That Time Anime Wasn’t Meant for Me (Sono Toki, Anime wa Ore no Tame Janakatta)

Takumi Arata is forty. Married. Overworked. Barely keeping it together.One night, exhausted and half-joking, he mutters a wish:“I wish life was more like anime.” The universe answers. Now he’s eighteen again—new body, new world, new rules. A high school setting straight out of a light novel. Cute girls. Rooftop lunches. Golden light. It’s perfect. Too perfect. His memories are fading. His phone’s photos are blurring. And his only warning? Enjoy this life… properly… or else. A psychological slow-burn isekai where the dream might be the trap.