In Another World With My Smartphone Manga Vol. 2 Review – Low Battery

While I’ve become of fan of the isekai genre, the In Another World With My Smartphone Vol. 1 manga didn’t impress me. Sadly, In Another World With My Smartphone Vol. 2 doesn’t fix the issues of the first volume and instead only highlights what doesn’t work with this series.

In Another World With My Smartphone Vol. 2 begins where volume 1 left off as Touya Mochizuki and the gang deliver the letter they were tasked with. However, this is essentially a manga that doesn’t understand the importance of story arcs. For example, Yae Kokonoe spars with a powerful swordmaster and learns a new ability. However, this is never returned to in the story; even though it’s in the opening, we don’t learn any more about Yea, and the story moves on.

It’s like this for everything, though, until the volume ends in almost the same way the first volume ended. Actually, again, we find Touya is just falling into success with how powerful he is. He’s almost too perfect of character with no faults and no real personality other than he’ll help out everyone. It lessens the tension to the point where I’m starting to guess what age this manga is directed towards.

If I consider In Another World With My Smartphone as My First Isekai, I think it works for younger readers. Even though the harem of Touya grows, there’s absolutely no fan service, subtle flirting, or awkward situations. Instead, Touya simply uses his overpowered skills and cell phone at his leisure and gets through any obstacle.

At this point, I’m considering this to be an exceptionally tough manga to invest myself into. I enjoy the premise, too, since having a cell phone in a fantasy world seems like a cool idea. However, there’s a battle scene that could have been the stand-out moment of the manga that essentially ended too quickly because Touya is the greatest.

As for as illustrations go, I liked some of the action panels, and the characters’ expressions can be charming. I enjoyed the low moments as well, such as when Touya introduces board games to the citizens. Although these scenes could be considered boring in retrospect, they were the best character moments in the manga. Strangely some text boxes were left blank that looked as if they were supposed to contain the place the characters were at.

In Another World With My Smartphone Vol. 2 clearly doesn’t know what to do with its story, characters, or the main protagonists. It’s a free-for-all with no direction or story arc to feel connected to. In a desperate attempt to be compelling, discrimination is introduced, and I’m sure, somehow, Touya will solve that eventually. I can’t help but beg for an antagonist or reason for this manga to even exist because the foundation is there and absolutely nothing else.