Just when I was starting to get back in the saddle of anime-watching, I had the misfortune to come across trash like Death March to a Parallel World Rhapsody. I watched the whole thing expecting it to get interesting at some point, or at least to take full advantage of its schlockiness like In Another World with my Smartphone did. But no, it was just a mediocre waste of time that has severely dented my desire to read or watch any more isekai series.
Summary, for what its worth
Ichiro Suzuki is a programmer who was tasked with fixing several bugs in two MMORPGs his company is preparing . While taking a nap, he somehow wakes up in another world as Satoo Pendragon. Suddenly, a group of high-level lizardmen attack him, and in order to survive, Satoo desperately uses a special mass attack. As a result, his level jumps to 310 and he becomes extremely wealthy.
Satoo decides to hide his level, and plans to live peacefully and meet new people. However, developments in the game’s story may cause a nuisance to Satoo’s plans. [adapted from Wikipedia]
Why I call it trash
On the face of it, Death March to a Parallel World Rhapsody doesn’t do anything too different from the masses of isekai manga I’ve been reading recently. Satoo suddenly becomes overpowered, he goes around saving girls left and right, all the girls fall madly in love with him and he solves every problem the show can throw at him without suffering too much.
Problem 1 – Unnecessary sexual content. I’m not interested in a show where the hero has sex with prostitutes just to convince viewers that he’s a man. Or just to set itself apart from other shows. Death March is really just a slice of life show so maybe they included such scenes to show that they’re not so wholesome after all. Like how teenybopper stars go after risque roles to distance themselves from their former images. Whatever I don’t care.
Problem 2 – The bigger problem. Satoo is level 310. He should act like he’s level 310! But he doesn’t. He always looks like he’s struggling against even the weakest of enemies when he should be clearing them out with a single yawn. Part of that is understandable, like when he’s trying to level up his party members so they can defend themselves. Or when he’s trying to stay under the radar in the city. But even in far off places with no other witnesses he’s still struggling against weakling homunculi or a level 75 wizard. I hate to bring this up again but… HE’S LEVEL 310. So the show should give us the catharsis that comes from the hero being hundreds of levels above everyone else.
He’s so terrible at playing the game it’s hard to believe he’s really a programmer. He doesn’t learn skills when he should, he doesn’t explore the limits of his abilities, he doesn’t try to learn useful resistances in advance, nothing. Like there’s a part where he’s hit by Dark Magic. He gets a Dark Magic resistance skill. Instead of maxing it out, he just kind of leaves it there. In fact he just kind of leaves a lot of stuff in his menu to look at “Later” when the viewer is screaming “No! Look at it now!” It’s just a very annoying show all around.
Problem 3 – Boring characters and world. Death March is so short we didn’t get to see much of the world. The little we see is just one generic fantasy city, nothing interesting or exciting about it at all. The food doesn’t even look good despite their best efforts. The harem characters are so many that they all blur into one. Couple of lolis, couple of older girls, either way Satoo ignores them in favor of prostititues – plus he’s level 310 and doesn’t really need hangers on. I don’t even know what they’re doing in this how. What were their names again?
TL;DR
Death March to a Parallel World Rhapsody is an isekai show with very little isekai-ness, just one tiny city. It’s a harem show with no appealing girls. It’s a game-world show with a hero who evidently doesn’t care much for video games. Long story short, it has very little to offer fans of any of these genres. There are so many other isekai shows out there that you don’t need to waste time with this one. Avoid.