Stark700

Who could’ve ever thought we’d get a deformed, chibi version anime from some of Kadokawa’s most popular works? At first, I thought the announcement of the anime was a joke until I saw the actual trailers and promotional images. Taking a look back, I also remember when Overlord and Youjo Senki had their own version of chibi shorts featuring goofball characters doing what goofballs what do. Maybe they were experiments to prepare for this anime. Who knows? Without a shadow of a doubt, Isekai Quartet is based on characters from isekai shows. The character roster consists of the cast from KonoSuba, Overlord, Youjo Senki, andRe:Zero. Collectively, they are united as a quartet of characters in a school life setting where all sorts of shenanigans blooms. As someone who is familiar with all of those established franchises, I do recommend watching them before stepping foot into this. Character personalities carries over and in general, I do believe you can get a better experience if you knew who the characters are. But for popcorn entertainment sakes, you can also just dive right into this little gem. Even as a crossover, Isekai Quartet stands out as a show of its own. The episodes contains skit stories that are half length. Its main purpose is to humor with the immense amount of comedy that aims to draw our attention. If someone told me this whole idea sounded absurd, I might have agreed at first. That is, I tasted what Isekai Quartet really is and it’s pretty damn delicious. That’s thanks to the drama within that showcases this like a Saturday morning cartoon. To start off, we have several foil characters which translates into some rather noticeable character drama segments. There’s Tanya and Ainz who were once a salaryman in the real world. These two are portrayed as powerful entities that others seems to fear in from their perspective shows. In Isekai Quartet, there’s a rivalry that develops between the two based on some rather absurd reasons. KonoSuba’s Kazuma and Re:Zero’s Subaru came from fantasy worlds as the two manages to establish themselves in their own ways. However, it is easily noticeable how different both characters are. Kazuma is portrayed more as a butt monkey while Subaru evolved as a dark fantasy hero. When you put all four of these protagonists together in the same show, hell breaks loose. I’m talking about the over the top comedy type of hell of course. With the school setting, the creators aimed to bring as many as possible segments as possible. From school rules to a class talent show, there’s many opportunities for comedy. (yes, there is the infamous “beach episode” too before you ask) Anyone who is familiar with these franchises will also quickly recognize how much their personalities carry over. Make no mistake, every character remains who they are from their respective shows. This includes Overlord’s core characters such as Albedo, Shalltear, and Demiurge. KonoSuba has its own class clowns like Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness. Re:Zero’s Emilia, Rem, Ram, and Beatrice are no strangers when they sit in class. And who can forget Youjo Senki’s adorable Visha? Bringing this legion of isekai characters also means a clash of personalities. Just like at school, there are class leaders and rules. The show establishes the rules early on and as each episode progresses, it becomes more and more evident how some characters can’t follow them. The class talent shows also displays a clash of egos. At the end of the day, the audience is the real winner as the anime accomplishes its job of glorfying popcorn entertainment. In a sense, this is a deconstruction of isekai. Character behaviors are observed in the some of the most outrageous ways possible. KonoSuba’s cast is the guiltiest of this with Kazuma’s antics, Megumin’s explosive personality, and Darkness’ perverted fantasies. However, others such as Albedo, Shaltear, and Beatrice also act on actions that speaks louder than words. My only slight disappointment is how much Tanya has to carry her own franchise in this crossover. Honestly, she is probably the most credible member from Youjo Senki. Even someone like Visha feels like she’s the invisible kid in class if you don’t pay too much attention. Similarly, most of the supporting characters from these perspective franchises is overshadowed by the main cast. Isekai Quartet ended up being an anime that I didn’t know I wanted. When it got first announced, I thought this would’ve ended up being a big fat joke to further alienate the isekai fan base. It seemed like a big risk considering how much controversy their franchises became for certain audiences. But after watching this show to finish, I’ve seen the light. Be prepared to be enlightened.

HaXXspetten

Isekai Quartet represents the most wholesome and pure type of fan service one can write. In other words a spinoff truly made for the fans of not just one franchise but four of them, more specifically KonoSuba, Re:Zero, Youjo Senki and Overlord; kind of like a 2019 equivalent of what Carnival Phantasm was for the Nasuverse back in 2011. It should go without saying that you should have seen at least some and preferably all of these series before watching Isekai Quartet or you will not be able to appreciate this anime for what it is. This chibi crossover spinoff basically takes all the main charactersfrom these various franchises and sends them to another world... again... where they meet each other in a seemingly ordinary human school and are forced to become students. Of course what the anime is actually about is simply putting all these loveable characters together just to see what the hell happens, and that is really the charm point of it all. Just seeing the crossover interactions play out is something any fan of these series should have a great deal of fun watching. After all, character relations such as Tanya's hatred for deities like Aqua and in turn Aqua's animosity towards the undead such as Ainz is unavoidably going to lead to a great deal of interesting confrontation. It's a simple show by design but it definitely works. The only real problem with it is that there are so many characters involved and potential interactions that would have been fun to explore, but with only 9-minute episodes (excluding OP and ED duration) we only ever get a quite limited amount of exposure to a large portion of Isekai Quartet's character cast. There are so many things I would have liked to see the show touch upon that never ended up happening simply because it ran out of time. But nevertheless it is still a great spinoff which I would highly recommend any fans of the related series to watch. It may be short but it's exceptionally sweet.