AKA: 便利屋斎藤さん、異世界に行く (Benriya Saitō-san, Isekai ni Iku)

Genre: Isekai, fantasy

Length: Television series, 12 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.

Content Rating: PG-17 (Strong violence, fanservice.)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: Delicious in Dungeon, KonoSuba, Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill.

Notes: Based on the manga series written and illustrated by Kazutomo Ichitomo. It's serialized online on Kadokawa Shouten's ComicWalker website.

Rating:

Handyman Saitou in Another World

Synopsis

Following a life of being rejected, abused, mistreated, and -- finally -- almost ran over by a truck, Saitou is reborn into a new world where magic is very much a thing, as is adventuring along with a party of various classes. And, much to his delight, his ability to pick locks is very much appreciated, as are his other handyman skills.

Review

This season doesn't go super into depth about Saitou's old life other than to show us that it was... not fun, in a depressingly realistic way. Having main characters who live among the lower rung of capitalism isn't anything new in anime -- and it's a little rich coming from an animated work, to be honest -- but Handyman Saitou in Another World just brings more facets to it. Horrible bosses, Karen customers, and just a terrible work environment altogether make for an unhappy worker, so Saitou must've felt like he struck gold when he got reborn into a world and met with a group of people who really appreciated what he could do for them. Which is not to say he won't suffer the occasional bout of low self-esteem from time to time, but that's more of a product of the verbal abuse and negligence he faced in his old world.

In this new world, he also meets up with an almost hilariously ragtag bunch of a team. The most "normal" of the lot is Raelza, the fighter-class woman who's usually seen wearing her heavy armor. She's about the same age as Saitou, and she does develop a bit of a crush on him as the show cartwheels along. She is a bit self-conscious about a scar that goes down her cheek, and she also feels a bit naked without her armor, but by and large, she's the straight woman of the team. She was also adopted by Morlock -- one of the other members of the group -- after her parents were killed. On the subject of Morlock, he is our geriatric wizard. A legendary one at that, but his ongoing dementia has stymied his battle capabilities somewhat. In a weird way, Handyman Saitou in Another World has decided that the older and more absent-minded someone is, the more dangerous they really are. The King seems even more of a lost cause than Morlock, but he likes spending his time playing chess with the decapitated head of the demon King, and it's heavily implied his bodilessness is the King's doing. For Morlock, his dementia is what makes him a bit of a liability, although Saitou kind of comes up with a fix for that. That's... pretty much the jokes centered around him.

And then there's Lafanpan. As a fairy, she provides heals and buffs for the team but demands payment for each spell she casts. As it turns out, there's a reason for why she has to do that, and yes, that is "has to." Most of the time, she puts Morlock's back into place, but she is a bit of a multiutalitarian like Saitou is, except with magic rather than practical skills. She's fairly straight-laced as well, which means Saitou's team has more straight men/women than not, so it's up to Morlock to be ridiculous enough to make up for them.

As far as worldbuilding goes, I kinda like it. It's a bit real-life mirrored as shows go, even in the sense that this magical world faces problems very similar to Saitou's old world. The main draw is the dungeon, which used to provide a way of living for the people living in the town nearby. But now that the dungeon has been fully explored, more or less, there isn't much of a living to be made there anymore. The show is even quite violent when it feels it needs to be, although its concept of good and evil is far more nebulous. While the show starts out as a gag-a-minute thing, we do get some larger story arcs once it gets deep enough into its dungeon-delving escapades.

One of them is centered around the ninja assassin Kisurugi. Without giving away too much of his backstory, he is portrayed as evil mainly because he's killing people more or less just because that's what he does. His team also includes two demons who act like Yakuza little bros, as well as a fairy with black butterfly wings. Although they are considered evil, they are quite loyal to each other. Particularly Primas, the aforementioned fairy, who has a rather dim view on adventurers thanks to how they've treated her in the past. Even Morlock's backstory is grimly serious, which might come across as kind of insincere due to how he is normally. That being said, I was mostly fine with how the whole thing played out, and honestly, I had to give props to how well his act of desperation served as lore for that one event that changed his and others' lives, as tragic as it was.

And then the show completely craps itself with the last story arc. There were clues even in the beginning, of course, where we learn how the world's measuring system came into being. (Puts the term "banana for scale" front and center, so to speak.) I can respect a show's dedication to the penis jokes, but when Handyman Saitou in Another World entered an arc where a demon dog (of sorts) ate Morlock's penis to absorb his powers, that's where the show lost me. The whole thing is a ridiculous back and forth with Morlock's mortality as he turns into a lucid skeleton zombie of sorts. It's just the kind of dumb that the show might've gazed longingly at before this point, but... wow, to lean into it so hard did not do it any favors. The show's humor has gone from dumb to awesomely dumb, but pushing it just placed it squarely back into the realm of dumb.

So when the show also introduced a gay (or bisexual) character, you would think that you'd be in for a long drive down Painful Avenue, right? However, the show gets weirdly respectful here. One of the dungeon-delving teams consists of a younger woman and her partner, a somewhat large-ish, gruff-looking man, and it's the man who develops a crush on Saitou. And... it's treated with a surprising amount of respectful normalcy. In fact, most of the others, Saitou included, don't really notice. His work partner does, however, and she takes great pleasure in ribbing him about it like any good friend would. It's honestly kind of adorable.

This show in total, however.... it honestly kind of hurts. Handyman Saitou in Another World spent so much time being quite good, with a large roster of flawed people propping up their own character development arcs in this world that will take everything away from you at a moment's notice, and all for this. It's not a total catastrophe -- I've seen a lot worse, believe you me -- but I still can't help but feel massively disappointed by the whole thing.

The last arc just completely wrecks its pacing and sense of self, and it's a shame. — Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: The show is quite violent at times. Blood gets splattered, and it gets downright nasty during the arc around the ninja and the witch. Consequences for various crimes are also quite severe. There's also some mild fanservice, some short scenes of nudity from time to time, but this isn't really a horny show altogether.