It’s just an Isekai, the Isekai can’t hurt me but Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth-verse says hold my beer. It starts typically enough with our guy Narihira Takeru running through a semi familiar street, fleeing monsters. However, he is saved by a girl, Tsukimiya, she pulls him to safety, thankful Takeru promises to save her next time. She is after all the woman of his dreams, literally. And ‘BANG’ he wakes up back in modern-day Tokyo, tied to a street lamp, being tortured by some hooligans.
It doesn’t go the way the hooligan expected, despite being tied to a pole, Takeru lays a impressive smackdown on the hooligans touting the prowess of the Narihira family, who never quits, or accepts defeat…even after death.
Though a series of ridiculous events only acceptable in anime. Takeru finds himself back In the place we started this story, Denji Heian-kyo, the world in his dreams, a parallel world that looks eeries like the Heian Period of Japan’s past but with tech and magic. And he once again meets the girl, Tsukimiya…according to him, for the 2000th time. Sadly for him she has no idea who he is and that is the least of his worries, the world is menaced buy a sinister black mist that breaks a hole in the sky and floods the area with an ooze hat turns its sitizens into stone, which also includes the requisite monsters. The mist transforms the area and freezes most people, but not Takeru. We learn that Denji Heian-kyo is menaced by oni from yet another world—so we have an Isekai layer cake of visitors. But don’t worry this world has defenders in the from Onmyoji, mecha-piloting shikigami force charged with defending the city.
And then it gets weird, while trying to keep his promise to save Tsukimiya, Takeru abd her dies. Downer, I Know. However, somehow time rewinds to just after Takeru arrived in this world AND EVERYONE IS ALIVE.
Ok , to recap, for the kids in the back, we got isekai, ground hog’s day-esque time travel, mecha, and magic. And we just started, also Tsukimiya still has no idea who Takeru is. Like I said it not the most typical Isekai, despite the gumbo of genres, it all made sense and was surprisingly coherent. Takeru reminds me of a mix between Naruto’s Rock Lee and Yu Yu Hakusho’s Kazuma Kuwabara. And his antics and no-quit declarations make him the most shonen of shonens.
It’s starts off fast paced and the mystery is compelling enough that I want to learn more about the world and its residents.
Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth Verse is streaming on Crunchyroll