I’m a sucker for portal fiction, so it’s no surprise that I’m fond of—or at least eager to try—many isekai anime. I’ll even keep watching isekai long after I’ve decided that I don’t like the show. Something about it is compelling. It grabs part of my brain and refuses to let go.

There’s a lot of schlock out there. And worse. Hell, I watched at least ten episodes of The Rising of the Shield Hero, despite that show being a rotten apologia for toxic incels making slave harems (don’t be a shithead, and practice your kink consensually mmkay?). Someone else wrote more or less what I should have posted here about that show years ago—it’s a solid critique, check it out.

But that means when I find isekai that isn’t awful, that doesn’t feel like it’s spoon-feeding me poison and whispering sweet justifications of heinous shit, I’m delighted. And when I keep watching that isekai and find hints that they’re building towards bigger, more interesting twists with potentially interesting moral conundrums… heck. They’ve got me hook, line, and sinker. All of which is to say…