IllegalSpaceman's Blog

Anime Relations: Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

Episode Five: In All Their Splendor

Ever since the first episode, Smartphone has been teasing viewers over the prospect of an encounter between the protagonist's harem and a swarm of clothes-eating slime. Four episodes later, it finally pays off, and it leads to the show's best segment so far, mostly because the protagonist doesn't automatically solve everything.

However, much like everything else in Smartphone, the result is a half-assed attempt at fanservice that's much tamer than many of it's contemporaries. The slime itself turns out to be a failed project by a mad scientist to create slime versions of women, with the intent of creating his own harem. At the very least, I didn't see that twist coming, and leads to the admittedly funny cut of protagonist's harem burning down the slime castle in order to "purify" it.

The rest of the episode is three separate segments, each focusing on the protagonist's interactions with a specific girl of his harem. While none of them go beyond the realm of predictability, we do the see the most prolific use of the smartphone thus far. As the protagonist points out, searching locations on a smartphone is typically done through building and street number, yet just a few minutes later, the magically enhanced smartphone gains the ability to locate a specific house with barest of detail, as well as track what a specific person is doing. The NSA's wet dream aside, it does lead into a gag about how much the protagonist resembles the samurai girl's beloved brother and thus presumably where the basis of her attraction comes from, although she denies this in typical harem fashion.

There isn't much to note in the other two mini-segments. Linze's segment does feature a scene in which the smartphone, enhanced with x-ray vision, is used to spy on her changing, but otherwise features her attempting to learn a new spell. Unsurprising, it's the protagonist that provides the critical advice that leads to hear eventual success. The other segment with the sister Elze is a forgettable bit about how she fears her tomboy-ish traits will prevent her from looking good in a dress.

At the end of the episode, we learn that the protagonist is being knighted for his services to the crown. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

Anime Relations: Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

Episode Four: God on Speedial

There was a moment back in episode two when a character remarks that the protagonist's ease at mastering magic was almost annoying. At that point I thought for a brief second that the show had developed a degree of self-awareness that might make it watchable.

I was wrong.

The "cliffhanger" last week had the King in serious danger after a poisoning attempt, introducing a small bit of intrigue that might have amounted to something longer term if the whole thing wasn't resolved within the first five minutes. Given that the protagonist has already demonstrated the ability to heal mortal injures and restore sight, curing the King proved no obstacle.

Neither was the mystery of who tried to poison the king, mostly because the culprit was painfully obvious, given his character design, ill-disguised sneers and his insistence on blaming an ambassador from a neighboring kingdom. He was the only one who wasn't a cute girl.

The whole poisoning plot mainly serves as a device to introduce yet another harem member, namely the hetero-chromatic Princess who turns out to be twelve and wants to marry him. To the protagonist's credit, he does point out the insanity behind marrying a twelve year old, only to be told by the King and Queen that underage marriages are common. Not only that, but they are completely behind the Princess' decision to marry someone she met an hour ago, plus joining him on his ill-defined journey around the kingdom.

Quite remarkably, so is God, making his first appearance ever since giving the protagonist his smartphone. This is also the only time the smartphone is used in the episode, plus it leads to the amusing thought of God approving of polygamy and underage marriage.

This leads to the second portion of the episode, in which the protagonist learns how to summon a familiar from the Princess. It should come as no surprise, given his past accomplishments, that the protagonist succeeds and summoning and taming the highest class of beast possible, a white tiger which admittedly is the best looking character in the show. It is unfortunate then that the tiger then transforms into a cute mascot cat to be fawned over by the protagonists' harem.

At this point Smartphone has settled into a predictable rhythm. A problem which should be threatening is introduced, only to be resolved within a matter of seconds, leading to other characters remarking on what an incredible character he is. Rinse and repeat.

Anime Relations: Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

Episode Three: Plot?

For what's worth, Smartphone improved this week. The two halves of the episode were tied, albeit incredibly loosely, and there were signs of an actual overarching plot. At one point, I was even surprised. That's not to say this episode was any better than inoffensively boring.

Only the second half is worth mentioning, because, for the first time in the series, a fight occurs that doesn't end within ten seconds. The really shocking thing is we get two of them, first with a dullahan and then with a spider-like dungeon monster that feeds off of mana. To the show's credit, the battles aren't just the overpowered main protagonist carrying the entire team, but instead allow each girl to get at least one hit in. Even if the protagonist is usually the one that deals the killing blow or calls out strategy, at least no one was left sidelined.

The almost shocking bit is during the second battle, in which one of the girls, Elze, actually gets injured. The brief five seconds of tension was enough to rouse me from a state of half-wakefulness, only to be disappointed as she was healed by the protagonist with no further consequences.

The real surprising bit was how they dealt with the spider guardian. With direct magical attacks useless and physical blows blocked by a thick shell, the solution employed by the protagonist was to simply cast a summoning spell and remove the spider's obvious red core. Not only was this extremely anti-climatic, but it also surprisingly linked the first half of the episode, which dealt with the protagonist introducing shougi to the world, with the second, through the alleged similarity between capturing a general in shougi and the core powering the spider.

This seemed like a stretch, nevermind how he managed to connect the two concepts in the midst of battle, even though the red core was obviously the spider's weak point.

The last thing to say is that this episode actually ends on the cliffhanger, as the protagonist finds out the Duke's brother has been poisoned and we seem him being watched over by a heterochromic Princess, who will no doubt soon be added to the main harem.

Anime Relations: Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

At this point you may be forgiven for accusing the title of false advertising. The show's one unique selling point, that of the protagonist bringing a fully capable smartphone into an alternative fantasy world, has so far been more or less absent from the narrative. Speaking of narrative, it appears that the show is taking a slice of life approach, with our band of generic anime archetypes travelling from town to town and dealing with whatever is in the way.

Unfortunately this episode continues to maintain the same flaws that made the first episode such a drag to sit through. The main protagonist's all female band of companions, this time joined by a samurai girl with an archaic speech pattern, mostly exist to marvel at whatever miracle the male protagonist performs, as well as lavish complements on his selfless personality and remarkable judgement. This episode takes the tendency of having the protagonist excel at everything is taken to almost unbearable heights this episode, as within the latter half, the protagonist heals a mortal injury, and restores the sight of a person all without breaking a sweat.

It also just happens that both of them are connected to the nobility, and protagonist's effortless mastery of magic grants them a royal passport that helpfully allows them to bypass any travel problems as well as grants access to places restricted to the nobility. All this generally ties into a lack of tension, a feeling bolstered by the fact that every fight scene ends in about ten seconds with none of the cast suffering anything more than a scratch.

It remains to be seen whether the show will turn around it's dull beginning. So far it's titular smartphone has barely appeared, the humour is predictable and there isn't even any trashy fanservice to keep viewers interested.

Anime Relations: Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

Full Disclaimer: I lost a bet and now have to watch the entire series. I might as well derive some enjoyment from it.



There are many things wrong with Isekai wa Smartphone, starting with it's protagonist, whose personality is so bland that I struggle to recall his name mere minutes after watching the episode. For the most part, he reacts to meeting with God and his subsequent resurrection in a new world with the same bland, smiling expression and a generic cheerful voice that has been heard hundreds of times prior. He doesn't seem to miss his old life, and we hardly get a sense of what motivates him in the new world beyond basic necessities.

He's also one of those protagonists that turn out to be unusually skilled by the standards of the new world. His reflexes and basic attributes are enhanced, he can wield a katana (of course) effectively with no prior experience and has mastery over all branches of magic. This robs every fight scene of any sort of tension, which is a good thing, given that the show appears to be animated on a shoestring budget. That's if you can even call them fight scenes, since each of them end in under ten seconds with the protagonist triumphing effortlessly.

Nothing else in this show holds up, even by the low standards of the worn out isekai genre. The two female leads fill the generic archetype of contrasting sisters, with an older more impulsive one against a quieter, more reserved younger one. So far their role has been to explain this world's magic system, if only to highlight how unusually skilled the protagonist is, and to most likely to become the first members of his harem. The world is a typical Medieval European fantasy setting with nothing to distinguish it from the hundreds of other fantasy worlds.

Even the show's one distinguishing element, the smartphone specially enhanced to never require a recharge, fails to make an impact. It barely appears in the first episode and the opening, it's sole use being to search for an ice cream recipe.

Yet the biggest problem is that it's simply boring. The first half feels like a typical MMO tutorial, whilst the latter half turns into the sort of slice-of-life scenario designed to cure insomnia. As of now, there's no real indication of where the story is going, or whether there even will be a central plotline. There's nothing drawing viewers in except for the small hope that the smartphone angle will actually amount to something.

You should definitely skip this. Unfortunately, I still have eleven weeks to go.