[SUEMA, Kazuko. Monologue. Boogiepop Series]
Please, if you are one of the people in the community who spread free hate on Isekai just because they are Isekai, I urge you to read this review carefully.
Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi: Cheat Slayer is Homura Kawamoto's newest publication. Perhaps this name is not strange to you, reader, after all, he is famously known for his other work that won an anime adaptation in two seasons, Kakegurui. However, I must say that a possible large number of people who now step on the page of this manga probably do not know him, since the greatest source of popularity of this work is not its author, nor its history. The key behind which many are here is the reputation this one recently gained for being canceled after its one and only chapter. Even though I've watched Kakegurui, I personally fit into this group that heard about Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi for its cancellation and only later came to find out about its author. Like one of those people, I also barely knew about the work and I began to consume its only chapter out of curiosity. So I did and, now that I'm done, I can say I'm completely surprised. Surprised in the sense that an author of such a popular work managed to descend to that level.
The story of Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi is incomplete because of its interruption. All we know so far, briefly, is that in a given fantasy world where the work takes place, there is a group of nine reincarnated heroes. The guild of these nine heroes, "The Insurgents of God", is seen as protective and heroic in that world, fighting the apparent evildoers, the demon lord's troops. The nine reincarnated build a virtuous and immaculate image in front of our protagonist, Lute, who, as often happens with young people in front of their idols, is inspired and also projects themselves in them.
However, Lute's reality changes drastically as he sees his village under attack. On the outskirts of town, he and Lydia, his childhood friend, are taken by surprise and murdered – or at least they would be, but Lute survives. While he doesn't completely lose consciousness, the protagonist peeks out of his eyes and experiences a reality check. In front of him, Lydia, already dead, is raped by one of the reincarnated, while two others look on from afar. The reincarnated heroes that he had so much respect for, in fact, are worthless degenerates who have little respect for any form of life in that world. And so, Lute's thirst for revenge is fed, whereby he will later ally himself with an unknown witch and the story will follow (or would) from there.
Everything this chapter tries to convey, in terms of history, aims to shock the reader and build in him a certain layer of hatred on the nine reincarnated. And yet, I would say it fails in that very department. As this is an incomplete, one-chapter story, I can't demand too much depth on the characters or why they all do their deeds. It would be unfair. However, I find it difficult to cling to the protagonist or truly feel the impact of him having a childhood friend killed and raped in front of him when his reaction is so expressionless.
As he sees the villains' disgusting attitudes, he doesn't believe it and convinces himself that what before his eyes is a dream. This would be understandable, given the strong reference he sustains about reincarnated people and the human being's frequent habit of undertaking self-deception as an adaptive mechanism. He doesn't want to believe this is real. But when he confirms the veracity of what he witnessed, the “fury” and thirst for revenge that guide the character are reduced to empty facial expressions in just a few frames. The magnitude of his feelings is not well emphasized and soon we see Lute thinking about the difficulty it would be to defeat the reincarnated being he a normal person, amidst the expository dialogues of the witch who cured him. I mean, where is the expressiveness of this character? Where is the shriek of pain that would make the reader feel sorry for their miserable situation? All we have for that is his childhood friend's statement, before the sad moment happened, and a few uninspired shots. Do you see what I want to expose here, dear reader? Not only does this single chapter contain almost no substance, it fails in what little it does.
The pacing in this chapter is extremely fast, in my opinion. Reincarnates are barely introduced properly, so the first page and a few frames make up our introduction to them. Most of the characters just make their appearance and have very few lines so far, with the exception of the Shin Walford-inspired character. The protagonist's cathartic moments are quickly replaced by the witch's explanations and derogatory speeches by the nine reincarnated under over-caricature expressions, in an attempt to push hate and more hatred towards these characters down our throats. The protagonist's emotional moments and narrative, or the atmosphere surrounding his friend's rape, are in the background, while the focus shifts at all costs to the attempt to prove “how rotten reincarnates are”.
But, after all, we all know the reason for this lack of commitment to the narrative itself. From the first second we skim the cover, it's already possible to understand why. In Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi, the author is not concerned with telling a story, much less adding substance to it. It's no coincidence that the nine alleged heinous “heroes” have such familiar designs, after all they are nearly identical in appearance to nine protagonists from nine popular works in the anime industry. This is because Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi is an obvious, unhealthy attack on the Isekai phenomenon.
And, beyond an attack, I would consider the work dangerous and hypocritical.
You see, although I like some of the examples in this sub-genre, I wouldn't say I'm a big fan of Isekai. While I appreciate some of them, like Re:Zero, I also have problems with others, like Overlord. Both cited inspire characters that the author of Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi applied as villains in his work. The point is that my opinion about the work is not negative because of favoritism about work "x" or "y", but rather related to the hate speech character that the manga carries and, consequently, how much it feeds this reproduction in the community. Just look at the discussions that have arisen around this story. The vast majority of them do not concern the problems that certain Isekais might sustain such as romanticizing the lives of NEETs and ignoring their real problems. They are more populated by childish taunts that are made to Isekai's fans and comments blaming them for canceling the work.
A good portion of this audience is the same one that generalizes Isekai's works and puts them all in the same boat. I'm not saying that there is a majority of those who liked the chapter, but the presence of this thought is evident. And this vision is resonant with the work itself, as the author did exactly the same and generalized the sub-genre, choosing characters from popular franchises that have no relationship to each other and arbitrarily demonizing them without backing to the real story.
For example, what does the tone of KonoSuba, a parody, have to do with Re:Zero, which constitutes a serious plot of psychological drama? What to represent a character similar to Ainz Ooal Gown would have to add to a possible criticism of the romanticization of the Hikikomori or NEET phenomenon, given that, in Overlord, as far as the anime adapted, we hardly know about the protagonist's past, nor if he fits in this archetype? What would representing a character almost aesthetically identical to Kirito could add if, contrary to what Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi suggests and then tries to go against in reincarnated ones, his story does not carry any trace of romanticizing anti-social status? Seriously... Instead, in certain chapters like Days of Begginings and the parking lot scene in Alicization Lasting, there's even a focus on anti-social disturbance as something negative and the construction of apathy, indifference to reality. The work's proposal is not to romanticize the protagonist's isolation and escapism, but to work on the concept of “reality” and the limits between the two sides of this mirror. So much so that both worlds are conceived as having losses and benefits, never just one side of that coin. And, above all, what would the inspiration for Sword Art Online be doing there, if it isn't even Isekai?
The danger of this discourse is almost instantaneous: the author, more concerned with pointing fingers at the sub-genre, did not lend himself to choosing coherent examples, both with each other and with the main idea he wants to convey. As much as I don't like to assume things unsure and print accusations, this lack of correlation makes it seem like he's barely read the works. The attack is unfounded and seems to give us only a single message: "Isekai is the problem." But, after all, why is it the problem? Because some of its examples represent questionable moral elements as a good thing? True, but proliferating hate speech against works that has nothing to do with it is irresponsible.
Furthermore, even if you, the reader, for some reason want to argue that, in your opinion, certain animes referenced there are within that group, the message is still not justifiable. Propagating hate speech against NEETs and demonizing them in your work will not only not solve the problem or promote healthy debate. On the contrary: it will only make it worse. People in this situation are victims of a phenomenon, whether caused by socioeconomic or particular circumstances, and need support and lifestyle changes. It may be wrong to portray this phenomenon as normal. It is not. It's not okay with this type of behavior, and many of the people in this situation can actually be questionable in their conduct. However, branding these people as bad is definitely not the proper treatment. It will make the veiled prejudice about them grow and the hand that society should extend to rehabilitation will be the same one that points to ostracism.
Don't say I'm jumping to conclusions. After all, in certain passages, the work doesn't even try to hide this discourse. In the words of the witch who is responsible for saving Lute and for guiding his plan: “One of them was a shut-in who always escaped reality through video games. In a world whithout powers, he was nothing more than a hate filled dog who followed orders. Despite wanting to fall in love more than anyone else, he pathetically coped with his loneliness throught the world of 2D. A truly laughable piece of trash. A piece of trash like him should have died in the crevices of society like the other pieces of trash (...)”
And, as if this dangerous moral were not enough, it could also make Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi a very... hypocritical story. If the main message the author wants to convey is the danger of morals spread by certain Isekais, and if the main argument her fans have used to support this issue is the infamous term of “self-insert”, we come to another level of contradiction. After all, what else this single-chapter work once again presents is the pervasiveness of an extremely questionable ethic and service as a self-insert. This time, however, the projection is not with the fans of Isekai, so condemned by the community, but with the haters. The protagonist, Lute, is a perfect vehicle for this, as he is the perfect way for those with hatred for the sub-genre to vent all of their anger. Which target would be better than several famous Isekai near-protagonists? At this point, it doesn't even matter what the problem is, since the one who criticizes it also endorses or reproduces it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that the infamous “Isekai wave” is constantly treated as of poor quality by the community. And I share the same opinion that a large portion of Isekais are repetitive, recycling various concepts of setting and character, and that many are poor in substance. However, it is necessary to stick to the fact that hurling irrational hatred or stating that “everything sucks and that's it” are very simple decisions that do not resolve. It is in the nature of human beings to wish that everything simply resolves itself immediately. We want things to work out effortlessly, and so we are full-eyed when we listen to immediate and generalizing proposals like the one diffused in this work.
But that's not how things are going to fit together. Attacking Isekai fans, generalizing works simply because they belong to a sub-genre, or just reproducing that there is a problem with Isekai without questioning how they are drawing attention to it is not the right way to go. A healthy debate is what fits here, precisely what this manga did not propose. Of course, there is always the possibility that the author is not wanting to draw attention to that side of the work, and is just an interpretation. It's possible. However, while the most talked about face is the attempt to criticize the sub-genre, that remains my opinion.
Reading this work made me sad. Sad to see the speech that the author wanted to endorse, but even more sad to see it echoing in the community later. Even though, personally, I'm not a big fan of Kakegurui, it's a big disappointment for me. I don't like writing inflammatory reviews about certain works at all, but in this case, I couldn't help it. And, if by any chance you are looking for a work that deals with the subject of NEETs and Hikikomoris with due respect and seriousness, go to NHK ni Youkoso! or ReLIFE. This is not the place.
