I can't believe it took this long into the isekai manga trend for someone to think "what would happen if one of these doofus actually came back to the real world?"
UNCLE FROM ANOTHER WORLD (Isekai Oji-san), by Hotondoshindeiru. First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2021.
PLOT:
In the year 2000, Takafumi's uncle was hit by a truck. He spent the next 17 years in a coma. Now Takafumi is stuck with a middle-aged Sega otaku who claims that he spent that time in another world, one full of magic, cute girls, and adventure. Takafumi is skeptical, but what if his uncle was telling the truth?
STORY:
I really wanted to like Uncle From Another World. It's a legitimately good premise, one that calls back to the notion that isekai stories used to involve protagonists who could actually return to their own world to apply what they had learned while away. It's also a lot more honest about the entire isekai premise that 99% of these stories. Takafumi's uncle (his name is never given) doesn't instantly become an overpowered, heroic babe magnet. He remains as he always was: a completely average outsider who can't read social cues to save his life, a man whose only meaningful emotional connections were with video game characters. The only perk is that he managed to learn some basic magic which carried over to the real world. In concept, this should be really funny.
So why wasn't I laughing? After a bit of thought, I think I figured out the three things that hold this manga back.
The first is Takafumi. I realize that good comedy often requires a straight man to serve as a foil, but Takafumi might be too much of one to be effective. He's totally deadpan on the outside, leaving all of his disbelief and frustration for his internal monologue and killing a lot of the jokes before they can really take off. A little more incredulousness would go a long way with him.
Secondly, it relies a bit too much on otaku pop cultural for humor. Of course they were going to make a lot of fish-out-of-water jokes about the changes in technology and media. If anything, the best material comes from recognizing just how out of step Takafumi's uncle was before his coma. He was the sort of goober who watched Evangelion as it aired and completely missed the point, who continued to obsess over C-list Sega Saturn games well after the release of the Dreamcast. That being said, the Sega jokes start getting stale after a while. A little more variety in the jokes would be welcome - maybe focus less on the past and more on the uncle getting used to modern tech and ideas.
Finally, there's no sense of escalation. The best comedy tends to revolve around a situation that snowballs until things are so out-of-control and ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. The scenarios here don't so much escalate as they trail off. Nowhere is this more obvious than the running gag where the uncle recounts his encounters with a beautiful elf girl, completely oblivious to the fact that she is a textbook tsundere. The details change, but the joke remains the same, and there's no indication that this plot thread is going to go anywhere beyond forming just one more of the uncle's aimless stories. It's all very ridiculous, but it's holding itself back from being truly funny.
ART:
Hotonodoshindeiru manages to visually sell the difference between the 'real' world and the uncle's fantasy world. The world of Japan is grey, sketchy, and mundane, with most of the manga taking place in Takafumi's vaguely drawn apartment. In comparison, the fantasy world is more detailed, with richer color shading and a heavy focus on the ethereal and anime-friendly looks of the girls. A lot of the humor leans upon exaggerating the uncle's gaunt face for effect, with the linework growing even rougher during these moments.
PRESENTATION:
First of all, it's telling that the actual protagonist of the story is barely visible on the front cover, as it's dominated by the far more conventionally attractive (and completely absent) elf girl. I get why they did it, but it still feels like a bait and switch.
Secondly, someone messed up big-time when it came to designing the page for the translation notes. The combination of the dense dots and skinny font makes much of it impossible to read.
RATING:
This series is published by Yen Press. This series is ongoing in Japan with 6 volumes available. 3 volumes have been published and are currently in print.
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