Review: THE RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO

Sadly, not all isekai fantasy stories these days are as harmless as So I'm a Spider, So What?.  The concept has always been a playground for male power fantasies, and these days it seems the fantasies are taking more and more from both hentai doujin and the darkest parts of their creator's minds.

THE RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO (Tate no Yusha no Nariagari), based on the light novel by Aneko Yusagi & character designs by Minami Seira, with art by Aiya Kyu.  First published in 2014, and first published in North America in 2015.

PLOT:

Naofumi Iwatani was just another hapless college-aged otaku, but a chance encounter with a strange old book sending him hurdling into a strange, medieval world alongside 3 other young men.  They are declared heroes of prophecy and gifted with magic weapons.  Naofumi is initially disappointed to get only a shield, but when the pretty young Myne offers to join his party, he believes his fortunes are finally looking up.

Then Myne betrays him, steals his goods, and accuses him of rape.  Naofumi quickly becomes a pariah in the kingdom.  The only party member he can get is Raphtalia, a half-tanuki girl that he buys as a slave.  Together the two venture out into the world to level up and discover what fate the world has in store for them.

Review: SO I'M A SPIDER, SO WHAT?

With so many modern fantasy manga about random guys falling/reincarnating/etc. into other worlds, I guess it was inevitable that someone would write a story about a GIRL doing much the same.  So what does modern shojo isekai look like?

SO I'M A SPIDER, SO WHAT? (Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?), based on the original story by Okina Bab and character designs by Tsukasa Kiryu, with art by Asahiro Kakashi.  First published in 2015 and first published in North America in 2017.

PLOT:

All she can remember was drifting to sleep during class, only to be consumed in a dark wave of pixel, a lot of pain, and then...nothing.  The nameless girl emerges from the darkness only to discover she has been reborn as a lowly cave spider with only the skill to appraise her surroundings?  Now it's a race for her to master her new skills while surviving deadly creatures and humans alike.

Review: ORPHEN

Of course, 90s fantasy manga wasn't all about young girls being whisked away to strange new worlds and times.  Others were meant to be wackier collections of adventures with a rag-tag team of weirdos.  How successful these stories were at being funny was...variable to say the least.

ORPHEN (Majutsushi Ofen), based on the light novel series by Yoshinobu Akita & character designs by Yuuya Kusaka, with art by Hajime Sawada.  First published in 1998, and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Orphen is a runaway sorcerer working as a sort of magical mercenary for hire, doing odd jobs at the behest of the mysterious Childman.  He's constantly chasing the next job, if simply in the hopes of keeping his landlord at bay and shaking off annoying hanger-ons like the diminutive Volkan and oblivious Cleao.  Eventually Orphen's dark past with a former classmate catches up with him, threatening not just himself but Cleao's family.

Review: INUYASHA

*blows the dust off the blog*

My apologies for the unannounced hiatus.  This wretched winter has seemingly forced me into a sort of hibernation.  Now is the time to emerge, though, and to explore new fantasy worlds with a month of isekai titles.  We're starting out with one of the big ones of the 1990s, one of the landmarks of the world of shojo isekai.

INUYASHA (Sengoku Otogizoshi Inuyasha), by Rumiko Takahashi.  First published in 1996 and first published in North America in 1998.

PLOT:

Kagome was an ordinary girl who was simply looking for a lost cat on her family's temple.  Her search leads her to an omnious well and a demon that pulls her into hundreds of years into the past.  Kagome turns out to be the descendant of a powerful priestess.  She possesses the Shikon Jewel within her, which grants Kagome the power to see demons and unseal the half-demon boy Inuyasha.  Now monsters of every sort are emerging to try and steal the jewel's power for themselves, and Kagoma and Inuyasha must team up if they are to survive.