AKA: とんでもスキルで異世界放浪メシ (Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hōrō Meshi)

Genre: Fantasy, Isekai.

Length: Television series, 12 episodes, 24 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.

Content Rating: 14+ (Violence, mature situations, high monster body count.)

Related Series: Season 2 (TV)

Also Recommended: Delicious in Dungeon, Restaurant to Another World, Farming Life in Another World

Notes: Based on the light novel series written by Ren Eguchi, published first on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website, then later published in print by Overlap. There is also a manga adaptation illustrated by Akagishi K, serialized in the Comic Gardo website. Also, a spinoff manga illustrated by Momo Futaba, serialized in the same place.

Rating:

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

Synopsis

Mukouda Tsuyoshi is summoned to another world alongside three other young people. And while the three got strong heroic powers after the summoning, Mukouda got a skill called "Online Shopping", which entails being able to access a magical shopping menu and have the items officially delivered. Not all that interested in joining the battle, Mukouda requests to be able to head out on his own, which the King grants.

With the shopping skill and his cooking abilites along for the ride, Mukouda hires a team of mercenaries to bring him to the next region over. On the way, though, his cooking catches the interest of one of the major magical beasts of the world, Fenrir. Having had a taste of his food, Fenrir offers a familiar contract with Mukouda, which he accepts... with some hesitation. With the contract in place, Fel tasks Mukouda with providing the meals, and Mukouda gets.... increasingly involved in the world he didn't want to get too involved in.

Review

There is certainly something to be said about power fantasies, isekai or not. In addition, isekai shows tends to be rather 50/50 when it comes to quality. I'm not going to wax too philosophical about the quality of such, but in most cases, the main characters tend to either become vastly overpowered, or they're of a more hapless variety. Mukouda falls squarely in the latter, and remains so for the rest of this season. I say "this season", because a second season has already been greenlit. And to be perfectly honest, I like the sound of that.

There is a charm to when a main character hits a nice balance, whether that be the powerful ones or the ones with more practical skills. Mukouda might not be warrior material, but his contract with Fel still makes him one of the most formidable adventurers out there. (If "summoner" is a job in this world, that is.) He's also a pretty amicable character altogether. The mention of there being a demon king in the opening does indicate some potential peril, although Mukouda has enough of a brain in his head that he doesn't exactly fully trust the King and the social elite either, as they tend to act largely on self-interest. How much, I can't really say for now, as the first season serves more as a general introduction to the world and the many beings in it, a lot of which will end up on Fel's dinner plate. The adventurers Mukouda hires in the first episode also seem like a nice group, as is most of the other people he encounters in the various cities he visits. Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill isn't a jaded show, or even a particularly mean one. Sure, it brooks no argument on how out of his depth Mukouda would be travelling between cities or how difficult it would be for him to survive if not for his shopping skill, but most of the people he interacts with treat him with professional courtesy for the better part, even as the incredulously stare at the ridiculous amount of rare game Fel brings the guild.

Fel himself is kind of a riot. His arrival scares the living crap out of the adventurers when he drops by demanding a meal, but his abilities go so much beyond that. Despite this, he's so much into Mukouda's meals that Mukouda does carry a lot of sway during their many "negotioations". He's quite talkative as great beasts go, and quite verbose as well. And he's a glutton as well, albeit fully able to provide Mukouda with all the meat he needs. Given that he's an old creature as well, he serves quite well as the show's lore master. The two of them have a rather direct and blunt rapport without devolving into rude bickering, and Fel is also one of the few -- if not the only one -- who knows about Mukouda's status as an otherworlder. He can also eat chocolate, unlike... well, normal dogs.

The two later gain a third party member in Sui. During one of Mukouda's dungeon excursions, done to train him in magic usage, he happens upon a slime while camping outside. After a few feeding sessions and Mukouda finding out that Sui makes for a very convenient dissolver of garbage, Sui becomes a full-fledged party member. It later learns to talk after being fed by Mukouda's cooking, and eventually becomes as ludicrously overpowered as Fel is. Which, of course, doesn't make the piles of beasts Mukouda sells to the guild any smaller. Mukouda also catches the interest of the Goddess Ninrir, who is the patron saint of wind magic. Unlike Fel who's all about the meat, Ninrir is more interested in desserts, and with a contract in place, that's what she's gonna get. Hers is a bit different, though, as Ninrir seemingly can't go down to the living world, but instead she can provide Mukouda with a blessing that provides various effects like immunities and whatnot. As humor demands, she isn't the best when it comes to self-control and her maturity level isn't exactly maxed out, but she isn't entirely a bad person either.

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill's got some nice animation to it. Not quite on the level of stuff like Dan Da Dan, but it is still nice to see a show get more than the bottom line treatment. Makes it more rewarding when shows like this gets a second season. Stylewise, I do enjoy the designs of most of the characters and creatures. Fel does cut an imposing and impressive figure, particularly when he's about to head into battle, although his battle scenes are not exactly lasting very long. Sui's not quite as bombastic starting out, but the first time it leaps -- yes, leaps -- into battle and fires off its first acid bullet shot is still a better example of what kind of animation the show could do if it really wanted to. Then again, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is a foodie show, so most of the sumptuous animation work goes into when Mukoda works his magic -- that is to say not is paltry ability to do combat magic, but rather his skills in making food. It looks delicious every single time, both through the cooking process and the feast thereafter. With a foodie show, you also get the hilariously exaggerated expression of everyone's first bites, which brings us into the comedy. With Mukouda being 27 years old, he isn't your average idiot. Maturity has given him some insight about his limitations, and with battle, he starts from step one. His expression ranges from calm and collected to panicky depending on level of danger he's in. He has his moments of smugness when dealing with Fel, simply because he knows how valued his meals is for the giant wolf. Not that Fel isn't short on smug, as befits a beast of his stature, nor is he above using Sui for his own ends. As for Sui, it tends to fluctuate between curious and happy, almost solely indicated on whether a heart can be seen inside or not, with the voice acting bringing out the rest. And of course, the scenery is lovely, with lots of sweeping distance shots mixed up with the various elements of the forests, lakes and cities the trio visit as they travel. As an extra bonus, the ending animation is drawn in a style very reminiscent of comics -- mostly French or Belgian -- that I used to read in my younger days. They're very late-stage Franquinesque.

Thankfully, the show comes with a very nice English dub. Fel's delivery sound a little bit stiff starting out, but it's hard not to warm up on all the banter between him and Mukouda. It's also been hard to refer to Sui as an "it", seeing as slimes doesn't seem to have genders, because Sui's voice is clearly female-sounding, probably filtered to portray how Sui doesn't have vocal chords. (Though the show doesn't really explain how Sui can be heard at all, never mind how it can mimic human speech.

All in all, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill has been a pleasant surprise. I did actually have some expectations going in, and the show has certainly not abused my goodwill. It's a pretty positive-sounding show that has a lot of decent characters in it, but it doesn't shy away from the topic of class systems and how the higher-ups can sometimes manipulate the unwary and unprepared. Mukouda, who wants to be careful about what he does and what effect him and his relationship with his familiars can do to the world makes a good team with Fel, who have probably never had to worry about anything like this, at least not until he had a taste of proper cooking. The show isn't out to stroke Mukouda's -- and by that extent, the audience's -- ego, and it's all the better for it.

A fine example of "if you absolutely HAVE to do isekai, here's how you do it". — Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: The violence is definitely there, especially in light of the fact that many of the monsters Fel kill end up on their dinner plate. There's also the topic of banditry and the danger of traversing the countryside when you're not as powerful as Fel. It's... fairly bloody, but not quite on the level of shows like Overworld. The show does vaguely go into the topic of exploitation, but mostly at the start when Mukouda picks up on the slightly dishonest nature of the King's request.

Most of the fanservice is food fanservice. The show doesn't really have very fanservice-ish female characters, as even the goddesses are clad fairly modestly. Plus points for the first female warrior, who's a part of the team Mukouda hires in the first episode, who has an armor set that is practical for her job rather than showy just for the sake of it. No leering, no inappropriate behavior from anyone. It's great.