Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to

Since their days as students, Tsukasa Jinguuji has had incredible luck with women due to his good looks; Hinata Tachibana has had almost none, overshadowed by Jinguuji's brilliance. However, while Jinguuji has never shown interest in the opposite sex, Tachibana is always desperate for a girlfriend. Despite their polar differences, they continue to be best friends even in their thirties as salarymen.

One night, the two are returning home from a mixer where Jinguuji was the center of attention as usual. In his drunken rambles, a frustrated Tachibana inadvertently wishes to become a beautiful girl with irresistible charm. As if the heavens were listening, a goddess suddenly shows herself before Jinguuji and Tachibana, transporting them to another world to defeat the Demon Lord and simultaneously granting Tachibana's desire.

Tachibana—now in the body of an impossibly perfect woman—has become so attractive that even Jinguuji is captivated. Moreover, Tachibana grows aware of Jinguuji's stunning appearance, finally understanding his popularity. Before they fall in love with each other, the duo must complete their mission or risk remaining prisoners to their infatuations forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tachibana, Hinata Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Jinguuji, Tsukasa Main

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

von Liechtenstein Lohengramm, Schwartz Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Lou, Tilolilo Lilili Supporting

Fujii, Yukiyo Japanese

Shen Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Lucius Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Muria Supporting

Serizawa, Yuu Japanese

Goddess of Night Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Yugrain Supporting

Makino, Yui Japanese

Goddess of Love and Beauty Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Fukui, Norio Producer

Kubo, Sakiyo Producer

Kyo, Mikito Producer

Matori, Miho Producer

Reviews

Sep 24, 2024

KirbyCoded

Recommended

Full disclosure, I went into Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout expecting it to be bad. I love trash TV, and I love dumpster diving for shows that look like not very good, trashy fun. But the thing about dumpster diving is that among the garbage, occasionally you’ll find treasure. Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout (which I’ll be shortening to Fabiniku from here on) is that treasure.

Fabiniku is, of course, an isekai with an overly long, overly descriptive title in both English and Japanese, but you don’t quite get what it says ... on the tin. It’s not *just* the story of a normal salaryman (Hinata Tachibana) getting reincarnated in a fantasy world as a hot blonde woman and getting told to go kill the Demon King, because he’s not the only one reincarnated in another world—he gets to bring along his cool, sexy, and aloof best friend Tsukasa Jinguuji as his overpowered weapon.

The dynamic between Tachibana and Jinguuji is the main driving force of the story—it is a romcom, after all. While Tachibana is almost completely average outside of his above average people skills, Jinguuji is the exact opposite. He’s a loner who’s not only good at everything he does, but constantly overshadows Tachibana, and it’s established early on just how jealous Tachibana is of Jinguuji. But despite any jealousy or animosity, they love each other deeply, which makes them an extremely shippable leading couple. They compliment and contrast each other as characters, and they play off each other extremely well. Together, they’re more interesting leads than either character would be on their own. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The writer of the manga has gone on record saying that she wanted to create something that “isn’t bound by terms such as [boy’s love] or [transsexual],” which led to a surprisingly nuanced take on both gender and sexuality. It’s pretty heavily implied that at least Jinguuji was into Tachibana before the magical gender swap, and he had zero interest in women despite Tachibana’s best efforts to get him hitched (since he kept stealing all the girls he liked by being cooler and sexier), meanwhile you could easily interpret Tachibana as a closeted trans woman since he wished to be a pretty woman while drunk, and drunk actions are sober thoughts—not to mention that he really seems to enjoy being a woman and doing feminine things, all things considered. At one point Tachibana asks Jinguuji if your real gender is based on your body or soul, and his answer is that he thinks whatever you feel is right is what you are, which is not the nuclearly based take I was expecting from a trashy isekai. Unless they end up elaborating on their individual identities later into the story, it’s a safe assumption that it’s left open ended on purpose, so whatever your individual interpretation is is completely acceptable. They’re yaoi, they’re het, someone more creative than me could probably find a way to make them yuri too, they’re everything all at once. I see no difference! Love is love. <3

There’s a “curse” that the characters assume is to make them attracted to each other, but it’s never explicitly stated what the curse actually is, so it’s up for debate on if they weren't attracted to each other before getting to the new world, if they always liked each other and just never realized, or if it’s just a curse messing with their emotions. It doesn’t help that Tachibana’s only real skill he got upon entering the other world is being so hot that people would fight and kill for just a chance to have his hand in marriage, which throws another wrench in why they’re attracted to each other now. It’s all pretty open ended.

As it’s a comedy, I’d recommend you watch dubbed. Even if it weren’t a comedy, I’d recommend you watch dubbed, because the dub cast killed it. Tachibana and Jinguuji in the dub are voiced by Laura Stahl (mostly known for voicing young boys like Ray from The Promised Neverland or Iruma from Welcome to Demon School Iruma-Kun, but has voiced women like Mami from Rent-a-Girlfriend) and J. Michael Tatum (who regularly voices the tall, dark, and handsome type, like Kyouya from Ouran High School Host Club or Sebastian from Black Butler) respectively, and they sell both leads as extremely charming, funny characters, while also selling their dynamic, both romantically and as friends. If Tachibana were voiced by anyone else, he might’ve come off as whiny and obnoxious, while if Jinguuji were voiced by anyone else, he might’ve come off as a bit *too* standoffish. Perfect casting, which extended to most other characters—some highlights being Dallas Reid as Schwartz and Jamie Marchi as the Goddess of Love and Beauty.

Unfortunately, I can’t stay positive about everything in this show. Outside the two leads, there’s only really two characters I loved, with two characters I actively disliked. Everyone else was… fine, but nothing more than that. Most of the cast either wasn’t given enough time to develop beyond their initial gimmick (though the gimmicky characters, like both of the currently introduced goddesses, were consistently pretty funny), or they were so generic I find it hard to remember a single thing about them.

Characters like the weirdly homophobic take on an explicitly gay man or the elf whose only personality trait is obsessing over how hot people find her weren’t funny to me, and I’d argue they were actively poorly written—the gay man especially was jarring for a show that seemed to have a nuanced take on sexuality up to the point of his introduction—but your mileage may vary.

The best characters were the ones that managed to break out of their gimmick, like the stock light novel protagonist parody, Schwartz von Liechtenstein Lohengramm, who’s really just an average chuunibyou avid light novel reader. He could’ve easily just been a way to mock one of the standard archetypes of the genre used for a cheap laugh, but he’s not. He’s a real character who undergoes development, with surprising emotional depths that I won’t spoil due to being one of the funniest, most heartfelt scenes in the entire show. Schwartz is a perfect example of how, despite being a loving parody, Fabiniku (mostly) doesn’t let itself fall into the trappings of its genre but with plausible deniability because it’s being tongue in cheek about it.

A lot of loving parodies, like KonoSuba—which this show (rightfully) gets compared to a lot—and The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, use their status as a parody to just do the tropes they’re supposedly making fun of guilt-free. While Fabiniku is absolutely not immune to this—(especially with elements such as the fanservice) it manages to avoid some of the worst trappings of its genre. Bland protagonists with nothing going for them? They don’t just subvert this in three different ways (and even more in the manga), they deconstruct it and comment on it late into the show. A past life that’s completely irrelevant now that they’re in another world? The leads knew and loved each other in their old life; it’s the driving force of the narrative. Cheating superpowers? The ones they actually get hurt them just as much as, if not more than, they help. Harem of archetypes? This is a romcom, so having a harem was never even an option. That’s not to say standard isekai tropes can’t be used well, but in this case they’re consistently subverted and defied in unique and interesting ways.

Fabiniku has no right being as good as it is. I went into this expecting a trashy, low quality show that might be fun to recommend for a watch party, and I came out with a genuinely funny, surprisingly heartfelt isekai romcom with some shockingly apt takes on gender and sexuality. If you like power fantasy isekai, you’ll like this as a loving parody of the genre. If you *don’t* like power fantasy isekai, you still might like it for its deconstruction and defiance of the usual tropes. If you told me going in I’d hold so much genuine love and respect for this show prior to watching it, I’d call you a liar. This should not be as good as it is.

“Better than the sum of its parts” is how I’d sum up my experience with the show overall. All its ideas, on their own, could be a pretty decent joke in a worse show, but when you mix them together it ends up being a great experience that I could recommend to almost anyone. It’s so much better than anything I could’ve expected from a show with a title like that.

Please drop a second season, it’ll fix me forever.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 15, 2023

Steamwood

Mixed Feelings

A show carried by its main characters and the fun conceit - what if your best friend was the cutest girl in the world? It's a little awkward at times but is mostly very charming, especially due to the acting of the two main characters (I watched in English). Fun fact, Tachibana is voiced by a romantic couple which I think has only happened before in Pop Team Epic. It's a fun friendship/romance/???? angle that you don't see much in standard anime!

This is only my second Isekai and it is not a genre I care about typically - that is still the case here. The ... most dull parts of this show are the weird RPG elements that make no sense given they weren't sucked into a game or something, the literal NPCs having no personality, and the played-out fantasyland world. Extremely shoehorned and would be better without them imo! If it's supposed to be a parody then it should maybe have those elements be actually humorous!

Animation was fun enough, though I didn't care for the songs in the OP or ED.

Worth a watch for the interesting main characters & fun central idea, but the rest is pretty mediocre!

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 19, 2024

GravenER

Not Recommended

Let's do this: I'll give it a 7 because at least the production value is decent, and I've seen worse with better votes (like Shield Hero), but as for the rest, there's little to nothing to talk about or enjoy about this.
The plot is what you've seen in dozens of similar isekais that did it better.
The art is mediocre, the animation is mediocre, the character design is uninteresting, and the worldbuilding is shabby.
They clearly leaned too hard into the gender-bending trope and didn't put effort into, well, anything else - another dishonest isekai who tries to do something different but ultimately fails ... at being compelling.
When are they going to learn that adding a little twist to the standard formula doesn't guarantee success if you can't present an interesting story, an interesting world, or at the very least interesting characters? Sigh.

The characters, that were supposed to be the main focus of the show since there's nothing else of value going on, are flat and uninteresting - Tsukasa is a closeted gay volcel who hates women for vague reasons (actually, he just wants to bang his friend, that's clear as day even before they get Isekai'd), and Hinata is an annoying incel with the personality of a cabbage.
Are they supposed to be relatable or what? Instead, they're just annoying, and not the kind of well-constructed 'annoying' like the MC of Mushoku Tensei. Nope. Hinata is useless and whiny, he's such a dysfunctional human being that he behaves like a school kid despite being in his 30s, while Tsukasa is plain-up insufferable and acid, to the point of being unreasonable for the same of some cheap gags.
The problem is that the """plot""" is driven by said cheap gags, so there's no escaping from that.
The rest of the cast is just as unremarkable and one-note-y.

What can I say? Watch it if you're scraping the bottom of the barrel and are out of isekais to watch, but it should be really down on the list.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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