Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? – They Are…

• Titles: Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?
• Genre: Isekai, action, comedy, fantasy, actually not a harem even though I thought it was, mecha(?) It does end with giant robots…
• Episodes: 10
• Studio: diomedéa

Izayoi, Yuu and Asuka have always been gifted children. Well, it’s a little more recent for Yuu but just humour me here. It really doesn’t matter that much. So, these three have always been gifted children. So gifted in fact that life can become a little dull. Predictable and devoid of any challenge. So I guess it’s a good thing when one day a pink and blue Black Rabbit spirits them away to a different world where the fate of the people is decided on through elaborate gambling games. Gift games in fact. What will these gifted children become in this other world? You got three guesses.

You may not believe me when I say this. Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? is based on a light novel! I know! Mind Blown! I get it.

I gotta say, the production of Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? is rather unremarkable. Look, I’m currently watching Haikyuu, Fire Force, Planet With and the “This Boy” series, all of which have exceptional and unusual productions. Problem Children doesn’t really compare.

But I don’t think it’s trying to. At least I never got that feeling. It’s quintessential anime and watching the series, I never thought they wanted to do something mould-breaking. Basic but pretty enough models. Decent colours, fine backgrounds. The animation worked and more dynamic scenes were given the attention they deserved. The cast was well chosen and the performances are all good.

It’s an anime that wasn’t aiming to be something new. And as someone who counts Natsume’s Book of Friends as one of their favourite anime, I honestly think that there is nothing wrong with traditional consistent production. I’m just saying you’re probably not going to remember Problem Children for its technical prowess.

I gotta admit two things. Things the first, I honestly thought this was a harem anime. Entirely because the key visuals showed a single blond cool looking boy surrounded by cute girls of all fanservice types. But it’s not at all. In fact, there is no romantic storyline at all. Unless you count calico cat but he’s so smooth, there was no way to avoid him getting a girl.

There is a bit of fanservice but it’s pretty average stuff. Let’s just say you’ll see much worse…or better…or just more, let’s go with more. You’ll see much more on any given episode of this season’s DanMachi.

In many respects, Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? is probably the closest to a pure Isekai I’ve seen. It really is mostly, if not entirely preoccupied with this other world and what an outside influence would do to it.

As for things the second I have to admit. The first note I took on this show is: this is a forcefully average anime…

Wait, listen. I already told you that the production was completely competent just not very striking. In a word, it was ordinary. Well, the story sort of starts out like that too. It’s a fine but I’ve seen it a million times, sort of thing. And it doesn’t help that the main character Izayoi is just the world’s biggest Gary Stu. There were a lot of good reasons for me to feel that way in the first episode.

So how was it that 10 episodes later I was genuinely disappointed there wasn’t another season?

One word: fun. Problem Children doesn’t take itself seriously. Even in the dramatic moments, it knows what it is. And that’s really not the case for a lot of Isekai I’ve watched. The entire series is just 10 episodes so choices had to be made. And to the director’s credit (or potentially author, I’m not sure what the Light Novel was like), those choices were made.

What I mean is that I often see adaptations to go off the rails because they either tried to cram way too much of the source material into too short a runtime, or they conserved just tidbits here and there that lost all their interest without their larger context.

With Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They?, it’s all about the plot. The characters don’t really have any meaningful arcs, or any development really. The world-building is kept at what is necessary for the audience to comfortably understand the story and the stakes. If I were to put every single character’s backstory together, it might add up to a total of 10 minutes.

Some of you may be reading this and consider it a bad thing. I myself have often written about my preference for character-driven storylines. However, in an Isekai, and in this case in particular, I think it was the best possible way to put the series together.

The thing about Isekai’s is that the story needs to convey all the new information about the setting and circumstances that wouldn’t be necessary if the story was set in our world, or at least one very similar. So you have no choice but to dedicate some time to it. And Problem Children did so not by burying us in exposition, but by essentially sending us on a tutorial level, where we learned (along with the characters) by playing. That was great.

And with only 10 episodes, all the show could have really done was develop a couple of the characters at best. So instead, it gave us more or less static characters that rely on being variations of archetypes to be familiar to the audience and devoted the runtime to the action.

And that action is pretty compelling. Or at least it was to me. I really did care about the faith of the no-name guild. A lot. I couldn’t really name any member aside from the main cast, but as a community, I wanted them to be happy. And I wanted to see where their adventures would lead. Even if it got uncomfortably topical at the end there, with the leading characters literally fighting against a plague.

The story went from gift game (and assorted baddie) to the next gift game swiftly, not giving me a chance to get bored. And whenever we did learn a bit about a character, it made them a touch more endearing which just added to the whole.

In the end, I can’t say that Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? was a brilliant anime. But I can say I had a lot of fun watching it. I guess I would compare it to a less flashy and non-ecchi NGNL. How does that sound?