Loner Life in Another World – Episode 1

What’s it about? When Haruka’s class get summoned to another world, he finds out he’s the only one who didn’t get a “cheat skill” to hack his new, otherworldly life. Instead, he gets labeled as a “loner,” left to enjoy a humdrum life of normie-level hardship with whatever skills no one wants.  

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Loner Life in Another World (hereafter Loner Life) is a series I’m coming to with some prior knowledge. During my time as an in-house editor, I had the role of proofreading a volume, something that quickly became a gargantuan task as this is a very wordy series with lots of twists of language. That said, I never read the series: instead, I know of it through online popularity and its…infamy.

I’m going to say it upfront: it’s impossible for me to view this as a complete newcomer. I know where the series goes, and I’m going to touch on that, even though this premiere is pretty tame as far as “Short-haired Japanese teenage boys in Another World” plots go. And while I’m not going to spoil things, I am going to hint at some things to keep in mind going ahead.

That said, let’s get into the first premiere I’m writing for Fall 2024!

Episode 1, “Loner with the Worst Skills,” starts off with a hooded teen boy watching a group of goblins get ready for that classic meat on the bone. Only, oops! He cracks a twig and the chase is on. Thankfully, this is our protagonist, Haruka, a young man gifted with creativity, despite his otherworldly summoning. Why do I say despite?

Because Haruka is kind of going at it alone with the worst skills ever.

Flashback to Haruka’s life in modern day Tokyo: he’s a loner, has always been a loner, and makes it pretty clear that getting rid of his lone wolf status would mean having to give up his ability to read his books and gripe about how alone he is. It’s very teen melodrama, including the actual drama of getting summoned to another world with the entirety of your class, though Haruka does try to escape in what is probably the funniest scene in this episode.

From there, Haruka gets summoned and ends up missing out on skills because he’d rather stand around trying to be genre savvy. It definitely bites him in the butt because not only is his summoning guide not used to such a big group of summonees, he didn’t really communicate the rules of this world. But that doesn’t stop Haruka from having a bit of monologuing about what skills his classmates take and what he has available to himself. Looks like he’ll have to rely on his wits and sass (unfortunately for us) to get him through his new life in another world.

I have the bittersweet misfortune of knowing where this story goes because I once served as proofreader for the novel series. I say bittersweet because this series is either going to be your absolute thing or you’re going to quickly tire of Haruka. I don’t think there’s a middle ground here as a reviewer: this series, much like Mushoku Tensei, is fairly polarizing. You’re either going to be able to embrace its flaws or they’re going to stick out like sore thumbs.

At this point, the show isn’t into its more leering side. We’re just following along with a young man in a kind of rote isekai with maximum luck and a constant inner monologue that serves as most of the chatter in the show, at least for now. That said, I think it’s really important to caution you that a staple of the novel series, and presumably the manga, is the harem-esque element, which goes hand in hand with a lot of sex, though it’s more of the implied variety than actual sex in text. But I am thinking of you, “vibration magic scene,” and you know what crimes you’ve committed.

My understanding is that the manga is a much more tame version, but from my minor experience, the novels get very overt many times a volume, and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s not to shame anyone who reads them: rather, I think it’s important to know where a series can go when we have official localized text to refer to.

However, that’s not really present in this premiere. It’s kind of just Haruka existing in another world after some slapstick-meets-incidental comedy. There really isn’t anyone present until the last moments of the episode, and he has yet to interact with anyone from Japan. Knowing that, it would be cruel of me to say that something here’s in this anime premiere that isn’t, though mind the warnings above if you’re planning to be an ongoing watcher.

At this point though, there’s o telling how the adaptation will go: for now, I’ll cut it some slack until it proves otherwise. Stay the course of the manga, please: I think you’ll be better for it show.

I took on this review because I wanted to earnestly judge this premiere, even with what I know. Taking away prior knowledge, this premiere is perfectly fine. It’s a neutral start to the Fall 2024 season, will definitely find an audience, and probably will end up ranking pretty high in terms of anime tracking sites. I anticipate many Teddit conversations occurring about this show because I know it’s already got online popularity thanks to the manga and novel adaptation. 

Add in what I know and the point is pretty clear even in this premiere: Haruka kinda sucks. He gets better once he’s alone in another world, but he seems like the kind of guy who would actually call someone a Chad, seeing as how he thought himself so much more lofty than his classmates back in Japan. My hope would be that he grows into a better young man, makes connections, and eventually, surrounds himself with others inclusive of the coolness of their skills.

What’s going to make or break it for many people is Haruka himself: his constant genre savvy attitude feels less charming and more like someone who feels like he’s better than everyone else around him. That changes once he’s on his own, but it never feels like it’s going to fully go away. The one-on-one banter seems to be a hallmark of why this series is funny: I fully expect Haruka to be full of himself for the rest of the series. Basically, you’ll either like him and want to see the world through his eyes, or you’ll be tired before the three episode check in. I really don’t think there’s an actual middle ground here.

All that in mind, I do want to say that I’m earnestly happy for this adaptation for the fans of the series. I hope that it leans more toward the manga because I think it’ll draw in more viewers, but time will tell. The premiere is pretty neutral as far as stories go: it’s not showing its hand early on like say, The Rising of the Shield Hero does. Even still, there’s a chance that this show could get down and dirty. I kind of hope it doesn’t though: I think there could be something here that could make even me come back to this series.

Ultimately, I think you should watch this premiere for yourself and decide what side of the isekai fence you’re gonna post up on this season. I don’t think there’s a “bad” decision. I think it’s just a matter of personal taste. My personal taste is leaning toward other autumnal offerings though who knows? I might decide to kick it once I’ve seen episodes 2 and 3. For now, go dive into one of the early offerings this season and see what you think: and make sure to tell me down in the comments!

Appendix, 9/27/2024: Thoughts Regarding the Series outside the Premiere

I’d like to offer some context on the aforementioned “vibration magic scene”, with context before that. Loner Life began, as many isekai titles do, as a web novel with a rebooted R18/Mature version. The light novel adapts that mature version, toning it down to something an Older Teen/16+ level (Seven Seas officially labels it for 15 and above at an Older Teen rating) with the manga adaptation being a significantly sexless and very toned down version of the light novels. At this point, there’s no way for a viewer at my level to know which is being adapted in terms of light novel versus manga: I’m going to hope for manga and prepare for an Occam’s Razor situation of both.

Enter the vibration magic scene, wherein Haruka teaches his female classmates–unnamed because of handwave-y reasons–how to use vibration magic. They subsequently, and pretty immediately, use it on wand shaped which bear a striking likeness to say, an IRL  massage tool made by…let’s call it Pitachi, and spend the night indulging themselves in a talk around what they’re doing–they’re masturbating–kind of way because the LN is more fade to black than anything else. I call it a crime because like…it’s so intensely icky given that Haruka acts like he’s hot shit all the time alongside being part of the series’ intensely comphet horny meter, which I found very off-putting in my time working with the series. I’m sex positive and all, but there’s something so leery about this behavior and all the implications that come from young men behaving like this and being cheeky about it. It’s just one of the many instances where Haruka is a bit of a skeeve in a story where he’s the best thing in another world, or so the plot seems to think. Time will tell if this is the case in the adaptation: hope for the best, be prepared for middling or worse.