#comics #anime #read-2026 #watched-2026 #review
§ Isekai ^
This series is isekai --- basically, Japanese portal fantasy --- of the sucked-into-a-video-game variety. I typically have less than zero interest in this sort of story, but I was drawn in by the twist: that our hero is not at all interested in any of the (male) love interests supplied by the dating sim, and instead fixates on the villainous antagonist. That feels so accurate to how superfans actually engage with the objects of their obsession. It's not Luke Skywalker they want to know more about, it's the silent bounty hunters in the background.
The first thing that stood out to me was the total absence of existential horror. The protagonist wakes up in a video game with no warning; I'd expect some Amazing Digital Circus-type panic at this point, but nope, she's just like "WOO! FUCK YEAH! LIVING THE DREAM!"
There is never any explanation as to how she arrived in the world of the game, nor even any curiosity about it. What we see of her old life is so pathetic that it actually isn't that surprising that she doesn't care how she got there. As best as anyone can tell, she died of overwork while zoned out in front of her TV and got reincarnated in the game world.
This approach both helps and hinders the series. I imagine that people who regularly enjoy isekai aren't hung up on these details, but personally, I found it distracting how little it seemed to matter --- particularly because so much of the story revolves around her foreknowledge of the game's events. Being reincarnated in a game is simultaneously central to the story and --- jarringly --- treated as irrelevant.
§ Tsundere ^
The villainess in question, Claire, is tsundere --- an archetypal character who hides her affection and other vulnerabilities behind a wall of hostility: "I-it's not like I like you or anything!" While this is a real thing people do --- I've done it myself! --- it rubs the feminist in me the wrong way. It seems like an excuse to ignore consent by interpreting someone's statements backwards.
When I was a kid, any time a boy was mean to a girl or vice-versa, an adult would reliably inform you that it was actually because they secretly liked them. When applied to boys, this myth was used to excuse their bad behavior: he's doing it because he likes her. When applied to girls, it was used to encourage boys to persist in their bad behavior: don't worry, she actually likes it. As I entered my teenage years, this same patriarchal bullshit was repackaged as "playing hard to get", which is more overtly gendered and is explicitly used to dismiss a woman's expressions of disinterest as insincere. In 2026 --- if your social circle is sufficiently weeby --- the equivalent is calling someone tsundere.
Indeed, the beginning of the story is nothing but sexual harassment, played for laughs. Perhaps more disturbing than the harassment is the complicity of the other characters, who dismiss it as lovers' squabbles. Claire's maid even pushes Claire into letting the main character dress her, despite her open leering at her body (a scene which is mercifully not repeated).
But of course, because Claire is tsundere, it ultimately is the case that their back-and-forth is a form of flirting, and the persistent harassment pays off. It's frustrating that this behavior is rewarded by the narrative. It's softened somewhat by a handful of scenes --- like when the main character realizes her behavior has been pushing Claire away and harming the reputation of all lesbians --- but the basic dynamic is still there.
Why did I still enjoy it? I think it comes down to how oddly endearing I found it --- not Claire's tsundere-ness, but the MC's oblivious shamelessness. Some (small) percentage of her creepiness can be excused as lack of social skills, and she has devoted about 95% of her brain capacity to Claire, so she has kind of an autistic charm about her. (That being said, she is constantly manipulative in a way that I don't feel is ever properly addressed --- I think due in part to the story's disinterest in what exactly it meant to get isekai'd.)
§ Defend Trans Women ^
There's a whole plot arc where everyone comes together to help a girl transition. (It's presented as reversing a magical forced transition, but that's still clearly what it is. The MC even says explicitly that she cares so much about helping her because she knew a trans guy who killed himself.1) I think this was the part that ultimately won me over to the series. It's so nice! She even has a bisexual girlfriend who helps explain to the dummies in the audience that gender does matter for some people but not for others.
§ Food ^
The fundamentally unserious nature of the worldbuilding leads to a few things that I must nitpick. One of the fun things that the MC does to make money is sell recipes of real-world foods that don't exist in the world of the game.
From what we've seen of her life, I find it very hard to believe that she would be so good at cooking. We know she 1) had a terrible first love at school 2) graduated and entered the workforce 3) worked and played video games until she died. Why is she so good at cooking?
§ Chocolate ^
Let's set aside for a moment that it's actually really hard to make chocolate. Where the fuck is she getting cocoa beans? Why would they be harvested and sold if nobody is making chocolate?
§ Mayonnaise ^
This is an easy one. You could reverse-engineer it from memory with a little experimentation. Whip some eggs, the end.
§ Crème brûlée ^
Isn't this one of those notoriously difficult dishes? Or maybe it isn't hard to make but is considered fancy for some other reason?
§ Dub ^
I watched the anime after reading the manga. I'm a strictly subtitles-only type, but the copy I had kept defaulting to English audio so I caught a few glimpses of it.
By the end I actually kind of wished I had watched the dub, just because it changed the script pretty substantially while the subtitled version very closely matched the manga I had just read. The MC's voice is amusingly nerdy, and some localizations stood out as great choices --- meme-y lines like calling Claire "my queen". In fact, the dubbed version has the most seeds on nyaa.si.
§ Conclusion ^
It was a fun way to spend a weekend. I'll read the last few chapters when they're published. Watch it if you like cute, mild yuri and are inured to regressive anime tropes.
§ Footnotes ^
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I think he showed up in the game world once? This would confirm that death is how you get isekai'd. <-|