Going back two years, the most interesting of the bunch is Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World. The hero here is a hikikomori named Subaru Natsuki. The guy blinks and appears in the other world. While he doesn't have super powers, the guy is stuck in time loops that he must break out of by doing all the right things or he dies in the attempt and it resets for him to try again. His power is that he cannot die, but he runs the risk of going insane. The character develops over time and becomes more likeable, less cocky and headstrong. Interesting side-characters and a plots make this the most interesting of the shows.
The next most interesting show is The Saga of Tanya the Evil. In this show, Tanya is a reincarnated salaryman who was murdered and then confronted by a Being X who basically wants to re-educate him for his lack of belief in a supreme being. So he is reborn as a girl in a WWI to WWII industrial level world that has magic. Here he becomes a soldier to advance in society and get the life he wants. Fighting as a warrior mage uses his cunning, business thinking, and he finds he is quite adept with superior magical powers. Still Being X keeps popping up and I'd like to see a second season.
Overlord is the only show here with a true anti-hero as the protagonist becomes his in-game persona of an undead wizard/lich. The show has an interesting start as he adjusts to his new form and world, but I find that the show starts to lag in the later season as he is just too damn powerful. There are hints of a powerful hidden foe, but the human kingdoms are mere ants to this guy. I have to say it has been pretty entertaining though.
Konosuba was a show that is pretty darn funny, playing up fantasy tropes and saddling the hero with some female sidekicks who are eccentric and counter-productive a lot of the time. This is a pretty popular show that is very fantasy RPGish, much like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. One of my favourite shows for the humour in it. Who doesn't like Megumin who only does the most powerful explosion magic. The characters make this show great.
Knights and Magic another show where the hero is reincarnated as a boy who goes onto build giant magical power robots in a world where these are the most powerful military machines. This was a fun mecha/fantasy show with the main character always inventing better mechs, but the character is flat and doesn't develop at all. Mechs are the star of this show.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is airing at the time this article is being written. I had doubts about this one as it is about a salaryman who is reincarnated as a lowly slime after being killed in our world. However, so far, the show with a talking slime has been really fun so far. The hero has crazy powers that are still developing, but the fact he is fundamentally good, and there are all kinds of powerful potential enemies and allies make this quite interesting.
Finally there is In Another World With My Smartphone, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, and The Master of Ragnorok and Blesser of Einherjar. These shows are entertaining, but weaker than the shows I've mentioned already. If you like this kind of fantasy anime, then have a watch, but I'd watch these last.
All of these shows are on Crunchyroll and I hope you enjoyed this article. Follow me on Twitter a @Tostzilla or my feedburner for this blog.
More anime posts
 |
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