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AKA: 問題児たちが異世界から来るそうですよ? (Mondaiji tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru soudesuyo?)
Genre: Alternate world fantasy action.
Length: Television series, 10 episodes, 24 minutes each
Distributor: Currently licensed by Sentai Filmworks, but also available streaming on crunchyroll.
Content Rating: 13+ (Violence, mature content, fanservice.)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Sword Art Online, Dog Days.
Notes: Based on a light novel series written by Tarō Tatsunoko and illustrated by Yū Amano. There is also a manga by Rio Nanamomo, serialized in Monthly Comp Ace.
Rating:

Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they?

Synopsis

Three teenagers with special powers are summoned -- as in; literally dropped into -- a different world after receiving a mysterious letter. There, they meet Kurousagi -- Black Rabbit -- a game overseer of sorts, and are invited to participate in the Gift Games.


Review

So, basically, Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? is basically a tournament fighting show of sorts. While this isn't a problem in relation to Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they?, you should probably keep this in mind if you're really tired of this sort of thing -- and you should be, as it's still keeping up with the rising trend of the "cute girls doing stuff" genre.

Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? still tries and partially succeeds in mixing it up a little, though, as not all challenges -- or games if you will -- are based around fights. You (the animal girl) at some point challenges a Gryphon to a contest on whether she can remain on his back through one of his wilder flight sequences. But yes, most of the "games" are basically elaborate and very energetic fights.

I have to say that Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? is a bit of a misleading title, though. Possibly that's only my own assumptions, but the only one of the three who answer to the "problem children" title is Izayoi, an unruly young man who seems to be in the game so that he can do whatever he wants. Since he's basically an easily bored guy who's looking for some excitement, dropping him into a world where he can challenge the local deities to fisticuffs purely for the thrills naturally isn't going to make him easy to deal with for the poor bunny girl.

Still, having seen the whole thing, I can state with conviction that, despite their individual hangups, all of them are good kids. For all his bluster, Izayoi quickly take a shining to Jin, the young leader of the No-Names, and puts everything he's got in helping him rebuild his community from its almost completely ruined state. And that's even just following up on what Asuka and You started, when the two girls find out just how the No-Name community ended up the way it did. (Which, by the way, was a surprisingly dark chapter of an otherwise relatively lighthearted beginning.)

To continue the character introductions; the two other "problem children" consists of Asuka Kudou, a privilegied girl who abandoned her position so she wouldn't be weighed down by it, and You Kasukabe, another young girl whom once was of poor health, but at some point also learned how to communicate with animals. And while Asuka has all the bearings of a lady, You is the quiet kind, which hides the great physical strength she possesses.

We don't really know anything else about the kids, though, except that they all live in different eras of time before they were called to Little Garden. Nor do we learn much about the world they're called to, other than the bitter defeat the now named No-Name community experienced, much to the detriment of their region, now made up of mostly barren wastelands -- so barren that even bringing back water to the region makes for a heartwarming scene.

At least it offsets the major 'tude coming from the three participants of this show, Izayoi in particular. (Well... and not as much You, I guess. And yes, that's her name, apparently.) The two of them -- again; Izayoi in particular -- spends the first half of the show going on about how interesting things are now, and it does get a little bit tiresome in the long run. It's dialogue written for teenagers, except teenagers deserve better than this.

Still, 'tude or not, the main characters of this show are a welcome break from wishy-washy male leads and cutesy-wutesy female love interests. All three are also surprisingly intelligent for anime leads of their age, and Little Garden -- with the gift games in particular -- are rife with riddles and mysteries for them to put that intelligence to use. Not terribly complicated stuff, but enough to make things interesting GAH NOW I'M GOING ON ABOUT THAT TOO! DAMN YOU, PROBLEM CHILDREN ARE COMING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, AREN'T THEY? YOU AND YOUR SENTENCE-DESTROYING TITLE!

Another selling point for the show is its somewhat arbitrary additions of references to myths, legends and old folk tales, as well as the fact that at least one demon is a personification of the sun. (Which actually becomes important to the plot later in the show.) The show does get a little lost in its references later on, but not so much that it ruins the flow. There are also other references, but mentioning them at this point would be spoiling the show, so since I'm recommending it, I'll leave it at that.

Right now, the biggest downside to Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? is that I don't really know whether it'll ever see a conclusion, or even a continuation. Its biggest hurdle is basically being another fighting show in a long lineup of fighting shows, so genre fatigue and saturation is its greatest enemy. I can only hope Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? gathers enough attention to itself, because I would very much like to see it continue.

A huge pile of myth, bravado, old stories and cujones. And some lame trash-talking, granted, but you can't have everything, right?Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: The onscreen violence is generally not too excessive, but some of the descriptions of what happened in both the show and its universe, past or present, can get pretty nasty.

There's also a relatively generous helping of fanservice. Nothing full-frontal, but there's bathing scenes with the girls, plus Black Rabbit's outfit isn't far from being a Playboy Bunny outfit (but with a very short skirt to go with it.)



Version(s) Viewed: Digital stream from Crunchyroll, Japanese with English subtitles.
Review Status: Full (10/10)
Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they? © 2013 Diomedea, Kadokawa Shoten, Project No Name.
 
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