Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody has the single most overqualified score Ive ever experienced in anime. Every single track is excellently suited to its task and the way they all work together results in the perfect musical accompaniment for a whimsical laidback fantasy adventure more interested in the simple mundanities of life in a magical quasiMedieval world than any sort of grand epic journey. The ED song in particular is so memorable and homey that I would rank it up with Konosubas fantastic relaxing fantasy/country fusions. There were so many moments across these twelve episodes where I found myself thinking Man Im really going to enjoy listening to this music on Youtube once I finish watching this show. I might even imagine a better anime it hypothetically might have been used for so I can wash the stench of this fucking garbage out of my mouth. Seriously the quality gap between Death Marchs score and every single other part of it is so freakishly large that Im half convinced some inspired rebellious composer snuck into Silver Links studios some time during postproduction and proceeded to record over whatever generic lifeless musical mush was intended to be the soundtrack just to fuck with the studio execs. Or maybe he just did it on principle as part of some heroic quest to ensure that no anime production will ever be allowed to slop onto screens and streaming services without at least one commendable quality. Someday I would like to meet this revolutionary man of music to learn his craft and understand his ways so that he may inspire me in the same way he is so clearly inspired by anime as a medium. Perhaps that day will never come. But I will hope on regardless because the mystery he left me with is by far the only interesting thing to come out of Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody and were it not for his contributions I would have spent six hours on this show and gotten nothing in return. So thank you mystery man of music. Thank you for ensuring I at least had something anything of value to hold onto in this utter waste of a show with otherwise no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The truly sad thing is none of what I said in those opening paragraphs is hyperbole. Death March to the Absurdly Overextended LN Title is without a doubt the single most useless anime Ive ever experienced to the point where wondering how such a brainless fart of a show somehow obtained its one aspect of quality was the only thing keeping me from going insane due to excessive boredom. It is truly remarkable how completely unremarkable this show is how not a single moment lands with any emotional impact how not a single aspect feels like it was crafted with anything more than baselevel commercial cynicism how utterly disinterested it appears to be in its own existence. Its the animated embodiment of a vegetative state the only thing separating it from complete nonexistence is the fact that it technically does exist and you cant help but feel that pulling the plug and putting it out of its misery would be a mercy to everyone. There is no reason for this show to exist. There is no reason for me to have watched it beyond the first episode. But Im an analretentive moron who never likes leaving a job unfinished so here we are. And hey at least now I can pass the warning along to you so now you wont be tricked into thinking one of the most popular shows of its season is worth checking out. Seriously this shit almost has more members on MAL than Place Further Than the Universe how the fuck is that in any way justifiable? Id summarize the plot such as it is but that would be given this show far too much credit. Its an isekai so you already know the drill: teenage guy gets transported to a RPGbased fantasy world instantly becomes the most powerful motherfucker in existence who gets all the girls and never has to be meaningfully challenged in any way whether physically mentally spiritually emotionally or any other way that might actually make for a halfwaycompelling story. Okay technically this guys in his thirties and working at a video game company he gets sucked into the world of the RPG he and his team have been struggling to finish but he reverts back to his teenage self the moment he sets foot in Candyland so it doesnt make a difference. And technically hes not a virginal weirdo who cant process sex through anything other than nosebleeds he actually does get laid a couple times but only offscreen and by random oneoff prostitute NPCs we barely get to see not by any of his steadily accumulating harem. Then again considering how many members of his harem are Literal Children perhaps thats for the best. But on the other hand at least if this show evoked moral outrage in me that would in fact be a reaction of SOME kind. And that would have had some value any value. But no the fact of the matter is this show has no idea of where it wants to go and it spends the entirety of its run time going nowhere advancing no character arcs plotting no greater narratives introducing no interesting tidbits of worldbuilding setting up no fun group dynamics for the central team to have any sort of chemistry pulling off no feats of even notable animation and never even attempting to rescue itself from its own lack of inertia. Again no hyperbole here we spend twelve goddamn episodes with Satou and his evergrowing harem and the only thing that changes between the start and end is the number of girls palling along with him. The few stabs at genuine emotion skip the apparently unnecessary process of making you actually like care about these characters and just assume youll already be invested in their wellbeing from the second theyre on screen. Meanwhile the vast majority of the shows run time is spent on watching this personalitydefunct team going camping eating dinner learning to leafwhistle and a million other boring little distractions that do nothing to endear us to the characters in any way. But at least the complete lack of narrative moment is only boring whereas the fight scenes are both boring and ugly as sin. Clearly I need to apologize to Overlord because I was not aware of how abysmal CG monsters could look. Theres something almost infuriating about how little effort was put into this show how clearly no one working on it besides the aforementioned musical daredevil gave any sort of shit at all. It isnt even trying to hide the naked cynicism of its existence the fact that it only exists for the sake of selling the cheapest possible power fantasy and profiting off the rockbottom standards it imagines its audience to have. But then it cant even do the power fantasy well enough to justify the callous disregard for quality on display. None of the girls are interesting or hot even by the very generous standards of cheap waifu bait they might as well not even have personalities at all for how token and halfassed their supposed fetish gimmicks are. The deadpan isnt much of a deadpan the hardass isnt much of a hardass the snarker isnt much of a snarker the flustered virgin isnt much of a well you get the point. The only one who leaves any sort of impression is the bratty squeakyvoiced loli and thats solely due to the rising desire to gag her with a dirty sock before she throws one more obnoxious tantrum about wanting to jump Satous completely uninteresting wizard staff may it remain forever flaccid. And speaking of Satou himself good fucking god he is legitimately the most insufferably bland motherfucker to ever grace the protagonist role. I dont know whose decision it was that he should deliver all of his lines in the exact same quasipaternal niceguy drawl with an awshucks halfsmile but whoever it was should be fired because the end result makes you want to reach through the screen and scream EMOTE in his face just so he gets pissed off and shows that he has the capacity for at least a single other emotional state. Especially when his niceguy fantasy presentation clashes with his tendency to objectify every woman and girl he comes across making internal comments about their boobs and attractiveness in the same dreamily genial way he patronizes them in reality. Because thats what real nice guys do right? Oh and hes not a lolicon. Hes definitely not a lolicon. Its one of he first things his internal monologue tells us so he definitely wants you to know that hes not a lolicon. Never mind how much he clearly enjoys the feeling of a thirteenyearolds boobs pressing against him he is in no way a lolicon. And maybe if he tips his fedora harder he can make you forget that most of the girls in his harem are his actual slaves all of whom he took from other owners and could free at a moments notice with no averse affects or risk of them abandoning him making them his equal traveling companions but chooses not to because I guess he gets off on being called Master by a tenyearold cat girl. But hes not a lolicon guys. Swear. At this point Im certain Ive put far more thought into this waste of space than its creators ever did. Honestly I feel dirty even affording it the benefit of my full thoughts here because it doesnt deserve any thought at all. It deserves to be wiped of the sole of our collective shoe and tossed in the garbage bin where it belongs. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody is the single most mindless show Ive ever watched bereft of even the slightest speck of value to justify its existence. It never should have been made. I never should have watched it. But I did and shame on every decision that brought us to this point.