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No need for a lenghty review.
This was fun to watch.
A little bit of old school, in a good sense.
Themes, music, all fit this old school feeling.
Animation is mostly very nicely done, nothing out of the ordinary but it didn't seem rushed nor cheap in any parts. Maybe one or two shots where detail was not important, yet I couldn't really tell if there were any.
Story is fine, I hope it continues.
There was not a single character I didn't like, heck, even the suppossed villians are relatable.
I wish this will be picked up and continued for at least 1-2 seasons more. I want to see them ... reach the end of their journey.

Spoilers ahead.
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How you react to this anime, especially to EP4 depends on your personal morals.

For me, this show is unbearable and not worth of my money or time.

For people who might get the (wrong) impression this is being downvoted ONLY because of the censoring (in crunchyroll):

The MC is absolute trash, mentally, morally and character wise.

... It was written, at best, by a late bloomer virgin with power fantasies.
"But it's isekai, but it's anime, so it's ok".

No, it's not ok, for many of us at least.
If I wanted to see a show about megalomaniacs, rapists and pedophiles, I'd just turn on the news.

This show was trashy from the get go but after EP 4 it is unbearable to support this piece of literal shit.

Anyone defending "it was consensual, it is not rape, etc etc" doesn't even understand the power dynamic, the perspective of the slave girl, etc.

First and foremost, dude is in a position of power regarding the slave.
She might say "no", but she doesn't know what that might cost her in the short and long term.
Officially, he is not allowed to harm her, but mental abuse, poor treatment, no place to sleep and malnutrition could be repercussions of her saying no to her master.
This has likely crossed her mind more than once, not with this guy but in general.

Consenting before even meeting the guy is not consenting.

And whatever some people see as consent here is, at the very best, coercion.

"She said yes" ...with a gun put to her head.

Obviously, people don't mind a scummy but likeable character.
Hell, I love refreshing takes like that.
This guy is only one of those, though.

I seriously hope those defending the MC are just doing so because they are horny and will defend this show just to see some t*tties.

...which you don't see btw, as this show is censored to hell and back (in some platforms). So even that selling point falls flat here.

I rarely drop shows and rarely give ratings without watching them to the end but this was unbearable.

You can use terms as "white knighting", "feminist" or whatever the hell you want, it doesn't make you right nor argumentatively superior.

You are defending literally a guy who murdered people in their sleep (yes, hard criminals themselves, ok) to buy a very young slave, which is a virgin btw and force her to have sex with him.

"But the rules of the world allow it, blah blah". Sure, whatever. The guy knows our world, our morals and decides to be the worst he can be about it.
"No one is watching, so I will be a motherfucker to anyone but myself" => Is this the kind of person you want to endorse? Now I know why we have the politicians we have. Hah.

It is clear, for anyone who doesn't actually lie to themselves that the girl was at no point consenting. She avoided the advances of the MC ACTIVELY more than once. It is not shyness. But once he ordered it, she had to comply.

"She consented 2,3,4 times during the episode". Keep telling yourself that.

I really, really hope that twisted sense of morality is just a lapse in judgement, horniness or else.
Even then, "sorry, I wasn't being myself, I was drunk, whatever" is something you will hear a lot in court.
And you will only see that kind of remorse if they couldn't get away with it, 99% of the time.

Whoever thinks the actions of this guy were anywhere near "ok-ish, acceptable or -in the heat of the moment", I seriously hope you don't apply this logic to real life scenarios, I really do.

And you can add a "tragic backstory of being bullied or so" for the MC later, it still doesn't make it right, morally ok or watchable, so here you go. If you have any kind of moral perception that this move was ok after watching EP4, you might need to grow a little (as a person). No offense intended.

I'm out.

@crunchyroll: Stop pushing this trash.
And if you want to broadcast a show with mature content, then put on an age filter and let the people watch it as it should be watched.
If you don't get the license for uncensored or at least "slightly censored", then don't bother, people will watch it elsewhere anyway.

Surprisingly mediocre!.
Nice character designs, shallow, almost too boring plot, ok music, 0 character development. Plot holes and convenient deus ex machinas, unexplained absences (that wouldn't be left unresolved in good writing), etc etc.
And character consistency is barely a thing.
Not a complete waste of time, but it doesn't even touch other shows of this season, even regular ones...

Someone compared this show to
Smartphone and High School Prodigies but I think those were leaps above this one and they were trash nevertheless.
Also Cheat Magician was mentioned but that one is even worse.
It actually was the first show I reviewed in MAL after being a member for ages, ... just to warn people.
I hate it that they take the budget to make shows like that one and this one instead of giving others (that are really on a super tight budget) a little more and make them go to their full potential.
I mean even Demon Lord Retry is better than this one, not in production value but surely in entertainment value. That show knows it's trash.

This one pretends to be something else than trash.
To whomever enjoyed it for what it is, feel free to enjoy it. I cannot.

This is, in fact, the very first review I've ever posted in MAL.

Spoilers ahead.

Isekai Cheat Magician, ICM for short, is a 12 Episode Isekai Anime that tries to sell the unlikely fact it's going to get a second season.
12, like the age demographic this show seems to have been aimed to.
If this had been released as it is in 1997, it might have had a chance at that demographic. But Isekai is a theme chewed to death already. There are very poor examples and a few very good contenders. Interestingly enough, Kadokawa has produced many of them, so I wonder how in hell did they ... greenlit this. Is it seriously aimed at a younger demographic or just a filler, "experience gathering" throwaway anime intended for new anime crews to get acquainted with the studio and medium?

The story and lore seem from a very bad, quickly written RPG game project by a less talented teenager.

The music had its strong moments but wasn't even average for the most part.
It is the worst opening by Myth & Roid I've ever heard, in fact, it is a good analogy for the anime. You wouldn't expect this from them, neither from Kadokawa as producers.

The art was subpar but not completely effortless. Though even I don't know the real numbers, the art itself wasn't considerably better than in the case of "Demon Lord, Retry!" and I am pretty confident this show had a much bigger budget.

Character design was ok, it was on par with the rest of other departments. Something interesting here and there but nothing special.

The writing, the dialogues were horrendous. The pacing and direction/editing of some scenes could had been done better by any member of our Video school project in 2004 and that's saying something. Alone the assassin scene towards beginning of the last war arc was infurating to watch.

Ana was conveniently sacrificed and forgotten for the most part, although she was the most interesting character of the show.

The motivations of the MCs were stated over and over every 5 minutes in case we forgot.

The shounen MC has lots of beautiful love interests around him going from fairies, to battle worn milfs and his childhood friend, yet we see nothing in terms of development, to procure interest for another season or the light novels, which is a cheap and poor tactic which has nothing to seek in a novel crafted with love and the desire to tell a good story.

I mean...they sacrificed Ana for no real reason. "Everything has a reason and you'll see at the end" is something that only works if you have faith that the sacrifices, the emotions will have an impact in the end. Instead, the moment the viewer's dread is confirmed is when they kill Ana. Conveniently put under a spell. Probably something done in beforehand she befriended Kirit...I mean however the boy MC is called. This means every single thing we see happen in the anime is "according to plan" of "her" and whenever the MCs defeat her will be either also "according to plan and planned all along" or a cheap deux ex machina. I don't even bother to remember her name.

Usually a unhappy fanbase or wasted potential can be easily gauged on the amount of fanfiction a certain fandom has (not the only reasons, but strong reasons for fanfiction). Though I cannot imagine many people getting invested in the flat (no pun intended) and one dimensional characters, lore, story, to get interested enough and write fanfiction about it. In fact a lot of fanfiction shows more love for the craft of storytelling than this.

I am amazed this gets greenlighted and some other, insanely promising shows get cancelled.

TL;DR: Fun, if you are 12, live in 1997, have seen little if none other anime and have really low expectations.
If you want to get entertained and care more about characters than budget, watch "Demon Lord, Retry!". It is clearly low budget, low effort and adding a character every week, but it shows a passion this anime didn't show in any episode. In fact, the only thing consistent in this anime and more or less qualitatively average was the ending.


I wouldn't shed a tear if this doesn't get a second season.
In fact, I will only remember this show because I wrote my very first review in MAL about it...

ps: Rie Takahasi is totally wasted as a VA in this anime. I wonder if she has to put up with anything Kadokawa comes up with or if she really doesn't mind...