Netflix It has already been releasing several animes in simulcast with Japan, such as ‘Blue Period’ and ‘Komi-san Can’t Communicate’, with weekly updates instead of releasing the entire season in one fell swoop.
The most recent series to join the format this month has been ‘My uncle is from another world’ (‘Isekai Ojisan’), a fantasy comedy series that busts isekai anime cliches in the funniest way possible.
When adventurers come home
More than once we have seen the typical story that starts when the protagonists are magically transported to another completely different world. There they go on magical adventures, often discovering their new powers and abilities, and forming incredible lifelong friendships. But what happens when it’s time to go home after all this time?
This is kind of the basis of ‘Isekai Oji-san’which begins when the uncle of Takafumi Takaoka wakes up from a 17-year coma after being hit by a truck. At first, Takafumi isn’t too keen on dealing with his uncle, but when Takafumi proves to have magical powers, he soon sees how to make the most of the situation.
For now, only the first two episodes have been shown on the platform, but the series has already had quite a promising start. When Takafumi’s uncle wakes up from his coma he finds a world changing greatly from the one he knew as a teenager, starting with how he has advanced technology for nearly two decades. Things are not as you remember… and worst of all, there is no SEGA anymore!
Because the former hero turns out to be the opposite of the isekai protagonists we are used to: he is not handsome, nor charming, nor does he have much people skills. Everything he knows about life and love has been taken from video gameswith which his experiences in the other world often did not end well.
‘Isekai Ojisan‘ balances each part of the story very well, showing us both what is happening in the present to Takafumi and his uncle and the memories of the latter, with which we are slowly catching up with their old adventures.
The chapters are divided into small segments, so they are not heavy at all, and thanks to the changes in the style, the narrative in each world is very well differentiated. The “real world” has a much grayer finish, with an organic and irregular line that almost gives the feeling that we are going to see a thriller, while the “other world” is full of bright and vivid colors and enjoys an animation much prettier.
But although the animation is a bit limited on many occasions, the great strengths of ‘Isekai Ojisan’ are the novelty of its approach and its humor. It is a series that is aware of all the tropes of the isekai genre and that exploits and destroys them as much as it can, starting with the harem of female characters that forms around the protagonist, even if he is a mindundi.
It’s a fun series full of meta references and offering just the right amount of epic energy and parody to keep you down. In principle ‘Isekai Ojisan’ will have 13 episodes, and although it remains to be seen if this formula does not become repetitive, the beginning of the series manages to hook enough to want to see more of the strange adventures of this video game lover.