The Winter 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Handyman Saitō in Another World

Saitō is an ordinary handyman who is reincarnated into another world. He forms a dungeon exploring party with Raelza, a beautiful and strong warrior; Morok, a powerful magician who, due to his senility, keeps forgetting spells; and Lafanpan, a cute but miserly fairy. His handyman experience is helpful when they need to open a locked chest or fix their armor.

Handyman Saitō in Another World is based on Kazutomo Ichitomo's manga and streams on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

Caitlin Moore
Rating:

I swear, y'all, I'm gonna go rogue and write a long and detailed article about how these isekai where burned-out adults get pulled into another world and continue to do their jobs to a much more appreciative clientele are a reflection of Marx's theory of alienation. According to Marx, in capitalist society, workers become alienated from their labor through a variety of forces. Saitō's client throwing a fit over 30 seconds of work represents alienation because she fails to consider the training and skill required for him to open her door and… hey, where is everyone going? This is interesting stuff and a key element to critically examining a widespread trend in popular anime!

But then again, it's really only interesting when considered as a larger trend. Most of the “doing my job, but in a fantasy world” leave me snoring in this world, but Handyman Saitō in Another World at the very least kept my attention for most of 20 minutes. The pacing is brisk and then some, moving swiftly through three-minute sketches that rarely connect to each other. The main thrust is that while Saitō rarely found satisfaction in his work in Japan, his party of Dungeons & Dragons-style misfits in the new world appreciate his knowledge base of practical skills that are much rarer there. He does a lot of lockpicking in dungeons and little odd jobs like making a backpack for the party fairy to carry her hoard of gold. There is a simple pleasure to not just the fantasy of living in a world where your skills are acknowledged as valuable, but watching Saitō work with tools to create something. It's wonderfully tactile.

It is, however, only moderately funny. There aren't jokes so much as bits and character beats. The party consists of Saitō, an elderly wizard suffering from dementia, a miserly fairy with healing magic, and an awkward lady knight who spends most of her time in full plate. A few gags made me chuckle, but the focus was more on displaying Saitou's competency and creating a warm fuzzy feeling about his bond with his party. I only laughed out loud a couple times in the whole episode. The color palette is also oddly somber for a comedy, muted and washed out even when the animation is fluid and detailed.

Handyman Saitō in Another World is a second-monitor anime. It's pleasant and mildly funny and pretty well animated, but it's not especially engaging and the sketch format means you can kind of zone in and out. Too bad I only have one monitor.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Of all the jobs that could easily make the transition between our world and the fantasy world of your choice, one I must vote for to star in an isekai show is a psychologist. But barring that, a handyman is a pretty great one to use. In the case of this show, “handyman” appears to be shorthand for “Jack of all trades;” Saitou can do just about anything, from leatherworking to lock picking to basic armor smithing. While his skill set seems a bit broader than I might have expected, there is no denying that it helps him fit in in this fantasy world he has somehow managed to land in. After all, adventurers have new things fixed and unlocked just as much as anyone else does. The bonus is that the life-or-death situations they might find themselves in make them more grateful than cheap housewives.

The bite-sized storylines within this first episode suggest that it may have worked better as a short; it goes through many mini plots within a short space of time. It doesn't really drag, but there were moments when I wondered how much longer the episode had to run. This is partly because things seem to be skipping around through time; we have yet to learn exactly how Saitou ended up in the fantasy world, nor how he fell in with his present party of adventurers. We know that somehow he is now going on adventures with a lady tank, a geriatric mage, and the healer fairy with a thirst for gold. He fits in with them great, but the entire episode could be more cohesive.

On the plus side, the episode does a nice job with some little details. The way that the swordswoman is uncomfortable with the scar on her cheek is never overtly stated, but we can piece it together from the way that she does not want to take her helmet off in front of Saitou, and when she does, she keeps her scarred cheek turned away from him or in the shadows. Towards the end of the episode, when Saitou falls down a hole in a cave to several levels below, we immediately get a sense of how badly he is injured by the fact that we can see blood slowly coloring the water from his submerged leg; long before he says that the leg is broken, we have the visual cues to pick up on. There are also a lot of quite funny moments, from the dwarf to Morlock's tenuous grasp on his present; there are some very entertaining little jabs at fantasy norms. I would have liked this to feel a little more linear, but overall, there's something very nearly wholesome about the episode, and it makes a good case for more professionals to take up adventuring in another world.

Handyman Saitou in Another World is a different kind of isekai story—and I mean that in the best possible way. There's no power fantasy here—no overpowered skill that makes Saitou invincible. The world and its dangers are played entirely straight. He's just a guy who worked as a locksmith/handyman for a home improvement store—and luckily had his work jumpsuit and tools on him when he arrived in the fantasy world. Speaking of which, it's funny, but we don't know how or why Saitou came to the fantasy world in the first place. But here's what's even more amusing: that information is in no way needed or even vaguely important to the story being told. While this episode comprises a series of vignettes—some that don't even feature our titular hero—there is one single theme that connects them all: the human desire to feel needed and appreciated. In our world, Saitou was good at his job—perhaps too good. He was that kind of competent that makes even hard things look easy. Thus even his boss saw him as a dime a dozen. This has given him an inferiority complex. He feels the need to work harder and be more beneficial to his party.

But here's the thing: his party knows how amazing he is, unlike the random lady who was locked out of her house. They can't pick a locked door or chest—they have neither the tools nor the talent—but the fact that he can makes him invaluable in their kind of work. They'd be happy with him even if he did nothing but come forward and pick locks when asked. The fact that he wants to do more makes him a treasure more important than the gold in any chest—and by the end, they're finally able to make him see that.

Of course, the episode isn't solely about Saitou. Morlock has come out of retirement because he wants to feel useful—even in a party far below his level. To Lafanpan, money is proof that her healing skills are valuable. For the magic warrior dwarf, having a small dog rely on him gives him the meaning he needs to continue his solitary adventuring life. Even the seemingly mismatched pair of the burly mage and the tiny great axe-wielding girl have found affirmation in the fact that they've found someone else who knows not to judge a book by its cover.

All in all, this episode is simply fantastic. It manages to hit just the right balance of light comedy—like the origin of the fantasy world's measurement system—and everyday life tragedy—like the scenes that show that Morlock is suffering from rapidly progressing dementia. It even has a solid theme that is explored subtly yet thoroughly—and in a way that teaches us more about the human condition. Or, to put it another way, if the rest of the episodes in the series are even half as good as this one, this series will be on more than a few best of season lists when the winter season comes to a close.

It took me a while to get a read on this one. This premiere may have a basic-ass isekai premise, but it isn't a traditional narrative. Instead, it's a collection of disconnected comedic skits primarily based on the premise of a regular handyman winding up in the world of tabletop fantasy RPGs. That's a mildly amusing idea and is utilized to mildly amusing comedy in what's less a show, and more a series of very nerdy Family Circus comic strips.

Granted, that format can be pretty jarring going in. This episode never even explains how Saitou was isekai'd in the first place, nor how he fell in with his quirky party of adventurers. We join them in the middle of a dungeon crawl and then slingshot between random skits, some of which don't even involve our central cast and seem to only exist for a single visual gag. That makes the episode pretty disjointed – especially when it dips its toes into drama towards the end – but there's a certain charm to it all too. Gags like the senile wizard selling off his dead companions' equipment to resurrect them, or the Dwarf magician who acts as both Tank and DPS, are the kind of goofy stories and build ideas you come up with when playing D&D with your friends. It's nothing extraordinary, and I doubt it'll resonate with many people. Still, I got some sensible chuckles out of the deal – mainly, to my shame, when they revealed this world's measuring system is based on a king's enormous schlong.

The art style is also likely to put people off, and that I can absolutely agree with. Everything looks so washed out and brown, seemingly as a deliberate stylistic choice, but it's distracting even at the best of times. That's a shame since some excellent animation cuts work well to punctuate or escalate various jokes throughout the episode. Designs are plain but work well enough, and I appreciate that Raelza wears an actual, practical suit of armor when she's fighting monsters. It all leads to a distinct look, if not always an appealing one, that's carried by solid comedic timing.

That said, I can't kick the feeling this would all work better as shorts rather than a semi-random compilation of semi-related jokes. At full-length, the comedy started to get repetitive and lose steam by the end, and all of these characters needed to be more complex to carry an actual narrative. That doesn't make this premiere bad, but it also means I'm not hankering for more anytime soon.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: isekai anime can be good! All it needs to do is not suck. And friends, let me tell you, Handyman Saitou in Another World doesn't suck. It is good! It is, in fact, better than a show about an isekai'd handyman has any right to be. The best parts of Preview Guide are always the premieres that take you completely by surprise with how much you end up liking them, and that's exactly what Handyman Saitou did for me.

This show checks every box of what the platonic ideal of an isekai comedy anime would be for me, specifically, a person who does not generally enjoy these kinds of shows. Does Handyman Saitou have a likable cast of characters who are more than just cardboard cutout clichés? Despite working within a fairly standard sitcom mold, Handyman Saitou still makes its cast charming and loveable with their funny and sweet interactions. Does Handyman Saitou actually use its fantasy setting in an interesting way? Absolutely! With its specific jokes and creative allusions to familiar video game tropes, it's proof that a show can still carve out its own identity within the tried-and-true confines of the typical fantasy RPG setting; it just has to, you know, be written well. Does the show look good? Once again, Handyman Saitou delivers, providing some shockingly lush and pleasing animation for a show that honestly didn't have to try nearly as hard.

Here's the most critical question, though: Is Handyman Saitou funny? It is a comedy, after all, and all of the production values and heartwarming character writing won't account for much if the show doesn't make you laugh. I'm happy to report that Handyman Saitou is probably the funniest thing I've seen all week. I'll leave you to judge whether that is a sign of Handyman Saitou's quality or an indictment of this season's slate of comedies; all I know is that when the senile old wizard Morlock dragged his dead party members to the nearest church and sold everything by Raelza's bikini armor to revive them, I laughed my ass off. I laughed even harder when he excitedly educated Saitou on the phallic origins of their universe's unit (heheh) of measurement. When the gruff dwarf tank slaughtered his enemies as a solo warrior, only to reveal the cute little puppy that lives in his helmet, I laughed again, and then I said “Awwwwwwww” out loud for a minute or two straight.

I did not expect a show called Handyman Saitou to be one of my favorite premieres of the season, but that's what makes this time of year so fun (and exhausting). When you're covering literally dozens of new shows over the span of just a few days, it can be difficult to slog through all of the mediocre pablum that comes your way, but that's also what makes such pleasant surprises as this one so much more enjoyable to experience.