Reviews

Sep 23, 2021
Mixed Feelings
Late 2019, at Comiket #97: "Wow, another isekai anime announced. But... A pharmacist? Is that reliable?" - That was the question I asked when I found out about the show. The only thing I had of information was the synopsis, the magazine the manga was published by (Web Comic Gamma Plus) and that the source material was a Light Novel. It is a path that many works take and with Cheat Kusushi it was no different. The biggest fear of the adaptation is that the magazine itself is new to the manga market and this anime was the first from this new publisher. Now with the show already closed, I would like to say that they did a satisfying first job.

Well, when they announced an adaptation of Cheat Kusushi no Slow Life, I was anxious about what would be presented. A show bringing an intriguing idea, where the isekai this time is... in a pharmacy. In fact, Reiji without much reason is inserted into this world, where he becomes a pharmacist (often mistaken for an alchemist). He, Noera and Mina live together in this universe, without much pretension or contextualization about how they met, but what was important for the anime was not this, but the casual, relaxing and... some boring. In fact, Cheat Kusushi is a show that oscillates in its ideas, as what used to be a scenario of discovering new medicines turns into a heap of things that are easily mistaken for alchemy.

Not that I'm complaining about this proposition, but when the anime idealizes Reiji as just a simple medicine maker to a creator of things capable of making a journal create a visual hologram of one of the characters' mother, the verisimilitude built during the show is limited and at the same time significantly undermines the expected experience. It's a trivial theme within the show, but one that doesn't sit well with the series, no matter what argument is used to defend it.

But the anime shouldn't be criticized for that alone. In fact, what really made the anime silly was the studio itself. EMT Squared is not very well known, except for having made a few anime such as Kuma Kuma Bear and Assassins Pride. The former was a recent project that didn't get that popular. To this day it is not a show that has interested many people. Assassins Pride was a waste of time, because besides being a generic story and very bad in the basic aspects, it got the status of one of the worst animes of 2019 (and rightly so). So a weak adaptation that would not improve its reading materials was already expected. That's what happened. As much as the anime has the charisma and comics with Reiji, Mina, Noera and all the rest of the group, the show evidently fails to be more than sudden moments. It's a synergy that doesn't bring anything new and even if it manages to spark interest during its story, it's not something that manages to convince.

The production is tokenistic. It doesn't have that many serious problems, except for the totally IRRITANT AND ACCELERATED beginning, which I'm sure made many people give up on the anime right at the beginning. The story? Well, if you want to focus on the clash between the culture of a human being living in this new universe, that's not what Cheat Kusushi really does. As much as I don't want to give that example, it is necessary for comparison. Mushoku Tensei is one of the anime in which the focus of the isekai is not to feed into the idea that Rudy has trouble living in the fantasy that is the new world. Mushoku's purpose relies on what Rudy learns in the world. Reiji, in Cheat Kusushi, as much as he also does this, does not actually learn something new. His insertion into the anime is already cemented and the only times he's really had that reminder that he's in a different world are in the last two episodes, which really isn't a good way to do it.

Things like what led to Reiji and Noera meeting and Mina being a ghost who only became better acquainted with Reiji after a while are not explored. They are overlooked and the anime didn't really care about that. It would be more appealing to experience a relationship that is developed over time, unlike the very mechanized episodes where even the order of the episodes doesn't really matter. Seriously, the only changes the show has made is to add about four characters, some problems between them, and more and more things that don't add to the show. It is a factor that varies from person to person. Some admire this unconventional pace, others just find it okay and acceptable, just like me. It's not bad, but it wasn't good.

Finally, Cheat Kusushi was a quick show, but it drained my energy as it was tiring to watch. What is positively marked is the fact that it is a show that managed to adapt a story coming from the Gamma Plus Web Comic, even though the Light Novel is published on other sharing networks. All in all, it was only a symbolic experience. No big deal. There was nothing that made it a remarkable anime, but it didn't cause any compromising feelings either. Maybe I'm asking too much of a show like this.... Now it's just hoping that if it has a sequel, the cool stuff will hold up, if not the joke with the word "Cheat" for "S**t" would make sense.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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