Reviews

In 2015, Hideaki Anno said the anime industry was walking to its end, that animators no longer had passion and what they did and anime was turning into nothing more than merchandising, and Japan was soon to be taken over by new animators from China or Tailand.He could have only been blind.While we do have a lot of empty shows, every year the anime industry do releases at least 9 or 10 shows overflowing with passion from the creators, and while that doesn't mean they are all great, from time from time we stumble upon masterpieces, sometimes innovative and creative, sometimes simply masters of it's genre.In 2010 we had Rainbow, in 2014 Barakamon, in 2015 we had the incredible Concrete Revolutio, in 2016 the breathtaking Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, and now, 2017, we finally have another one to this count:Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.



Technical Aspects -- 10/10



One may argue that this anime have bad animation, but that just shows how little this one knows about the art of animation.The studio uses what little budget they have to give the anime the breath of life in a great way.How amazing it was when they showed an entire travel, by just animating the characters on the top of the carriage or when they hide the legs in battle sequences so they can demonstrate motion with little to no cost.Truly genius of they're craft.The entire OST is also unique and rich, with remarkable compositions like "Spells I", "Spells II" or my personal favorite "Spells IV".



Characters & Plot -- 10/10



Normally, i would judge this 2 factors separately, but they are too connected to do so.In Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni, both the characters and plot are groundbreaking desconstructions of any anime ever made.Rather than having such a boring concept as power progression or character development, everyone is already presented at the peak of their powers and have absolute 0 development or construction in the series, since they're already perfect without needing it.And the plot, oh the plot, it can only be the work of a genius, there's not a single moment of tension at all in the entire story, rather, everything is solved instantly by Touya, wich itself is a completely unique character, as you can see by the fact that his main ability is to make other people slip.The smartphone is also used at least once in almost every episode, executing perfectly the anime's concept.



Romance -- 10/10

You can't say that the romance in Smartphone is anything less than perfect.The first actual romance we have is between beauty-mark-knight and big-sister-furry, and is developed using a WHOLE episode, to show just how much the writer cared about making things natural.The main romantic plot, is that every girl likes Touya, this love is carried in a completely organic and coherent way during the whole narrative, peaking on the climax of the series, when Mochizuki and the girls get into a consensus of a polissexual marriage with all the four girls.This is another one of the greats desconstructions in this anime, love that overcomes bounds of race, jealousy or age(since he marries an 12-year-old girl as well).



Overall and Enjoyment -- 10/10

IwStTn isn't anything short of a masterpiece, deconstructing countless concepts and tropes of standard anime(like showing a character that only appears at the last 2 minutes in the opening in an incredibly smart way to create hype for a second season).I enjoyed it for every second, no, every frame and would recommend for literally anyone.My best wishes for anyone watching this amazing critic to the standard relationship systems that reign in the world.