And this is why we can’t have nice things.
A brand new manga from the writer of the twisted gambling manga Kakegurui, Homura Kawamoto, launched recently which, if I’m being completely honest, sounded like it could’ve been a hilarious parody series for anyone who is even a little tired of isekai series starring overpowered main characters.
Titled Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi – Cheat Slayer (Killing the People Reincarnated into Another World – Cheat Slayer), the series stars a main character who casts judgment down on people who come from another world and become overpowered via cheat skills. This included characters who bore a striking resemblance to the main characters from series such as Sword Art Online, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, and other series of that nature. At least it did until they canceled it after a single chapter was published.
According to the announcement in Monthly Dragon Age magazine, they have canceled the series because of complaints from fans who saw the parodies of popular isekai heroes as disrespectful and making fun of these characters in a less than good-natured way. Rather than deal with angry fans, the magazine decided that they’d rather just pull the plug on the series before it could become a big problem. Later in the week, Kawamoto posted a message of regret and stated that he would reflect on his actions in order to create better works in the future.
Also posted this week were messages from other creators in the isekai genre including That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime author Fuse who simply asked that other authors who want to do parody not “overdo it”.
While it’s easy to say that this is censorship and coddling to a vocal minority of fans, it’s also worth looking at this from the perspective of the creators who might have been harmed by this parody. While the isekai genre is certainly ripe enough now that it should be picked off the branch and replaced with something new, it’s still not fun to see your creations dragged through the mud by another author even if they mean it as just good-natured ribbing.
