In short, I’m Standing on a Million Lives is an isekai fantasy drama with horribly random placements of comedy. If you want a break from the overused isekai trope with a more realistic take and a lot more on drama and character development, then look no further. If you’re looking for action, adventure, romance, powerful/cheat abilities (or even a weak-to-strong development), story development, or world building, then look somewhere else.
Now let’s get on to the specifics (minimal spoilers).
Story
Here’s how the world/system works. People who are selected from Earth are transported to another world. In this world, as long as one person of the team is still alive, the others are able to revive 30 seconds after dying. Upon entering the world game master gives them quests to complete with a time limit. Once the quests are completed, everybody is sent back to Earth. But on Earth, one of the people are instructed by the game master to find and help the next person selected. During the next round, that person is added to the team and the cycle continues. Yotsuya is the 3rd person of the team and there would be 10 total rounds.
Okay, so that’s pretty interesting. I take it there’s gonna be something like around 1 round every episode, with some nice twist at the last one? Wrong. Not only are the quests long, but the story is also slow. In the 12 episodes, the show only goes through 2 rounds, with the first round on the 1st 3 episodes, and the rest occupying the next round.
So basically, the story is pretty much non existent. If they went by story alone and threw out any drama or character development, the season could very possibly be done in a less than half the time (aka a single movie worth of screen time).
But the comedy though! I mean, I do like comedy, and this show certainly did get me to breathe out a considerable amount of air from my nostrils, but why!? Almost every single moment they try to make funny are serious moments! Here, you’re discussing some big brain secret plan, and there’s dramatic music and everything, but suddenly you insert this weird expression and a joke, and the entire mood dies. Please, at least put the comedy somewhere else, if not get rid of it completely.
Animation/Sound
Animation? Average. Very, very average. Oh, and you see that “action” tag there? Don’t expect any action scenes. And you see that “monsters” tag there? Don’t expect any cool-looking monsters. Like…what in the frik is this thing!?! Are you trying to get out a laugh!? This is supposed to be a serious scene!
But on the other hand, the sound is pretty decent, especially the voice acting. Amazing job, VAs.
Characters
This is the best part of the show. No argument here. Every character has a very unique and well-thought-out backstory and psychology. There are frequent flashbacks to everybody’s lives back in their original world. Also, each character brings their own personalities and experiences from the old world, unlike some other isekais where you don’t even know what a person is like originally.
The character designs also affect how they play in the team. There isn’t really that much drama, as in conflicts between characters, but the way everybody has to work together to survive and complete quests is quite interesting.
Comment About the Isekai Genre
By “overused isekai trope,” I mean shows like KonoSuba, Shield Hero, Isekai Cheat Magician, Wise Man’s Grandchild, Arifureta, Cautious Hero… Now, I’m not saying all of those shows are bad. It’s just that the same format is being reused over and over: MC is transported to a fantasy world, obtains some kind of cheat, and is given the title of a hero to defeat some bad guy or just to simply return home.
Yes, this show is another isekai story, but personally, I wouldn’t lump this show in with that trope. There is almost no action. All the characters, even at level 10, could only be compared to level 1 trash in other stories. There is no long-term goal, and only short-term goals in the form of quests. And even the quests aren’t that big.
But maybe this is just another show with the isekai trope. Now that I kind of look at the big picture, this entire season could be seen… as the beginning of any other show. That kind of brings us to the next topic…
The Show as an Adaptation
This anime was adapted from a manga. Usually, a 12-episode season would cover around 40 episodes in the manga it’s adapting from. This show, though, only goes up to chapter 12. Remember when I said this show has no story? This is what that meant.
But that only means there is a lot more to the story that hasn’t been told yet. I only read the first 12 chapters after finishing the anime, but I can tell you: this isn’t a bad adaptation. The story just flowed so much better in the anime than in the manga. There was a lot more depth into the characters, even if it was at the sacrifice of a longer season.
However, it definitely wasn’t the perfect adaptation. I still can’t get over how randomly the comedy was placed, in both the manga and the anime. That was one problem the show failed to fix (or the director failed to see in the manga).
The second season is already confirmed. I haven’t read past the 13th chapter, and I don’t plan to, because I have high hopes for this next season and I don’t want to spoil it for myself. Hopefully, they’ll do a better job at separating the comedy scenes from the serious scenes.
Screenshots
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