My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered that no One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! Initial Series Review By RJ Writing Ink
A few years back, around the start of the Halloween season, I started really getting into the SCP Foundation. If you don’t know what that is, this collaborative writing project tells stories about the same name group. This secret organization studies and captures anomalies that could help or harm humanity. Over the years, we’ve got stories that have them deal with everything from a living blob of goo whose touch makes people happy to a lizard monster that will not die to even beings that could only be described as gods, including God! The bottom line is that the SCP Foundation deals with things not meant for the faint of heart.
Then, a few weeks ago, I came across this anime online called My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! At first glance, it looked like another trash isekai…until I read the TV Tropes page and listened to the summaries on YouTube. And that made me realize something: it was still a trashy isekai. But the twist is that the main character is, for all intents and purposes, someone who would make the SCP Foundation wet themselves. And that’s where things get interesting.
How an Overpowered Guy Got Isekai’d Against His Will
Meet Yogiri Takatou, a seemingly average high-schooler who likes napping and playing video games. Then, one day, while on a field trip with his class, they find themselves getting the isekai treatment and end up in a world that’s a sink for all isekai’s. This girl comes onto the bus and gives the standard introduction speech: they’ve been summoned to gain insane powers and get the chance to become great heroes in their world. Unfortunately, the world’s definition of “hero” is more like the (primarily) fake heroes from The Boys: most people who get powers get drunk on them. And while Yogiri’s sleeping, his classmates decide to leave him and the few who didn’t get a gift to death by dragon.
Little did anyone know, but Yogiri didn’t need a gift because he’s already got one of the most broken powers in all fiction. Yogiri can make anyone or anything he wants drop dead on the ground by thinking about them or sensing hostility towards him. First, he saves Tomochika, the only other classmate alive on the bus (that they know of) by killing the dragon. Then, when three scumbag classmates try to kill him and take Tomochika as their love slave, he kills two of them. And they were already isekai veterans, too! They were basically running on new game+ and kept all their loot and skills!
At any rate, Yogiri and Tomochika aren’t happy about being kidnapped to another world and then abandoned and left to die. So, Yogiri decides to look for a way to get home, and Tomochika tags along since he decided to protect her. Mainly because when that dragon attacked, she glomped onto him in a panic and she felt really soft and lovely.
No, I am not making this up.
The Anime is Isekai Trash, but Takatou Isn’t
Like I said before, My Instant Death Ability is Isekai trash, and it makes no effort to hide this. It’s filled with a ton of cliches and tropes found in most Isekai, most of the antagonists are one-note with zero depth, and the pacing in the anime is, quite frankly, wrong. The first season of Arifureta is bad. However, there’s one thing that keeps it from falling into the category of full-on Isekai trash, and that’s Takatou.
Returning to what I said earlier about the SCP Foundation and what I read on TVTropes.org? I wasn’t joking. As the anime progresses, it’s gradually revealed that Takatou’s ability is more than just the mental version of a Death Note. While he mainly uses it to kill people, it’s not limited to that. He can kill anything. Getting attacked by some random thug? He can kill their eyes or half their body so they can never use them again. Facing down an immortal, omnipotent god? Takatou will pull an “Uno reverse” card and reduce them to goo. He can even “kill” concepts like the strength of an attack or the laws of physics. And he can do this because his power isn’t instant death. It’s much, much more terrifying. So terrifying, in fact, that if he were an SCP, the foundation would be better off not making an enemy out of him lest he end their existence.
It is too bad for Takatou; most people in that otherworld are too arrogant or stupid to understand, leading to much of the series’ humor. Seeing the most outlandishly powerful beings, from other summoned people to immortal monsters to actual gods, pick a fight with him, only to drop dead for their efforts? That’s some good use of black comedy!
An Interesting Take on the OP Isekai Protagonist
So, yeah, My Instant Death Ability is a bit of isekai trash, but at the same time, it’s also making fun of the genre in the same way One Punch Man makes fun of the Shonen genre. Seeing all these mighty beings hyping themselves up, only to become part of the body count of such an ordinary-looking guy? It’s funny because of how absurd it is! It’s terrible, but it knows it is and uses that to milk the genre for all its worth. The one downside is that if you want to watch it, you’re going to have to get a subscription to HiDive, as it’s not on Crunchyroll. That, or find a third-party site to use. If seeing something deconstructing the isekai genre sounds interesting and you have time to kill, this might be a show for you. Otherwise, feel free to look up something else.
