Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout

Episode 6

Farewell, Schwartz von Lichtenstein Lohengramm. You were gone too soon. Seems like just yesterday we ran into this silly little weirdo and his overpowered fantasy sword, but all good things must come to an end. Thus our heroes leave their stalwart dumbass to journey on towards the royal capital.

Thankfully, Schwartz has a parting gift via (accidentally) summoning the presence of his patron Goddess, who's also a delightful chuuni in her own divine right. I like that move, not only for just being a funny gag, but that it's nice to have somebody in Schwartz' corner. Don't get me wrong: the rest of the cast dunking on him is funny, but he's also arguably the most likable person we've met so far, and it's nice that he has somebody on his own wavelength to support him. Plus the way he hides losing his cool sword to avoid disappointing her is cute as heck. Here's hoping they both pop up again later on this season, because they're easily my favorite characters so far.

Though the Goddess of Night doesn't just descend to be a protective goth mom to her fuckup chosen one. She also sheds some light on how the whole “Chosen Hero” thing works, and how each hero got whatever powerup they wound up with. For Schwartz, the most powerful thing he could think of was a badass magic sword, but for Tachibana it was...well, Jinguuji. Though in typical Tachibana fashion, admitting that is too embarrassing, even as Jinguuji lets the compliment go to his head just a little. Watching that gremlin get flustered over showing actual, unguarded affection towards his best friend never gets old. (Side note: For the time being I'm going to keep using He/Him to refer to Tachibana. The subtitles have been somewhat inconsistent on that front, with Jinguuji saying “she” in his inner monologues, but until the Tachibana makes a statement in any direction, I'm sticking with past precedent.)

Things get choppier in the back half, however, when we remember this is a modern isekai, so of course some slavery's gotta show up. Thankfully neither Tachibana or Jinguuji are buying anybody, but they do try to ignore spotting Telolilo clearly being kidnapped when they see it. And frankly that's one of those gags that takes the bit too far. It's fine and funny if Tachibana and Jinguuji are jerks, if they make trouble for others or cause problems, but it's another thing for our heroes – who are still meant to be moderately sympathetic – sardonically turn their gaze away when they see human (well, elf) trafficking five feet away. It's the return of the unnecessarily meanspirited gags that made up much of Telolilo's introduction, and a pretty rough downturn after Schwartz' episodes.

However, Total Fantasy Knockout is still a farce, so our heroes' karma kicks them in the tush soon after, with their bickering opening up a chance for Tachibana to also be kidnapped as the town's celebratory sacrifice. It's another fun twist on Tachibana's supernatural beauty shtick, as now instead of being worshiped and beloved, he's being picked up as the town's most beautiful sacrifice, presumably to be fed to that creepy squid in the ED animation. That's at least a mild bit of comeuppance, and Telolilo herself finally gets to show off her own brand of idiocy when she's so caught up in the “beautiful” part of being sacrificed she doesn't even try to escape. Jokes like that are a lot funnier when it's the character themselves causing their own problems, rather than the universe at large just chucking cruelty in their direction.

Hopefully that's the direction the series keeps going in, because Telolilo herself can most definitely be funny as an entertaining, pseudo-antagonistic force for our main couple instead of a mere punching bag. If nothing else I just don't want the show to backslide into the lazier, meaner comedy her introduction brought.

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Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.