Satou Archives | 100 Word Anime

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Series Review: The Experiment Has Ended

Posted on April 30, 2018March 30, 2018 by Karandi

I’d never read the source material before watching an anime before so Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody was something of an experiment to see if knowing what was going to happen would change my enjoyment of it. I can’t say that it did but that’s more because this anime probably would have bored me to tears either way. What did you think of it?

Review:

There’s very little for me to really say about this anime, which is kind of odd given I watched it through to the end and it wasn’t as though it was toxically terrible. That’s actually probably the worst thing about this show. It isn’t good or bad. It just kind of is. It is your typical game developer/designer/whatever wakes up inside game world kind of story and then just to make sure we aren’t worried about his safety he is transformed into a teenage version of himself with super stats. Of course he gains a harem of girls but being a gentlemen won’t do a thing with any of them, but he will slip off to a tavern if he gets the chance, and will definitely comment on the breast size of older women.

However, that was the same as the source material and why it wasn’t great, it was enjoyable enough to read with some interesting descriptions of places and people. The anime on the other hand doesn’t get the benefit of the interesting descriptions and really just kind of drags the viewer along after Satou as he explores the new world. He also seems to gain levels and skills super fast, which again was the experience in the book but it didn’t feel as much like he was cheating his way through a story in the book for some reason even though the progress was much the same.

The visuals aren’t great and a lot of the images end up being from Satou’s point of view with game menus dominating a large part of the screen and a weird filter over some shots. However, even when that isn’t the case, nothing is overly distinct visually. The town, the food, the scenery are all just kind of pseudo-medieval and while that was the case in the book, when you could imagine it yourself it looked a lot more interesting than this.

The girls Satou rescues and befriends over the course of the series all have their good points and moments. The issue of course is the sheer number of them and they end up with overlapping personalities and roles within the group meaning they all become relatively inconsequential and interchangeable. You’d be forgiven for not being able to name any of them outside of Tama, Pochi and Arisa given the rest keep getting sidelined.

As I said, not much to say about this. It wasn’t terrible. But it was probably the least interesting thing I watched this season. I really wanted more from it, but when you decide to follow events in a story as they are written rather than thinking about how to make them interesting to view on screen, this is more or less what you are going to end up with.

Episode Reviews:

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Volume 3 Light Novel Review: And My Journey May End Here

Posted on February 8, 2018January 10, 2019 by Karandi

Review:

It seems a shame given this series has now been adapted into an anime (though so far not well) and I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, but the second book kind of felt plotless to an extent and now this third book has jettisoned the idea of a plot altogether.

Individual moments in the book are still interesting. Learning how to make vials for potions, the witches and the whole subplot about Satou helping them fulfill their contract (which was used as the climax of the book but isn’t exactly a main storyline), and even just the different villages and cities they visit are nice and all. However there’s no central drive. There is still the whole suspicious infusion of Japanese culture and the possibility of other people trapped in this parallel world from our world, but to be honest Satou as the protagonist isn’t doing much about that and it doesn’t really seem like the reader should care either.

So what we get instead are endless descriptions of food preparation and random magical experiments, snippets of conversation and lots and lots of Satou comforting his various slaves and travel companions as they all vie for his attention (nothing lewd mind you given Satou continuously reminds us of the age of most of them and he genuinely does seem to be looking out for them).

Part of me is still curious as to where this story might go given there are literally endless possibilities, and the other part of me realises that this volume took me the better part of a week to actually finish reading because I would get to the end of a chapter, realise nothing had happened and would put the book down. That’s really not exactly what I look for in a book.

I’m not ruling out trying the next book in the series but for now at least it’s on hold while I check out some other books that have been in my reading list.

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If you’re interested in reading Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Volume 3 it is available on the Book Depository.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Episode 4: Becoming a Hero

Posted on February 4, 2018February 2, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

Well that was a nice twenty minutes of watching someone else playing a dungeon crawler and defeating the boss first go without any real effort once he equipped the right weapon. It’s amazing how reading this sequence was kind of interesting but watching it isn’t, even though the episode plays out almost identically to the read minus some dialogue while Satou eats with the slave girls.

I do wonder about the end because they seem to have left a few points out after leaving the dungeon but maybe they’ll come into play next episode. And either way, it wouldn’t have made watching this any more enjoyable. It is more like a casual stroll through an unscary haunted house because you kind of know nothing is going to hurt you or the characters and the monsters are kind of lame.

The highlight of the episode were definitely the magic effects as they looked kind of pretty and visually were the most interesting thing we’ve come across in this series. But when a visual effect is my episode highlight I must admit I’m pretty bored.

Deathmarch4e — Worst disguise ever – outside of glasses.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody 2 Light Novel Review: The Harem Expands

Posted on December 14, 2017January 10, 2019 by Karandi

Review:

When I reviewed the first book in this series I was pleasantly surprised by the writing even if the plot did seem padded and there were definitely moments in the story I could have done with out. As we plunge into the second book, I have to wonder why people think more is better? I get that you are setting up a harem for Satou and all that but how many girls really need to be in it? Given some of the characters get completely forgotten in this book at times (even though they are apparently still hanging around) it is possible that two books in this one has already over-expanded the harem to insane proportions.

However, let’s look at this a bit more sensibly.

The plot this time around kind of confirms that this isn’t really an adventure or questing story. Satou is literally playing tourist. He’s stuck here, it is kind of a game world, and he’s more or less unkillable at this point, so he really does seem kind of content to site see and look after the tragic girls in his ever increasing harem. He isn’t out to right the wrongs and injustices, but he isn’t totally indifferent to the plight of others. Basically, he’s just an extremely overpowered guy having a chill out because prior to being trapped in a game like world he was overworked and burning out.

What this means though is that while there are certainly dungeon sequences and fights, don’t expect much from them. These exist more as an obligation (which even Satou comments on as he finds the shortest possible path through one and conquers it in about thirty minutes because he isn’t really interested in playing around in a dungeon). And the fight sequences at times get intense but more because Satou is either not fighting and just looking out for the girls as they ‘level up’ or because he’s holding back so that he doesn’t accidentally kill the person he is fighting. There’s very little reason to feel concern during a fight and it is more a question of how Satou will win without inflicting too much damage or burning down the building he is in.

So what does that leave us for plot if we aren’t actually actioning our way through dungeons and the like? Well, for the first half of this book Satou does what I really think more protagonists should do and yet now I realise exactly why they don’t. He sits down and asks another character for details about the world. All the details. Not just get one answer and not ask any follow up questions or figure out what it means. He drills in and wants to know. The fact that a lot of the answers we get contradict Satou’s own observations are kind of interesting and it sets up a lot of possible future story pathways, but what it isn’t is a fascinating read. Something even the author must have realised given they chose to punctuate this particular sequence with a naked girl climbing into the protagonist’s bed and end it with the two being found there by one of the potential love interests. But it was all a big misunderstanding! (Really fighting the urge to roll my eyes here.)

So while I appreciate the information we’re given and some of the points are very interesting, this wasn’t the most fascinating starting sequence to the story. When this is followed up by more shopping, watching a play, and then touring some possible houses for rent, part of me started wondering if this story would in fact find a story.

The answer to that is maybe and maybe not. There’s certainly the over-arching issue of Satou being trapped in the world and meeting people who have apparently either been summoned or reincarnated into the world and have memories of his world. The how and the why of all this remains the one overall consistent plot point. Everything else is kind of just Satou exploring, meeting people, sticking his nose into things, learning new skills, playing with the pay, and so on and so forth.

Probably my biggest issue reading this is Arisa’s character (naked girl from the first scene and reincarnated character). Her personality is all over the place but 90% of the time is just obnoxious. She has a lot of information and has helped set up quite a few things but mostly she’s an irritant to the other characters (who already had enough outside antagonists given half the party are beast girls) so we really didn’t need someone in the party stirring things. I kind of get that her character will probably connect us to other plot points later, but seriously I wouldn’t mind her having an accident in a dungeon and just never coming back.

This remains relatively fun to read overall and Satou remains a pretty fun narrator. My issues with the plot and characters became a bit more foregrounded in this second book but I’m curious enough to check out what happens next.

Affiliate Link:
If you’re interested in reading Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Volume 2 it is available on the Book Depository.