29 August 2021

The Tragedy of No Risk Manga

Deeply political manga disguising themselves as apolitical.

In manga today there is a very common genre. The Isekai, meaning "different world" or "other-world", is a common genre where a person is transported to a world, usually one similar to a Western Fantasy world with magic, and is then given extraordinary powers that are even beyond that of the typical fantasy powers.

One such manga, which has also been adapted into an anime, is Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (転生したらスライムだった件), the official English translation of the title being Regarding Reincarnated to Slime. The more common fan translation of the manga is That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. As the title suggests it is about a person who went over to a different world and was turned into a Slime, similar in appearance to those found in the Dragon Quest games series.

This manga functions very much to the formula laid out by the Isekai genre where the protagonist starts off weak but due to additional powers, usually granted by some comical god, the protagonist is able to grow very rapidly and above what is to be expected of the average person in this other-world. In this case the protagonist, Rimuru, starts of as a Slime which is generally considered to be a weak "mob", mob or mobs stands for Mobile Objects which are weak enemies in video games that pose no challenge, but due to the powers granted during the transmigration and having happened to land in a cave that is filled with magical gems that can boost Rimuru's powers, a dragon that has the power to destroy kingdoms that is willing to become Rimuru's ally and a distinct lack of enemies or problems for Rimuru to initially face, Rimuru is able to leave the cave being far stronger than the average creature.

Rimuru starts off with two powers, one being Great Sage or Wise One (大賢者) and the other being Predator or Devourer (捕食者). Great Sage is essentially what happens when one attaches a supercomputer to their brain. It allows Rimuru to analyse events, items, composition and other factors of anything that Rimuru encounters. Devourer allows Rimuru to consume and digest anything as well as gain the powers and form of the devoured. These two in tandem make Rimuru essentially unstoppable as Rimuru can essentially gain unlimited power by defeating enemies and then taking their powers. While this specific power gaining method is somewhat unique authors have come up with other ways in which the protagonist can become overwhelmingly powerful.

The crux of the problem that arises with this sort of manga and is present in similar stories such as Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (くまクマ熊ベアー) or Lazy Dungeon Master (絶対に働きたくないダンジョンマスターが惰眠をむさぼるまで) is that it allows the author to avoid any real problems or confront any serious topics due to the fact that the protagonist can just overwhelm anything they come across. These manga will occasionally touch on more serious topics such as rape, death, murder, war and other such traumatic events but due to the non-committal nature of the writing it is quickly dealt with and there is no exploration into the implications of these events or if there is, it is superficial at best.

An example of this is in Lazy Dungeon Master, where there is a character called Meat. Meat is a young girl, around 12-13 years old, that is continuously raped by bandits who gave her the name Meat, kept as a sex slave and eventually saved by the protagonist, Keima. Keima then decides to keep her around, as well as leave her with the name Meat which has pretty obvious implications, and the author eventually has Meat fall in love with Keima. This could be interesting and convey an important message or cause the reader to think but instead the author treats it as if Meat is totally normal. She shows none of the typical signs of trauma, she keeps her slave collar as a sign of her loyalty towards Keima despite it being linked to her traumatic past and Keima doesn't do anything to stop her sexual/romantic advances except for half-heartedly dodging despite the fact that she is a little girl that was used as a sex slave. This is obviously problematic as it normalizes the sexual advances of a child that has previous sexual trauma rather than facing the inherent issue in some manner. It doesn't even have to feature Keima trying to help Meat, he could instead take advantage of her and that perspective is explored but just ignoring it as a way to avoid criticism or take less of a risk is very poor writing strategy and leaves much wasted potential.

This occurs frequently in these manga. In Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear there is a corrupt noble that was kidnapping, abusing and murdering women but all that happens is he is executed by another noble. The issue is never really addressed and despite the protagonist having obvious apprehensions about nobles nothing is done to examine the problems with feudal societies and instead the protagonist, who has the power to level a kingdom, does nothing to incite change or progress.

I view this as a risk avoidance strategy. Instead of taking a position the authors essentially fence-sit. They do not critically tackle the issues and allows them to avoid angering any of the readers. While it is understandable to want to avoid angering people the authors run the worst possible risk, which is their story being boring. These stories eventually boil down to a simple formula: character gets stronger, faces a supposedly threatening foe, defeats said foe, rinse and repeat. This is completely unengaging as there is no sense of tension. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that the characters end up being bland due to the author's unwillingness to tackle serious issues or problems. It also means that characters tend to be kind and trustworthy. While there is no problem with characters like that, when everyone is like that there is no internal conflict and therefore little intrigue.

This writing strategy plagues many manga, light novels and anime and I find myself questioning whether it is the author or the publishers. Publishers are more likely to want to avoid angering fans than authors that are more likely to be considered with their story and world itself. I am also of the opinion that risk avoidance does more harm than good to everyone involved. It is better to anger a few readers than to bore the majority of readers with a story that has no tension.

Hopefully in the future authors will take more risks and the mediums such as light novels, manga and anime will be moved forward and allowed to tackle the darker side of humanity and the world we live in through the use of fantasy races like beastmen and the use of Otherworlds.