Isekai Shokudou

Isekai Shokudou is shockingly, relentlessly boring. There's a mundane, quiet restaurant; it has a magic portal that's branches out to a bunch of corresponding portals in a sword and sorcery fantasy world. A rotating cast of fantasy guest characters come through the door. They eat food and then leave. Back in fantasy isekai land, they do have stuff going on; this is explained through direct narration or maybe some clumsy expository dialogue. But it's just back story. The restaurant visit does nothing at all to resolve the off-screen tension (except in one case where the guy's big problem was... he hadn't eaten in a while.) ... They enter, order, eat, enjoy, and leave. That's it.

I want to be crystal clear about this because weeb apologists may think I'm just bored with slice-of-life drama, or a show about cooking, and wanted to see violence and strife. No. I wanted to see any kind of conflict, problem, or question; and then I wanted to see how it was resolved, or how the attempts to resolve it failed, and how that led logically to new conflicts, problems, or questions. In other words I wanted something that conforms to the basic essentials of a dramatic presentation. But this show doesn't. It fundamentally violates the implicit pact between author and viewer because the author is an incompetent amateur web novel guy who has no idea what he's doing.

People, this is unacceptable. Stop enabling this kind of garbage. Yes, the author didn't understand his craft; yes the studio adapted a failed, forgettable web novel and shot it scene-for-scene instead of reworking it into an actual story. But the ultimate blame lies with the fans who swallow and even praise these unnecessary, failed projects. Go take a grade school English class. If you pay attention you'll understand why this isn't good storytelling. It isn't storytelling at all.

Apparently there is a subculture of Anime fans who love descriptions of food. This series is fine if that's what you like. If you want characters or story-line, you should probably look elsewhere. I've made it through five episodes of this series and I'm bored purple by it. Each of the last three episodes has been exactly the same.

Part 1: Strange Creature/Fantasy Being/Whatever discovers the restaurant door in some expected location and, having nothing better to do, goes through the door. Cute waitress with horns that could easily be mistaken for different colored hair, seats them, gives them a menu and a glass of ... water. After some agonizing, the creature/being/whatever, selects a dish. Then we get detailed description of how the sweetness of this mixes with the touch of bitterness of that blending together to create an exquisite taste delight completely unknown on Strange Creature/Fantasy Being/Whatever's world.

Part 2: Second Strange Creature/Fantasy Being/Whatever discovers the restaurant door in some expected location and, having nothing better to do, goes through the door. Cute waitress with horns that could easily be mistaken for different colored hair, seats them, gives them a menu and a glass of water. After some agonizing, the second creature/being/whatever, selects a dish that isn't the same as the first creature/being/whatever. Then we get detailed description of how the sweetness of this mixes with the touch of bitterness of that blending together to create an exquisite taste delight completely unknown on Second Strange Creature/Fantasy Being/Whatever's world.

The End. Cue the closing song and the credits.

A couple times through this cycle and not a hint of character development of any sort... you get to see exactly how interchangeable the customers are and it wouldn't make an iota's worth of difference if the chef and the waitress were switched out every half episode... no tension, no conflict, no anything that makes a story... has been enough for me.

Do you like short stories that don't have much of a point but may serve as a nice lighthearted vignette? Do you like watching people gush loudly about how much they enjoy the various types of food that they are eating? Well if so Restaurant To Another World might be for you! If you don't it most certainly won't be.

While Restaurant To Another World has a nice atmosphere and does well to protray a comfy setting, it's only purpose are the two things I mentioned: short meaningless vignettes that can sometimes be heartwarming, and watching people gush over the food that they love eating so ... much. While it does those two acceptably, there really isn't much else to this story. None of the main characters are developed. They have an episode half or two that gives them a little bit of character but for the most part they are ultimately unimportant. Just people that you get to know as you get to see the various walks of life that frequent the restaurant.

The various walks of life aren't very fleshed out either. While we are introduced to important bits of their character for that segment, this does very little but give a general sense of who this character is. In many cases, this character could be one of many others that would be able to fit into the role. Ultimately their personality doesn't matter and isn't explored. They are rather a tool to dig into what one type of typical fantasy character might enjoy at this restaurant. And due to a decent amount of the episode being decidated to their love and eating of the food in question, this limits even more the characterization that the characters get. While there are a couple who get developed to an amount that at least makes them a character, most of them are not.

The stories usually aren't that much to write home about either. Most of them follow the same ordering. First a problem or a character point or some sort of starting idea will be introduced. Then that character will find the door or will think about when they found the door. Then they'll visit the restaurant and proceed to gush over the food that they chose to order. If it's their first time they'll express disbelief about how for some reason this restaurant shouldn't be able to do the meal they want well before turning into putty when they experience the true power of the food that they soon devour down. And then they order seconds, thirds, and as many helpings as they possibly can. While this can get very boring and predictable, I will note that there are times where the show is able to use its formula well and tell an interesting or heartwarming tale. Although some of its better tales are when it ditches the formula and decides to go more freeform, espeically when it involves the main cast. The episodes surrounding the demon girl in particular were able to carve a nice simple heartwarming story. The type of story I had hoped and expected to see more of from the show.

Restaurant To Another World also can have the bad habit of trying to gimmick up some of its shorts in order to cover up it's formula some. However this only makes it worse as the while the formula isn't too annoying the gimmicks almost always are. There is one part in which it tries to present itself like a documentry. While it's a novel idea it ultimately fails to bring enjoyment because documentaries are best for when someone craves knowledge in a subject matter. It's hard to crave knowledge into a fictional subject matter that as a viewer I didn't even know about until that episode started. With no curiousity being built, there isn't any pay off.

The art and sound are both fine. They're both good for the atmosphere that the show is trying to envoke and thusly I think that ultimately they work. Although the OP is very out of place. Personally I'm actually quite fond of the sound cue that they use each time someone comes across the door. It's unique and it makes a sort of recurring sound that adds to the comfiness of the work. I tend to like traits that are allowed to be reused and be familiarized to the audience. It's like a little special trait to itself, and that's pretty cool!

Overall I feel one's enjoyment of this show is really going to depend on the answer to those first two questions. If you want to watch people love and nom on food, or if you like short comfy but meaningless stories you'll probably enjoy this despite it not having the best characters or story. But if you don't like that or don't really care for it, it'll seem tedious and repeative, as that's really the meat of what it has to offer. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of either. While I can enjoy meaningless short stories if they resonate, they rarely did for me. While I certainly understand there is an audience for this I am firmly not that audience as the flaws outweighted the strengths of the show for me. As a potential viewer you'll have to make the decision yourself. Do you think short comfy vignettes and food love can outweight it's lack of character or story depth? If so give a try. If not you're probably better off looking for another show.

completely lack basic story elements. has no purpose except to give fan service to food lovers. each episode follows the exact same formula with no hint of deviation. person finds door person eats food at restaurant and has their mind blown person leaves restaurant. this anime does not have an over arching story, it does not have character development, it lacks plot development its boring as sin, all it is is a repeat of literally exactly the same scene with slightly different characters with slightly different back stories but none of it builds anything within the world. watch one episode and enjoy the general format ... and you've seen them all. no need to continue watching. and one episode of the anime is good but when its just a repeat of that same content over and over again it just makes me shake my head that this anime could get the rating it has. this isn't a hidden gem its the death of quality story telling.

I went into the anime expecting a good anime which it is in a way just it left a lot to be desired whether it be in my opinion lack of story besides the fact that hey it's a magic restaurant from another world and people love the food which is ok but if you have 12 episodes of pretty much the exact same thing it's not good
In the words of vaas from far cry 3 the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results
Then oh boy the Big ol Inconsistency it's like a man threw a puppy ... into a lit furnace in front of his family and everyone was ok with it
Then the fact that most of the time it will tell you things with zero explanation and your meant to be oh yeah I get but ultimately you dont get it

Most of the characters were good and I like the character dynamics but there is a fair share that just have zero depth to them in terms of character it's like you drew a stick figure with a sword and all you know about them is how they got a sword and that he likes to solitaire

TLDR: good characters and starts good but then vaas from far cry 3 starts telling you the definition of insanity and suddenly it's not so good but overall if you want a calm relaxing anime to watch I'd recommend this as long as you dont value story

This is the worst thing I have ever seen in my life and not just in anime. I watched three episodes and that is all I needed. This is something to show inmates to torture them. I bet some might prefer solitary confinement for two days than be subjected to watching this. There is nothing here except for watching really boring and lifeless characters orgasm over food for 30 seconds. There is no story, no drama, no character development, no action, no horror, no suspense, not even a good joke. It takes "formulaic" past extremes. One of the main characters is a chef who loves ... cooking for people and making them really happy! That's it, he just loves to see people orgasm over food. And you'd think he'd do something like turn chibi and yell over his excitement, no you don't even get that. He has all the charisma and enthusiasm of someone who just got told they have one week to live. The people that eat the food must secretly be food critics sent to review the restaurant because they sure act like it once they start eating. This chef loves giving food away but sometimes for the sake of not looking entirely retarded he will remind you that the food isn't free. But he will keep giving it away anyhow. Nobody likes this, its no different than the other pretentious nuts who "fawn" over Jackson Pollock. This show is so boring it warrants a negative -10 but the scale here only goes down to a 1 which is far too good for this abomination.