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Hey there and welcome back to Rival Reviews

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, a podcast for anime and

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manga recommendations and reviews . As

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always , I'm your host , dj , and this

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week I want to take you on a journey , a

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land where ridiculously

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descriptive long titles meet

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just as ridiculous

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harems . That's right

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. This week we're talking about Isakai , now

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Folder Scroger . I know for a fact

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that this episode is going to have a whole , probably

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bunch of Japanese names that I'm going

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to butcher , so I apologize beforehand

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. But yeah , essentially

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, for those who are not

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aware , isakai

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is one of those type of genres

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where , whether it's

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reincarnation after

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death , summoning into

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your favorite video game or

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or book , or

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even being summoned all of a sudden

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to a fantasy land where you are

1:01

immediately met with the king

1:03

of some distinct country saying that

1:05

you are the hero and you need to save

1:08

everybody that's generally

1:10

everything that kind of encompasses under the

1:12

umbrella of Isakai

1:14

. I will say

1:16

I definitely do enjoy the

1:18

idea of reincarnation . Probably

1:20

the most I

1:23

do the fact that you know you not to get too

1:26

into the idea of religion

1:28

or anything like that for that matter , but

1:30

I like to think that

1:33

you know if if there is going to be

1:35

something after death

1:37

being

1:40

reincarnated into , like some kind of fantasy

1:42

land where I can , you know , shoot a fireball and

1:44

or , or , or become a knight

1:47

or something like that sounds a lot better than just

1:49

, you know , inevitable

1:51

darkness . So

1:54

, yeah , so I think that's why that I generally

1:56

enjoy this genre

1:59

is just the idea

2:01

of that . I

2:04

always did find the idea of summoning a little funny

2:06

, just due to the fact that it's always

2:09

kind of follows the same pattern

2:12

where you know they get sucked up

2:14

into a portal

2:16

off the street or

2:19

something like that and then all

2:22

of a sudden they're kind of like in this like

2:24

throne room , basically

2:27

said hey , sorry for taking you

2:29

out of your , you know your everyday life

2:31

, but I'm going to throw

2:33

you all this responsibility and

2:35

your only hope . So

2:38

, good luck . Basically

2:42

, a great example . I think one

2:44

of the best examples that I can I can say of

2:46

this is , if you've watched , a shield

2:48

hero is

2:51

like all of a sudden he just gets summoned and just gets told

2:53

what to do and then , of course

2:55

, like not too much spoilers

2:57

due to the fact that I think this happens in the first episode

2:59

but like immediately gets

3:02

screwed over by the princess of the country

3:04

and basically

3:06

for the first good chunk

3:08

of the story is him just fixing

3:11

problems and also dealing with the fact that the

3:13

royal family has made them meet

3:16

him , hated by everybody . And

3:18

I like the way that it did that in terms

3:21

of , like you know , I'm going to

3:23

take you away from your everything that

3:25

you love , your family , your friends , your family

3:27

, everything else , like that . Give you this responsibility

3:29

and then also just totally screw

3:32

you right at the beginning . I

3:35

find I always found that really funny

3:37

. And

3:40

then I would say , as I was speaking a lot to this

3:42

last week on a tome music guys

3:44

, I feel like a lot of them follow the

3:46

immersion subplot

3:48

where , whether

3:51

it's a book that they wrote

3:53

or a book

3:55

that they read , and they have all of this

3:57

insider

4:00

information about what's going to happen in the story

4:02

and like pivotal story

4:04

points that they can take advantage of and stuff

4:06

like that . I

4:09

also like the angle of this one , just due

4:11

to the fact that , like I said , it's it's Well

4:15

one . What I like about two is that it's not

4:17

just Usually in most

4:19

isekais it's like some kind of overpowered

4:21

male character where I find in most

4:23

atomi isekais it's a strong

4:25

female lead and instead of having

4:27

to resort to

4:29

, you know overpowered

4:32

magic and and Sword

4:35

fighting and don't get me wrong like , obviously I love

4:37

those things and everything else like that , but I like

4:39

the break of you

4:42

know them , having to be

4:44

, you know , a lady of the court

4:46

and having to use their words instead

4:48

of Instead of like a sword

4:51

in a fight and like kind of like like

4:53

the , the fighting of the of

4:55

the backhanded compliments . I always

4:57

found that really fun . What

5:02

I also find truly hilarious

5:04

about the genre is that , without

5:06

fail , all of the titles

5:08

are completely ridiculous and

5:11

most of the titles are like , very

5:14

like to the point , like obviously

5:16

, like you can get straight to the point where , like

5:18

, for instance , you can go like my

5:21

reincarnated life as a slime , like

5:23

okay , well , right out the bat

5:26

, we know exactly what this is going to Cover

5:29

and exactly what's going on . I've

5:32

brought in a couple other . I

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wrote down some of the most ridiculous titles that

5:37

I could find . Probably

5:39

more just get more ridiculous , and I swear

5:41

what I find the most is that I they're

5:44

getting longer . They have to be getting longer , and

5:47

I know that they're doing it on purpose . They have to be

5:49

. There's no way it's on accident . So

5:52

some of the ridiculous titles that I was able to find

5:54

was Do your love your

5:56

mom and her to hit multi combo

5:58

. I've been killing

6:01

slimes for 300 years and maxed

6:03

out my level , and then the one that

6:05

I found that took the cake for Probably

6:08

one of the longest I had ever seen

6:10

. The former top

6:12

one sub character , training diary

6:14

colon , a dedicated

6:16

player , is currently conquering another

6:19

world . That

6:21

, if that's not a mouthful , I really don't

6:23

know what is . And

6:25

right there in the title , you know exactly

6:27

what you're strapped in for and what you're going to

6:29

be reading about , which

6:33

I guess you could say is a plus or a minus . I'll

6:35

leave that up for you to decide . Yeah

6:41

, that being said , I know that there

6:43

is a lot of hate to the genre as well

6:45

. One

6:47

of the ones that I

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know that gets a certain amount of hate is obviously

6:51

sort of online . Whether

6:53

this is just because of , like you know

6:55

, the story is just Repetitive

6:58

. There's some questionable things that happen

7:00

, like you know , the whole Kind

7:02

of brother sister Weirdness

7:05

in the second season . That was kind of weird . Very

7:08

happy that they strayed away from that directly

7:10

after that season , and

7:14

I do also understand that

7:16

it gets to the point

7:19

where you get so many

7:21

of the same thing , things

7:23

where you know the main character

7:26

is completely overpowered or or

7:29

Like they can

7:31

never lose , or or things like that

7:33

. But I think it's also the fun of

7:35

this genre is that you can just turn

7:37

off your brain and

7:39

just watch mindless

7:42

magic fights , and especially

7:45

the way that , the way animation is and everything

7:47

else . Now the

7:50

fights are crazy good looking and

7:52

so , you know , is the story

7:54

repetitive ? Is it really obvious

7:56

as to what's going to happen next ? Is

7:59

it going to follow the same

8:01

train of thought where you

8:04

know there's a crazy

8:07

harem and they're

8:10

only going to get more overpowered and they're they're

8:13

never going to have any troubles doing

8:15

anything and everything , and but that's you know

8:17

that's part of the plot . So

8:20

you know , I'm a very firm

8:22

believer that if you don't

8:24

like it , that's OK , but

8:28

you don't have to be rude to somebody

8:30

who does enjoy the genre , and

8:34

I would say , if anything , that that's the takeaway

8:36

for any most things , whether

8:39

it just be anime related or not , like there's there's no reason

8:41

to hate on something that

8:44

somebody else likes , and

8:46

I am fully aware that , especially in this genre

8:49

, it gets a lot of unnecessary hate

8:52

for , for whatever reason

8:54

. Yeah

8:57

, that being said , I did it once again

9:00

, kind of make my own , once again , kind of make my

9:02

top five as to what I kind of felt

9:04

were my favorite or important

9:06

is the guys that I've watched . So

9:11

first one I kind of put on the list and I've kind of already talked

9:13

about is sort of online one of

9:15

the really great ones

9:17

, kind of hits on the immersion

9:20

, one where you know , gets stuck

9:22

in the video game , everything else like that

9:24

. It's a great

9:26

watch . I don't understand why this anime

9:29

gets so much hate . I find that it's

9:31

another good , really introductory series

9:33

as well and

9:36

, yeah , I really don't understand the hate that it gets because

9:38

personally I think the fights and the struggle

9:40

and especially the

9:42

first season , like when they were

9:44

truly stuck and it was like the death game

9:46

and everything else like that , I would

9:49

argue that it's probably one of one

9:51

of the more favorites of

9:53

any kind of anime plot

9:55

that I've ever watched and

9:58

though I understand that it kind of went off

10:00

the rails there a little bit Kind

10:03

of later on and then now it's kind of turned

10:05

more into a selective

10:08

immersive is

10:11

a guy type of situation , I guess I

10:15

did still really enjoy the first season

10:17

and I think that the strength of the first season

10:20

deserves the

10:22

credit and I

10:25

don't think that it should get as nearly as much

10:27

hate as it does . So

10:30

yeah , next one , just

10:32

because I kind of tied it into Sword or Online , just because

10:35

it kind of followed the same idea of

10:37

the immersion into , like a video game

10:40

setting , was Log Horizon . What

10:43

I always found nice about this one

10:45

is that it's it is kind of very similar to

10:48

the sense of Sword Online , where they're like in

10:50

the game but there isn't

10:52

really like the , the , the

10:55

death game penalty

10:57

really , as we've seen , is they

10:59

do revive , they get

11:01

like , basically like when they do die or whatever

11:03

, they get sent to back to

11:06

the church in their hometown or whatever , and

11:08

then they get to start again . But

11:11

what I also like about this one is that it it's more

11:13

politically based where

11:16

, like you know , a whole

11:18

server of people basically woke up , basically woke

11:20

up in a video game that

11:23

they played and then , now

11:25

that they're stuck here , they have to actually learn

11:29

how to like

11:31

. I found that , like in , for

11:33

instance , like in Sword Online , it kind of just

11:35

like all of a sudden , like the entry

11:37

10 was there and like

11:40

stores were open and like

11:42

none of the how

11:44

that happened ever really got introduced

11:46

. And that's what I find really cool about Log

11:49

Horizon is that you had to see , like the creation

11:52

of councils and the creation of the towns

11:54

and people finding what they're good at and

11:58

they , like I . Just I found that

12:00

there was a lot more flushing out of the world

12:03

and how it was created versus

12:05

just the overarching

12:10

proof , like idea of okay

12:12

, but how do we get out of here ? Obviously

12:15

, that is an important thing , but I

12:18

enjoyed the world building in Law Horizon

12:21

a lot more

12:23

Kind of tearing off from that idea . Number

12:26

three I've put again I apologize

12:29

Mushoku Tensai , jobless

12:31

reincarnation . I

12:33

would argue that this

12:35

is probably the first one that I ever watched with the idea

12:38

of reincarnation , where the idea

12:40

is that they they came from the real world

12:42

or earth or whatever , and

12:45

then they were reincarnated with their

12:47

past memories into this fantasy world

12:49

and how they were able

12:51

to kind of utilize the

12:54

memories of the person that they were and

12:58

who they have now become again

13:00

. I will obviously preface

13:03

that you know was

13:05

awakened to already

13:10

, like the , the logic of I , you

13:13

know the power of knowledge and you

13:15

know started learning magic when they were like three

13:19

or whatever , so

13:22

they had that going for them . But I do find that

13:24

it was nice that they then started

13:26

adding struggle and characters

13:29

that were clearly stronger than him

13:31

and that he still had a lot to learn

13:33

and he wasn't just like overwhelmingly

13:37

more powerful than everybody else in

13:39

in the show . And

13:43

what I also thought that this show did really well

13:45

was it showed so again

13:48

. Obviously , if you haven't seen it , I don't want to spoil too

13:50

much , but I do enjoy that

13:53

because his past self was

13:56

a shut

13:58

in and like

14:00

felt very

14:03

low about himself and everything else like

14:05

that . That that actually translated and he actually

14:07

had to not only grow as

14:09

this new person in this new world , but also grow

14:12

as the person that he used to be , and

14:14

I thought that that was a really cool

14:16

thing that they incorporated into this story

14:18

. So

14:22

next one on the list is in

14:24

yasha . Reason for this

14:26

being on my list is that it's probably

14:28

one of the first enemies that I ever completed

14:31

from start to finish , also

14:33

one of the first enemies that I ever watched , and

14:37

what I liked about this one is the was the idea

14:39

of the , the isekai , of the going

14:42

back and forth , like

14:44

being able to go , so , basically , you

14:46

know , going from the I

14:49

can't remember what , but like back in the past , basically

14:51

, and being able to go back and forth through the well

14:54

and

14:56

kind of having that freedom of going back and forth

14:58

between the two worlds . Because a

15:00

lot of the time we watch these isekaisen , the

15:03

whole over over thing

15:05

is like , you know , oh I have to beat the bad guy so

15:07

I can get home , or oh , I

15:09

have to be the bad guy to find the way home , or

15:11

that that's always like the , the

15:13

end goal , where this one , you know

15:15

she wanted to go back

15:18

and everything else like that , because she

15:20

had a whole other life and friends

15:23

, and then you know , at some point , or another family

15:25

on this other side of the well as

15:28

well as from her original world , and

15:31

kind of being able to juggle the two and everything

15:33

else like that . I thought that that was a really cool

15:35

way to go about

15:37

the isekai genre that not , at

15:40

least in my opinion , has been replicated

15:42

, since , unless

15:45

you count , what

15:47

I count is number five , and I know I'm gonna

15:49

get a lot of slack for this , but

15:52

a number five on my list is

15:54

Digimon . Nobody

15:56

would think that this is an isekai . But

15:59

hear me out , they're

16:01

in the real world . They're at camp . They

16:04

get dragged into another world . That's

16:06

isekai , and

16:08

If what

16:10

. As soon as I thought about that I

16:13

knew I had to put it on this list because

16:15

I I Loved a juman

16:17

. I find that it's fun , it's great

16:19

and Again , it's one of those

16:21

. It's one of those Isekai's

16:24

where it kind of has that return element . But

16:26

then once the return I Guess

16:29

issue had been solved , it

16:32

was no longer the primary focus and it was

16:34

like more about the Saving

16:37

this secondary world that had become a second home

16:39

to the DigiDestin

16:41

and everything else like that . And then you

16:43

know , kind of the flip flop of a almost

16:45

kind of like a I guess a reverse

16:47

isekai were like they were then dealing

16:50

with Evil Digimon in

16:52

the real world , which

16:55

I thought was again really

16:57

cool and a really different take

17:00

on the way things are Done

17:02

generally in this genre . So

17:05

that's why that was in number five . So

17:09

I guess next step is to then now

17:11

go over the questions of from

17:13

last week . So

17:15

we had a couple here . Let's

17:18

see who is your favorite

17:20

ship . That should have happened but didn't

17:22

. Okay , so this

17:24

is Again , I

17:26

keep bringing this up , but it is also one of my favorite animes

17:28

. But Mustang and Hawkeye 100%

17:31

. You

17:33

know they , they teased it and

17:35

obviously they care for each other very much and I understand that they're going for

17:37

the whole . You

17:40

know they're strong

17:42

comrades and you know they're

17:45

. They're the ones that they trust the most out of them

17:47

, the most out of each other and everything else

17:49

like that . But I

17:51

wanted them together so bad and

17:54

I and I still to this day , truly

17:56

hope that it happens . That

17:59

would be followed very closely by Miku

18:04

over Yotsuba in the

18:06

quintessential quintuplets . I

18:08

don't care what everybody says . I I

18:11

like the chemistry

18:13

between the male lead in Miku so

18:15

much better than with Yotsuba and I

18:18

still , to this day , do not

18:20

understand why

18:22

it went that way . If

18:25

you've read it , I'd love to hear your opinion

18:27

on that argument , because I

18:30

am I crazy ? I don't

18:32

think I'm crazy . Maybe I'm crazy

18:34

and I'm gonna follow

18:36

that up with basically any

18:39

harem romance that chooses some ridiculous

18:41

choice that was either introduced

18:43

at the beginning of the of

18:46

the thing , where it was clearly that she was gonna be the

18:48

fail , the female lead . But

18:50

you know there's a childhood

18:52

best friend that they've had the entire

18:54

time there and they

18:57

were never together with . Very

18:59

good example of this Nizakoi I . I

19:02

I'm just gonna leave it at that . I've

19:04

never understood it , and

19:06

then I guess , yeah , currently what I'm reading . So

19:09

currently what I'm reading is a

19:11

manga called Rusu again

19:14

apologize , rusu no

19:16

Himo seikatsu . I

19:18

don't really know what the English of that

19:20

is , but essentially , this is again

19:23

one of those , I guess summoning

19:25

Isakai's where

19:28

, basically , he's summoned to this

19:30

one . I find interesting though , because instead of like

19:32

being OP or

19:34

, you know , having to be the hero

19:36

to defeat the back eye , he's

19:39

actually summoned to be the

19:42

new king of a

19:44

country , which I

19:47

find kind of super interesting , where

19:49

, you know , there's no real

19:51

fighting . It's like more all about like kind of the politics

19:54

. There

19:56

is obviously like some magical elements involved

19:58

in everything else , like that , but none of that really comes

20:00

from the male lead , which is interesting

20:02

. So , yeah , so I would give

20:05

that a read if you maybe

20:07

have some time . Yeah

20:09

, so that's all I have for this week

20:12

. Next week I'm thinking about

20:14

going into the dub

20:18

versus sub element and kind of what

20:20

I feel are some strong

20:23

dubs in comparison to subs

20:25

, and kind of the argument as to Not

20:28

so much which one is better , but you know why

20:30

people some prefer ones over the other . So

20:33

, as always , thank you for listening

20:35

. Once again , thank you

20:37

for any reviews that I got this week and everything

20:40

else like that , and for the people that gave

20:42

me the questions . That's awesome

20:44

and , like I said , at the end of the day , that's

20:46

what I kind of want this more to be about is a conversation

20:49

between between us . So

20:51

, once again , it's rival X reviews on

20:54

Twitter , instagram , facebook

20:57

and

20:59

then , right , well , use that gmailcom if you

21:01

just want to email me any questions or or

21:04

comments or anything else like that . And

21:08

yeah , I will see you guys

21:10

in the next one . Bye , bye .