It seems appropriate that a show with “foodie” in the title should try to have its cake and eat it too. The Forsaken Saintess and Her Foodie Roadtrip in Another World seems unsure as to whether or not it can pull off just being the cozy, food-centric adventure it wants to be, throwing in more and more traditional isekai elements that ultimately end up detracting from both halves of the story – it's neither a good iyashikei foodie fantasy nor a good isekai fantasy. And while many of us are fed up with the latter genre (or perhaps “fatigued by” would be the better way to put it; I still love a good isekai series), it's still frustrating to see this unable to settle on a genre or to make its combination work.
The basic premise is right there in the title. Camping and fishing enthusiast Rin Takanashi is out on one of her beloved solo trips in her camper van when she suddenly finds herself summoned to another world, van and all. It's part of a saintess summoning ritual, and like a few other working Japanese people before her, she's summarily dismissed in favor of the teen girl who was nabbed by the same ritual. In Rin's case, her rejection has to do with her adulthood and the fact that her gods-given skills don't appear to be immediately useful: she's got her van and something called “survival,” which allows her to see if a plant or monster is dangerous and/or edible and how good it will taste.
She can also roll with the punches, which is frankly the most useful skill in this sort of situation. Rin hops in her van and takes off, figuring she'll enjoy a prolonged camping trip in this new, much more rural world. Since she discovers that her van is larger on the inside, can be stored in a pocket dimension, and magically cleans and restocks its supplies, she's basically set for life – a life she eventually shares with a group of adventurers in a party called Smorgasbord.
Were this series solely about Rin and her new pals driving around and cooking and eating wildlife in Japanese dishes, it probably would have been perfectly fine, if not a little basic. Rin introduces her new friends to the joys of mayonnaise, tartar sauce, miso, tempura, and the rest. She gets them to eat vegetables. It's not thrilling, but nice enough. But when it turns out that Vil, the first member of Smorgasbord she meets (by fishing him out of a river), has a powerful brother in the capital who needs to see him, and that more and more monsters are appearing, the plot loses its way a bit, which is ironic because arguably it loses the plot by gaining one. I won't spoil the twist that arrives in episode ten and is meant to carry the final quarter of the series, but suffice it to say that it really doesn't add anything to the show. It feels as if the original webnovel author decided that they needed to throw their readers a very standard bone in order to keep the series interesting, when in fact all it does is derail the cozy foodie story that the series had comfortably been up to that point.
Of course, the worldbuilding was always a tad off. Naming conventions for fantasy creatures are all over the place – how can we have “baby ploop,” a recognizable giant version of a real-world sea creature and “giant bats” existing in the same universe, especially when the bats are as recognizable as the ploop? Unless “ploop” is an attempt to use the Italian name for octopus, polpo, but that, too, is awkward, given that all the other creature names are in Japanese or English. Alongside these larger versions of Earth animals, there are also fantasy standards like dragons and some Andre Norton-style wingèd cats, all easily accessible by car on the wide, perfectly paved roads and manicured pastures that make up the landscape.
There are some better attempts at uniqueness. Xenon, the elven priest, isn't a vegetarian, countering years of known elf lore, and Rin is hinted to be attracted to Aria, the only other woman in the party. (Or at least a fan of her pillowy bosom.) That and Aria's husband Ed's devotion to her are the only real hints of romance in the series, which feels a bit unusual.
Art and animation are serviceable. There's real effort made to make the food look appetizing with mixed results, and human characters generally stay on-model. Beastfolk designs are a highlight, especially adorable kobold guild receptionist Sheila, but flying cat Gomamiso is frequently off-model or cross-eyed, and the way killed animals turn into neatly wrapped parcels of ingredients, complete with butcher's paper, is laughable. Gomamiso's voice is also rather annoying, although everyone else is fine.