Ojisan’s (Yousuke Shibazaki) dismay for the low ranking of one of his favorite Sega Saturn game makes him erupt!

What Makes This Episode Good

Two episodes in and what makes this anime good so far is that it is “character-centric.” Maybe because the main character is character eccentric? Excuse the bad pun.. With a weak story and the lack of real bad guy, the show rests heavily on the execution of the comedic stories of Ojisan and his wild takes on SEGA. Like really.. How are you supposed to make something very interesting when there is no significant plot? That’s where the funny takes on isekai tropes through Ojisan’s odd adventures and his lack of understanding of social situations make these episodes still an enjoyable watch.

Right off the bat, the scene with Ojisan raging over ‘Guardian Heroes’ is a great example of what I like most about this anime so far.

The joke here of Ojisan being pissed off about Guardian Heroes being ranked so low was such a great way to create a parody of a moment. The music here reminds me so much of Dragon Ball Super when they are in a midst of a battle. These are the kind of fun little scenes that’s getting me by as their isn’t an enticing main plot just yet.

Executing Good Jokes

So far, there aren’t any bad guys. There isn’t even a hint of an antagonist. Because of that lack of an antagonist and of a real plot dilemma that would typically carry the beginning of a series, what has been carrying these first couple of episode is the manufacturing of somewhat of a contrive dilemma. In this case of episode 2, one of those moments was the manifestation out of Ojisan’s love for Sega Saturn. Like I mentioned earlier with the Guardian Heroes bit, the set up and lead up to Ojisan raging in the rain was a perfect example of the writer and the anime’s creators understanding what truly makes this joke land.

The Setup: Ojisan presents a magazine that he’s been yearning to find out the ranking of Sega Saturn games.

What makes the setup great is the fact that there are multiple frames and sound effects that really creates the feel of how important this was to Ojisan. The fact that it is SO ridiculously important to Ojisan is what makes this moment even funnier. Takafumi represents the viewer as most of us really don’t care.

Dilemma: Ojisan begins reading the rankings and discussing the results with Takafumi when all of the sudden, Ojisan confusingly goes out into the rain in a brief moment of silence.

This scene is so great because it mimics everything a more serious and successful anime does to build up these climatic type of moments revealing something. I wish an anime like *cough* The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2, actually executed some scenes like this.

Punchline: While pouring rain dramatically drips off of Ojisan with only the sound effects of the rain, Ojisan begins his epic monologue revealing his disdain for the placement of Guardian Heroes’ ranking as Ojisan gets hit with lightning.

Ojisan raging over the ranking of Guardian Heroes being such a great video game and not getting the recognition is comparable to those epic fight scenes, where the villain or protagonist goes on an epic rant about how they have this super ability that they’ve been hiding all this time. As the episode takes its time building up the characters in the show, this scene was by far the most enjoyable one of the whole episode.

Tell Us Some Damn Stories Ojisan!

Being the dolt that Ojisan is, he tells a baffling story about how he had to find a way to melt the ice of an ice maiden’s(Mabel) heart to get the ice sword, in order to defeat a fire dragon. Forgetting or just completely disregarding the whole trope where the protagonist would typically save the hot waifu character, he slays the dragon and basically went on his merry way. For some odd reason, the ice maiden waifu characters comes to see Ojisan, in order to get herself out of her “cowardly” rut. Ojisan basically tells her that it’s okay to keep doing what she is doing and to not follow what others wish for her to be, which is actually pretty good advice. This seems like another parody on the good ole’ trope of the “courageous protagonist encouraging others to be something more.” In this case, Ojisan encourages her to be who she is. That is to be a bum..

Like the previous episode where Ojisan explained his time with the Tsundere Elf. Ojisan explains this story with Maybel in two separate scenes. So far, these stories reveal how oblivious Ojisan is and provide a little glimpses into his actual abilities, which is seemingly pretty powerful. At this point, we can make a huge bet that any joke and important character insight involves SEGA somehow. While its kind of funny for now, I hope they don’t go into this well as much. While these stories involving Mabel came across as amusing and provides another example of Ojisan’s character, I think some of the humor may not have came across as funny or as meaningful. In a way, it does feel more like filler than anything truly significant.

A New Character and a Real Plot?

Over half way through episode two, I think we may have found ourselves with Takafumi’s love interest, Sumika Fujimiya. Sumika just so happened to be walking down randomly down the street as Takafumi recognizes her from their childhood and invites her over to his place.

It’s quite the coincidence and must have been a very strong bond that they created as kids to have Takafumi nonchalantly invite her over and for Sumika to be all gravy with the invite.

Girls only come over if they like you..

As Sumika enters Takafumi’s apartment, Ojisan eventually comes flying into the backdoor way. Surprised at Sumika being there, Ojisan tries his memory incantation spell to remove her memories as he thinks she is the enemy for some reason. Takafumi arrives home to stop him from attacking her and reveals to him that she is his friend.

This whole scene was quite the confusing one because we don’t know why Ojisan thinks that is an enemy. Maybe this is a peak into Ojisan’s true enemies from his isekai world?

The episode continues between the 3 characters explaining their situations and having some fun banter between them. This seems to be something that could be a recurring theme or more like a motif. I like the whole idea that Sumika thinks that Takafumi’s uncle is just trying to scam him. It appears to be something that could be a running joke where Sumika never actually sees Ojisan perform anything magical and that he is a complete nutcase—which is at the very least, partially true.

Last Thoughts

There you have it! This episode provides another glimpse into Ojisan’s cluelessness, while subtly revealing that there might be an actual plot on the horizon with the entry of a new recurring character Sumika. By the end of episode 2, we get a clearer picture of the 3 characters’ roles. Ojisan is the vastly deep well of a character that at any point, can surprise us with any major humorous situation or plot. Takafumi is basically us, the viewer. We find Ojisan quite simply to be a magical pod filled with alluring mysteries of possible insightful epiphanies, only to be left hanging with an abruptly nonsensical ending; leaving the audience solely to chuckle at his head scratching decisions. Now with Sumika, we have not only a love interest for Takafumi, but another person that gets to interact with Ojisan’s bizarre behavior and rationality.

With only 2 episodes in, I really enjoyed these episodes and feel pretty optimistic that it only gets better from here. What keeps me watching is definitely the expansive richness of Ojisan’s time in the other world, whether it just ends up being a gag or not. I do hope to see more of Ojisan using his powers and actually having to fight an antagonist. As a major plot slowly makes its way into the series, I think this anime can end up being one of the most underrated animes of 2022. I’m crossing my fingers that I didn’t just waste my time!