Campfire Cooking In Another World With My Absurd Skill may seem like just another isekai, but it's got a few tricks up its sleeve to lend spice to the mix in Crunchyroll's 2023 winter roll out. Is it a cooking show? An Isekai? A slice-of-life comedy featuring a cute magical wolf creature? YES! Yes to all the things, and slime too.
Originally conceived as a web-based light novel by Ren Eguchi, the story was picked up by publisher Overlap in 2016 and is currently ongoing with 13 novels. It was released as a manga in 2017 and was successful enough to be voted 2nd best isekai in 2018. Even the spin-off manga, which concerns the antics of the slime character, has gone to 7 volumes. So, a wildly successful story in various forms get picked up for an anime make-over announced in late October, and here we are in January, and it's already being put out there. That kind of fast cooking is mostly a good sign, or at least a vote of confidence on the part of MAPPA, a production company with a strong history of good-tasting products, Chainsaw Man being one of their most recent successes.
What's Cooking?
The story of Campfire Cooking In Another World With My Absurd Skill begins as many isekai do with the transportation of a nonplused protagonist to another world, in this case, a fantasy world of monsters, medieval technology, and magic. Average salaryman Tsuyoshi Mukuoda finds himself caught up in a hero summoning to fight the Demon King. It's clear by his stats that he's not meant to be part of the three actual heroes they managed to summon, so he begs off the adventure. Plus...the rulers of this kingdom feel kind of off, like they'd be happy to exploit a hero for all they're worth. So he sets out to see if he can build a decent life for himself, somewhere quiet and out of trouble. He's apparently only been gifted with one really weird power, "Unique Skill: Internet Grocery". Essentially he can shop online as if in his home world, and it gets delivered to the new one. Well, it's got to come in handy!
And so it does! He's able to cook up amazing, stat-boosting feasts while on the road, which draws the attention of one "Legendary Magic Beast", Fel, as well as attracting the "Special Specimen" Sui, a slime. And suddenly he has companions. Feeding their ever-hungry maws necessitates some maneuvering, including discovering if orcs, among other things, are edible. At some point, four goddesses come into play, one of whom, the wind goddess Ninrir, really appreciates a sweet-red bean bun. It's said that all isekai stories, where the protagonist finds themselves in another world, eventually become cooking shows. Certainly How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom devotes several episodes to food (and an edible slime, sorry Sui). So starting out as a cooking show perhaps gives this a Food-Wars style leg up. Plus, the cute companions certainly help. It's easy to see why Sui earned their own spin-off. That's one adorable slime!
The Key Ingredients and Timing
With previous directing forays in Kakeguri and Dorarara! among many others, Kiyoshi Matsuda will take the helm here, with character designs by Nao Otsu of Attack on Titan and Beastars fame. Series composition by Michiko Yokote of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K and Call of the Night among others, will also grace the screen. The group Van de Shop performs the opening theme song, the very appropriately named "Exquisite Spoon", while Yuma Uchida will sing the closing song, "Happy-Go-Journey".
Yuma Uchida, familiar from Jujutsu Kaisen and Genshin Impact, also plays the main character, Tsuyoshi Mukuoda. His companions are played by Hina Kino from The Devil Is A Part-Timer and Buddy Daddies as Sui, and Satoshi Hino who played the heartbreaking Kyojuro Rengoku in the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Arc, will play the fierce Fel. No doubt fans from the one might be drawn to follow Hino here, playing a similarly fierce but comic character.
Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill turns on the burners this January 10th, 2023. In a bit of pure fun or advertising horror, depending on your attitude, the series will feature tie-ins to actual brand products like Ebara Foods, Heinz, Lotte, and Suntory. There'll be real recipies too. So after watching you can go online and use your own magic, or a credit card, to order ingredients and cook these recipes. Whether they're promising a stat buff after consumption remains to be seen.
Source: Anime News Network