The following contains spoilers for Episode 12 of My Isekai Life, "My Isekai Life," now streaming on HIDIVE.

My Isekai Life is, true to its title, an isekai action/adventure anime found in the Summer 2022 season alongside Overlord and Black Summoner. Over the course of 12 episodes, My Isekai Life largely failed to live up to its potential for its characters and creative storytelling, but at least Episode 12 helps end things with a bang.

Protagonist Yuji simply had it too easy in most fights in the story, including his clash with the blue dragon of delight and the Godzilla-like red dragon. However, in My Isekai Life Episode 12, the anime sticks the landing with a truly exciting final battle and most importantly, the wholesome power of friendship to save the world.

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The first nine episodes of My Isekai Life explored a whimsical but rather aimless story, following Yuji as he wandered this fantasy realm like a tourist. However, this anime is more than just a "monster of the week" show. Since its earliest days, My Isekai Life tantalized viewers with the ominous threat of the blue moon cult and the coming apocalypse, and the anime's last three episodes all deliver some serious payoff. In Episode 10, Father Steyl faced his old friend turned enemy, Walter, who leads the blue moon cult, and in Episode 11, Yuji faced the mighty reborn sage after Walter's sacrifice. The stage is set for Episode 12's final battle, and for once, Yuji cannot and will not fight it alone.

Episode 12 depicts Yuji facing the mighty sage with his slimes by his side, employing all his usual beast tamer/sage combat tricks to fight his foe head to head. That may sound like business as usual for My Isekai Life, but this is everyone's fight. The blue moon cultists use a rain machine to spread their curse across the land, creating and summoning legions of twisted monsters. Even with his slimes and Proud Wolf, Yuji cannot be everywhere at once, so his many allies and friends take up arms to defend their world.

It's an impressive and refreshing sight, showing the people fighting for their hometowns and risking death to see another day. It's easy for an isekai anime to depict the OP hero slaying the token demon king to save the world, but this "power of the people" sequence is what's truly impressive about My Isekai Life Episode 12. Yuji may be this world's strongest defender, but he's not the most compelling one.

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This is a wonderful example of the power of friendship at work in shonen anime, and it's overdue for My Isekai Life. Earlier episodes depicted Yuji meeting and befriending many other adventurers and fighters of all sorts, but they rarely had a chance to help Yuji save the day. In one extreme case, Yuji gathered an entire coalition of brave fighters to save the world from the blue dragon of delight, only for Yuji to run off that night to slay that dragon all by himself. It was almost like My Isekai Life was mocking the idea of friendship and shattering its own tension for no good reason. Now, in Episode 12, Yuji's long-running effort to make friends pays off at last, and that helps My Isekai Life end on a much-needed high note. As a whole, this is still a mediocre and forgettable isekai anime, but at least it ends on a high note.

My Isekai Life, by embracing the power of friendship, emulates many high-quality anime series that likewise understand the value of friendship, or at least teamwork. The mighty Rimuru Tempest of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime fame is a good example, with Rimuru facing Clayman alone in the demon lord council while his many trustworthy friends fought Clayman's army elsewhere, with Benimaru the ogre leading the charge. Overlord is another example, with the skeletal Ainz Ooal Gown trusting his villainous friends in Nazarick to enforce his will across the land and prove their worth to him. If a twisted, OP antihero like Ainz can embrace true friendship to create a compelling narrative, Yuji certainly can, too.