Mind you, not all the isekai fantasy manga that came out this year was dire. Yen Press managed to find a real gem, as well as the first instance of BL isekai I've seen since Kyo Kara Maoh.
THE OTHER WORLD'S BOOKS DEPEND ON THE BEAN COUNTER (Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku Shidai), based on the light novels by Yatsuki Wakatsu and character designs by Kikka Ohashi with art by Kazuki Irodori. First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2022.
PLOT:
Seiichiro Kondou was just another salaryman, working long hours at an accounting firm, wondering how his twenties got away from him. Then he stumbles across a young woman getting sucked into a strange portal, and in his attempt to save her gets transported alongside her to the fantastical realm of the Romany kingdom. It seems this young girl is the maiden destined to save them, but the prince and his counselors have no idea what to do with Kondou. He decides to make himself useful by joining the royal accountants, but his efficiency begins to make him enemies and a bad reaction to a magic potion leads to a close encounter with the stern royal captain Aresh Indolark.
STORY:
Bean Counter is the first isekai manga in ages to really capture my attention. It's not just that it's a BL isekai (although that sort of novelty certainly helps), it's that it's the first one I've read in years that feels like it's had some genuine effort put into the characters and story.
That being said, it's not a wholly original concept. Indeed, it bears more than a few similarities to The Saint's Power Is Omnipotent. Both of them are about a working adult who is accidentally transported to a fantasy kingdom alongside a cute teen girl. While the cute teen girl is presumed to be The Destined One, the adult is ostensibly left to their own devices, follow their interests, maybe gain some love interests, and generally get to slow down and enjoy life a little.
Aside from the obvious gender difference, the big difference between Kondou and Saint's heroine is that Kondou hasn't yet figured out the 'slow down and enjoy life' part yet. If anything, he doubles down on his workaholic tendencies and is oblivious to how much his actions are shaking up relations between the various social classes within the castle. He's also not much of a people person in general, as his attempt to warn the teen girl transported with to perhaps be wary of what others tell her goes spectacularly wrong. In a genre where so many protagonists serve as little more than aspirational place holders for the audience, it's nice to find one who is a proper character and whose flaws are not glossed over. It's also nice to see that the drama here is shaping up less around destiny and demon kings and more around classism and possible court intrigue.
The only time that Bean Counter lets itself get indulgent is when it comes to the BL part. Long story short, Kondou ends up overdosing on magic energy potions and gets the mana equivalent of an allergy attack. The only person around to help him is the aforementioned royal captain Aresh, who up to this point had been glowering handsomely on the sidelines. It turns out that the only cure is close bodily contact and maybe a bit of fluid exchange, and you can guess how things go from there. It's the most contrived part of the plot thus far. I realize that these two had to kick off their romance somehow, but I do feel like it could have been done a little more graceful and in a way that's more in line with the rest of the story tonally. Still, it's naught but a hiccup in what is otherwise a very promising beginning.
ART:
I'm also quite impressed with the art. Irodori puts a lot of detail and variety into the characters and their setting, be it the flourishes on their costumes, their hair, and the emotion. Based on what I can find from the original light novels, Iridori actually improves on some of the original character designs (Kondou in particular). While the pages are paneled pretty densely, they never lose track of the flow of the story and don't indulge themselves too much during the emergency cure sex scene. It might not be the most visually distinct book, but the genuine skill of the art elevates its above its peers.
RATING:
This series is published by Yen Press. This series is ongoing in Japan with 3 volumes available. 2 have been released and are currently in print.
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