Alright, yet another isekai with a ridiculously long name. Choujin Koukousei-tachi wa Isekai demo Yoyuu de Ikinuku You Desu! is everything you would expect if you were not in slumber for the past decade: overpowerful lead, a medieval fantasy world, lots of cute girls, and a plot putting the protagonist on a path of world domination or conquest. Yes, you know the drill by now. I don’t even know why I bother writing reviews about these shows… or maybe I do.

You see, Choyoyu (which is the short, and true name of this thing) shows perhaps why this pathetic genre of isekais have been flooding the industry with its filthy garbage. Although you know exactly what to expect from them, they are easy shows to incorporate the crazy good things that the japanese industry can produce. In most other genres, like those with a high-school setting, a comedy set in a workplace, or a shoujo romance, introducing absurdity breaks everything else. It is really hard to enjoy a romance when you know the protagonist is Kirito… but when this same annoying Kirito is thrown in a crazy place and given freedom to be the dick he is, it can surprisingly lead to interesting developments.

Choyoyu is like that. It is not about a failed japanese citizen, thank the gods, but about some unrealistic super-smart and powerful japanese teenagers thrown into a medieval fantasy world where their absurd skills and knowledge are put to test. These seven teenagers vary from a samurai girl said to be the most powerful swordsman in the world to a young genius scientist and the prime minister of Japan. Yes, this one boy of 15 or so is such a skilled manipulator and liar he is the prime minister of Japan… after being elected by POPULAR vote (yes). It’s… ridiculous, surely. Yet, it is also so absurd it can get funny.

It embraces much of its craziness

Shokugeki no Souma was an interesting show back in the day because it embraced the crazy cooking duels and extreme tasting reactions from the jurors. Choyoyu is similar in this regard as it, from the very start, sets the table straight by saying these teenagers are not your random failed japanese citizens, no, they are the BEST IN THE WORLD in what they do. Besides the three I’ve mentioned before, there is also a guy who is the most successful entrepreneur in existence, a SHINOBI who uses her stealth and tactics to be the most resourceful source of information and journalist there is, a young boy who is David Copperfield on steroids, and a girl so skilled in medicine she could basically bring back the dead to life. Yeah.

It is fun while at that

Regardless of the generic isekai atmosphere, when the show embraces the absurdity of its cast, it manages to be fun. It does so at many moments at the start and somewhere by the end, putting the seven kids to tackle an empire that heavily relies on magic and a social structure akin to medieval europe. The protagonist, Tsukasa (the prime-minister boy), wishes to introduce this world to its first democracy, and to do so he believes he must first crush the royalty and conquer the land with the iron first of a ruler and the aid of nuclear warheads. Yup, nuclear warheads.

However…

Choyoyu manages to be interesting while tackling the absurd, but most often than not it ends up taking the lazy path of the isekai genre: cute girls overwhelming the lead, claiming he is unskilled and just weak while he is basically predicting the outcome of every event, and rushing things for the sake of progress. This means that it jumps ahead of its interesting idea of implementing democracy to magical threats that require sheer strength and sword skill to be beaten. Instead of seeing Tsukasa dealing with scheming and backstabbing by the local nobles, instead he is faced head on by warriors, super powerful mages, and other threats that rarely get more depth than a cardboard.

That’s when it gets generic

When it ends up being about strength and combat skills, Choyoyu becomes just one more to the pile, and a weaker one amongst that tier. Weaker because it offers very little detail about its characters and setting, as they are all so absurd that any attempt to humanize them is just an instant backlash. The idea was not made to be explored that way, it was meant to be absurd in terms of characters. Instead it becomes a somewhat generic isekai with harem vibes and ass-pulled ideas, such as creating a church out of a simple myth and instantaneously managing to trick every citizen in this world.

Much like many other shows with said “super-smart” heroes, it ends up being more about how stupid everyone is when compared to a character that barely meets the average standard in terms of intelligence. This typical mistake becomes worse when the show offers nothing else, being an average production from a minor studio Project No. 9, whose best work so far is probably one of the most interesting isekais of these past years: Noukin.

Choyoyu is, by isekai standards, passable. It offers an absurdity in its premise that certainly makes it stand more than the rest, but sadly rarely gets the execution right. Instead of an absurd show about super-smart and skilled kids taking over the world by devious way, instead we have yet once again a generic medieval fantasy with colorful people facing mages and warriors head-on.

It, however, offers a decent path for others to follow. Of course, the best overall idea would be to throw the isekai genre in the garbage and never even remember it ever existed, but we know this is a genre that came to stay. The idea of embracing absurdity, in fact, becomes an obvious choice to make the isekai genre more enjoyable, leaving aside the insistence in creating leads that “resonate with the typical audience” and just damn embracing some crazy people with crazy skills. When Choyoyu does that, it becomes something more than a husk of generic isekai. A pity it forgets its premise far too often.