Reviews for Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Death March is an isekai series similar to One Punch Man. It focuses around an overpowered mr. nice guy Jesus named Satou who saves women from slavery among other things with the powers of an I.T. guru, and makes them his property. The events include mr. nice guy raping and pillaging like a viking, except he does the polar opposite because he is nice. Other characters in this series are women. Slave girls 1-7 and a knight. Most of them are very much into mr. nice guy but he himself is a nice guy who doesn't use women. We shan't never know what type of aglopping sound this guy makes.

What about the most common quality trait in anime: character development? Satou is already perfect so naturally, he isn't developed, but our main girls and side chicks all like Satou more at the end than in the beginning = character development. The best part is how much this makes sense, after all, there is no reason to not like the guy.

The art and sounds follow the average production values which have been the standard for anime since 2013. Nothing to complain there. Just name your favorite hair color and there is a girl who has it. Smart choices.

When it comes to enjoyment, I haven't had this much fun with something that is close to unwatchable since Shingeki no kyoujin S01 aired. I highly recommend this show because it never tried to be anything, and thus didn't fail at it.

Death March is one of the most innovative anime that I’ve seen in awhile. Now wait a second, I’m being completely serious here. I’m not trying to coerce you into reading my review by starting off with a lame sarcastic statement. Just bear with me for a bit. Now Death March has a typical isekai plot that is generic in every sense of the word. The visuals and soundtrack are plain, and the protagonist is yet another incomprehensibly dull Kirito knockoff. But this anime is truly unique in that out of the entire lead female cast, none of them have BIG BOOBS. That’s right, allof the important girls in this show either have modest chests or are lolis. Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen a plethora of harem/eiichi/isekai/anime with a bunch of girls in them, and these shows always showcase at least one main female character with large breasts who usually ends up at the butt of at least one boob joke. Not Death March. I was honestly in shock when I discovered this, and I can say without a doubt that the lack of boobs is incredibly original for this type of anime. So if you’re an avid supporter of voluptuous breast, then you’d best find something else to watch. However, if you just so happen to be a lolicon, then you might actually enjoy this anime.

Of course, that's only if you found anything else about Death March to be good, which I unfortunately didn’t.

I really didn’t want to dislike this anime. I actually don’t go into isekai anime and think, “Ugh, I just know I’m going to hate this because its unoriginal. I’m definitely going to give it a low score!” before I even watch the show. However, Death March unfortunately ended up being not only generic, but poorly executed as well. One of the biggest issues that I have with this anime is the fact that it doesn’t go anywhere. As far as I can tell, there are no goals or objectives that the main character is trying to achieve, and all Death March does is showcase this dude living in a fantasy town with his loli slaves and occasionally fighting weak monsters whenever they appear. And even the enemies who are built up to be potent forces are completely owned by the protagonist, thus completely removing any sense of excitement or tension in these actions sequences, resulting in some unbelievably dull moments.

Now before I continue to discuss the failings with the general plot execution and story elements of Death March, I’d first like to address what I found to be the most monumental error of the anime, which would be the main character.

Our protagonist is named Kazuto Kirigaya Knockoff, or KKK for short, and he is a dude who inexplicably gets transported to a fantasy world after falling asleep at work. Wow, Death March didn’t even come up with any reason at all, much less a tangible one, as to why this guy got teleported to this world. Anyway, KKK is, wait for it…completely overpowered from the get-go! How exciting! This guy can literally just max out any ability instantly whenever he feels like it and seems to be invulnerable to everything. Because why would anyone want to watch a character work hard to get strong when you can just start off invincible like KKK? But he’s too modest to show off his immense power, so he usually lets others fight and die during battles while he puts in minimal effort. How heroic! He also purchased all but one of the main girls as slaves but decides not to free them because in his opinion, they’re all happy as slaves because he’s a good master. How noble! Finally, KKK’s personality is, from what I could discern, nonexistent. Seriously, his mediocrity as a character is astounding.

None of the female characters receive substantial development and only succeed at looking cute. If written correctly, I believe that several of these characters had the opportunity to be interesting, but their lack of growth decimated the chances of this actually happening. Let’s start off by analyzing Tama, Pochi, and Liza. The anime mentions how this trio is discriminated against by the general populous for being animal girls. Now the anime could have delved into illuminating the deleterious effects that this torment had on the mentality of these girls and their outlooks on society, but of course it doesn’t. The girls’ only character traits are that they’re nice and like to eat a lot. At least the latter ties into the fact that the girls were malnourished under their previous master. The majority of the other girls in the anime receive similar treatment from the writers, which is unfortunate.

The girl who stood out to me the most was Arisa, whose gimmicks were kind of cute and amusing, however the comedic value of her actions, such as her sexual advancements towards KKK, were lessened due to KKK’s lack of reaction towards them. In order for comedy between two individuals to truly shine, both of them have to play their part. So although Arisa’s flirtatious behavior was fun, since KKK didn’t actually respond to it in any way, the scenes between them lost value in my eyes. Leave it to KKK to suck the joy out of everything.

I believe I mentioned how the slave girls love food. Well, apparently the show’s creator does as well, to the point where he decided it would be a fantastic idea to insert a plethora of random showcases of a variety of exquisite dishes into the show. What basically happens is that whenever KKK sits down to eat a meal, he goes off on an unnecessary explanation of the food’s properties while the anime presents viewers with an image of the food that is more intricately animated than anything else in the anime. And this happens in literally every episode. Its like I’m watching a cringy, mediocre version of Shokugeki no Soma, except this anime is supposed to be about a fantasy world, not food, so these scenes that last several minutes are completely worthless. Plus, I thought that this was a medieval setting, so where the heck did all of these exotic dishes from across the globe come from? Shouldn’t they just be eating hard bread or something? I had to dedicate a paragraph to this because it just seems so absurd and out of place to me for an anime that isn’t about food at all to dedicate so much time to characters eating.

Well, it seems like I ran out of things to talk about. I know I said earlier in this review that I would eventually get to discussing the plot elements of the show and why they fail, but between you and me, that was just an excuse for me to move on and talk about something else. The truth is, Death March’s so called “plot elements” are basically nonexistent, so there’s practically nothing to actually discuss. This show is simply about a guy living in a fantasy world going about his day to day life with his loli slaves. Nothing noteworthy happens, and there is zero development in the story and characters. I have to give some credit to the show though, because although it was terribly boring to watch, for some reason I stuck with it, so I guess that’s something. Maybe I was just waiting to see if KKK would eventually develop an actual personality and stop being a horribly boring and annoying character.

…It never happened.

Oh well. I honestly couldn’t find anything that appealed to me in this anime, but I’m sure there are some isekai fans out there who enjoyed it. Maybe even you. Now that this chapter in the great bibliography of isekai anime has concluded, its time to set our sights to the future of the genre. Hopefully upcoming installations will tell a more compelling tale than Death March.

If you see the first episode of this anime, maybe you will ask yourself: "Why are they wasting so much time before letting the MC enter the fanatsy world? It is irrelevant anyways!" After watching the other episodes, you will realise why that is: Suzuki Ichirou, the 29-year-old hard-working programmer is on his "Death March" and after another hard days and nights he is going to sleep and starts to dream. This just perfektely fits the rest of the story. If I wanted to describe the whole series with few words and without any spoilers I would say: The story is like a good dream: - happy-go-luckyall the way long

- generic but well-made beautiful setting

- the dreamer is a hero, doing hero-things

- meets nice people and gathers them around him

To be honest: This is a really simple story-concept - do not expect anything deep or outstanding. It is just a nice dream. But if you are interested in Ichirou's dream, you will get rewarded.

The art is great, always fits the atmosphere and the series in all. What I especially liked is the GUI which Ichirou frequently interacts with. They really made everything fit the fanatsy-RPG style.

The Soundtracks suit the setting very well too. I also liked the OP and ED. Don't know much more to say here though.

The charakters beside the MC are mainly girls admiring him - exactly like woud want them to be in your dream. Nothing deep to find here too.

Enjoyment: This is what the whole anime is about. You are getting invited to Ichirou's dream and as your host he really wants to make this show comfortable and enjoyable for you. He is a really good host.

Summary:

A very well-made happy-go-lucky fantasy RPG anime with a plain story and plain characters. Offers no deepness but may be the perfekt show for you if you just want to relax and dream a bit.

Before actually deciding to watch this show called “Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku”, I have to ask a question: do you really watch a show for enjoyment or do you watch a show to get the most out of it? When I sat down and decided to give this series a try, it felt like an anime that I would not have high expectations on. The premise, character visuals, and just overall idea of it sounds like a copy-paste story you can find in almost any light novel medium these days. But for Death March, this proved to be one of the blandest animeI’ve seen in recent years even compared to similar premises. It’s a literal slap to the face to anyone who expect this to be better than what it looks like.

Just for reference, I have read the light novel and keeping it up with took a lot of commitment. I’m actually close to dropping the LN series but this adaptation is on another level of trash. Taking place in a fantasy setting with RPG gimmicks, we got main protagonist Ichiro Suzuki (also known as “Satou” in the other world). His life changes one day after getting hit into an accident and wakes up in this unknown world. Sound familiar? I swear, you can literally pick up any light novel these days with a similar premise and the set up would be something similar. In the meantime, we follow Satou’s adventure as he begins to adapt with his new life.

I’m just going to throw it out here. This show is extremely blend in terms of storytelling. My initial impression of the first few episodes were pretty much me struggling to stay awake. Not only is Satou an uninteresting protagonist but the story itself is devoid of emotions. It’s actually a bit ironic since a show like this should have colorful world fiction to make the setting feel alive. What do we get instead? A group of one dimensional characters in a blend world that felt like it’s part of a video game. Or I should say, a broken video game. A polished game would have memorable characters but you’ll find none of that in this series. Main protagonist Satou is not only just overpowered but also exhibits some disturbing personality if you read between the lines. The way he speaks, behaves, and interacts with certain characters is never engaging to watch. It doesn’t help that his personality is dry to the bone and seemingly always acts the same with his harem. Oh, I did just say that word. Some people may not call this a harem but to me, this series is about as harem-esque as it can get. Consisting of mainly female characters, it doesn’t take long for viewers to find out that they are fond of Satou. Arisa, Pochi, Tama, Zena, Nana. There’s pretty much no character development for any of the main cast. Instead, most of them are there to interact with Satou in order to put him over. The only way to say there’s any development is Satou’s progress as a character as he acquires more skills. Bleh.

That being said, I guess there’s some hope for the main story? The series does take place in a fantasy world and that can have potential, right? Wrong. The world building in the series is incredibly underwhelming as most places look bare and feel almost identical. If you’ve seen one place, it feels like you’ve seen them all. Bear in mind that as the series progresses, the world of Death March never evolves just like the weak character cast. The story feels more like a slice of life with occasional fighting and drama thrown in. My main issue in the story is just how meekly it’s written. Story segments feel anticlimactic and lacks substance. It doesn’t connect with the characters and never makes an impact. Pacing issues also puts this show to shame from the start as it never manages to salvage itself. Also, keep in mind that the light novel series has hundreds of chapters and this is a 12-episode anime adaptation. Yes, you can guess it. This anime pretty much throws the big fat sign of “buy the light novel!” My advice is don’t. That money could be put into so much more value and it’s a waste to spend it on this. Nonetheless, Death March loves to showcase Satou like he’s some of saint in the show. And that gives me nothing more than a thumb down.

Silver Link adapts this anime and it’s sad to say but they dropped the ball. What could have been a beautiful world setting turned into mediocre junk. I’ll be honest here. It’s terrible. The CG is awkward along with the blend character designs. Even the main female protagonists all look like cheap cartoons made by amateurs. Most of them have the same face but with different color hair and body proportions. The fan service has incredibly cringe timings that I can’t help but laugh in the wrong way. Action in the series is also poorly animated in terms of choreography and key animation. The body movements feels flat and it seems to me that this anime project was not taken seriously from the beginning.

I’m not usually one to jump on a character for their voice but my goodness, Satou’s voice genuinely makes me wish they found a better VA. His voice sounds like it’s putting us to sleep and lacks any personality. Even when he shows emotions, it feels incredibly forced with cheesy dialogue delivery. There’s not one line in this show that I find memorable and that’s because of his voice mannerisms. Sometimes, I wish there’s a volume lower than mute. The theme songs aren’t much better as it’s incredibly generic made with lazy lyrics.

Watching Death March was a challenge for me. What could have been a chance to showcase a watchable fantasy series turned into an abomination. By the time I finished watching this show, I felt a sigh of relief that the series ended up only receiving 12 episodes. It should have just been left alone as a light novel instead. The adaptation has a dysfunctional story, uncharismatic character cast, and really gives isekai a bad name. In fact, I’d say Death March almost made a show like Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni look good.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody seems almost as perfunctory as anime gets, as if to be the self-appointed embodiment of “anime today, 2018” . By that same token, it manages to actually somewhat succeed at being incredibly basic and even generic (temporarily), because sadly, it's hard to find a show that can pull this off. Giving the finger to SAO, Re:Zero, and Isekai wa Smartphone, this is Death March’s brief time in the limelight. I'm sure that at least some who are aware of my outlook on a variety of shows of Death March's ilk are recognizing me as daft for evenglancing at this show's general direction. However, the intention goes far beyond having an excuse to malign another anime. Put it simply, I want to prove the existence of a hierarchy.

Every genre, and every category of entertainment has a relative and not entirely subjective hierarchy consisting of installments that are better than most, worse than the rest, or are somewhere within a grey area of sorts. Even the harem show has undisputedly better installments such as Ouran High School Host Club, and irrefutably awful ones as well, such as Isekai wa Smartphone. The school battle anime typically goes with the comparison of Chivalry of a Failed Knight to The Asterisk War for such a comparison. While some shows that are more commonly considered to be in the middle are treated like the worst of their kind, it wouldn't be fair to label them as such. Even genericism can be executed swimmingly or horrifyingly. When standards get low enough, competence can become startling. As for where this show stands in the isekai totem pole...well, an important enemy from episode 1 somehow died offscreen in the beginning of episode 2; this anime isn't exactly the savior anyone here is asking for.

Slamming aside, this show isn’t half bad. In fact at times it can be decent, even good. For example, the first 12 minutes are actually pretty great. We were shown a horrifyingly real depiction of the Japanese work industries, with people often staying for hours upon hours at their job, falling asleep there out of sheer exhaustion, not coming home for days at a time, and the workload being asinine. The directing by Shin Onima helps sell how dreary it all is, with incredibly harsh lights shining when the protagonist sits on a train to get to work in his sleepy state, and how silent everything is in the workplace in regards to background music until we transition into the primary setting of this anime. Hell, even when the surprisingly likable MC is transported to said game world setting (don't ask me how, this never makes sense no matter which anime pulls it, and most don't even explain themselves in some way), it still feels oppressive. When he first enters the game, we get to see Sato immediately become at least somewhat disillusioned with the idea of this being an ideal “dream” when he is attacked and writing with pain while bleeding, in a scene somewhat reminiscent of some of the better moments of Re:Zero’s early portions.

From there, it becomes a bit more hit and miss. While some aspects of the game make no sense (why would you need allow your character to learn language comprehension?), they did think about stuff like currency, tax, and the overall economics and societal rules in a simple and effective manner, unlike the convoluted and meaningless currency in say, Smartphone, that never gets brought up after the first instance. It somehow manages to be a pleasant watch at times, notably because of the main character, the constant music that blends in perfectly, and the occasionally pleasant misadventures Satou and his posse go through, and the surprisingly passable world-building. Sometimes, the show can feel dull and blasé, needlessly so. It doesn't help that the show does sink into some of the more loathsome temptations of its maligned brethren on occasion. It’s annoying to see such practices continue since we’ve come so used to the absolute bottom-tier dreck these kinds of anime shit out souleslly while removing anything they seemingly had in their LN counterpart (see Mahouka’s main character as a known example of this). It does this further as it goes along too, as if the reviled temptation is increasingly difficult for them to resist. Due to this, the bare minimum of what should be considered acceptable can almost be seen as nigh-revolutionary. This really is like the “triple-A game industry”.

A large part of why this series works is Satou, our main character. On the surface, he seems like the run-of-the-mill insert, especially based on his appearance. Admittedly his reactions would be rather typical. However, he certainly isn't an awkward buffoon who only has a spine when the chips are down like most of his contemporaries are. Plus, a majority of the time, we actually see what he thinks about any given situation. It's actually rather amusing to hear him gush over every intricacy of his meals or react negatively to whatever bullshit someone gives him. Additionally, the main character often has to use his surroundings to adapt to new situations (with ease, but still, it's something) using strategies he comes up with on the fly with party members. The fact that we get to see actual strategies being employed when facing an enemy in say, a dungeon, is surprisingly not that common in MMORPG anime, if Sword Art Online has taught us anything. Him looking like Kirito in the early episodes of his show and being better at MMORPG culture and strategy than him makes him all the more glorious, especially when unlike nearly every other overpowered protagonist, he actually has a semblance of variety to his powers. To add on to how much of a cheeky fuck he is, when he wants to rename a female companion, he just translates their garbage name in Japanese, expecting no one to notice. The only real issue I have with him is that he doesn’t bother leveling up his skills until the need for a specific skill becomes relevant for the first time. One could say it’s so that he doesn’t become boring and absurdly overpowered, but if he can do this already, and if he is already at level 310 by the end of the first episode when by the time we are ⅔ into the series, the highest leveled opponent has been level 50, then this excuse can no longer fly. That, and how he can get dull over time, though not by too much.

The main character can't carry such an annoyingly dull cast, however, as most of his posse feel less like dynamic characters, and more like largely distinct accessories for him. Obviously he doesn't feel this way about them, but as established, he’s certainly less of an audience surrogate than many of his ilk. They're thankfully nowhere near as obnoxious as most female harem rosters such as Akashic Records or The Asterisk War, as none of them quite fit into the tired archetypes of harem characters. Additionally, each character is distinct from one another, unlike say, Smartphone. Not to mention that while not every female Satou collects is in love with him, it increases every so often, threatening to turn this pseudo-harem into an actual harem with leftovers. Arisa can get grating sometimes with her bullshit, making her probably the worst of the lukewarm bunch (aside from that one demon in episodes 3 and 4, whose voice was a spell meant to poison the ears), side-characters included. A majority of the villains are borderline worthless husks meant to serve as a “standard evil prick”. Understandably this takes place in a video game but the antagonists really are just the Light Novel adaptation standard when they didn't entirely have to be. At least the villain in the second arc has some pretty decent and interestingly foreshadowed motivations.

Easily the worst part, however, would be the production values. Even outside of the nice directing moments present in episode 1, and how they purposely instead sunlight saturation in certain moments of episode 2 to accentuate the wonder Satou feels about this new world he is in, there isn't much flare to speak of. The character designs look rather sharp, possibly too sharp, though improved over the original novel. Thankfully it isn't the LN standard but it's still not that pretty to look at. The action is not very well animated either. The magic spells cast have no flash or sense of spectacle like in Konosuba or Knight’s & Magic. As mentioned earlier, there are some neat directing moments sprinkled throughout, but that’s all they are: moments. Not all episodes even have those brief moments, and coupled together with terrible, sometimes even laughable action sequences, it’s certainly little better than the rest of Death March’s borderline pitiful visual presentation.

I'm more than willing to believe that the 2D aspects were studio Silver Link and that the rest is Connect, given their repertoire and how Connect has never done a solo project. I say this because the CGI bears massive similarities to another joint project of theirs: Chaos Dragon. Thankfully there is no frame rate slow-down, aside from the CGI already having bad frame rates as is, but the CGI is both disturbingly prevalent and disconcertingly awful, with most soldiers being reduced to CGI armor models that look putrid, and many creatures being reduced to unintentional abominations due to the same hideous 3D model quality. Regardless, this show looks terrible and doesn’t move well. It’s a shame that somehow it’s the production values that hold a light novel anime back more than anything else, as if this anime wasn’t a bewildering rarity already.

The music is mixed as well, though it is conversely the best aspect of the show. The Opening, "Slide Ride” by Run Girls, Run!, is a damn good contender for “most generic-sounding anime OP”, and needless to say, it wasn’t very pleasing to listen to. The Ending theme, "Suki no Skill” by Wake Up, Girls! isn’t much better, as it’s another ending theme that isn’t noteworthy. The rest of the music is pretty decent, actually feeling like decent video game music for once. This only applies when the characters are in the villages and not elsewhere. One minor jingle in particular even opts to make you feel like you've discovered or done something grand, and if there’s one thing video game scores are fantastic at, it's giving off a sense of grandeur. The track pool even expands in the second half when things try to get more serious and full of dread and tension. There are some nice emotional tracks too, further making it a shame that the opening and ending themes that sandwich these tracks hold everything back.

Even in this series' perfunctory existence, Death march manages to carve out a surprisingly rare niche among its contemporaries. Unfortunately, this speaks to the banality of this type of show more so than the quality of the show itself. A lot of the “compliments” I gave it would be overlooked in most other shows given how basic they are for even most bad shows to accomplish. There are some genuinely nice moments here, visually, and emotionally, so to see the show succumb to temptation is aggravating. At the very least, if something like Isekai wa Smartphone was up your alley, this is worth viewing too, that way you find an infinitely superior product with a trick or two up its nonexistent sleeves. For now at least, I can say Death March thankfully didn't live up to its title in terms of viewing experience, awful finale notwithstanding, as it’s surprisingly high up on this totem pole. Not bad for a modern LN Isekai title, let alone one considered part of the harem genre. It may not be good, but hey, baby steps.

Also, the fact that people are treating this show like an endorsement of slavery is woefully disconcerting; please don't do what you tried going with Mahoutsukai no Yome.

Not my style. I'd recommend it to people who are fans of 'harem' & 'ecchi', but as a 'shonen'/'adventure' story it's very poor. Nothing you (probably) haven't seen many times before. Most of the show is the MC talking to the women in his harem and making them blush (seriously). The main character is your average MC, he does good, he randomly helps people, etc. He's also absurdly OP. He struggles for a second but then levels up over 300 levels (literally), maxes out his skills and gets bottomless amounts of money. So any tension or intrigue of how he will survive is gone. The harem dynamicsare your average harem dynamics: almost every female falls for the main character and blushes in every scene (literally). Also, the lolicon factor is HEAVY in this.

There's almost no action, and the action is VERY low budget. So low so that in ep 4 they showed still images of fights with monsters instead of actual animated scenes of the fights. But it simply bored me, and I just want to write this to let people know that, if you don't love harem stories and OP MCs in stories trapped in video games, this probably isn't for you.

I think most of us have memorized these type of stories along with their settings, dynamics, etc. But if this sounds fun to you, well, I hope you have fun.

At times I see how this show would be endearing for some people, and at the end of ep 5 there was a glimpse that there could be a half-decent plot, but that is overwritten by the disturbingly creepy pedophilic elements. It's one thing to just have kawaii little girl characters as decorations to make jokes, but it's another to have them all be in love with the MC, trying to seduce the MC, kiss him and then sleeping naked with him in the same bed. Sorry, I'm out.

It kinda even makes me embarrassed 'cause these type of things are what makes otakus seem like creeps.

I don't want to pick on the show too much because it's a low budget production, but I'm just being honest with my viewing experience.

And I've had A LOT of fun watching 'Trapped in video games' or shonens with stories modeled those type of narratives. Despite their MANY flaws, I'm a casual fan of stories like 'Gate', 'Log Horizon', 'No Game No Life', 'Re:Zero', 'Overlord', 'DanMachi', 'Hai to Gensou Grimgar', and can even overlook SAO's flaws to just have fun with the action scenes. I couldn't have fun with this.

The measure of an individual is what one does when in possession of true power. The greater one's power, the more options one has at one's disposal; choosing the path that benefits the greatest possible number is the noblest path when many alternatives are available, especially paths focused purely on oneself. Satou is someone who takes the high road and never strays from it. (This review is being written in response to a flood of negative reviews that completely misrepresent Death March. I am so displeased by the rating that I set up a MAL account just to write this.) When we acknowledge that the isekai genrehas been saturated, to say the least, we need to look for differentiating factors. A key point of differentiation is the viewpoint from which the protagonist approaches the new world to which he has been spirited away. The majority of isekais take a youthful and user-centric lens: a gamer teen or a teen / young adult hikikomori. The viewpoints inherent in such a background are limited by the age and by the mindset that said protagonists bring to their worlds. Satou comes to his new world as a builder (one of the lead programmers) and as a working adult - Death March is an isekai where the Game Master is the protagonist.

Many isekais are focused on the leveling up aspect (I have fond memories of playing games like Legend of Mir 3 and grinding away). However, what if you accidentally started out at level 310? Death March shows Satou being the coach to his party, so to speak. It's one thing to be an edgy teen trying to perfect your levels, fighting to achieve top dog status; it's a completely different story to already be on the top of the dominance hierarchy and to instead nurture the growth of others. I was a swimming instructor in high school and predominantly had a lot of female students aged 4 to 12 - watching Satou nurture his crew is the embodiment of what it means to be a teacher. Giving them room to experiment, being ever-present to back them up, and always being ready to teach through example - Satou is a man, not a boy. If you cannot relate to the MC, reflect on that.

I picked up this anime last week when 3 episodes were available and the moment I was hooked was when it finally entered RPG mode and Satou started being a team leader. Thereafter I binged the entirety of the available manga and am now the proud owner of the 4 available light novels with the 5th pre-ordered.

I want to close this review by mentioning the unique focus Death March places on imbuing RPG dynamics continually throughout the narrative. There are isekais that will skew towards the fantasy element, leaving the RPG elements as a backdrop; in Death March, the game elements play a central role in how Satou interfaces with the world. Death March is very precise on roles, skills, title acquisitions, the continual use of the menu etc - a detail to be appreciated by gamers and devs. As someone who has been working in tech, I can appreciate the mindset that Satou brings to acquiring new skills. This is truly a dev's mind on display - we are always reminded that this is a technologist with a Game Master interface, interacting with a fantasy-like environment.

In my mind, this is a solid 8/10 anime for the new perspective that it brings to the isekai genre. Don't come here for depth; don't come here for romance. Watch Death March if you want to see how level grinding, skill development, and team development look like from a coach's perspective. Watch Death March if you want to a explore the [builder] mindset, rather than the [user] mindset. Watch Death March if you're interested in exploring the isekai-context question: [How should I act if I am already the most powerful?] rather than [How can I become the most powerful?]. For, if we have not considered the endgame, we are not prepared to commence the journey. Death March is the endgame that all future isekais should consider.

MAL has words to match the numbers when putting up a score, but I haven't figured out if Dreadful (2) is worse than Pathetic (1) yet - This summarizes the rest of this review. To put it short, DM (shortened for the show) is an Isekai, meaning that the story takes place in a "new" world rather than just having a different universal setting. There are a few Isekai animes already out, and even more mangas not yet adapted. Short story Shorter; The plot of most of the Isekai stories can be summarized to "Guy somehow ends up in another world. The other world is afantasy world where anything from tolkien to new inventions will show up. The guy "searches for a way to get back" but never tries, and merely goes about "exploring the world" until the author runs out of ideas.

Simply put, if well done these stories could sometimes be entertaining, I don't have anything against them and I do enjoy a few of them; RE:monster for example.

The story of DM however is.. pathetic. "A guy overworks himself, dies, ends up in a fantasy world where he instantly gets OP up until "lvl 300" or something by killing a bunch of lvl 50 lizards (Whoa). He sets off to explore the world and eventually get back home, but will only end up collecting a harem of underage girls." - If this is what you're after storywise, I won't call you stupid for being so; This kind of story appeals to quite a lot of people, and even though i'm personally not a fan and the "plot" can be completely described within those 4.5 lines, I shouldn't judge anyone for liking it. When I read this manga I got bored of it due to being passive, but considering that I'm laughing at the quality of the anime it proves enough to me that the story itself isn't the MOST pressing issue I had with it.

The art is horrible, low-quality blurry stillframe pictures for minutes per episode, many angles are wrong, faces look different from the same angles in different scenes, I can go on.

I'll also mention that the animating used for everything is as cheap as it gets.

The musc is just low quality, it doesn't match anything.

Voice acting isn't awful save for the MC and the elf guy, but the lines are.. bad. The script is simply awful.

Every character in this show is monotone, but that's nothing you shouldn't expect from after having read my opinion of the story. Having monotone characters are sometimes a good thing, character progression is only needed for a few characters in most shows and when emphasized it often ruins the quality, but having no character diversity or progression tells me that the script is awful.

To summarize all this yet again, this show has no highlights - it might appeal somewhat to some people for what it sets out to be, but the presentation is too bad to be praised. Personally I don't like the story very much, the script (The character lines) are edgy and unnatural, the art is low quality (low production cost), the intro, outro, SFX and "OST"s are low quality (low production cost) and the characters are way too bland and badly animated to make for even an acceptable harem (if you're into that).

I will however give this show a 2 in overall ranking since I enjoyed some laughs in the animation used for the ants flying into the barrier in ep6.

I decided a few weeks ago to watch this to the end just so that I could see how bad it would progress, and I will keep to that decision, but don't follow in my footsteps since this is a bad practise and may hurt your future unless you're hardened enough.

In this Anime when it comes down to it, has no real story. But the MC's gotta catch'em all Pedomon! (replace all the Pokémon with little girls that talk about meat and an MC who's boring as hell and you get this anime) This anime is really just /Harem/Slice of Life/Fantasy/(with just a tea spoon of Action so its not 100% boring) It comes down to a 29 year old dude is thrown into a world where he has super op abilities and hacks but doesn't want to use them. (Like a reverse Overlord) Instead he wants to see what's around and be surrounded by girls under the ageof 15. (Since 13+ are legal) While also talking in depth about how whatever he's eating tastes. o and the the two little animal girls favorite word is meat for some ungodly reason, its easily the most used word in the anime.(if you catch my drift, you'll understand why I think this is bad)

The situations they are put into are so light hearted it reminds me of Pokémon(but Pokémon is far better in general)

The only story I've seen the goal is to get all the little girls he can into his harem. There are episodes where they literally do nothing but talk about food for 50% of the run-time.

Even though the MC is ultra powerful his thought process is to b-rate the weak level 30's then begrudgingly "I guess I should fight but I don't want to be popular..." (he's level 300+ and the highest level enemy he's fought was 52...) Then the proceeds to get throw for a loop by a level 41. (Pathetic)

If you like cute stuff and don't mind just about everything else you might like this. For everyone else its a drag to watch.

(oo yeah and the mc just randomly unlocks new abilities every time he takes a dump.)

Death March to a Parallel World Rapsody is very refreshing and relaxing anime, it's not great desconstructor like Konosuba or Rezero was, but it did well on what it tried to do and that is, nothing. Yes, you did not read wrong, this anime is a very simple Slice of Life on a parallel world, nothing more, nothing less. At the start of the anime, you see a little of Satou's past life, as a proggramer, to me that was actually very important and fresh, because I always found myself asking: "what the hell Kazuma or Subaru did on their past lives". It's just somethingthat won't matter anyway to the main plot of most isekai anime, but it's nice to see more of the character, even tough Satou may be seen as an self-insert character(to me he is, as I'm also game developer), not everyone can relate easily to him, expecially his logic. I mean, most of you would like to be some kind of overlord on another world, but to Satou and to myself as well, he did the right choice, of hiding his powers and make himself as a simple merchant. Even though he is most probably the stronger person on that world. But what he want is really enjoying a happy life with the girls he took to be their guardians. I mean, they may be his slaves as that world says, but he takes care of all of them, as if they were his child. Unfortunately the only female characters with some sort of relevance or at least a bit developed is Arisa, so I'll get to her in a bit. First of, Arisa in the inside is a grown-up woman from japan, as is Satou, so her action do make sense, even though she is in a child's body. She also is the character responsible for most perverted moments in this show.

Another strong point of this anime, in my opinion, is the Art, the characters and scenery are beatifull, even though the animation lacks a lot, a few episodes had action enough to take the score down, so for the part of illustratring the scenery and characters, silver link did a well done job. The sound is also gorgeous, both OP, ED and the music at the end of episode 10 are magnific, as well as the BGS at overall.

You can't say I didn't enjoy this anime because I really enjoyed it up, it was a very refreshing anime with the "another world" theme.

In overall, this anime is better appreciated if you like isekais and can get through the first episode, as it makes the anime look like another battle isekai.

In summary:

Story 5

Art 9

Sound 9

Character 7

Enjoyment 10

Overall grade: 8

This is the kind of anime that i watch when i go to bed Its really enjoyable the kind of anime that i like when I'm just relaxing i hope that everybody feels the same with this anime and everybody that watch the anime would think from a start that its just a dream yes its a dream because of the setting that's its just a dream so the MC will just do what ever he wants and i hope that the developers for this anime doesn't ruin the dreamy feeling that this anime has and PLSSS give this anime a outstanding ending. Overall this anime isoutstanding and this is my favorite anime of this season and i hope that the MC dream is a happy one and also hoping that MC didn't die in the actual world he lived in and didn't get transported because the setting of him just dreaming is already good and its a good anime for kids and also teens and adults that just wanna relax and enjoy a very relaxing anime.

This anime has left a verry positive impresion on me from episode one to the current episode.Indeed the story is not original, and the fantasy setting look standard, but is in the details that this anime shines.It manages to leave a known premise and take you to a diferent and fascinating universe thru the small details that you can't notice at first. Without giving spoilers it begins shrouded in mystery, you don't know if the main character is dreaming or he was suck into that fantasy world by other means, possibly force.You don't know why he has a godlike ability and why that "dream"seems so real.Thru the story more clues appear, like the japanese person who is dead but living in the virtual world, a verry well placed reference to Ghost in the Shell.

The main char is complex and so are the supporting charactes, they all hide an interesting past.

The action is simple yet surprising and complex as the same time, it resembles the existance of the main character (spoiler) who has godlike power but wants to live a simple life in the fantasy world!

But where this anime excels is entertaiment, this is the kind of anime that you can enjoy while relaxing.It has ecchi, but is well placed to create an athmosphere of freedom.I recomend this anime to everyone lookin for a nice experience, from anime beginers and veterans! Oh and did i mention it has serveral lolis and one with neko ears? ;)

"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.

I would like to to talk about the main male character as he is the reason I'm doing this review, he has a cool concept and one I haven't seen yet in the Isekai genre. he is a programmer who fell asleep in his office and was suddenly living in an alternate reality, Is it a dream? we don't know and nether does he and he doesn't care! that is one flaw in his character IMO. Another flaw I have with this character is the voice acting, he's a 30y old and now living in his early teen years body, so the studio has decided tocast two voice actors for him, his outer childish voice and inner adult voice. I would believe it's not just me who has a problem with his childish voice, it gets under my skin!

He seems to be the only male character in the story so far (4 episode) and all the female characters are there for support and have nothing interesting going on.

Summary: interesting premise with bad execution.

I would definitely recommend watching the whole anime at once. It would be enjoyable that way and you will not lose your patience. The Anime itself is not complicated and relaxed all the way to the end. This is the Anime you would want to have with you because you can rewatch it again and again. This Anime won't make you cry or laugh but make you smile. This Anime is the prime example of Not all Anime has to have good story, action and be fast-paced to be enjoyable. Those who don't enjoy this Anime are busy people who can't afford to watch Anime for fun becausethey have forgotten Joy of relaxing while watching Anime.

So, when you have lots of free time open a large cola and chips bag and enjoy the Anime.

This is one of the comfiest anime on TV. I will be spoiler free but basically it's about a guy who collects a harem of slave girls who all adore him. Theres no funny business from him, but he's basically a heroic character who was transported to another world, saves people, and has lots and lots of powers thanks to a hack in a game he worked on which may or may not be connected to this 'parallel universe'. Its safe to watch, you will feel massive comfiness most of the time. I think of it as being like all the happy times in SAO, when Kiritois with his friends in the house after marrying Asuna.

I always smile, the two demihuman girls are adorable and I love when they say niku niku,

Just watch three episodes, see what you think.

« I’m not into loli but » Satoo, just before beginning his loli journey. Disclaimer: This review contain a lot of spoilers, if you have not seen the show, please don’t, if you already have feel free to read. Story This anime is about two things : food porn, particularly “meat porn” (you didn’t planned to become a vegan ? Now you will) and pedo moments. 45% of the time, characters are eating / searching for food or buying some useless things because there’s a need to fill this empty anime, 45% is full of that creepy thing about those 10 years old slaves kids showing theirlove to the main character and the 10% left is about random things that happen that our hero resolve by upgrading his skills.

It seems like the author had one thing in mind doing this anime : “ Ok, those prepubescent kids are in love with fan-service ? Let’s make an anime where everything is about that ! We’ll put some furry, with animals ears and tails, they will be able to fantasize and masturbate on it ! Make them slaves, that’s more sexual. Let’s give them 10 years old, no personality. Now let’s make them cry every 5 minutes about how they are hungry or how much they love the main character ! That’s perfect.

… Damn, but those characters have to do things in this world now, we need a plot… Mhhh... let’s add random events that have nothing in common, btw nobody will care because they will all love that shitty sexual thing around my characters !

This anime have two important life lessons for you, the first is, if a woman is mad at you, just buy her stuff (like earrings and shit) . And if you face a problem, just cheat your way out of it (by upgrading your skill at the last second). The philosophical ethics is on point. And don’t forget, if a 11 year girl want to fuck you, it’s ok as long as she’s mentally older!

There is no scenario: the plot for the season 1 is non existent, MC is catapulted in this new world and.. do nothing except eating, buying stuff and sheltering every loli he met. The anime try to give us some interest by suggesting the MC is the new hero who will kill the demon king (how original), but because Satoo is OP, nobody can kill him, there is no sense of danger, and therefore no progression possible, and unlike one punch man, the situation is not nearly as funny.

Characters

I must admit the cast of characters is really diverse, you have a loli cat girl, a loli dog girl, a loli princess, a loli innkeeper's daughter. In fact Death march must really have a population problem, because 90% of the people are prepubescent girl there. There is only one and i really mean ONE other dude on this anime who have more than 2 line of dialogue (but is a cliché btw), and he literally do nothing significant. It’s like the guy behind the story had some ideas for the plot but after 5 minutes of reflexion, got bored.

Sato: your generic kirito dude, he’s overpowered, he’s boring as hell, he have 0 charisma ( special mention to his submissive voice who try to sound calm) and the ladies love him because he is rich and nice.

Girl’s harem: In Death March, every girl of the harem are both walking cliché(the shy one, the energetic/happy etc..) and so similar that they don’t even deserve a specific description. They all are half retarded (compared to them the hero seems like a genius), in love with the MC for no reason and zero personalities (well with nearly no backstories behind it must be logical)

Sound

Satoo’s seiyuu died halfway of the first episode (18:10 you can check by yourself) and was replaced at that point by someone with an oyster charisma (RIP).

We will not talk about the flying enemy monster who sounds so comically bad it would be fun if this anime was a parody, unfortunately, it isn’t.

The accelerated voice sounds when they throw a spell is fucking weird and hurt my earring.

The music is ok, nothing memorable except two at the end of the Tree arc and the ending of ep 10, too bad you will only hear them once.

Art/Animation

Your generic fantasy universe mixed with cat girl, dog girl and even lizard girl because why the fuck not? As long as it look like a loli you’re free to go.

It’s like dragon ball super and powerpoint had a child, and that child got hit by a truck. Two frame fight, an abuse of fixed plane, blurry effect everywhere. Very weird color choice (the food look so bad, with no texture and wrong colors that it look like someone puked them). The animation is cheap and easy but unlike Mcdonalds, it doesn't feel satisfying to watch. Graphism are comparable to what was produced 10 years ago

Light effects are ok tho.

Can we talk about Arisa hair color changing every scene for no reason? Or recycling of background whenever it’s possible (one of the most blatant example is when Satoo is travelling and you see the same house every 2 second)

The 3d part feel out of place and is just plain ugly.

Enjoyment

After 5 episode of disturbing child sexualinnuendo, food and nonsense, i fell asleep several times during episode 6. So I rewound to see what I had missed and there was only loli, food, and an ants army that was useless as fuck.

The first episodes, it was funny to make fun of the anime, but you know, the shortest jokes are the best. After some episodes, it became painful to watch. It was just a set of non-funny jokes used again and again until the end.

Thanks for reading.

Chryn and Naryun.

Honestly when I first started watching this anime it seem like a pretty cool anime, wow was I wrong. Overall-2 Story-1: If you are looking for a anime with absolutely no plot and character development you have came to the right place. probably the worst isekai i've ever seen. There is really now way for me to explain how bad this story plot is because there is no plot, there is no end goal there is nothing. It might be good anime to watch if you are still a child. Art/Sound-7: the saving grace of this anime, the visuals and sound were not bad Character-1: The MC is possiblythe lamest most cliche character you can imagine. The upstanding mc with no humor but is badass and does the coolest calmest thing in every situation. retarded. other than that there are some lolis, animal girls and a slave harem. as well as a love intrest. All of them have no character development or just a generic female character personality.

Enjoyment-1: this show basically just made me cringe a wild amount and I was so close to dropping it countless times. I honesty hated it.

Death March is the most pro-slavery tract of fiction produced since the end of the American Civil War. Death March's main character, Satou, is the most insidiously passive protagonist I think I have ever encountered. When thrown into a world with a legal and normalized institution of slavery, which includes the prostitution of children, Satou is apathetic at best – and eagerly complicit at worst. Satou is a fucking sociopath. Let’s explore this. Satou is thrust into a fantasy world (with inconsistent video game elements because there is no spark of originality to be found here) and, of course, he’s totally overpowered from the get-go. He soonenters a city where slavery is accepted, slaves are peddled alongside food items and clothing, and slaves are publicly beaten. The people of this city have no problems showcasing their vehement racism towards “inferior” races. This place is fantasy as imagined by Adolf Hitler, a setting even grimmer than Berserk. None of this phases our hero.

He may not care to watch abuse, and he may think the abusive slave owner is a jerk, but that’s where it ends. He questions nothing about this society or its morals. The problem with the abusive slave owner isn’t that he’s a slave owner – it’s that he’s not a nice slave owner.

Events conspire to give Satou his own cadre of slave girls (Pochi and Tama, who are 10 years old, and Liza). He adapts quickly to giving orders and having them at his mercy. When they reach the surface, he immediately purchases two more slave girls for his harem: Lulu, 14, and Arisa, 11. In for a penny, in for a pound, right?

I’ll be generous and concede that he needed to order Liza, Pochi, and Tama around because of extraordinary circumstances. Once the danger has passed, however, at no point does he ever consider setting them free. In fact, he seems to think that keeping them as slaves is the NICE thing to do.

Satou, delivering the very last line in Episode 5: "They don't deserve to be treated like slaves, but they feel more at ease that way."

Oh, well, that makes it so much better. It’s so comforting to know he’s considering the feelings of his human chattel.

When Liza, Pochi, and Toma are denied room and board because of their race/species, they are graciously given a spot in the stable – like animals. Satou callously leaves them to sleep in a sty while keeping the bed for himself and his two human slaves.

When Lulu and Arisa (again, 14 and 11 respectively) present themselves naked, he is utterly unfazed by the prospect of child prostitution. His only response: “Oh, they have that kind of slavery here, too.” There is no hint of disgust, or even discomfort. The only problem is that it’s just not his bag.

And you know, for as many times as Satou insists “I’m not a lolicon,” it’s a little suspicious how he keeps finding himself surrounded by naked and sexually available children. Maybe he just gets off on exerting his dominance over them – choosing what they do, what they eat, and dressing them up like dolls. Then again, he kisses a prepubescent dryad girl not once, but twice in Episode 8. The show tries to excuse this by having the little girl proclaim her need for MP – but our hero doesn’t even think of just handing over an MP potion, which was shown to be effective just one episode earlier. Perhaps Satou only feels emboldened to act on his pedophilic urges when he’s alone.

Moving from his moral transgressions, Satou is stupid in ways too stupid for stupid people. He is granted a basically unlimited pool of skill points, but instead of leveling every useful skill immediately, he only applies skill points the moment he needs them. For a computer programmer, he seems to lack any sense of long-term thinking.

Satou is solely out for his own self-gratification, unconcerned about the heinous state of the world or the evil that plagues it. All of his so-called “heroic” and “selfless” acts revolve around little girls or little girls that resemble house pets. To quote The Criminal Personality, by Samuel Yochelson and Stanton Samenow, “The criminal's sentimentality reveals itself in compassion for babies and pets.” Notice how little of a shit he seems to give about anyone not a girl or past puberty. His niceness is all a hollow, shallow front, a mask for the uncaring monster underneath.

Seriously, go look up the DSM-V guidelines for Antisocial Personality Disorder. These are the criteria professionals use to determine if someone is a sociopath – and Satou hits all the necessary marks. Satou is a less outwardly criminal, yet more unfeeling and callous take on Tony Soprano. Hell, I'd rather spend an evening with Hannibal Lecter - at least he has a personality and a voice that doesn't sound like nails on a chalkboard.

So why is Satou our protagonist? Does the show realize how monstrous he is? You can center a story on an antihero or even a villainous sociopath, but Death March seems totally unaware of how Satou comes across. Instead, it’s littered with scenes of Satou feeding, clothing, and bathing his slaves, as if that will make us like and admire him. I would hope that any morally sound person living in our time is going to see "doesn't treat slaves like shit" as the bare fucking minimum for goodness – but for the creators Death March, that’s all it takes.

This show is a moral trash fire, and it’s kind of fascinating in that regard. Otherwise, all you have is a sparsely animated, thinly written, and shamelessly lazy addition to the overstuffed isekai genre. I would hope people are only watching this kind of stuff ironically – but I’m not so optimistic. Thinking that this is marketed to children makes me want to throw up.

It doesn’t deserve any more analysis. It deserves to be buried and forgotten – the sooner, the better.

End of Series Update: Satou acquires two more harem slaves, a prepubescent elf child and Violet Evergarden. He heroically saves a horde of submissive, busty blondes and helps another prepubescent child. One of the last scenes of the entire show is two ten year old girls literally licking a clear, goopy liquid out of his palm.

It's pure garbage from start to finish.

Ok, im mad. Almost all reviews for this anime are unironical 8 out of 10's or higher. Whatever, lets get into this review. First of. The story, or lack thereof. There is no overall direction with it. It’s not going anywhere. It’s like the writers just wanted to show off cute girls and halfway through writing realized that they had to give the show some sort of substance. Any drama that is supposed to happen never carries any weight because it’s never built up and whatever villain that appears doesn't have any substantial motive. It is obvious that they're there because the writers have achecklist that they must complete. The latest villain, some random mage literally tells the main characters exactly where to go. Kidnaps the newest girl that is too be added to the mc’s harem. And then the mc has too work his way up a bunch of floors too finally reach the evil guys’ chamber. That is such a stereotypical damsel in distress type story that i don’t even know what's going on. All they need now is a tower and a dragon.

The characters...

It’s ok to just have a slice of life story that doesn't go anywhere but if you’re going to do that, focus on the characters. Develop them. In slice of life the characters and how they behave in their daily life is supposed to be what carries the show. Konosuba shined in this very way. This show does not. Zena for example is so boring, bland and she actually has no defining character traits. She's just a polite girl who fell in love with our main because the plot told her too. At least the demihumans bring a little shred of comedy (even if i have seen all these types of jokes before). But that is all they are there for and since the comedy isn’t anything new it gets old after a while. So the show doesn't go a more Konosuba character driven route or a more serious story driven route and as such completely falls apart. Don’t halfass two things, tryhard one.

Lastly… the mc. Wow, what a disappointment. I can’t even begin to express how much seeing his character turn into nothing hurt me. He started off strong, you see most anime mc’s are teens. Usually around 15. So when i heard that this guy was going to be in his 30’s i got hyped. I hoped this was going to bring some mature thinking too the show. I thought he, being 30 would have developed some type of character. A personality. Him being loved by a bunch of kids around the age of 15 was certainly going to be interesting. How were they gonna handle that. They didn’t. The mc in this show is painfully bland with no defining personality traits whatsoever and the fact that he's an adult isn’t adressed or ever even touched on. Not explored. In fact as icing on the cake they put him back into his 15 year old body when he gets teleported into the fantasy world. It is as if they wanted too really let the viewers know that this anime wasn’t going to do anything different. Of course he’s your stereotypical, nice guy, emotionless, always smiling, plain, bland, harem mc that you’ve seen before thousands of times if you actually watch anime.

Oh and btw, the animation sucks. Don’t even make me touch on the lack luster fight-scenes that more resemble still panning shots (i'm referring too later fight-scenes as the first one in episode 1 actually had actual animation and carried a little weight). Oh and btw, the show started strongly. The mc starts off with nothing in a world that he knows nothing about. He’s low leveled and we actually get to see him struggle and hurt. Legitimate emotions are being brought out here and thats why im so mad that the show then turned into what it turned into. Because it started off really down to earth with the mc pulling all-nighters at his office and then actually struggling in the fantasy world if even only for like 10 minutes of episode 1. But then the mc of course reaches the max level in one fight by literally wiping out an entire army with meteors. Yeah, f’ck this show.