Literature / In Another World with My Smartphone

Touya Mochizuki is accidentally struck by lightning and killed by God. To make up for it, God gives Touya the chance to be reborn in a magical world and also offers him a special favor: Touya asks that he be allowed to bring his Smartphone with him. God accepts Touya's choice and even gives him magic powers as a further apology for killing him. And so begin Touya's adventures in the new world, where he befriends many people, solves quests and comes across some interesting secrets and mysteries.

In Another World With My Smartphone (異世界はスマートフォンとともに Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.) is a web novel series written by Patora Fuyuhara, published as a light novel with illustrations by Eiji Usatsuka under the Hobby Japan imprint since 2015 and has so far spawned 21 volumes.

An Animated Adaptation by Production Reed premiered on July 11, 2017. It is available for legal streaming with subtitles on Crunchyroll here, and with an English Dub on Funimation here. A second season, animated by J.C. Staff, begin airing on April 3, 2023.

Fans of only the anime and manga must beware of spoilers.

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In Another World With My Smartphone contains examples of:

• 20 Bear Asses: The first quest that Touya and the Silhoueska twins get involved in is to bring in five one-horned wolf horns, as proof of having killed the same number. This is treated as standard practice at the guild: whenever a request is made to have a certain number of certain monsters eliminated from a region, proof will be sought in the form of specified body parts.
• Accidental Declaration of Love: Touya tricks the knight Lyon into doing an accidental love confession after their cover gets blown taking down a group of thugs in the midst of following both Lyon and Olga on their date. When confronted about it, Touya counters by asking if Lyon is truly serious about wanting to date Olga since he hasn't made a move on her yet. Lyon earnestly states that he does to which Touya points out that Olga has just heard him confess.
• Ace Custom: The series has mass-produced Framegears for soldiers and knights with the main cast having custom mechs called valkyrie gears.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Lucia, Hilda, and Sakura are shown at the end of Episode 12, long before they'd ever been seen or mentioned in the novels. ^note Lucia first appears in chapter 92, Hilda in chapters 151/152, and Sakura in chapter 148.
• Adaptation Expansion: The first season of the anime adds a final scene at the end of episode 12 of Leen, Charlotte, and Cesca watching Touya and his first four fiancees getting engaged. This scene teases the knowledge that Touya will have 9 wives, and who those wives are ^note (Linze, Elze, Yae, Yumina, Leen, Sue, Hildegrad, Lucia, Sakura) long before either of those facts were revealed in the novels.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: Gods are not allowed to interfere with mortal affairs unless another god broke that rule first. When Touya discusses why Capital-G God didn't stop a false Religion of Evil from coming to power, God says that every dimension in the multiverse is expected to be self-reliant. If mortals need gods to solve their problems, they don't deserve it.
• Aliens Speaking English: Or Aliens Speaking Japanese in this case. This trope is in full effect with no explanation given. As for the writing system, while Touya can't read it, a close look reveals that everything is actually written in English with variations on the letters of the Roman alphabet.
• All Periods Are PMS: Near the start of the journey, in Interlude I: "The Adventurers", Elze and Linze both get their periods a day apart. They're not just irritable or moody as a result, they are bedridden by the experience.
  It must've been tough dealing with... girl problems like that. Even my [Recovery] spell had no effect. Probably because it wasn't classified as an abnormal status condition, or so I figured. If anything, that kind of pain was proof that her body was functioning properly.
• Alternate Timeline: Regina Babylon tells Touya that for a period of time, she mysteriously wasn't able to monitor him anymore because the future had somehow gotten changed, and the timeline her magic now foresaw was a ruined world destroyed by magical golems. Then, just as mysteriously, that timeline vanished and Touya's reappeared. She has no idea why or how it happened.
• Always Identical Twins: The Silhoueska twins play it mostly straight, differing only in the hairstyle, the length of the stockings and the personality... and the bust.
• Antiquated Linguistics:
  • God communicates in an archaic manner.
  • As does Yae, who uses "sessha" to refer to herself.
  • Sushie uses "warawa" to refer to herself.
• Arc Villain: Several examples of Touya encountering various major antagonists on each arcs of the story.
  • Belfast Kingdom arc: Count Balsa, a treacherous, bigoted count of Belfast, who is responsible for the attempted poisoning of King Tristwin Ernes Belfast. He does so by attempting to frame Olga Strand, due to his racist attitudes towards demi-humans, for the crime to get away from it, as well as ruining the alliance between Belfast and Mismede.
  • Divine Nation of Eashen arc: Kansuke Yamamoto, the Treacherous Advisor of the Takeda clan and a necromancer. He plans to stir a proxy war between the Takeda and Tokugawa clans, sides with the former's leader Shingen as his right-hand to overthrow the Tokugawas, and betrays him at the end. Kansuke then uses his corpse in his war by reviving him through the immortality gem within his eye to continue his proxy war against his rivals, now resorting to using undead corpses as his own infantry unit.
  • Regulus Empire arc: General Bazoar, a wicked general of Regulus Empire's military army, is a usurper who starts a coup d'etat and plans to overthrow the Regulus monarch Zephyrus Roa Regulus to plan a massive retaliatory war against other kingdoms of the Eastern Continent.
  • Kingdom of Lihnea arc: A Big Bad Triumvirate is formed between the fake prince Zabune, the ex-prime minister Wardack and his wife Dacia, who all wanted to overthrow the kingdom's royal family and incite skirmishes against its neighbouring kingdom Palouf. Zabune is a paedophilic slaver and the cruel stepbrother of Cloud, despite later revealing to be not related to him, who attempts to marry Sue in order to start his rise to the throne by actively joining his father and mother's heinous cause to kill Schlaf and usurp it. Wardack is the de facto leader of Lihnea through blackmailing the king and is responsible for inciting many wars on Palouf, while also he is behind the mastermind of Erya's imprisonment in Gallia Fortress.
  • Ramissh Theocracy arc: Both Cardinals and siblings Zeon and Kyurei are part of the Big Bad Duumvirate, planning to use their fanatical belief of worshipping the false deity Lars to perpetuate the lies of the "hero" Ramirez summoning the false "God of Light", despite his sketchy history as a summoner with an affinity to Dark Magic. They also use the false religion of the Theocracy, actively crushing any opposition and dissenters to their Scam Religion, as such in the case when both of them and many of their Sinister Ministers cover up their dirty work through imprisoning the Pope Elias Autra and head Cardinal Phyllis Rugit by inciting a (failed) coup against both of them, where Kyurei disguises as Elias to get Touya's attention and with Zeon and his sister planning to publicly execute both Elias and Phyllis for their "crimes".
  • Yulong Invasion arc: A Big Bad Ensemble between the Golden Order's leader Galzeld Goldie, Edgar Bowman and the fake Holy Emperor of Yulong Chieh Xiaofah. Galzeld, after the death of his father, later takes the helm as the leader of the Golden Order who are a group of disillusioned, fanatical magical researchers actively Drunk with Power and will do anything to develop magic without regards to ethics, including the revival of Taboo magic. There's also the fake Holy Emperor, Chieh, who is The Caligula, regarded for his utterly ruthless ruling within the remnants, actively murdering anyone who opposes his tyrannical rule with a sadistic glee. Edgar Bowman is an Insufferable Genius from Roadmare Union who starts off as a persistent rival to Touya's own creations and uses his admiration to Deborah Elks as an inspiration to create his own "greatest creation". Bowman later goes into a Big Bad Slippage after he was imprisoned for a lifetime of labour in the mines for almost causing his Golems, his "greatest creation", to destroy the province's capital, before siding with the Golden Order to take revenge against Touya in order to create and mass-produce the Iron Machine Soldier by using a damaged Frame Gear's parts.
  • Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs arc: A Big Bad Ensemble between Severus Arnos and Gila. While Arnos is responsible for the attempted assassination of Sakura by hiring the Yulong assassins, the Qulan, so that he can allow his nephew Farese to take the throne in Xenoahs, the Dominant-Class Phrase Gila invades the capital city of Xenoskull with an army of Phrase on his side to ultimately kill Touya and Sakura while searching for the power of the Sovereign Phrase for his own purposes.
  • Region of Sandora arc: Abdul Jafar Sandora III, the lecherous, tyrannical king of the Kingdom of Sandora, is a slave master who is responsible for sending various slavers to various countries on the Eastern Continent, including Brunhild and the Sea of Trees, to kidnap them and sell them to slavery.
• Arranged Marriage: One-sided. Yumina, next in line for the throne, decides that she's going to marry Touya within hours of meeting him, and her parents approve. Touya is understandably uncomfortable marrying a 12-year-old princess he just met, so he hammers out an agreement with her parents: they'll get married in two years, but only if Yumina can convince Touya she'd make a compatible wife before the deadline.
• Author Filibuster: Chapters 115 and 116 grind the overall plot to a halt while Touya, God, and followers of Lars, the God of Light get into a lengthy debate about religion. The aforementioned followers try to evangelize their beliefs in Touya's duchy, and Touya—who is literally Pals with God—flat out rejects their beliefs and then dissects them one by one. If that wasn't enough, God Himself appears not long after to explain to said Lars followers that their God not only doesn't exist but that the gods that do exist don't even answer prayers or intervene. God then goes into a lecture about how mortals need to be responsible for their own lives, look after themselves, and stop depending on gods (real or otherwise) to do things for them. The entire scene comes right out of nowhere.
• Balanced Harem: All the members of the harem are fine with sharing Touya and he cares about all of them the same. Once he learns polygamy is legal in the fantasy world, Touya plans to Marry Them All which he eventually does.
• Battle Harem: The girls in Toya's adventuring party are all very capable in combat and work together like a well-oiled machine.
• Big Bad: A zigzagged case. The first few volumes start off with a Big Bad Ensemble between the traitorous Dominant-Class Phrase Yula and the traitorous Servile God, who went to a Villain Team-Up to destroy the world via the Phrase invasion the former started after deposing Melle, but it's clear that they are not allies. Yula betrays the Servile God by letting the Wicked God to consume him, causing the Servile God to be fused into the Wicked God, making the Wicked God the actual part of the ensemble and not the Servile God on its own. However, after the deaths of both Yula and the Wicked God, the Wicked Devout's five Generals and Wicked God's lieutenants Indigo, Scarlet, Hazel, Tangerine and Orchid are part of the Big Bad Duumvirate and are now the main antagonists at the start of Volume 24, who are revealed to have been planning to complete their master's Evil Plan after his demise.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The first few volumes of the novel has two main antagonists that Touya faces. Yula and the Servile God serve as the primary antagonists of the franchise and are the ultimate threat to Touya and to the inhabitants of the merged world. The former is a Dominant-Class Phrase responsible for the invasion of the Phrase in the shadows across the multiverse and actively deposing Melle as the Phrase's leader; the latter is a traitorous former member of the Pantheon, who allies with Yula by backstabbing his fellow Gods for power in his own reasons, until Yula himself betrays him by allowing the Wicked God to devour him, causing the Servile God to be fused into the Wicked God at the end, making him the biggest threat to the heroes after Yula's demise.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: After Yula and the Wicked God's defeat, the Wicked Devout's five Generals later become the main antagonists starting in Volume 24.
• Black Magic: Black magic is the opposite of Light Magic. While Light Magic heals or strengthens the mind and body, Black Magic harms or weakens them. It also doubles as a way to do Summon Magic to call for familiars.
• Blow You Away: Wind spell stones can generate strong winds, some of which are sharp enough to slice up foes. This is one Yumina's three elements.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Pretty much all the male royals of Belfast and Mismede. They're big, loud, and very playful men.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Out of all of the powers Touya has at his disposal, which one does he use more than any? Slip, a spell that causes his opponent to keep falling down.
  • How does Touya defeat 2 Mythril golems? Use Gate to teleport them 10,000 meters in the air and let gravity take care of the rest.
• Canon Character All Along: A lot of characters in the Reverse World including Norn, her sister Elluka, as well as the Red Cats members including Nia, Est, Euni and Euri, as well as other characters including Elfrau and Robert are revealed to be major characters in the author's previous work Chrono Crown; this is due to the Canon Welding of two series, subsequently leading to Reverse World acting as the parallel world to Touya's own world. The Gollems also count as one, since they also played a main role in Chrono Crown before they make an appearance in the story proper during Volume 10. Chrom Ranchesse is a significant case of being one, as he was mentioned in the previous story, before he was subsequently mentioned here again as the same creator of the Gollems.
• Canon Welding: With the author's other series Chrono Crown, an Orphaned Series from the author where all of it would later be merged to the story of the light novel. This includes the following:
  • The entire story's setting, a.k.a. the Reverse World that was revealed to be the Partheno Continent in Chrono Crown's Chapter 2, served once as Chrono Crown's setting, before it was revealed to have been existing as a mirror to Touya's world. Countries like Strain, Panaches and Allent have been mentioned in the previous story, before they make an actual appearance here. Essentially, Smartphone's Reverse World arc is basically taking all elements from Chrono Crown's own, continuing it further and subsequently merging all of them within Smartphone's storyline.
  • Gollems, firstly appearing in Chrono Crown, also firstly appear in light novel's Volume 10, when Touya firstly encounters one in the parallel world. Their own backstory has been merged into one.
  • Norn Patolakshe and the Black Crown gollem Noir, the main protagonists of Chrono Crown, subsequently made an appearance as major characters in this story. The Red Cats including Nia Belmott, Euri and Est Flotier have also made an appearance in the light novel.
  • The relationship between the gollem Elfrau and Norn was mentioned in the story, which was revealed in the Chapter 2 of the Casino Capital arc. It has also been subsequently merged into the light novel's backstory.
  • The Partheno Sacred Empire and the ancient kingdoms, as well as the backstory of the war between two kingdoms, was subsequently incorporated into the backstory of the light novel.
• Casting a Shadow: Dark spell stones can cloak an area in shadow and can be used to summon monsters such as Lizardmen. This is one of Yumina's three elements.
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Played with. Touya initially notes that he'll no longer be able to recharge his smartphone in the fantasy world, but God just makes sure he'll have the right type of magic needed to recharge it. Additionally, he is no longer able to use it to communicate with anyone in his home world but can use it to communicate with God. However, he can still use it to access his home world's internet and keep up with current events or look up useful information. God also tweaked the phone's map function to display maps of the fantasy world instead of his home world. Later on, the phone gets reversed engineered and Touya hands them out to each of his wives and the various world leaders.
• Choice of Two Weapons: Touya later gives several of his friends (Linze, Elze, Yumina, and Yae) their choice of firearm so that Elze and Yae have a ranged weapon, Linze has something to fight Anti-Magic, and Yumina has an alternative to her bow.
• Clark Kenting: Touya and King Jamukha attempt this when trying to disguise themselves from Lyon. Deconstructed when Lyon instantly recognizes them from the rest of their looks (like how Touya didn't bother to change out of his magic jacket.
• Clean Food, Poisoned Fork: In an early story arc, Touya has to solve the mystery of who poisoned the King of Belfast. The main suspect was an ambassador from Mismede, a nation of beast-kin, as she gave the wine that was supposedly poisoned. Touya reveals that it was the king's drinking glass that was poisoned, with the mastermind being a xenophobic noble who was trying to kill any potential alliance between Belfast and Mismede.
• Compliment Fishing: The girls are always eager to receive praise from Touya, whether it be on their looks, their combat abilities, any good ideas they have, or how well they can ride a bicycle. And if he compliments one of them within view of the others, they will all come fishing for it.
• Cool Gate: Gate can open a portal leading to locations from long distances.
• Crystal Weapon: Due to the Phrase the cast use crystal from the Phrase, dub phrasium, for most of their weapons.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dark Magic does exist in this universe, but it's not treated as any more good or evil than the other kinds. Instead it's just treated as another form of magic, largely responsible for spatial abilities or summoning. In fact, Yumina, one of the main characters, specializes in Dark Magic alongside Light Magic.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Yumina's parents see nothing wrong with their twelve-year-old daughter getting married to nearly-sixteen Touya, and he has to persuade them to delay the marriage until she's 14 - they themselves got engaged at 14, and think it is the best age for romance. The Duke later announces an intention to give Sue's (Yumina's cousin) hand in marriage to Touya as well, despite the fact that Sue is even younger than Yumina. And yes, polygamy is looked upon much more favorably in this world. Moreover, nobody has a problem if the same twelve-year-old and people only a couple of years older than her go hunting dangerous monsters on a regular basis as a freelance job.
• Deus Sex Machina: A low-scale version deliberately invoked by Regina Babylon. All of her gynoids' functions are erotic in nature, including the "registration" system which acquires Touya's DNA either by french kissing...or you-know-what.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Touya and the others take out a dragon attacking a village on their way to Misemede. While said dragon was younger, they are often The Dreaded because of their sheer size and attack power. So Touya ends up earning this reputation when his small group manages to kill it, whereas it would normally take several dozen soldiers and magicians to take one down.
• Dimensional Traveler: Other than Touya, there are other known characters that traveled through worlds:
  • Endymion is part of a race from an upper dimension who travels the other worlds.
  • Melle, the former ruler of the Phrase, traveled with Ende but was followed by the Phrase that wanted her to return.
  • Alerius Palerius, the sage of time, created a dimensional gate and his son was sent to the reverse world by accident, 5000 years ago
  • Chrome Sanchez from the Reverse world came to Touya's new world using The Black crown 5000 yrs. ago.
  • In Touya's discovery of the Reverse world, several characters and normal people have been traveling between the Reverse world and Touya's New world both on purpose or accidental.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Earth spell stones can produce sand.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: Babylon is separated into nine pieces and is a base built to defend and fight against the Phrase. Most pieces hold an essential function for that goal. For example, the Workshop can mass-produce items but can't build them from scratch. The Hangar holds a broken Framegear, but no blueprints or fuel for it. The Storage Facility holds the blueprints, but...well, you can get the idea from there.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme, "Junjou Emotional", is sung by one of the girls (commonly) in episodes where they do something big.
• Dragon Their Feet: The Wicked Devout's five generals, who served as the Wicked God's lieutenants, were largely absent during the battle with Yula and the Wicked God, their master. This was due to them being former rogue humans who were only fanatical worshippers to their master. It was until they consumed the dust of their master's remains that ascended them to divinity, where they are now continuing the Wicked God's Evil Plan in Touya's world. At the same time, they are now also Dragon Ascendant, as well, as they become the Big Bad after Yula and the Wicked God.
• Engineered Public Confession: A romantic, non-villainous example. After Linze's Love Confession, Touya panics and locks himself in his room. Yumina visits him later, and they discuss what this means for their relationship. Yumina bluntly asks Touya if he cares for Linze, and he firmly states that he does. Yumina then reveals an invisible Linze in the room, who had apparently been severely depressed after Touya seemingly rejected her feelings. Knowing how Touya really feels cheers her up again, and she asks him to take her as a wife.
• Evolving Credits: The ending features a different girl, usually whichever one is newly introduced, or does something big to help Touya in that episode.
• Fan Disservice: Episode 12 shows intermission art where God (depicted as an old man with sexy legs) is laying suggestively on a bed.
• Fanservice:
  • Episode 5 is largely a fanservice episode, with Clothing Damage, naked slimegirls, and Touya figuring out how to see through walls just in time to accidentally catch one of the girls changing clothes.
  • Episode 10 is a Beach Episode. Swimsuits, wardrobe malfunctions, and bouncing ensue.
• Fantastic Racism: Some people in Belfast have this view towards the people of Mismede. Count Balsa is quick to use this to pin his attempt to assassinate the king on Origa.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Most of the world resembles European fantasy tropes, but Eashen is a dead ringer for feudal Japan. In fact, when Elze, Linze and Yae first meet Touya, they believe he's from Eashen himself, and Yae is impressed that he knows everything about Eashen culture when they finally visit.
• Fate Worse than Death: In Volume 8/Chapter 195, Touya is forced to mete out punishments to three kidnappers/slavers in the absence of more judicial authorities. He decides to place a conditional Curse upon them—if they perform any actions which cause harm to another person, they'll become slowly paralyzed with each finger first, then one arm followed by the other, then the legs, and finally their heart. Furthermore, the curse can skip several steps (including straight to death) depending on how heinous the crime was. And last but not least, he warns them that the Curse cannot discriminate between "legal" harm and "illegal" harm; turning down a woman's Love Confession and breaking her heart will set off the curse just as well. Touya internally acknowledges that it's probably impossible to live without harming one person, and realizes that he's doomed these three men to either become hermits that live far from other people or try to become the greatest saints that ever lived.
• Flight Is the Final Power: Touya has the unique (for his time anyway) gift of all elemental forms of magic, as well as using any Null Magic that is described to him in basic detail. He eventually creates a sustained, high-speed flight by combining Accel, Gravity, Levitate, and Flight...a feat that astounds observers even above his prior accomplishments, and something that no one but he could have ever figured out.
• Foreign Queasine: Xenoahs' cuisine is stomach-turning to Touya. The kingdom, founded by and for demonkin, has a very harsh environment that limits the options for food production, and the available game consists largely of magical beasts, resulting in dishes like a purple soup with eyeballs in it, or troll flank steak, which Touya thinks tastes like rubber.
• Formula with a Twist: The premise is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: an isekai where the protagonist is allowed to take a fully-functioning smartphone with him. This gives him access to tools and information that supplement his ridiculously high power.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In episode 4, during the scene in which Touya introduces Yumina to the other girls, Yae and Elze are surprised that Touya has gotten engaged in such a short time. The scene briefly cuts to Linze briefly, who has a dark blue shadow hanging over her eyes (an anime symbol of unhappiness). This foreshadows the fact that Linze has already fallen for Touya and is the most jealous girl amongst them.
• Genre Shift: The story undergoes several subtle genre shifts as it continues. It starts early on as a Heroic Fantasy story about a hero and his companions facing the Monster of the Week. After Touya becomes king of his own nation, it turns into a High Fantasy story about political alliances and building a sovereign nation. Once Touya assembles enough pieces of Babylon, it turns into a Real Robot Genre as the main characters utilize Framegear in a battle against the Phrase and other invading nations.
• Giant Enemy Crab: One mission Touya takes with Yumina involves defeating a Bloody Crab, a monster so powerful and dangerous that allows her to go up in rank as an adventurer.
• Harem Genre: Thanks to Yumina's help, Touya builds a large and ever-growing harem of actual wives.
• Headbutt of Love: Touching foreheads is necessary for Touya to look into someone's memories with the Recall spell. This gets played up whenever he has to do it.
• Healing Hands: Application of light magic toward injuries. Touya's recovery spell from Sue's grandfather can undo any abnormal state of anyone's body, like restoring the Duke's wife's eyesight, and manages to heal the king after he's been poisoned when even the royal healer is unable to do anything. This helps to build trust in many of the other characters, especially as he does it without asking for anything in return. He also cures Spica of Demoderma, a disease specific to Demonkin.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Slip spell...makes people trip and fall. In Touya's hands, it's such a fight-winner that the King of Mismede banned it in sparring matches for being an In-Universe Game-Breaker.
• Heir Club for Men: Downplayed Trope. According to Yumina, without a male heir, she would be the Queen Regent and have her husband as a Prince consort. This leads to her father and the current king being targeted for assassination because his only child is a young woman and would need to marry whatever puppet was selected as Prince consort. It's also a plot point later on after the Queen becomes pregnant because King Tristwin really wants Touya to inherit the throne, however, that would become less likely if the second child were a boy. Which it turns out to be.
• Hero's Slave Harem: Downplayed. In addition to the main heroines that act as his brides, Touya also eventually acquires nine artificial human gynoids which were specifically created to be sex bots for him. After imprinting him as their master, all nine robots want nothing more than to be "used" by Touya, with Cesca in particular being extremely aggressive about it. On top of this, Touya eventually becomes king of his own country and many women under his command also show an interest in being a mistress or otherwise having a romantic relationship with him.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: In Eashen, Yamamoto Kansuke, the Takeda general, is a powerful Evil Sorcerer (strong enough to block Touya's magic) who has taken over the Takeda for his own ambitions.
• Humongous Mecha: Framegear, a weapon created by Regina Babylon to battle against the Phrase.
• Hypocrisy Nod: When General Bazoar reveals how the artifacts he wears and his pact with a demon lord make him Nigh-Invulnerable, Touya complains about him being OP while admitting he isn't exactly one to complain.
• Karmic Misfire: Touya uses the classic "problem of evil" dilemma to disprove the existence of a "God of Justice". If such a god exists, then why do bad people get away with their crimes, while good ones can be falsely accused? The devout believers answer that it's because their god wants them to punish the wicked themselves, to which Touya asks: then who needs such a god in the first place?
• Kemonomimi: Mismede's people all have animal ears of various types.
• Light 'em Up: Light spells can be used to illuminate dark places, do healing magic, and light-based attack spells(effective against undead). This is one of Linze's. Sue later learns that Light is her only affinity.
• Loads and Loads of Races: The series features your Standard Fantasy Races and more.
  • Mesmede consists of 7 clans: Beastmen, Winged races, Horned Races, Dragonfolk, Dryadic people, Aquatic races and Fairies.
  • Elves and Dwarves have their settlements.
  • Xenoahs has the Demonkin compost of the Demon king clan, Dark elves, Vampires, Ogres, Lamias, etc. They have a shared vulnerability to a disease called demoderma.
  • Artificial races like gynoids, golems, and other constructs.
  • Interdimentional races that can travel across worlds like the Phrase and Drifters.
• Loophole Abuse: Touya's battle against the King of Mismede has the sole caveat that combatants cannot use offensive magic that targets a single person. As it does not count as offensive magic, Touya simply uses his Slip spell to make the king slip up, then claims victory as the king is in no position to fight back. The king is quick to challenge Touya to a rematch, whilst banning the use of that spell.
• Magical Eye: Yumina's magical sight, which enables her to see into a person's true character. It's also why her parents have no issues with her wanting to marry Touya despite having just met him. The Pope of Ramisshu, Elias Orutora, also has this that has the ability to tell if a person is lying
• Magically-Binding Contract: Touya explains Curse magic by likening it to a contract or promise. The person casting the curse sets the conditions upon which the curse will activate, and the cursed party is forced to do (or not do) whatever it takes to avoid triggering the spell.
• Magical Incantation: Spells are cast via a three-part incantation. The first part calls upon the source of the power, the second part defines the form of the spell and its targets, and the final part calls the spell's name
• Making a Splash: Water spell stones can produce water. They can also be used to conjure ice. This is one of Linze's three elements.
• Marry Them All:
  • Because polygamy is legal in the fantasy world, God nonchalantly proposes that Touya do this with the girls he is traveling with.
  • In Episode 6, Yumina sees what's going on, and immediately says that she doesn't mind sharing. Sue also wants to marry Touya.
  • By Episode 12, all girls in the party have confessed their love to Touya and asked to marry him. He accepts them and promises to marry the four of them when he feels mature enough to take responsibility for their lives. The girls agree to wait for him and make the harem official under Yumina's leadership. Later in the novels, his harem grows to 9 actual wives, including Sue, Leen, and the princesses of three other nations.
• Master of All:
  • Touya can use all magical affinities and all Null Magic and can outdo any of his girlfriends in their own sphere of power. He's also a better fighter than Yae, the resident Badass Normal.
  • Professor Regina Babylon, who lived over 5,000 years ago, also had all affinities, which becomes the qualification for taking over the Flying Gardens of Babylon.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Just before Touya ends the conflict against the Queen of Phrase, an internal schism happened among the Phrase and the Mutants, with the latter taking over the antagonist post.
• Mirror World: The Reverse World/Western Continent is basically Touya's world with the entire Eastern Continent literally mirrored horizontally. It is, however, has its own unique traits, with countries having different borders to its countries from its eastern counterpart, as well as having Gollems being the predominant mechas instead of Frame Gears. Incidentally this was once the main setting of the short-lived series Chrono Crown, another of Fuyuhara's older works, before it was welded into the Smartphone canon. But both continents were merged later, where the entrance to both of them can be accessed through Refreese Imperium from the east or through Panaches Kingdom from the west.
• Mon: Magicians with Dark attribute can summon beast, Sandora kingdom use enchanted Slave Collar on people and magic beast to fight for them, The rivet tribe can tame plant-based magic beast and in the reverse world(now the western continent) makes use of Gollems: magitech robots that can be partnered with humans using genetic imprints.
• Mood Whiplash: Played for laughs in Episode 12, when Elze and Yae demand a serious match against Touya. The battle is treated with complete gravitas and seriousness...right up until Touya is KOed. When he wakes up, Elze and Yae are silly, gibbering messes, nervously asking him to take them as his wives. The stark contrast between their behavior before and after the battle is as adorable as it is hilarious.
• Mysterious Past: Touya's backstory was only hinted via his Inner Monologues up until in volume 21 from his friend's flashback.
• New Life in Another World Bonus:The protagonist Touya gains blessings upon being brought back to life in another world. Two of them are the ability to use magic and his smartphone still being functional in the other world. These are gifts of "God" who really wished to make up for accidentally killing the Touya back on Earth.
  • From the gift to use magic, Touya can use all known seven elements of magic, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness, and Null. For the locals, it is more common to have just two elemental affinities. Three is rarer, and six is totally unheard of. With all affinities, Touya can equip a coat that reduced damage only for magical attacks that are the same element as the wearer's affinities but doubles damage for attacks from elements the wearer doesn't have affinities for. But more importantly, he is able to gain access and inherit Babylon, an advanced floating magitek facility built five thousand years ago and divided into nine pieces, as only a person with all affinities can activate the teleportation gates needed to enter. As it turns out, Regina Babylon, who also had all seven affinities, had foreseen Touya's arrival and built Babylon just for him. She'd even copied her consciousness into a gynoid so she'd be able to work with him in the future.
  • Also from his magical gift, Touya can use any Null magic spell and combine their effects, an impossible feat since the spells that make up Null magic are for the most part exclusive to their creators. And that's not even counting the fact that humans can have at most two Null spells in their repertoire. The more magically-inclined fairies can have only up to five. This means Touya can do all sorts of things like create teleportation portals to any place he has memories of, remove ailments like blindness and poison, reshape a shard of a dragon's fang into a modern-day gun, etc...
  • Touya's request to "God" was that he would be able to bring and use his smartphone in the fantasy world. So not only does "God" make it so that he is able to recharge his phone with magic, but that the phone will be useful on Touya's adventures. While he can no longer contact anyone on Earth, Touya can still visit websites on Earth, good for looking up information on technology he wants to create and give to his allies. The phone map application has been changed to provide maps of the fantasy world and can be used to extend the range of his magic. And that's not even mentioning that the phone has a direct line with "God".
• Non-Elemental: Null magic is this, as rather than being a manifestation of a specific element, its possible effects are highly varied and each is unique to its user.
• No Periods, Period: Averted twice. In one minor sequence, Linze and Elze are both bedridden with painful periods, during which time Touya takes out two adventurer gangs in the most humiliating way he can conceive. Then, later the king starts asking for grandchildren and ensures Touya that Yumina has already started her periods, to which Yumina predictably responds with a sharp blow to the king's solar plexus.
• Not Completely Useless: While some effects of null magic may be initially seen as Useless Useful Spells, they can wind up being this instead. In particular, the Slip spell (making someone slip and fall) is one of Touya's trademark spells, as it lets him end most fights nonviolently. Later, the Gravity spell, which only serves to make objects heavier, allows Touya to defeat a Bloody Crab, and later the demon summoned by General Bazoar by applying it to his sword to increase the force of impact.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Regina Babylon tells Touya that time-bending magic only truly works if it can connect two similar beings separated by time and space. Thus, the reason she was able to watch (and later speak with) Touya is because the two of them are very much alike. Touya refuses to believe that they have anything in common aside from their magical affinities.
• Obviously Evil: The smugly-smiling Count Balsa was the chief suspect for poisoning the King of Belfast, to the point that everyone knows he did it but can't dispute that the evidence points to Olga instead. When Touya tricks Balsa into giving himself away, it comes to the surprise of absolutely no one. Possibly justified because Yumina, the King's daughter, is a Living Lie Detector and could easily tell that Balsa was not only lying but shady as hell.
  • In fact, most of the villains in the series can be considered this. Whenever a character is described as being comedically ugly and/or fat, chances are they turn out to be a villain.
• Obvious Rule Patch: In-Universe, the King of Mismede bans Touya's Slip spell from sparring matches because it immediately puts Touya in a winning position.
• Out of Focus: Despite being a Harem Genre story, the actual harem gets much less focus after Touya becomes King. From that point on, the story is largely about him, his cabinet of advisors, and his political allies around the world.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: An Empire general launches a coup, using a pair of bracelets to make himself immune to any physical or magical attacks as long as he has enough mana - which the magical immunity attack provides by draining mana from everyone around himself. Touya beats him by using Gate to throw him into an enclosed box with a dead slime, which produces such a horrible smell that people will faint if they are forced to smell it for too long. And, just to make it worse, he makes the general laugh by making a face, hastening his defeat.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: While in Mismede, Touya and King Jamukha put on masks to help Leon stop a bunch of hoodlums without being discovered since they are spying on him during a date with Olga. Both are recognized almost immediately.
• Playing with Fire: Fire spell stones can be used to conjure flames. This is one of Linze's three elements.
• The Power of Creation: The world god and later Touya via [copy] spell.
• Power Perversion Potential:
  • Touya notes that the Aports spell can be used to steal small objects, such as women's panties.
  • The ultimate creation of the slime researcher was slime that would assume the form of a harem of beautiful naked slimegirls. The girls immediately insist that all of his work be "purified".
  • Touya enchants his smartphone with a see-through-walls spell right as Linze is getting dressed.
  • Leen goes invisible to feel up Tsubaki and blames it on also-invisible Touya. He is not amused.
• Precursors: The Partheno civilization, which existed 5,000 years ago and left behind Magitek ruins.
• The Pretty Guys Are Stronger: Among the Phrase, Lesser, Intermediate and Upper Constructs consist of variably-sized monsters, while Dominant Constructs, who are even more powerful than Uppers, look exactly like humans.
• Queer People Are Funny: In the novels, Touya reacts with comedic shock and (to put it mildly) disappointment whenever a situation implies that a character isn't heteronormative. For example, he often gets Mistaken for Gay and desperately insists that he isn't "that kind of person". His monologue also goes for shock humor, often getting flustered around "indecent" homosexual activity, and constantly reminding himself that he's "normal" or "proper" when confronted with possible homosexuality in other characters.
• Random Events Plot: The majority of the story runs on an issue that Touya and his party have to attend to. And it's not always a monster or a battle. Even after the central antagonists, the Phrase, are introduced, each chapter/episode mostly consists of self-contained events or dilemmas to solve.
• Razor Wind: One application of wind magic, Yumina is quick to use it to destroy some Bust Slimes when they launch themselves at her.
• Realpolitik: The King of Belfast and the Regulus Emperor decide to reward Touya by creating a new kingdom out of a set of lands on the border between both countries, where several trade routes pass through, but which have been problematic due to bandits and monsters. This way, they get a neutral party willing to act as a mediator (since Touya is engaged with both countries' princesses) and friendly with both of them, secure their trade routes (as they know Touya will do his best to protect the territory and make it safe) and potentially preserving a balance of power in the region, while also rewarding Touya properly.
• Reconstruction: This series teases, but then tosses out several staple Harem Genre tropes.
  • The protagonist is a rather generic Nice Guy, Invincible Hero, and Chick Magnet. However, the reasons for it are explained in the very premise of the show—God feels guilty for killing him, and is thus doing everything in his power to give Touya the best life ever. On top of this, the other gods (such as the Love Goddess) also like him, so they're pulling the strings to do small favors for him here and there.
  • The girls in the harem rarely fight seriously over him—they compete for his immediate attention, but that's about it.
  • The protagonist is a Clueless Chick-Magnet, thus the girls take it upon themselves to build his harem. This is helped by the fact that polygyny is normal in this world.
  • At one point, the girls are angry with Touya for being kissed by a gynoid. Leen calls out their behavior by saying that they don't have any right to accuse him if they haven't told him how they feel.
  • The girls become his actual wives fairly early into the story, putting an end to almost all Ship-to-Ship Combat.
• Recycled In Space: This is essentially a Trapped in Another World light novel... WITH A SMARTPHONE!
• Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Ellen, the wife of the Duke of Belfast, had been blind ever since contracting an illness five years in the past. Her eyes are dull and non-reflective at first until the protagonist uses magic to restore her vision, and they gradually return to normal.
• Ring of Power: The engagement/wedding rings Touya gives his wives are enchanted with useful abilities like Accel and Storage, making them all much more powerful on the battlefield.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Implied from the beginning but firmly established in Episode 3, with a coat that increases your resistance to magic in any affinities the wearer possesses while doubling the damage taken from any other magic.
• Rule of Seven: Magic exists in seven elements: fire, water, earth, wind, light, dark, and null.
• Sacred First Kiss: The desire to be the first girl to kiss Touya becomes a major turning point in the romantic subplot. Francesca, Linze, and Yumina all claim their own version of it. Francesca tricks Touya into kissing her as a method of storing his DNA in her system and registering him as her owner, thus making her the first to "kiss" him in the broadest sense. This spurs Linze into making a Love Confession and kissing Touya herself out of panic, thus making her the first to kiss him for romantic reasons. Feeling jealous and undermined as Touya's legitimate fiancee, Yumina later directly asks Touya for a kiss, happily proclaiming that she's "the first woman to be kissed by Touya". Not long after that, the other girls confess their love as well and get their own kisses from him.
• Scam Religion: The false religion of Ramissh Theocracy who worship Lars as its deific figure is this. Not only it is revealed to be a fake religion created by Ramirez, but many of the Sinister Ministers including Zeon and Kyurei actively try to cover up the truth behind it, going so far in quashing many dissenters including the legitimate Ramissh pope Elias Altra and head cardinal Phyllis Rugit by framing them for crimes they did not do. It was done in due to them actually not falling to their lies that have been perpetuated to the Theocracy for long.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: With some series where a character brings a smartphone into a fantasy realm, the phone largely is The Load and only acts as a very tough pocket protector at most. God bent the terms of Touya's initial wish to give him magic, so he could charge it freely, and upgraded all its apps to work within his new home, including giving him a direct line to God and magical access to the internet, all as part of his service package, so it would 'work' in the new world.
• Secret Test of Character: The pieces of Babylon typically have these built in as tests for Touya, usually with a perverted twist. For example, Francesca approaches him with no skirt or panties and tries to entice him. If he had tried to assault her, she would have kicked him off the island. If he had pretended not to notice, she would have politely asked him to leave. But, since he was clearly interested, but asked her to cover herself anyway, she concludes that he's worthy of owning both the island...and her.
• Semantic Superpower: Linze teaches Touya that magic tends to do exactly what their names and descriptions imply and that mastering spells requires understanding what those semantics mean. For instance, Linze herself can't use Bubble Bomb before she knows what a "bomb" is. As Touya grows more experienced, he starts to realize the implications of this. For instance, he figures out that he can enchant his smartphone with Search and use its GPS to find anything in the world, that he can combine Enchant and Program to create an item that triggers a spell on his command, and that he can use Gate (which transports him anyplace he's been to before) to visit God in Heaven because he's died once before.
• Shock and Awe: This is one application of wind magic.
• Shout-Out:
  • During the investigation on discerning who and how someone poisoned the King during an earlier banquet, Touya makes a strong gesture very similar to Conan's style from the Case Closed series.
  • When Touya first considers marriage to Princess Yumina, God warns him that, while polyamory is accepted in his new home, molesting minors still gets people sent to a "special Hell".
  • Touya shows his household a cartoon about animals chasing each other with no dialogue. It's strongly implied to be Tom and Jerry.
  • In episode 7, there's an intermission art depicting Touya running away from Leen's room and screaming "NIGERUNDAYOOOO!"
  • In volume 11, Touya reflects on a country that is infested with Behemoths and thinks it would be nice if a silver warrior descended from space to wipe them all out, though he's not sure the warrior could do it in under three minutes.
  • During a rainy day in Brunhild, Touya hears the music god Sousuke playing his songs and thinks the following:
    He was playing quite the appropriate melody for a rainy day, but I had the feeling nobody would start singing in it or dancing with his umbrella.
  • When Touya learns that Palerius designed a Powered Armor, he thinks that it "sounds like something a billionaire might build in a cave with a box of scraps."
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: All the girls want a piece of the kind, generous young man who wants to spread happiness to everyone. Charlotte and Leena are the only potential suitors for whom this doesn't seem to apply. (They want Touya because of his amazing power.)
• Stalking is Love: According to Yumina, Linze's romantic quirk is that she follows Touya everywhere he goes. She tries to rationalize it by saying she suspected he was going to do something perverted, but everyone can see right through her.
• Standard Japanese Fantasy Setting:
  • One of the first things the protagonist Touya does is join an Adventure Guild.
  • Beastkin and beast races exist and are looked down upon by certain elitist groups of humans.
  • The protagonist encounters expies of The Four Gods and eventually makes them his familiars.
  • There is a Japan-analogue called "Eashen".
  • There is an ancient civilization of precursors that were wiped out eons ago.
  • The protagonist eventually discovers the means to create Humongous Mecha called "Framegears".
• Story-Breaker Power:
  • Through experimentation, Touya discovers that the Program spell he learns from Leen (which instructs inanimate objects to move on their own) can create any kind of mechanical function, so long as the object has the shape, enchantment, or articulation to perform the ability. It even has an advantage over Real Life machines, since there are no power sources or input-output devices required. This ability basically means that a talented engineer can create a machine that can do virtually anything, especially if several Programmed components are combined together. Leen herself even speculates that the gynoids like Cesca were given sapience via a very well-designed Program spell.
  • The Touya Mochizuki app, for context users of this app can use every ability Touya has outside his divinity (everyone that has a smartphone can fight like Touya), this is his secret weapon against Yula and the Wicked God in Volume 19. It is a great thing this is removed after they are defeated.
• Sugar Bowl: The world Touya is dropped in is filled with extraordinarily friendly and earnest people. The very first person he meets not only buys his old high school uniform but picks out a new outfit for him too. There are villains and bad people, but they're a minority and the rulers of each nation are very friendly, open to commoners, and eager to reward Touya when he comes to their aid. And of course, it's filled with all manner of pretty girls.
• Summon Magic: One application of dark magic, it can be used to summon monsters such as Lizardmen. Yumina is capable of summoning a pack of Silver Wolves with it, while Touya used it to summon and bond with Kohaku.
• Supernatural Phone: Insomuch that it still has service in and GPS maps of an alternate universe! It also acts as a direct line to God.
• Taken for Granite: The Catoblepas is a monster with a gaze that allows it to turn its victim into tone. The effect can be reversed with the spell Recovery, but unfortunately it also extends to the clothes (resulting in Touya losing his shoes, and Lucia her underwear). The effect also remains active for a while even after it's killed by decapitation.
• Take That!: Eashen has a neighboring nation named Yulong/Yuuron, which is ruled by an emperor and claims to have 7000 years of history (heavily implied to be exaggerated since the Partheno Civilization never heard of Yulong). After vast resources were discovered in a neighboring country, they claimed that it had always been their territory historically, and launched a war of aggression, which ended when their own country fell into anarchy. As if what real-world country Yulong is supposed to represent isn't obvious enough, the country's assassins wear Beijing opera masks.
  • This is also the only country in the story with absolutely no sympathetic characters.
  • They basically embody every old-timey racist stereotype about Chinese people, to a pretty uncomfortable degree.
  • It then goes downhill for them later on in the story. Most notably after the Phrase (especially the Advanced class Phrase) appear). And in case the connections weren't obvious enough already, Touya builds a great wall around part of the country as a containment measure.
• Technology Uplift:
  • Touya gives ice cream to the residents of the new world in the first episode. It's a hit.
  • He later also introduces them to the concept of a camera and pictures after he accidentally surprises the king of Misemede with the flash from his phone.
  • In the same episode, he crafts a pistol and ammunition for himself and two of his teammates, introducing them to the concept of firearms.
  • He uses magic to create some bicycles to travel short distances, and before he knows it, everyone in his household and the extended nobility wants one.
  • Touya takes great care to avoid mass-producing the incredible weapons he provides for his friends and allies. It's fine if the people he cares about have the weapons they need to protect themselves, but anything more than that and he risks starting a deadly arms race like in his original world's history. This plays out to exactly such a result later in the story when an overconfident head scientist in Roadmare tries to create controllable Wood Golems for his country in response to the arrival of the Frame Gears, though this ends in disaster when the Golems go haywire. Later even than that, pieces of a damaged Frame Gear are stolen by unknown parties in the aftermath of a battle, and soon thereafter a country begins to tout its "Iron Warriors", functional but inferior reverse-engineered versions of the Frame Gears.
  • After revealing his status as a (former) other-worlder to his fiancées, he gives them and some trusted allies smartphones.
• Thanks for the Mammary: After capturing a pair of spies and searching for any hidden weapons, Touya accidentally touches one of their breasts. They are actually Lapis and Cecile, the two maids secretly sent by the king of Belfast to watch over Yumina.
• Together We Are X: The entire Seekers guild is regarded as one of the Reverse World's Five Great Gollemancers, alongside Elluka, the Witch-King of Isengard, the Maestro, and the Professor.
• Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Goes out of control when Elze loses it and punches Touya, who is about to kiss her. After agreeing to marry her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A magical painting that can leave her frame and lives in a certain castle in Regulus ended up causing the death of four consecutive lords (the first went mad because she looked like the man's deceased wife and was executed when he started to kill his people in his search for a spell to resurrect his wife, the second had a heart attack when he saw her, the third died in a riding accident when he was leaving after seeing her and the fourth was murdered by his wife because she saw her and he was Mistaken for Cheating), but she never makes the connection between her presence and the deaths.
• Useless Useful Spell: Because of how varied the effects of null magic are, some of them fall under this trope. Touya even lampshades this.
• Verbal Tic: Yae often ends her sentences with a "-de gozaru". Linze sometimes ends hers with "-desu". Lucia ends hers with "-wa".
• A Wizard Did It: Taken to its logical extreme when the "wizard" in question is literally God. Touya's affinity for magic, excellent physical abilities, and ever-handy smartphone are all literally his by the grace of God.
• Wham Episode: Episode 11 is a more light-hearted example than typically seen. Touya finds Francesca and the Garden of Babylon, and the developments that follow forever change the status quo of the story. The characters learn that there are altogether nine pieces that form Babylon, which provides the first long-term goal of the story. Francesca's forward advances toward Touya reveals what the girls talked about in Episode 6, demonstrating that Yumina is actively working toward a Marry Them All resolution to the romantic subplot. And at the close of the episode, Francesca stealing Touya's Sacred First Kiss spurs Linze to promptly end the Cannot Spit It Out, Unwanted Harem and Oblivious to Love dynamic by making an impassioned Love Confession to Touya, sealed with a kiss of her own.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: All the girls hate and fear slimes with a passion. Particularly because green slimes can destroy their clothes.
• World of Action Girls: Almost every girl in the show is capable of some form of combat, whether it's direct combat with melee weapons or ranged attacks via spells or with a bow and arrow.
• Wutai: Eashen is practically identical to Japanese culture, including having a leader named Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, this Tokugawa is much younger than his Real Life counterpart, and the political system of Eashen is slightly different.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Being able to utilize both light and dark magic, Yumina can do this. So can Touya, by virtue of being able to access all elements of magic.
• Younger and Hipper: This work is essentially a version of one for the Trapped in Another World genre, using multiple uses of a smartphone in the classic fantasy world and the selfie of the main characters on the official poster.

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