Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter

Episode 12

For an isekai story about accounting and putting a stop to isekai stories, The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter certainly does have a lot to say about organized religion. The revelation that the church was siphoning off magical energy for their own profit isn't all that surprising, given the levels of corruption organized religion in our world can get up to, but it does, at first, seem like an odd twist. Though if you think about it, it all feeds into the idea of Yua's summoning being a bad thing: Yua's summoning directly ties into the Abramic religion worshiped by most citizens of Romany. If her summoning was a selfish thing, what's to say that there weren't more selfish actions being perpetuated by the church and its officials? The issues are linked.

Uncovering the corruption is really Seiichirou's way to shine a light on just why the summoning of Holy Maidens is a problem. Although he doesn't say as much, it's clear that summonings keep the church's grasp on power front and center, because they obviously know how to take magical energy and do whatever they want with it. They absolutely could construct the kind of barrier Seiichirou proposes – look at the ease with which Yua pulls it off in the heat of the moment. But doing that would deprive them of one of their seats of power and risk revealing the extent of their magic laundering. They've been controlling the system for far too long to give up now.

This entire plot shows an interesting disconnect between members of the church. Yurius, who still wholeheartedly believes in Yua's divine mandate, is aghast that the church would “steal” her energy for its own profit. (Never mind that that's basically what the royal family is doing with the whole “Holy Maiden” thing.) Siegvold is aghast that any members of the clergy could be so corrupt because he himself is genuinely devout. And Cipriano has been taking advantage of the whole thing to promote belief in his religion, which is virulently anti-otherworlder. There's a mirror or two to be held up here in terms of real-world religions, and I like that the story doesn't spell that out – the message is more powerful if you figure it out for yourself. And I'm sure it reads differently to audiences in polytheistic cultures; Yua's genuine bafflement that any one god would be elevated above others, or that one god would deny the very existence of others, is a statement worth thinking about in and of itself. No one country is a bastion of tolerance, but they are all intolerant in their own ways.

With all of that resolved, the romance plot needs wrapping up, too. This, I'm a bit less sold on – while Aresh's adoration of Seiichiro absolutely crosses a few lines, Seiichiro himself seems to like it, and the purpose of fiction isn't necessarily to present unhealthy romances as problems but to allow readers and viewers to enjoy them safely. I do feel that Seiichiro's realization that he cares for Aresh isn't quite given the space it needs, which includes the first kiss he initiates, and mostly this comes down to cutting off the source material's ending. I won't spoil the third novel for you, but suffice it to say that it gives a much more complete picture of their relationship and Seiichiro's thoughts and feelings about Aresh and their future. It also wraps things up much better for Yua, who is left dangling here at the anime's conclusion.

Still, I have enjoyed this series. Not as much as the books (or the manga, which sticks closer to the novels), but I appreciate its approach to isekai: that until other worlds stop kidnapping teenagers or acknowledging that that's a problem, the genre is going to be stale. This one, for its issues, isn't that, and I hope we continue to see series that challenge the modern isekai trend's basic premise – with or without a queer love story.

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