The title of the story says it all. Isekai stories have long focused on power fantasies, of one-upping everyone who had ever slighted you. The story encourages catharsis and vicariousness with a hero who is a “nice guy”. Despite his niceness, he’s a geek, fat, ugly, or otherwise socially inept, especially with women. Of course, his geekiness and understanding of role-playing games becomes a strength. I Got a Cheat Skill​ takes all of these tropes and pushes them to their extreme conclusion. There are no fig leaves for this isekai.

It begins with a Narnia-like event. Yuya is a depressed, obese, ugly, geeky, bullied guy who is even ostracized by his family. He inherits his grandfather’s house and remaining wealth against his family’s wishes. One day he finds a hidden room with a door that opens to an alternative world, modeled after a role-playing game, of course. The door opens to a cabin owned by someone called the Sage. A magic barrier protects the area from the high-level monsters of the surrounding forest. As these stories go, Yuya finds overpowered weapons that allow him to kill most everything. In the process, he “levels up” which morphs his body and appearance. In short, he changes from an obese, ugly guy into a buff, handsome guy with super speed and super strength. His abilities transfer back into our world, as the title of the story reveals.

So back to school he goes, to the awe of everyone once they hear his name. The anime often has scenes of people chattering in the background about how handsome he is, how the girls wonder if he’s single, and otherwise praise how capable and awesome he is. I rolled my eyes during these scenes. Yuya’s life becomes a balance of school work and training in the fantasy world, where he delves ever deeper and faces ever stronger foes. The foes don’t pose a challenge, of course. That is, until he encounters forces that dwarf even his weapons and capabilities.

I Got a Cheat Skill​ flirts with Dragonball​ power progression, just in an isekai format rather than a tournament format. Yuya develops his power faster and more easily than Dragonball characters do.

Yuya begins to be hounded by model agencies and develops a relationship with Kaori, the daughter of the elite Osei Academy’s chairman. He also garners the model Miu’s interest. Kaori, however, as the main romantic interest proves interesting. In the opening episode, the obese and helpless Yuya attempts to save her from a group of guys with unsavory interests. Of course, he can’t do anything at that point, but his white knight effort allows her to get away for help. When Yuya returns to school in his new macho form, she immediately recognizes him. Unlike most of the heavy-handedness, the story subtly shows Kaori sees Yuya for who he is inside, not just the externals. In season one, this dynamic isn’t developed. Rather, we just see how cool he has become.

Throughout I Got a Cheat Skill, Yuya ​ acknowledges he didn’t earn all of his self-development and good looks. He cheated because he didn’t have to work hard; the mysterious Sage handled most of the work with the weapons he had left behind and the nature of the alternative world’s influence on his body. Attaining such power and skill in “our” world, according to the story, wouldn’t be possible. After all, Yuya can jump out a window several floors up and be just fine. Interestingly, the story touches on how these powers will alienate Yuya just as much as his previous obesity, ugliness, and social ineptitude had alienated him. The story suggests greatness can be as lonely as extreme lowliness, that getting admiration from all isn’t what it seems to be.

I remain undecided is the story’s extreme isekai-ness—the focus on appearance and ability—serves as commentary about society’s superficialness or if it embraces the power fantasy as an ultimate escape for its viewers. Yuya’s personality is similar to Sword Art Online’s Kirito—a nice guy who is willing to try. Yuya is even humble! Other than his remaining social awkwardness, which his good-looks mitigate, he lacks major flaws. He is “unriveled in the real world, too” after all. I want to think the story is heavy-handed commentary about our modern superficialness, yet as I cringed during the frequent “praise Yuya” scenes, I doubted it. The idea that greatness as isolating as being a cultural untouchable sometimes felt as lip-service compared to the amount of ego-stroking Yuya enjoyed. The anime may just fail at this part of the story, but I can only judge the anime by its own merits and not by its source content.

Isekai vary in their quality. They range from classics like Inuyasha to well, I Got a Cheat Skill. They sometimes offer interesting commentary about our world and about role-playing video games. However, many offer pure escapism and cater to the unfulfilled needs of the audience for love, fame, ability, and other wish fulfillment without the time and work necessary to achieve these things in real life. Entertainment has a place, but whatever messages you consume shape how you think. Isekai stories could encourage you to make changes in your own life to improve yourself, but they could also vicariously ease your discontent too. Video games, for example, provide the illusion of competence that may keep you from working toward real-life capability. It’s just a matter of how you use the messages you consume. Too much mental junk food hurts your mind, just as too much junk food hurts the body. Moderation is fine, so even junk food like I got a Cheat Skill is fine. It provides entertainment and fun, but you need to remember that time spent watching it, or anything else, cannot be redeemed. Life is limited; all we choose to do comes at the cost of what we won’t be able to do. The use of our time is zero-sum.

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too aims at checking off every trope and wish isekai offers. It made me cringe and roll my eyes at times. I’m uncertain if it is meant to be deadpan satire–whereas Konosuba played with comedic satire–or if it aims at being as extreme as it can be. If you’ve watched the anime, which do you think?