What would happen if you died and found yourself isekai-ed into another world as a large, powerful sword? The protagonist of this story decides to slice ‘n’ dice as many enemies as possible, absorbing their powers and leveling up like there’s no tomorrow. That is, until he ends up in a zone where his levitation power no longer works and he finds himself stuck in the ground in the middle of the woods just waiting for someone to come along. Thankfully that someone does finally come, but it’s not a strong and mighty warrior of legend set to wield this powerful weapon in the service of defeating the ultimate evil. Instead it’s a cat girl named Fran, weak and scared, particularly since she’s being kept as a slave. But Fran has a hidden tenacity and drive with a dream to become the first dark cat girl to evolve (a dream her now deceased parents shared) that makes the sword proud to be wielded by her. This duo will draw on reserves of untapped strength to annihilate any goblins, dragons or dungeon masters that cross their path!

Yes, it’s yet another isekai featuring an overpowered main character destroying crazy powerful enemies while everyone around them is dumbfounded at their strength. It’s a common trope because I guess people like it. This time, the protagonists are a willful cat girl and a sentient sword, and together they really do seem to be nigh unstoppable, especially once they conjure a really strong familiar to aid them. We get some of the same isekai tropes we see frequently in these kinds of shows like MCs scrolling through spell menus to find just the right technique that will take out the enemy in the nick of time and the usual stop at the armor shop in town to befriend the knowing and wise blacksmith. One thing I do appreciate about the show is that while yes, the sword is ridiculously overpowered, Fran the cat girl is not. It does separate them a few times, leaving Fran to fend for herself and show how strong she has become over the course of the series. It’s that kind of character arc that I wish more isekai would adopt and that I wish this series adopted more frequently. Because once the sword comes back into the picture, nothing stands a chance. I guess the way to look at these series is not to wonder IF the protagonist will make it out alive but instead HOW. Ironically the sword is the weakest element of the show since not only does it diffuse any suspense by being too strong but also by being voiced in an extremely obnoxious way (both the original Japanese and English dub has this problem). It’s as if because the sword doesn’t have a mouth that they have to overcompensate by having it’s voice actor chew scenery like no tomorrow.

Visually Sentai gives us quality once again with a transfer than looks very nice and clean as one would expect of a new series. All complaints aside on the voice acting, the audio tracks themselves, both Japanese and English 2.0 tracks, come across clear and unobtrusive. The extras are the usual clean OP and ED animations and nothing else.

If you are a fan of isekai shows, Reincarnated as a Sword hits all the beats you expect in this kind of plot and should meet your needs while await the dozen that will appear next season. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a fresh and original take on the alternate world story, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.