My Isekai Life Review

It’s been almost a year since our last Isekai (other world) review and the genre appears to be going stronger than ever.

This time we’re looking at My Isekai Life, a series that represents the growing trend of the genre where a single person uses their absurd cheat powers to take life at their own pace.

My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World
Studios: Revroot
Publishers: Square Enix, GREE Entertainment, Pony Canyon
Director: Keisuke Kojima
Translation: HIDIVE
Premiere: July 4, 2022

Yuji Sano is an expressionless young man just listing through life. He works for a black company that overworks him, when he gets an invitation to travel to a fantasy world on his computer he accidentally accepts and leaves his thankless life behind.

In the new world, he starts with the Monster Tamer job which is seemingly weak at first but he actually spawned in a sage’s personal library. Yuji’s able to inherit the magical power of the sage and thus he becomes a unique existence, someone with two classes as a Monster Tamer/Sage.

The main conflict from the series comes from Yuji inadvertently getting involved with The Blue Moon of Salvation, a secret society that seemingly has destruction on their mind. However as Yuji encounters them he learns there’s something deeper at play.

Yuji’s ability to fight comes from his cute slime companions which he can use as spies. Not only that, but Yuji is able to cast spells and use his monsters as a point of origin. This combo allows him to handle fights in creative ways, often times with his enemies having no idea it was him.

This trend in isekai where the protagonist is an unappreciated corporate drudge is nothing new but there’s a reason it’s so persistent across series. Yuji is an everyman that people can project on to but this leaves him as someone boring to listen to. He’s kind, but overall his job is to contextualize information for the viewer.

It’s important for an isekai plot to stand out, the genre is incredibly saturated and a lot of titles never get an anime adaptation; or worse they get cancelled only a few chapters in. My Isekai Life is taking a chance on the monster tamer isekai subgenre and maybe is banking on repeating the surprising success of By the Grace of the Gods.

The animation in the series does leave something to be desired, while it’s not as stiff as Way of the Househusband some fight scenes, some action scenes are just a camera panning over the fight. Although you have to give credit for My Isekai Life for not using poor looking 3D for some of its monsters.

Yuji is voiced by Chiaki Kobayashi, a young voice actor who got his big break 9in 2019 as the coldhearted mercenary Askeladd in the first season of Vinland Saga. However the real star of the series is Hikaru Tono who voices the slimes, her cute voice brings cheerfulness to the show that breaks up Yuji’s subdued monologuing.

Tono is a relatively unknown voice actress who only just really started about 4 years ago in 2018. Her current body of work is mostly supporting roles and she regularly voices Tomari Seto in the Cardfight franchise.

Ultimately My Isekai Life is slightly better than your typical laidback isekai. This series tries to be a little more action-oriented that your typical comfy isekai like By the Grace of the Gods which I’ve already mentioned in the review.

My Isekai Life tries to stand out by being a little more action-packed but it never goes as far as I’m a Spider, So What? or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Instead, My Isekai Life occupies this undesirable niche where it falls between subgenres. Fans of isekai will like it, but depending on if you like a more laidback show, or a more actiony one, you have better options.