Given that Isekai Ojisan was probably the closest I had to a sleeper this season (Yofukashi no Uta was really too mainstream to be called that), it’s not a huge surprise that I liked the premiere quite a bit.  Another factor is that this is quite a good staff, brought over to new studio Atelier Pontdarc by former White Fox bigwig Tsunaki Yoshikawa.  Still, you never know how a car will drive till the rubber hits the road, so it’s still a real positive that it didn’t disappoint.

Lord knows, if anything in anime was overripe for satire it’s the isekai phenomenon.  Overripe for a good satire, I mean  – and by that I mean ruthless.  The problem when anime (or manga) satirized stuff like isekai or the idol industry it’s usually a closeted love letter, an attempt to bask in the subject’s financial glow, which ultimately celebrates what it’s supposedly sending up.  I have no idea if Isekai Ojisan (based on a manga by first-timer Hotondo Shindeiru (“Almost Died”) avoids that trap.  But the signals from the first episode are pretty positive.

This is the story of the titular Ojisan (Koyasu Takehito), who as we join the story (in 2017) is just waking from a 17-year coma.  He was taken out by Truck-kun (this series pretty much checks all the boxes) and his family splintered over what to do with him.  The only relative who acknowledges him is nephew Takafumi (Fukuyama Jun, too old as usual but otherwise a decent fit).  He shows up at the hospital planning to turn his uncle basically into a ward of the state, but once Ojisan proves that his ramblings about having been in another world –  a magical one – are true, his attitude changes entirely.

First things first, it’s important to understand that Isekai Ojisan isn’t going for anything remotely realistic.  Ojisan’s ability to basically replay his isekai life at will with full video controls is utterly absurd but necessary for the premise.  It’s pretty clear that Uncle and Takafumi are not dissimilar fellows -loners with an otaku bent, not especially what society would look at as winners.  Takafumi is less of an oddball than Ojisan to be sure, but – while seeing him as a means of financial gain without question – I think seeing his uncle as something of a kindred spirit is part of the reason he bonds with him.

Uncle wants old non-functional phones that no longer work.  He’s devastated to learn that Sega bombed out of the console business.  He was bad at life in 2000 – now as a man out of time, all the more so.  But he also has a lexicon of magical abilities – and items – carried over from the other world.  The funny thing is he was a loser there, too – derided as an “orc-face” by the locals.  All of them despised him bar one pretty elf girl (Komatsu Mikako Tomatsu Haruka).  She was a classic tsundere who was obviously in love with him  – but (to Takafumi’s horror) Ojisan didn’t pick up on this because he missed the tsundere boom by four years.

Takafumi’s initial take on monetizing his uncle is YouTube, and he has modest success with this until a moment of inspiration.  There are other obvious ways to do it, which I assume the story will tap into eventually.  Generally speaking the gags work, striking a good balance by being snarky but avoiding excessive mean-spiritedness.  I liked some of the small details, like Takafumi having a fancy coffee grinder in his apartment but only drinking instant.  The track record with this sort of parody and pulling punches isn’t a good one, but until it gives me a reason to think otherwise Isekai Ojisan seems to be one which has a chance to break the mold.