The Fall 2022 Manga Guide

Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World

What's It About? 

After waking up at his own funeral, Tenma Otori gets a second chance at life when a god from another world presents him with an enticing offer: if Tenma agrees to be reincarnated in order to save their dying world, the gods will bestow cheat abilities upon him. Tenma accepts, and is reborn in a lush fantasy world filled with demi-humans, magic spells and items, monsters, mysterious forests, and more! As he grows, more of his gods-given powers and abilities—including his unique power to befriend adorable monsters like slimes and baby wolves—are revealed to his adoptive parents, two former master adventurers, and his grandfather, a famous wizard. But one fateful day, three mysterious strangers shatter the tranquility of Tenma's village by trying to kidnap him, and that's where Tenma's adventure really begins…

Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World is based on the light novel by Kenichi and is adapted into a manga by artist Bancha Shibano with original character designs by Nem. J-Novel Club released the manga digitally on September 15. The manga is translated by Andria Cheng-McKnight with editing by Momo and lettering by Giuseppe Anteppe Fusco.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

I have a feeling that this first volume may be deceptively sweet. Tenma, the protagonist of the piece, dies at what looks like a young age and is offered the chance to reincarnate in the world of Phantasma, and the gods are all so touched by his wish – that his grieving family would slowly forget him – that they overload his new self with ridiculous powers. But even better than that, infant Tenma is rescued from ravenous goblins by a loving couple, Ricardo and Celia, and raised to the age of ten with tenderness and affection. His grandfather Merlin the Sage teaches him to be an adventurer, and he tames a slime he names Rocket early on.

Then the fenrirs come. Of course, they're only fleeing a horde of dragonsnakes, but they both perish, leaving their newborn pup in Tenma's care. Things perk back up again until an inexplicably vicious group comes to town and quite possibly murders the pup and the slime, along with half the villagers, and are now threatening to kill Tenma as well. We don't know if his parents and grandfather are okay, since they were after more of the thugs in the forest, and it honestly looks like things are about to get very, very dark for our poor hero. I'm hoping not, because killing the dog is a quick way to make me drop a series, and up to that point, I was quite enjoying this volume. It's got the laid-back feel of By the Grace of the Gods and the fuzzy charm of I'd Rather Have a Cat than a Harem!, and that's an appealing combination.

On the plus side, Tenma's ludicrous powers might be the key to saving both the day and the fluffiness of the series. We haven't seen him do much that's overtly amazing (although we can guess that nothing he's been doing is normal for a ten-year-old kid), and the gods were very explicit that they had overloaded him with skills, so I could see this very easily turning into a story where Tenma fights to protect his comfortable life. He's keen on adventuring, but he's just as clearly very happy with his cozy domestic situation, and that's a combination that's appealing in an isekai fantasy. (Or any fantasy, really.) The art and writing are both well suited to moving the story along at a fast, easy pace, and if the art is a bit on the sketchy side, it works and doesn't skimp on the detail where it's needed. I'm definitely curious to check out the source novel and another volume of the manga to see where it goes, because even if it gets darker or more trope-laden, there's a comfortable feel to the plot that makes it digestible.