This anime is 100% a wish fulfillment/male empowerment fantasy. Yuya is every nice but bullied kid out there. Upon entering the fantasy world and killing a single monster, he suddenly becomes the most attractive man alive—a muscular body with the face of a supermodel. All the women of both worlds want him—including both an attractive heiress of a prominent family and a fashion model in our world and a princess and a deadly assassin in the fantasy one.

Nearly every episode has him save one (or several) of these beautiful ladies from dangers like monsters, political intrigue, electrical fires, biker gangs, or bear attacks. And of course, each trial overcome is accompanied by several people talking about how awesome Yuya is. This is escapist fantasy pure and simple. As such, much of the anime lives or dies based on how much you identify with Yuya.

The first episode does a good job setting up Yuya as a likable character—one that deserves a happy ending after his miserable life so far. However, from that point on, Yuya is more of an audience proxy than an actual character. He's just your typical “good guy,” forgiving those who wrong him and generally acting selflessly. He's also indecisive and/or oblivious when it comes to all the women vying for his heart—thereby keeping the ever-growing harem of girls in perpetual limbo. Simply put, you're supposed to see yourself in Yuya—to be able to imagine that you're living his awesome life of adventure instead of your own.

To be fair, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World is not trying to impart any greater message or explore some deeper facet of human nature. It just wants to be a brainless 22-minute escape into fantasy each week. It is not the first anime like this nor will it be the last. Unfortunately, there is one aspect that takes the anime from being just another escapist fantasy in the crowd to an obvious failure: the animation.

At first glance, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World looks amazing. The characters and backgrounds are highly detailed and full of style. Take a screenshot of any scene in the show and the chances are it will look pretty good. The problem comes with the actual animation—or rather the lack of it. This anime uses every budget-saving trick in the book: extreme close-ups on faces so nothing is seen moving, pans across single static frames to give the illusion of animation, and even sudden cutaways to the scenery at key-yet-difficult-to-animate moments. And when fast-paced action just has to be shown, a CG character model is used that doesn't quite mesh with the surroundings. It is a mess visually—to the point that it makes the story noticeably worse due to how it is told.

As for the music, it's inoffensive and largely forgettable. The exceptions to this are the rocking opening theme song, "Gyakuten Geki" by Tsukuyomi, and the surprisingly chill "Hachimitsu" by Shikao Suga. While neither would make my top anime song list for the season, I enjoyed hearing them each week.

All in all, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World is a subpar anime—even just within the “isekai with a harem” subgenre. If you were looking for an anime where the outcast guy becomes the hero and wins the hearts of all the ladies, it would be decent enough if it weren't for the lackluster visuals that hurt the anime in its most pivotal scenes. It simply fails at telling the story it wants to tell—and no amount of fanservice involving the sizable female cast is going to change that.