After nine months the final episode of Uncle from Another World has been released, but has the thirteen-episode run been worth the wait?
Hit by a truck in 2000, Takafumi Takaoka’s uncle wakes up from a seventeen-year coma claiming to have been trapped in a fantasy land of Gran Bahamel. After proving this with some simple magic they move in together and attempt to make a YouTube carrier. Joined by Takafumi’s childhood friend Sumika, episodes alternate between getting ‘Uncle’ up to speed with the modern world and the trio watching Uncle’s adventures broadcast from his memory.
In Gran Bahamel, we learn Uncle was branded as an orc for his looks but he learns powerful magics by communicating with spirits and uses all his skills from playing Sega to strategize battle plans, often to catastrophic and funny results. The regulars we encounter are the priestess Alicia and her party, the lazy ice clan guardian Mabel and the aggressive and infatuated ‘Elf’.
The narrative does bounce about each episode attempting to adapt the shorter webcomics this comes from with characters appearing and disappearing, and no real overarching thread tying the series together. A lot of the humour comes from the romantic situations Uncle and Elf find themselves put in with Elf refusing to admit her feelings and Uncle being so aromantic he is oblivious to it all. This is reflected in Takafumi and Sumika’s relationship as well, as we discover Takafumi is so much like his uncle and oblivious to Sumika’s affection. We also get random info dumps from Sega’s games scattered throughout the series as Uncle is a massive nerd often leading to more comedic situations with the seventeen-year gap.
The production of this anime was delayed multiple times throughout the run, resulting in a sporadic release schedule over the past year. Despite these setbacks, the quality remains consistent with great character, world and creature art and animation and some excellent voice acting and music scores lending gravitas to the more exciting scenes.
While we do get an explosive finale to the series, nothing is resolved and seems like more of an introduction for more adventures to come. However, whether or not we get a second series has yet to be announced and to be honest with the current climate I’m not holding out much hope.
It is a fun ride though with an interesting twist on the isekai format and although does come across as a bit ecchi at times, it never crossed the line, just skirts it and with all the Sega references I did end up finding and replaying my copy of ‘Guardian Heroes’.
Studio: AltierPontdarc
Directed by: Shigeki Kawai
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