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.
