Quality Assurance in Another World (Kono Sekai wa Fukanzen Sugiru) tells the story of Nikola, an NPC, and Haga, a game quality tester stuck in her fantasy world. If working as a game tester ever sounded like your dream job, then Haga’s quest to save Nikola might seem like the perfect wish-fulfillment anime. If that sounds appealing to you, or you’ve never worked as a game tester, abandon ship now. Those delusions are about to die. Hard.
Quality, Quantified
Quality matters. Well, it depends. A poorly animated and voiced anime can still be entertaining. Look at the junk on Newgrounds, for example. But even when an anime delivers quality work, it can’t save a boring story.
I loved the animation in Quality Assurance in Another World. However, the character designs have a homeliness geared toward a younger audience. On the other hand, Hinaki Yano delivers heartfelt lines as Nikola, but her character has no meat. Likewise, Kaito Ishikawa breathes a vitality into Haga that almost convinces you Haga isn’t the flat isekai character he is. Quality, hamstrung by a flat plot.
And I get it. You and I might have very different tastes when it comes to anime. But we can agree that great anime exists and trumps good anime. Shows like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Spy X Family are immensely popular with a broader audience because of the quality of storytelling and animation. Even if quality anime comes around infrequently, all anime benefits from shows that bring in an audience. A rising tide floats all boats, dayo. Frieren led me to Delicious in Dungeon, A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring, Re: Monster, and now Quality Assurance in Another World. One good anime set in a dungeon convinced me there was more to anime than Major Kusanagi, Re-L Mayer, and Deunan Knute, so I shopped around. Most anime fans likely have a similar story.
So, Quality Assurance in Another World doesn’t have to be a quality anime. But does it have enough to hold your attention?
Dragon Onaholes Are Not Your Friend
Dragons! Ice dragons, fire dragons, dragons that shoot laser beams from their eyes. Quality Assurance in Another World enticed me with the dopy design of their dragons. Fantasy monsters are my jam (ha, Delicious in Dungeon pun!), and you’ll get my attention with new imaginings of popular monsters any day. Especially dragons.
But these dragons transform into lotion-covered onahole-dildo mashups. That felt icky. And confusing. I thought we were watching a wholesome anime for kids. The dragons exemplify episode 1’s pull-the-rug-out style of storytelling. Oh, the dopy dragons aren’t dangerous. Oh, they are. Haga is a powerful Seeker. Or he isn’t. This is a cutesy MMORPG tale… but everything’s burning!
Deep breath.
Episode 2 did nothing to change my mind about the show. My eyelids won out. I’ve heard of rage quitting, but snooze quitting? We know an adorable elf waifu waits for us in later episodes, but I was done about ten minutes in.
Is Quality Assurance in Another World for You?
There might be a good story in Quality Assurance in Another World. Nikola reappears when Haga is sure she shouldn’t. Is this another of the game’s many quirky bugs? It’s a feature, not a flaw. I’m sure. But Haga’s quest to save Nikola’s village isn’t an enticing premise. Why her village? How did he not know who Nikola was if he’d spent many iterations on her doorstep? Why was Haga’s player such a young kid if he was hired to test the game? He doesn’t look old enough to write those records he keeps working on. I have so many questions, and they’re not the good kind. Give us a plot to puzzle over, not plot holes.
All we’re left to work with is the playtesting premise. Most gamers would love to be paid to sit around playing games all day. Unfortunately, we know that game testing is poorly paid, repetitive, and involves tedious data capture. It’s the kind of job that’ll suck the joy of gaming out of even the most ardent fan. A great stepping stone into game design, sure, but get that programming degree first. Then, you can wave it in your boss’s face when you want a step up from filling Excel sheets and recording clipping errors. Playtesting is a boring premise for an anime, even if it brought Masamichi Sato’s manga to nine volumes.
Quality Assurance in Another World streams on Crunchyroll in English and Japanese, with subtitles. It was produced by 100Studio and Studio Palette. I give Quality Assurance one Angry Chibi Megumi out of five. I’m sure there’s more to this anime. But don’t make me work this hard to get into it. Game testing may be more fun.
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Have you been watching Quality Assurance in Another World? Did I miss any of its redeeming qualities? What do you think about dong-headed dragons? And no, I don’t know if J-List will ever stock them.
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