Cheat Kusushi no Slow Life: Isekai ni Tsukurou Drugstore

tl;dr: An incredibly simplistic lighthearted and comfy isekai with solid and varied enough comedy to make it a pretty fun watch.

This anime is yet another isekai with an overpowered protagonist. It’s a bit rarer for such anime to be laidback with the protagonist living the slow life, though that’s still not enough to make it particularly novel. The English title uses the word pharmacist so I expected something like the protagonist being a pharmacist in our world and then using that knowledge in another world, in the process also teaching the viewer some real pharmaceutical knowledge. This anime is nothing like that, though apparently such ... an anime does seem to exist (Isekai Yakkyoku).

Based on some quick research, the English translation of Kusushi (薬師) to Pharmacist in the title doesn’t quite capture the nuance of the term exactly. It certainly isn’t incorrect, especially in light of how the “Drug Store” is also in the title, but it also doesn’t seem to capture the nuance of the term exactly. Kusushi doesn’t really seem to be a term that’s used for modern pharmacists. It was used historically for people that were akin to pharmacists, though I think apothecary might be a better term. However, I think the usage in the title of this anime is more referring back to how Kusushi is sometimes used as a class in RPGs, originating in Final Fantasy V as far as I can tell. The English translation of the class in Final Fantasy was Chemist, which I think may have been a better title, though using it also has it’s own nuance issues.

But I digress. The larger point I was making is that this anime has absolutely nothing to do with pharmacology. The protagonist, Reiji, makes all sorts of stuff and not just medicine. And he does so seemingly through magic. He still has to collect ingredients, but he magically knows what ingredients he’ll need. And he still has to combine them, but the actual process of doing so feels more like a ritual than a science because he does pretty much the exacts same thing regardless of what he’s making and the ingredients just seem to magically turn into what he wants. Throughout the anime he gets called an alchemist to which he objects, but honestly I feel like that’s the best term to describe him. His abilities don’t really have any depth as magical abilities either. They just work and that’s it.

The anime also surprisingly just starts right in the middle of things, which is really strange for an isekai as the whole point of using the isekai mechanic is that it’s easier to introduce things to the viewer. Reiji starts off owning a drug store, has a werewolf girl named Noela and a ghost girl named Mina as assistants, and just starts making things such as potions to deal with people’s problems. Initially there is zero explanation on how he got there. The only reason you even know it’s an isekai is that isekai is in the title. Over the course of the anime it throws around tidbits that explain things somewhat, but even then not completely. And the explanations aren’t really all that great either. Thus, the isekai element doesn’t matter either.

So what then is the highlight of this anime? I would say that it’s how utterly simple characters seem to be. I suppose that this could be seen as them being one dimensional, but in the context of this anime and how it uses it’s cast, them being so earnestly one dimensional is quite charming. Reiji is an incredibly normal guy with nothing at all particularly special about him personality wise, but the circumstances surrounding him result in him being a pretty good person which is pretty comforting to watch. Noela is very naïve and innocent but super energetic and cheerful. Mina’s really nice but has an overactive imagination that goes off in weird directions sometimes, which results in her having an amusing dynamic with Noela at times. The rest of the cast is similarly simple, but in a similarly charming way.

The comedy is also pretty great. Each episode is composed of multiple mini-episodes so it moves pretty fast. It also has a lot of characters and Reiji creates a lot of stuff, so in combination there’s a good amount of variety to it too. There always being something new happening, even if it’s incredibly inconsequential, keeps things interesting. And combined with the cast being so cheerfully likable and world in general so happy, it can be a lot of fun just watching how things play out even without any sort of progression whatsoever. It’s overall a really comfy anime from beginning to end.

There are some attempts at having more substance and taking things more seriously. There are a lot of serious issues that are easily solved by Reiji just making something, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean more like the attempts at trying to have depth with things that seemed like social commentary on our world or topics, such as the guilt someone feels at always having to be taken care of due to sickness. These are handled nowhere near as well as they need to be to be effective and thus fall flat completely. These aren’t that common however so they aren’t that much of an issue.

The art and animation are a bit weak bust mostly fine. I liked the character designs and I think the animation did a good job of using the cast effectively from a visual sense. There were some glaring errors at times though, such as a characters clothes changing instantly in between shots of the same scene. There’s a montage that repeats every time Reiji makes anything. It changes a bit sometimes to match the specific situation, but most of the time it just repeats the same things. If it always changed things up a bit I would be fond of it as it has pretty catchy music and overall fits pretty well atmospherically, but as usually just repeated footage it felt kind of cheap. The OP and ED are pretty solid in terms of songs and visuals. The soundtrack wasn’t particularly remarkable.

Watched with Subtitles.
Source Material : Unread

Drug Store in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist is a superficial isekai fantasy. It's a crude attempt at disguising an average fantasy under the isekai banner to garner the coalesced viewership.

The fleeting references of MC's previous world and life are dreary and unexciting. The plot does not have anything unique to offer, anything to provide this title a base of it's own. The main and recurring character's have very little to no development throughout the series, while supporting characters are better in this regard. One theme running across the whole twelve episodes is the change ... in mannerisms of various obnoxious characters thanks to the earthly wisdom of reincarnated MC, which feels overused after a couple of episodes. MC's interaction with an isekai world is also missing. Lot of unexplained material in the plot, which may leave the viewer hanging.
Animation style is not praise-worthy either. Each frame seems bland, lacks depth, and the colours don't contribute to bringing the scene and characters to life and light. The characters animations lack variability of expression, which further moves interest from the happenings of the plot.
Constraint for this does not seem to have been a budget issue, but more of a lack of interest of the creators.

Overall, it seems as though it's a filler title, or something targeted at the youngest of the shounen demographics. As, that alone can be the reason to compromise on every element which contributes and constitutes to an anime.

Does this anime deserve a try? Sure, if you are ~09~13 years of age, or if you are older but can watch with the perspective of your youngest self. The only other time I would recommend this anime to be given a chance is if you have nothing else to watch and won't mind a bleak fantasy to keep the much needed anime drug to live on. Not un-watchable, but last on rear end of the priority list.

Even after watching everything, I still don't understand the purpose of this anime; it's EMPTY, with no objective, no explanations, no context. We are vaguely told that Reiji, the main character, comes from another world, and we are supposedly watching an Isekai, but it doesn't matter at all. This information is presented without any significance, and the animation is flat, lifeless, as are the backgrounds and characters. Personally, I found the character design visually appalling.

The work focuses on Reiji's alchemist talents, so I would have found it relevant to show us in detail how he obtains the resources necessary for making his potions, demonstrate how ... he prepares the potions, the use of ingredients, the techniques he employs, etc. BUT NO, even the central element of the work is rushed. Instead of all that, we are given a short sequence lasting a few seconds EVERY TIME, which is recycled on each occasion.

Even the humor is quite mediocre, typical of a poorly executed Isekai. In this work, Noela fulfills this function perfectly with her long tail; brace yourself for the most cliché jokes possible!

The work is completely disorganized, with no objective, and the core of the work is poorly exploited. The animation and backgrounds are not terrible, they are not very pleasant to watch; I found them devoid of emotion.

Musically, the opening and ending are not incredible but not bad either; I found them decent. However, there are no notable OSTs.

I do not recommend this anime. I went through it all because I don't like starting a work and not finishing it. I prefer to have seen everything to form an opinion. Although very few moments may have mildly captivated me, in my view, aside from the jokes about Noela, this anime is primarily aimed at a child audience that is not looking for depth, doesn't care about details or logic, but is content to be captivated by flashy colors and cute characters.