Isekai anime are inherently and literally escapist. These anime about escaping into a more exciting world typically begin with the hero being brought to the new world or by dying in an accident (like getting hit by Truck-kun) and then being reborn. However, not all isekai heroes got such a dignified exit from their homeworld.
Some isekai heroes who lived in already harsh worlds died horribly before finding themselves in new yet equally desolate and dangerous realms. Those who suddenly died or got isekai’d without warning were the lucky ones. These characters deserved a more respectful beginning to their second lives.
Spoilers ahead.
10 Drunkenly Annoy The Goddess Of Love
Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout
The so-bad-it’s-good Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to began with lifelong friends Tachibana and Jinguuji getting drunk and with Tachibana wishing he were a woman. The Goddess of Love heard this wish and made it true, only for the two to get mad at her “blessing.” Insulted, the goddess exiled the duo into a fantasy realm.
Although Tachibana and Jinguuji’s adventures were comedic, having an actual god fulfill a drunken “request” is equal parts hilarious and disturbing. Tachibana’s life was flipped upside down without his consent. Thankfully, he’s been getting the hang of things, although he still struggles with his feelings for Jinguuji.
9 Get Sold As A Slave To A Demon Aristocrat
70x13p9″ title=”the ancient magus’ bride”>The Ancient Magus’ Bride
Slavery is a weirdly common and disturbing constant in isekai anime. This was true even in more wholesome ones like 70x13p9″ title=”the ancient magus’ bride”>The Ancient Magus’ Bride. Here, the human Chise Hatori was sold as a slave to the mysterious Elias Ainsworth. Elias then announced that he would teach Chise his world’s ways and marry her.
The mere idea of being sold as a slave to an aristocrat from another world is a lot darker than the Gothic romance 70x13p9″ title=”the ancient magus’ bride”>The Ancient Magus’ Bride may suggest. Worse, Chise put herself up in the auction because of her past trauma and non-existent self-worth. Chise was just lucky that the genuinely good (if deeply troubled) Elias bought her.
8 Get Crushed To Death By Your Books
Ascendance of a Bookworm
Before she was reborn as Ascendance of a Bookworm‘s hero Myne, Urano Motosu was an ordinary student who was obsessed with books. Just when she almost became a librarian, Urano was crushed to death by her books during an earthquake. Urano was so obsessed with books that her dying wish was to read more.
In another ironic twist of fate, Urano was reborn in a world where illiteracy was the norm. Here, books and education were exclusive to royalty. Myne then set out to create her own library filled with books of her own making. The fact that these were played for drama made the slice-of-life Ascendance of a Bookworm unintentionally hilarious to some.
7 Have Your School Randomly Explode
So I’m a Spider, So What?
Most modern isekai anime don’t bother to set up their protagonists’ lives before reincarnation. So I’m a Spider, So What? is a good example of this. Kumoko’s life as an ordinary student and that of her classmates’ were only given brief glimpses before an explosive spell from another world blew up the school and everyone inside.
As unremarkable as Kumoko was in her old life, she didn’t deserve to be randomly killed by a wayward extra-dimensional explosion. Kumoko couldn’t even get in on her classmates’ excitement about being reincarnated as adventurers since she was the only one who was reborn as a pitifully low-level spider.
6 Die A Historically Horrible Death
Drifters
Drifters isn’t the first isekai anime to transport historical figures into a new world, but it’s one of the most brutal of its kind. When the likes of the legendary samurai Shimazu Toyohisa or the infamous royal advisor Grigoriy Rasputin died, they were reborn in the middle of a fantasy war. They first had to die violently and painfully.
With few exceptions, like Hannibal, who died of old age, most of Drifters‘ cast suffered their historically accurate and cruel deaths before reincarnation. Worse, those who died in battle were forced to fight in another war upon being reborn. Some Drifters cursed this fate, while the more twisted ones relished the continued bloodshed.
5 Work Yourself To Death
Parallel World Pharmacy
In the sleeper hit Parallel World Pharmacy (or Isekai Yakkyoku), Dr. Kanji Yakutani was reborn in a fantasy world after he overworked himself to death. Kanji was the world’s greatest doctor, and even he wasn’t safe from overworking himself for little to no reward. This is, unfortunately, a sign of the times and a reflection of today’s unforgiving capitalist reality.
It was only after being reborn as Farma de Medici that Kanji was able to live a more fulfilling life as a doctor and as himself. Kanji is not the first or last isekai hero who began their second life by dying from overwork; he’s only one of the more recent and tragic examples. This trend is worryingly becoming more prevalent in the genre.
4 Die In A Random Knife Attack
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime‘s cute characters and art make it easy to forget how violently it began. Before he was reborn as a slime, Satoru Mikami was an ordinary office worker who was happy with his simple life. He died protecting a friend from a random stabbing attack. He then slowly bled to death in daylight.
Many isekai heroes died before being reincarnated, but Satoru’s death was surprisingly bloody by the genre’s standards. Not only was Satoru’s death underserved, but it was depicted as painfully realistic as possible. Satoru’s death was jarring when contrasted to his livelier adventures as the secretly overpowered Rimuru Tempest.
3 Be Sacrificed By Your Father’s Cult
KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World
KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World isn’t the first isekai anime to tackle Japan’s problem with religious cults, but it was unique for building its premise around it. It opened with Yukito Urabe, the son of The Cult of Mitama’s founder, being drowned by his father’s cult. They believed this would reincarnate him as their next leader.
Besides the fact that drowning is horrifying, being drowned as a sacrifice on his own father’s “holy” orders made Yukito’s death worse than it already was. Yukito’s dying wish was to be reborn in a world without religion. Fate ironically reincarnated him into an atheistic world where he was ordered by god, the real Mitama, to be her prophet.
2 Suddenly Get Transported To A Dying World
Now and Then, Here and There
One of the ways that the infamously dark Now and Then, Here and There deconstructed the isekai power fantasy was by stripping its basic premise of any fantasy. Case in point, the wide-eyed Shu was unceremoniously thrown into Earth’s post-apocalyptic future when he tried to save a girl he never met.
Before Shu could even fathom what just happened, he was attacked by Hellywood’s forces and conscripted into its army of child soldiers. To this day, there has yet to be another isekai anime that started its hero’s journey in such an undignified way. Surprisingly, Shu never gave up on his humanity and ideals, even in the face of great suffering.
1 Suddenly Find Your Class Adrift Between Realities
Sonny Boy
Sonny Boy’s take on the basic isekai premise was notably old-school and more surreal. Without any warning, a class of 36 students and their school found themselves adrift in an endless black void. “This World” was soon revealed to be the first of many strange dimensions that pulled the class farther from home.
Even if This World gave the students superpowers, they were still at the mercy of a dangerously unpredictable multiverse. The longer the class was trapped in This World, the more they became vulnerable to alien elements and infighting. No other isekai world was as nightmarish and existentially disturbing as Sonny Boy.
Leave a Reply