- Titles: Benriya Saitou-san, Isekai ni Iku
- Genre: Isekai, comedy, adventure, drama
- Episodes: 12
- Studio: C2C
Saito is a handyman. Nothing wrong with that! Handymen are quite useful. And Saito is particularly useful since he’s good at everything he tries. Problem is, he’s good, not the best. When there’s always someone just a little better, it’s easy to feel replaceable. Saito might be able to unlock your door and find your missing cat and make you a backpack all in a few hours but you could also just call a bunch of experts to do all that stuff in a few minutes. It’s hard when no one wants you. But Saito’s life is about to change. In this new world of swords and sorcery, a guy who can do all that stuff is the most useful guy around and even if that wasn’t the case, Saito’s little misfit party of adventurers need him just because he’s him. And that is probably the best feeling in the world. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the place that’s right for you!
Handyman ….. sounds like a cookie-cutter isekai and in many ways it is. I would have skipped it myself if it wasn’t for a few comments on this blog that praised it. And I’m glad I didn’t. Let me tell you why!
Production
Ok, so I’m not happy to have watched it because of the production. It’s not horrendous or anything, it didn’t ruin my watching experience but it is a bit on the cheaper side of anime production. The character designs are pretty cute although proportions are occasionally a bit off however everything else is just basic and I found the colour palette particularly dull.
Honestly, the only visually striking part for me was seeing a younger Morlock at one point. The de-aged version of his character model was an honest surprise that still kind of worked with the character as established. I liked it quite a bit. I’m debating on whether I should use a screencap or leave it as a surprise for you guys. Ok, maybe I will or maybe I won’t, guess you’ll just have to watch the show to find out! Ha!
Story & Characters
I’m not great at establishing suspense. I already told you I liked the show which sort of takes the tension out of the review and I said the production was nothing special so obviously the story is where it’s at. You could have saved yourself the trouble and stopped reading two sentences in…
But wait, you don’t know WHY the story is good. And I’m probably not going to be able to explain it clearly. You see, Handyman…. really is a bog standard isekai. Talented but aimless guy who doesn’t feel like he belongs but finally finds a true calling and real friends in a magical world. That’s the textbook vanilla hero, isn’t it? And the rest of the main cast is a though iron-clad warrior who turns out to be a beautiful and bashful girl, a super powerful but completely senile sorcerer, and a miserly fairy with healing powers. Nothing we haven’t seen a dozen times before.
As the show begins, you see that the structure is a series of very short vignettes. Every episode is divided into 5 or so tiny adventures that mostly consist of the group going into a dungeon to fight monsters and get treasure. You think to yourself, sure it’s nice. Nothing to write home about (or even write a post about) but I can kill a few hours with this.
And then it sneaks up on you. There’s a demon lord who is now working with the king and adventuring through the dungeon as well. And you figure, this is going to be the main arc but bam, he gets unceremoniously dispatched by a ninja in like 5 seconds, and hmmm…so the ninja is our antagonist. But then you get that guy’s backstory and it’s a surprisingly touching tale of love lost and genuine friendship. I have to admit, I was honestly touched by his story, especially his friendship with his demon goons. And then you find out about the senile sorcerer’s background and all the sudden everything gets recontextualized and honestly, by the time I was discovering the story of the demon dog warrior and his son, I was invested. Somewhere along the line had stopped watching a run-of-the-mill isekai with some cute moments and had started watching a moving fantasy filled with characters I cared about.
The balance between lighthearted fun and authentic emotional moments is fantastic. It never goes as far as to actually turn the show into a drama but it has a depth that sneaks up on you and makes everything that came before feel a little more meaningful.
Now don’t get me wrong, it is still a fairly lighthearted isekai comedy. But a thoughtful one as far as they go.
Oh, and I really liked how they presented Guivre. See Guivre is a big burly bisexual man who sort of falls in love with Saito more or less at first sight. And the way they start it off really makes it seem like they’re going for the easy joke of oooohhh this big traditionally masculine guy is actually a little gay and he’s into the main character – hahaha… But no, it’s played straight. Saito isn’t horrified or disgusted or anything. He’s not interested in that way but he is a little flattered and there isn’t a single moment of shock or drama around it. And no other character treats it as a joke or even as particularly unusual. It’s shown as a basic character trait and presented just like all the other crushes in the show. And you know, I thought that was great and refreshing. I want to see more of this type of representation. It’s a minor element but it stood out to me.
So that’s about all I can think of without giving anything away. And I do think these are stories that have more impact when you discover them on your own. If you are a fan of the genre, this is a good one!
You might like this anime if:
Like I said, I would say that isekai and comedy fans should give it a try. It has a few great romances as well.
My favourite character:
I really liked the fairy but Guivre was also always a pleasure to see. Oh, and I didn’t mention them here but the lesbian couple were sweet. I’d love to know what happens to them.
Suggested drink:
- Every time Morlock forgets something – take a small sip unless you want to forget everything as well
- Every time Raelza gets shy – awwww
- Every time Lafanpan wants moneyz! – raise your glass
- Every time Morlock’s back hurts – take a sip
- Every time a chest gets open – take a sip
- Every time Mevena shows up – yay!
- Every time there’s a double entendre – oh my!
- Every time Lafanpan and Realza bicker – take a sip
- Every time we see the demon king – curtsey
- Every time there’s a flashback – take a sip
- Every time we see Chrome – pour some out
- Every time Guivre blushes – awwwwww
- Every time we see the king (non demon) – bow
I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.
I almost missed that Handyman got adapted. Kazutomo-sensei succeeded in finally bringing together their four-page twitter one-shots into this smorgasbord and actually managed to make it work. I really love such clever yet not pretentious self-crossovers that make sense, and their art style is really interesting too. It did remind me of a sort of KonoSuba tethered to “Twelve Monkeys” but swirled in a base of easy digestable appeal. A story-driven, romantic agent masking as an action slice-of-life isekai, almost like that ninja-Morlock. : ) (..For the most part.)
I’ll definitely check out the anime adaptation of it.
Heh, young Morlock serial joke.
Honestly, this series had me at episode 1. I thought a vignette based slice-of-life adventuring isekai would be nice to watch. And then… the show grew on me (even though I liked it to begin with). So much set-up early on I simply didn’t recognise at the time. Until about half-way through the show, I kept changing my mind what sort of show I was actually watching, yet it never felt inconsistent.
But most importantly, the show just felt so kind at heart. I really loved the vibes the show gave me.