I'm Standing on a Million Lives (2020)

[100万の命の上に俺は立っている]

Season 1

Director: Kumiko Habara
Studio: Maho Film
Starring: Yuto Uemura, Risa Kubota, Azumi Waki
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
A disgruntled high school student finds himself roped into a virtual world by a couple classmates on the orders of a mysterious entity calling himself the Game Master.

Impressions:
At first, this appears like a fairly typical take on the "trapped in a game world" variant of the isekai subgenre, but details steadily emerge to make it stand out a bit. The cold open makes it look like our male lead Yotsuya has gone off the deep end, which was a good way to grab the audience's attention, but then he proves to be a far more conventional if somewhat antisocial character... at first. Two elements that stand out about the series is the Game Master's obtuseness (in terms of quest-giving and game mechanics) and the dysfunctional group dynamic. Maybe if we started with Yotsuya and Shindou together, things might have built up more comfortably, but instead we have Shindou and Kusue being useless together, making them a load. This is exacerbated by the addition of Yuka, who's just as worthless but with a rotten personality to rob her of almost any redeeming quality. Thank heaven for the in-world character Kahabell or you might be left thinking all females in this universe only serve to be a burden on the protagonist. This season really feels like warm-up for bigger things. I can't call myself a passionate fan by any means, but there's just enough going on to intrigue me about what's next. It's a good thing we don't have to wait long for the next season. In the mean time, consider giving this a watch.

Rating:
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