DESCRIPTION

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NOVEL ActionHitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku
MANGA ActionHitoribocchi no Isekai Kouryaku

REVIEWS

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  Unlucky13thGod

  70/100
  Why the “loner” Isekai just barely didn’t work for me.

  SPOILERS FOR LONER LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD

  

  I figured since the Fall 2024 anime season is coming to an end (at the time of writing this), I should take the opportunity to write my next reviews on all the anime I watched this season while they’re still fresh on my mind. Loner Life in Another World is not the first one I watched, but it is the first one that finished airing. Since I seem to be the first one to review this anime, I figured it would be a great opportunity to write my next review on this one. It’s also my least favorite of the Fall 2024 anime I watched so far, and if you read the review summary, then you’ve probably already figured out why that is.

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  PART I:

  This Has “Baby’s First Isekai” Written All Over It

  Before we get to the cherry on top of this review, let’s take a little detour so I can properly explain what I mean here. To me, this anime really feels like “Baby’s First Isekai,” but at the same time, it doesn't feel that way sometimes, and it feels weird for me to say that. Let me explain.

  

  On the one hand, I feel that the animation itself is the biggest contributor to this, especially the character/monster designs. Similar to how I feel about the anime’s environment/background designs, I feel that the character designs are very simple but pretty thanks to a combination of vibrant colors and simple structures. Same applies to the monster designs. Of course, I wouldn’t call them pretty, but I would say that their designs not only feel simple, but they also look “kidified.” I mean, compared to other Isekais, the monster designs look tamer. All the monsters we see are the same ones you can find in any other fantasy/Isekai anime, but in this one. Their designs and characteristics are very simplistic but effective, and that’s without adding any of those bizarre or grotesque features that a lot of monsters in other fantasy/Isekai anime have. The action also looks tamer compared to other fantasy/Isekai anime. The added effects on physical and weapon attacks and the animation of magic spells look vibrant. There’s a lot of monster hunting throughout the anime, but it’s still pretty tame as all we see are the monsters getting knocked back and/or fall dead on the ground without a sign of blood on top of the added effects and animation of the attacks.

  

  On the other hand, there’s still a lot of pretty mature elements throughout the anime, which is why I also hesitate to call this "Baby's First Isekai." Besides the monsters, there’s also a lot of human death and murder as well as a few sprinkles of blood here and there. There’s also a couple of cursing, Ecchi moments, and dark humor sprinkled throughout like in any other fantasy/Isekai anime. The biggest example I can give is in the episode where they get to the town and the MC tries to trick one of the girls in his group to strip in order to pay for a drink he was selling. Speaking of the MC…

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  PART II:

  Haruka Is Not An Interesting MC

  Now to the cherry on top. I don’t know about you guys, but if this anime has taught me anything, it’s that I might not be a fan of “loner” stories. Not that the idea itself doesn’t work for me, but now I just feel like if you’re going to have a story where the MC is the only character we see throughout the majority of the time, it needs to be a really interesting MC. Haruka just wasn’t that for me.

  I feel like his character peaks in the first episode when he attempts to reject getting Isekaid and yells at the old man who summoned him for only having trash skills available for him to take, causing the old man to give him all the trash skills only for Haruka to later discover that they're actually really OP skills, like most generic Isekai protagonist. That was both pretty funny and a good subversion of the Isekai genre. These attempts of subverting expectations are also make me hesitate to call this “Baby’s First Isekai." As the title suggests, some of the episodes consist of watching Haruka kill monsters, collect materials, build stuff, and upgrade his skills. It was very interesting world-building at first, but for me, the longer it went on like this, the more bored I felt, not because watching Haruka do all this stuff was boring, and it's not, but because it just got to a point where I couldn’t stand Haruka’s voice as he narrates everything he’s doing. I blame the story for this rather than Haruka's VA.

  This is basically what the entire plot of the anime consists of. When he’s alone, Haruka does whatever he feels like doing while we him narrating everything in his head throughout the entire episode. This might work for a light novel like the source material the anime is based on, but in my opinion not for an anime. When he’s with others, however, he just tries to go back to his loner life in the forest but keeps getting stopped by the other characters. That’s also the full extent of Haruka’s character: he just tries and fails to go back to his loner life. Nothing else. You might be asking, “isn’t that the point?” To that I say…yeah, it is. Again, I think the problem lies more in the execution than the idea itself. I do think it’s entertaining whenever he tries and fails to go back to the forest because of the other characters, but I also think Haruka is just not interesting enough to carry the scenes where he is alone, and that on top of his constant narration just makes the story drag for me. Speaking of the other characters…

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  PART III:

  ~Loner~~ Life In Another World

  The main problem I’ve seen a lot of people have with this anime is that it isn’t exactly a “loner” anime as most of it is just Haruka trying to go back to the forest but getting stopped by the other characters. If I got a nickel every time I heard “the title is wrong because he is not alone,” I’d be rich. For me, though, I’m in the minority who does prefer the moments when he’s not alone rather than when he is. I didn’t mention this in the previous section, but Haruka by himself is not funny. He’s only funny when he is interacting with the other characters and vice versa. The other characters in question are somehow not better.
  

  
  First, there’s Haruka’s entire class, who also got Isekaid alongside him. We don’t even know what any of their names are since Haruka just calls them based on their clique, which I think also shows how none of them have an actual “character” at all. The biggest example of this are the girls in Haruka’s class. Someone really thought it was a good idea to lump almost 20-something girls into one group and have them follow Haruka around throughout the entire season. Basically, the image above perfectly sums up all of their contribution to the story. They literally don’t do anything other than stop Haruka from leaving them and get angry whenever Haruka tries to go back to the forest because they can’t survive without their precious man Haruka there to do everything for them and teach them how to survive. It was entertaining at first, but the more it happened and the more I thought about it, the more I felt bad for Haruka because all they do is scold and guilt trip Haruka for wanting to live his "loner" life because they can’t fend for themselves. Not trying to bring politics into this, but if you’re someone who is a strong believer in feminism and girl power, then you are not going to like this anime.

  The only really important character here is the class rep, who despite hinting at Haruka having a crush on her at the start and getting a couple more interactions with Haruka and, her character is basically the exact same as the other girls. There’s also the gal leader who gets a mini character arc where she wants to find and apologize to the nerds and a purple-haired girl who they kind of try to establish a romance with her and Haruka by having her serve Haruka breakfast in Ep 3, but they both ultimately end up blending into the background with the rest of the female cast. I could swear there's also some other girls who the animators keep forgeting about, like one with glasses, because sometimes they show up in some group scenes and sometimes they don't. There’s also this other girl, Merielle, who is the daughter of the town’s lord rather than another girl in Haruka’s class, but her character is ultimately the same as the rest of the girls. You could literally combine all these female characters into one and the story wouldn’t change whatsoever.
  

  
  On the male side of things, the only other boys in Haruka’s class who are worth mentioning are the jocks and the nerds. The nerds are more familiar with the fantasy RPG genre so they’re more interesting and get to do a lot more throughout the story, which is ironic considering they completely disappear from the story throughout the middle. The jocks really only serve as the butt of Haruka’s jokes and more useless characters that are there to depend on and encourage Haruka. I say they’re the only one’s worth mentioning not because the other males in Haruka’s class are uninteresting but because they’re all dead. Yeah, I guess they didn’t know what to do with the rest of the characters and didn’t want to lump all the boys into another giant group like they did with the girls. The one who killed them is the only other character in Haruka’s class with an actual name: Tanaka.

  Tanaka is actually a pretty great addition to the story. The first scene where we watch a mysterious figure murder one of the boys from Haruka’s class was a genuine surprise coming from an anime that I thought was a more “kidified” version of your typical Isekai anime. Watching Tamaka throughout the first half of the story as he deceives and murders the rest of the boys in the class, including the delinquents who were trying to use him, in order to use his skill to steal their skills was actually pretty intense, made the story more entertaining, and made for some great suspense as we figure out how Haruka and the group could deal with this since Tanaka was coming after the class rep and her skill. It all comes to a head on Ep 7 when we see Haruka finally confront Tanaka after he is warned by the jocks and decides to deal with the situation by himself. This also applies for everything else that happens throughout the anime, but I do like how everything that happens here does feel like a natural way to get Haruke involved in the conflict and move the story along, at least compared to some of the other anime I watched. Anyway, the episode and the ensuing fight between Haruka and Tanaka are excellent and, after Haruka kills Tanaka, it actually got me pretty interested in how the rest of the story would play out. My one nick pick towards him is that Tanaka looks a little too similar to the nerd leader, and at times I mistook them for each other. Overall, I would say that Tanaka is actually a great character whose addition made the story more entertaining. There’s also these other townsfolk, adventurers, and the guild master whose names I forgot and don’t care to remember since, like everyone else, they also only serve as more background characters who need the protection of the OP MC. There is one more character who, like Tanaka, I consider to be an exemption, and speaking of her…

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  PART IV:

  Angelica — The Anime’s Saving Grace

  After Haruka’s victory over Tanaka, Ep 8-11 shifts gears and focuses the story more on Haruka venturing into a nearby dungeon to find an item only for him to fall to the very bottom floor and try to escape by fighting his way up and easily killing the tougher bosses of the dungeon, while the rest of the surviving class makes their way down into the dungeon to save him and barely manage to survive. Honestly, as much as I was talking trash about certain aspects of the first half of the anime earlier, I was still pretty entertained and interested in the story as a whole and only had problems with individual aspects of it. Once we get to the dungeon, however, that’s when I started to lose interest and zone out, even forgetting some aspects of the previous episodes. Ep 8-11 just follow the same repetitive formula of Haruka easily making his way up the dungeon while the rest of his class struggles to make their way down to save him. One thing I do like about these episodes, though, is the worldbuilding, particularly in regards to the skill/magic system used throughout the anime and how the dungeons themselves are live creatures capable of creating and controlling monsters. There is one more positive and that’s the inclusion of the character I mentioned earlier: Angelica.

  Haruka first encounters Angelica at the bottom floor of the dungeon as she also happens to be both the secret boss of the dungeon and the “Dungeon Emperor” (aka the strongest monster in the dungeon). She first appeared as an undead lich who was extremely skilled with a sword and served as Haruka’s toughest enemy yet, to the point where I thought Haruka could actually be in danger of dying, even more than when he fought Tanaka. Haruka eventually figures out, though, that Angelica is being controlled by the dungeon and chooses to free her from her control and gain the free will she deserves…before bounding her to his servitude. They then defeat the boss of Floor 100, who drops a cursed armor that Haruka decides to give to Angelica to wear and eventually everyone finds out that the armor restores Angelica’s flesh and human form. I do have a small nitpick with how they say the person who wears the cursed armor is supposed to be unable to remove it while Angelica is easily capable of removing it and putting it back on as she pleases, but never mind that.

  Angelica’s addition really isn’t much at first outside of giving Haruka and extra hand to defeat the dungeon bosses more easily, but her interactions with Haruka are still pretty entertaining and funny, even though we had to bear through more Haruka monologuing because Angelica was unable to speak. I was also very invested in how Haruka was planning to stop the incoming stampede of dungeon monsters from destroying the town since the only way to do so was to kill the Dungeon Emperor, who in this case was Angelica. It was a slug to get through, but I did ultimately enjoy how Angelica one-shots the entire monster stampede and saves the town, even if the CGI on the monsters kind of downplayed the whole thing. Ep 12, however, is when Angelica’s character is at her peak. Not only are her interactions with the class rep and the rest of the girls before and after they find out her secret funny, but once Haruka finds out Angelica is human again, their interactions are not only funny but surprisingly wholesome and bittersweet. It kind of makes me mad whenever I think about it because it makes me think that the whole anime should have just been about the growing romance between Haruka and Angelica rather than the adventures of “loner” Haruka that we got. It was honestly the best episode and, in my opinion, the best finale out of all the Fall 2024 anime I watched so far. Also, I guess since this practically means that Haruka will never get to be alone again, we might never hear the end of it from the people who complain about it.

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  UPDATE 12/28/2024: The last episode of Demon Lord 2099 just aired today. I think that anime now has the best finale out of all the Fall 2024 anime I watched so far, with Loner Life in Another World coming in second.

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  CONCLUSION~~~

  Despite how negative I may have sounded, I still found Loner Life in Another World pretty entertaining throughout, but once we get to the dungeon, that’s when I started to lose some interest and when some of its previous problems started to rear their ugly heads. I’m someone who will admittedly spend his time watching bad movies and TV shows if I still find them entertaining, but looking back at it, this anime is not one I’m looking to rewatch anytime soon. Maybe starting to watch anime a little more objectively has drained me of some enjoyment, but I also blame the bad character writing here. Now, something I neglected to mention in my previous reviews is that I understand that a lot of anime are adapted from manga and light novels and any problems with the story and character writing can sometimes be summed up to flaws from the original source material, which might have made it sound like I was blaming the studios behind the anime and not the original source material in my previous reviews and I apologize for it. Sometimes, though, it can be the other way around, but in the case of Loner Life in Another World, I think the main problems I have with it stem from the original source material itself. Earlier I saw someone comment on this site that the original author didn’t know how to write female characters, and I agree with it and more, or maybe Loner Life in Another World was just better suited in the form of a light novel than an anime. I did still like some aspects, especially the Tanaka and Angelica stuff, which I think range from great to amazing. Ep 7 and especially Ep 12 are really the only things that just barely keep this anime from rating lower than a 7 for me. Overall, Loner Life in Another World is still an entertaining Isekai and an entertaining first watch, but I would only recommend watching Loner Life in Another World if you’re someone looking to check out more Fall 2024 seasonal anime, someone who is tired of generic Isekais and want to watch an Isekai that subverts generic Isekai tropes, or someone who is trying to get into the Isekai genre since this does feel like a more “kidified” Isekai at times. Also, I really do still wish we got the Haruka x Angelica anime instead.

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