By: Krow Smith | @coffeewithkrow

I finally decided to watch In The Land of Leadale as it has been on my “must-watch” list for quite some time now. Initially, when reading about it, I thought it would have a feeling akin to one of my favorites, The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent. Similarly, In The Land of Leadale is an isekai about a girl who finds herself in another world. However–unlike the lead of The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent–our lead from In The Land of Leadale was severely ill most of her life, Keina Kagami was in the hospital on life support equipment when the power went out and everything that kept her alive shut off, passing away as a result. She was then transmigrated into the body of her overpowered high elf character, Cayna, in the VRMMO game she loved, except 200 years into its future and long after the servers have shut down.

It’s a slice-of-life fantasy anime about an overpowered protagonist going on adventures and building friendships. What’s not to love?

I think the magic and other skills were interesting and fleshed out pretty well. The first episode or two started off rather strong and initially made me want to watch more of it. I also liked the ending and felt like it was the best way to close out the anime to make it feel complete.

However, I didn’t entirely enjoy myself to the degree that I was expecting even though it was a good anime to turn my brain off to and just watch. After Episode 4 the journey had already begun to feel stale, causing me to zone out more. However, from Episode 9 and beyond, it went back to being passable to watch, but not as impactful as Episode 1.

When there were stakes, I wasn’t at all concerned because there wasn’t any tension building and she never went up against anyone or anything that was equally matched with her. She always felt fully capable of steamrolling over enemies and coming up with the perfect solution to a problem.

The humor was also lackluster for me. During comedic moments, I found myself thinking that was supposed to be funny rather than it actually being so. For example, Cayna’s rampages toward the children she adopted back when she was playing the VRMMO were played off as comedic highlights, but the things she got offended over tended to be very benign, often making her reaction feel completely unnecessary. This overstayed its welcome most of the time and got old rather quickly for me. During these moments, it made her character unlikable.

There was another thing that I couldn’t get past, which is how inconsistent Cayna’s conscience was throughout the series. On her first encounter with bandits, she realized how these aren’t your typical enemies in a video game, they are real people with names and lives. Yes, she did kill, but she was somber about it. In the next encounter with bandits, she summoned her monsters and playfully ordered them to take them out, not at all concerned about the lives she is wrecking by doing so. 

This is not the only time her character development was inconsistent. After Cayna battled a person who had been a child in real life before transmigrating to the game world, a child that was not at all taking this world seriously and did not think twice about killing–let alone death–Cayna scolded him and was about to execute him as punishment before she was stopped by her granddaughter. I found Cayna’s morals to be conflicting and it was concerning how quickly she felt she could put herself in the position of justice by ending the life of another player.

From start to finish, it was alright. Not an anime I would highly recommend but good for something to turn your brain off and pass time in a relaxing way, as there were no real stakes in the show and it has pretty visuals.

I give it a 5/10, not good but definitely not bad either.