this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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[–] Arahnya@hexbear.net 33 points 3 weeks ago

this is why we read John Brown Isekai

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 20 points 3 weeks ago

"Stuck in a fantasy world with my iPad and I'm level 99" but the protagonist dies from an infection in the third episode because they don't have anti-biotics.

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 17 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Has there yet been an isekai where the protagonist learns of institutionalized slavery and then has at minimum a side quest to beat slavers to death with a hammer?

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

In one of the early arcs of Mushoku Tensei the moral compass character repeatedly massacres slavers and it's unambiguously correct even from the vapid, amoral shitbag protagonist's perspective. It completely drops that later on as the protagonist literally has no values or beliefs and just wants to be some guy with a quiet life who doesn't do stuff, which is the biggest failing of the later arcs of the LN series.

May I Ask For One Final Thing is technically an isekai, but the protagonist is a local of the world and the first arc revolves around her beating the living snot out of aristocratic slavers.

Roll Over and Die is one of those fucking things instead of an isekai, but opens with the protagonist being sold into slavery and is notably quite negative on the whole institution and the systems that interact with it.

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So nothing involving a hammer but close enough. Would you recommend either of the latter two shows?

Also, what do you mean by "one of those fucking things instead of an isekai"?

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 12 points 3 weeks ago

May I Ask For One Final Thing is great. I haven't watched ROLL OVER AND DIE yet but I read a few of the LNs and those were pretty good.

Also, what do you mean by "one of those fucking things instead of an isekai"?

"One of those fucking things" is the genre of "protagonist gets kicked out of their party for being too cool and then they show everyone by being super cool and stuff", which is somehow an actual genre that's approaching isekais in sheer proliferation (and it overlaps with them a fair bit too). I think Geoff Thew coined the "one of those fucking things" name for the genre out of, uh, contempt and exasperation I believe it was.

ROLL OVER AND DIE is a good one, though, both because it's yuri and because it channels the typical antipathy of the genre towards the elitism, chauvinism, and general shittiness of the world's institutions instead of just doing the school shooter ass "everyone's laughing at me, but I'll show them, I'll show everyone!" tone the genre usually takes.

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There's the John Brown one, but I dunno if that counts.

Related: one of my most cherished moments from Fallout 2 was being able to come back to The Den late in the game and liquefy the entire slaver's guild with a Bozar.

[–] abc@hexbear.net 7 points 3 weeks ago

It takes The Wandering Inn 10 volumes but eventually the main protagonist kills a bunch of slavers who try to enslave her after another side protagonist gets enslaved & escapes. The institutionalized slavery country though, whose politics is literally "Yay slavery!" still exists afaik and the last I read they were allying themselves with the terribly fucking written "I got transported to another world so I've decided to bring the gospel of American Christianity to the people" character against the "Yay necromancy communist utopia" country but I'm like 20-30 chapters behind probably so who knows at this point.

You've gotta read 8 volumes worth of "Yes, the world at large - well mostly...actually it isn't really 'mostly' but still...hates the slavery country and bans the slave trade" and various mentions of "the slave country should be destroyed" but nothing ever gets done about it plot wise until the slave country literally enslaves one of the main PoV characters and even then...he doesn't destroy the slave country because he has PTSD from being tortured as a slave but swears he's gonna come back to do so - which honestly, is probably how volume 10 will end if I had to guess (assuming it hasn't already...like I said, I stopped reading when the [Prophet] character got a bunch of chapters about how he's walking across the desert continent (home of the slave & necromancy countries) and has decided to destroy the necromancy country because 'unholy' despite the slavery country being right there...ok bro)

[–] Robert_Kennedy_Jr@hexbear.net 7 points 3 weeks ago

I know Beam already mentioned it but John Brown pika-pickaxe a stand in for the Shield Hero guy in the first chapter.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

From Londoner to Lord on Royalroad takes a long time to get there, like it takes a long time to get anywhere, but recent chapters have been about a raid to free slaves. One of the first things the protagonist does upon becoming lord of the poorest village in the land is abolish slavery in his own holdings, and builds from there over time to sending out covert agents and raiding parties to free slaves and kill slavers. Other things he's done include building social housing, starting food and literacy as well as medical research programs, arming women, and land reform.

The minute to minute story is much more about long conversations about how to build things like seed drills, water wheels, and crossbows, though.

[–] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 16 points 3 weeks ago

Worth noting it is noted japanese government policy to pay for anime as propaganda. The japanese government would be a cia cut out. So why anime has such conservative themes makes sense

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

isekai story where the protagonist's "cheat skill" is the fact that they can read and write but nothing else and they spend their life as an unmarried scribe in some lord's court (the lord is dumb as bricks) (the king is worse like imagine if musk was inbred) (the protag is forced to eat massive shit sandwiches with a smile every single episode)

[–] bananon@hexbear.net 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This is pretty much The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, where the protagonist is an overworked office worker who accidentally gets summoned to another world. He has no special powers, and actually gets sick from magic because his body isn’t immune to it. The treatment for this is somehow gay sex with his aristocrat lover, which as far as I know is one of the first just straight up gay sex scenes in anime shown on screen. Overtime he accrues political power by basically single handedly auditing the country’s treasury.

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

Going to the doctor to get prescribed gay sex

[–] Wakmrow@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

What the fuck did I just read

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 8 points 3 weeks ago

They're eventually accused of being an agent of satan for having knowledge of things they could not know otherwise, and are stoned to death

[–] mrfugu@hexbear.net 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Everyone remember if you ever find yourself trapped in a pre-industrial society, only drink beer, cider, ale, etc

[–] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wouldn't boiling my water make it safe as well?

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 11 points 3 weeks ago

You'll quickly tire to bring enough firewood to boil everything.

[–] ComradeRat@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is a misconception, in reality the drinking water is about as safe for you as the cider. Both are riskier than most first worlders are comfortable with

[–] mrfugu@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

You’re probably right on the second point, but the unboiled drinking water is as safe as the cider/ale? I would expect toxic metals/inorganic compounds, especially in the water near human settlements but I think I would chose that type of poisoning over girardia or dysentery.

[–] Euergetes@hexbear.net 14 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

people make a big hay out of untreated water being so dangerous to time-travelers or tourists but like, they're not at much more risk than the people who live there. even surface water can be a good bet with low enough population density and flow but if there's wells? heaps of folks draw their water directly from wells without treatment today, earth is an awfully good filter.

if something really bad is in the water the natives are being killed and then your story is just an epidemic/plague story (which are cool btw, but obviously authors don't want to do those for all historical/fantasy fiction)

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

When I went to Vietnam, I got traveler's diarrhea from eating foods that locals ate without issue. There's a reason it's called traveler's diarrhea. It turns out that when you go to a place with bacteria that your body isn't used to, you react worse than people who've had a lifetime to acclimate to them.

[–] ComradeRat@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well yeah, but the isekaiee here is gonna have that problem regardless of what they eat, drink or where they live. I believe euergetes' point is less "the water is safe for you to drink with no ill effects" and more "the water is no more risky than anything else you'll find"

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

You're not wrong, but my point was less about water specifically and more about how isekais just use "realism" as an excuse to justify the worst sort of wish fulfillment.

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

locals can be used to something that won't kill or impede you much if you're used to it and breastfed from someone who was used to it that will ruin the regularity of someone who does not have compatible gut fauna.

[–] Euergetes@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

i mean generally these stories last longer than a brief trip so adaption to it should happen and not be present for most the story. we are working with a fairly unserious grain but i think details like slavery existing are more important than if main character has the shits the first 2 weeks

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It only tends to be important in that it enables the reader stand-in to own people as property consequence-free, which is what I was getting at with the dysentery example: "realism" has nothing to do with it. It's about wish fulfillment for the sort of person who thinks owning slaves would be really cool.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

actually, chapters 4 thru 7 of my manga are diarrhea-focused theory-gary

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

reincarnated as a toilet in another world

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 9 points 3 weeks ago

To be fair, the mechanism that gets the protagonist to the new world presumably acclimates them to that world's bacteria, whether they're reincarnated into a baby born in that world or the God/Goddess gives them a silent patch note that makes sure they don't die of infection within a week

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't read isekais but I'd still prefer them not to have "Sunset found her squatting" scenes

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I would find such scenes less offensive than slavery apologia

[–] Krem@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

well i'm not saying we have to choose one