In a sea of isekai anime, it’s always nice to see a series about a person playing a VRMMO. A Playthrough of a Certain Dude’s VRMMO Life (Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudoki) is one such series where our protagonist can log out whenever he wants. Since the title is very long, like an isekai series, we’ll refer to it as Toaru Ossan. Studio Maho Film will begin airing the series in October 2023. Until then, we have a trailer with cute girls.
Maho Film previously set up a promotional home page and an official Twitter page to share series updates. It has also shared the key visual for Toaru Ossan, as seen below. AlphaPolis, the publisher for the printed versions, likewise has its own home page to visit.
Playing the Game to Have Fun
Unlike other series based on VRMMOs, Toaru Ossan allows its protagonist to freely log out whenever he wants. So, this should set the stage for its more lighthearted tone. Offline, Taichi Tanaka (voiced by Daisuke Namikawa) is a single worker with not much going on in his life. As such, he soon boots into the newest online game, One More Free Life Online, on day one. While in-game, he chooses to have fun in his own way, so he chooses specific classes and skills other people think are poor.
Taichi’s in-game avatar is named Earth (voiced by Kaito Ishikawa), specifically a reference to his name’s meaning in Japanese. He chooses the Archer class, Kick, Wind Magic, Cooking, Apothecary, Stealth, Carpentry, Manufacturer, Eagle Eye, and Physical Boost skills. For various reasons, six of these skills are considered worthless. Using Archery makes it hard to hit a target, and standard combat techniques are better than Physical Boost. Even so, Earth only wants to have fun.
More seasoned VRMMO players make fun of his class and dismiss him. But he makes friends right away, the magic user Milly (voiced by Miho Okasaki) and her friend, the warrior Zwei (voiced by Tasuku Hatanaka). He also discovers that his self-made potions are more potent than store-bought versions. And Stealth combined with Archery makes an effective combo. His seemingly useless skills will see him succeed in his online life.
Toaru Ossan Origins
Taichi found a new online life to live in the novel series written by Shiina Howahowa. The author posted his work to Shosetsuka ni Naro from January 2013 to August 2016. After, the publisher AlphaPolis obtained the publishing rights, and the novels can now be read there.
AlphaPolis hired the artist Yamaada to adapt Shiina’s work to a light novel format. This new iteration first hit the shelves on February 10th, 2014, and has seen 24 volumes released thus far.
The artist Shuya Rikudo was next to bat when Toaru Ossan was adapted to manga. AlphaPolis began publishing this run on May 2014, and they have since released ten volumes for fans to collect.
Another VRMMO series has cute girls and equally cute merchandise. The Leafa & Suguha Kirigaya 2 Figures Set Complete from the Sword Art Online section has both appealing versions of the best girl.
Are you looking forward to the anime version of Toaru Ossan? Have you tried to master useless skills in the games you’ve played? Would you party up with Earth and his friends? Let us know in the comments below.