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

Episodes 5-6

Although this isn't the first or only isekai series to involve both a teenager and an adult being summoned to save a kingdom, it's certainly the one that shows the distinction between their two ages the best. Episode six really digs into the idea that all of those fantasy lands who summon heroes or holy maidens are taking the easy way out, puncturing the fantasy like a needle in a balloon. Seiichiro has said right along that he thought there was something distasteful about a kingdom that would snatch a teenage girl out of her life to save theirs, and while Yua at first seemed to think that her stint as the Holy Maiden was an adventure, by this point, the bloom is off the rose. Being worshipped by a country and adored by a prince turns out not to be as all-consuming as it's cracked up to be…and at the end of the day, she's a child. Seiichirou has the tools to handle his situation. Yua does not, and by this point in the story, she's done playing princess and just wants to go home.

This juxtaposition makes for the strongest episode we've seen thus far. While episode five mostly focuses on Aresh being jealous and Seiichirou attempting to not get it (he reveals this week that he absolutely knows Aresh likes him), episode six gets to the heart of the series. Seiichirou, a working adult, is able to see the problems inherent in the system and find solutions for them. And since Yua needs someone actually looking out for her well-being, he's going to put himself in a position to do it…and if he gets to stick it to The Man while he's at it, so much the better. It's not so much that Seiichirou is a do-gooder or sees himself as Yua's default guardian as that he's disgusted with a system that prioritizes taking the easy way out – even when that way is cruel and inefficient. That he figures out a way to basically solve the problem with math is just the icing on his cake.

It's also interesting to look at how Aresh and Yurius react to Seiichirou's plans. Aresh is clearly proud of his boyfriend. He has to know that setting Ist and the rest of the sorcerers to finding a way to send Yua home means that he might lose Seiichirou, but he still wants what's best for him – and he's happy that his man is so smart and resourceful. He might despair of Seiichirou's work habits and be busy trying every trick in the book to keep Seiichirou by his side (or in his bed), but at the end of the day, he recognizes that Seiichirou is his own person and that that's why he loves him. Yurius, on the other hand, is aghast that Yua is unhappy and wants to leave the palace – that she doesn't see him as her savior or potential romantic partner. He can't see Yua for the person she is. In his eyes, like those of most of the court, she's not Yua; she's the Holy Maiden. And unlike Aresh, Yurius perhaps doesn't love his otherworlder for herself; he only worships her as his kingdom's savior.

If we put this in the context of isekai stories in general, it really stands out. As a genre, isekai is all about wish-fulfillment: the powerless becomes powerful, the loser becomes king, the lonely gets a harem. But here Seiichirou just keeps on doing his job. Aresh isn't the answer to his prayers, he's just an added bonus that Seiichirou wasn't expecting and still isn't entirely sure he ought to have. And Yua is realizing that she didn't actually want to be all-powerful in another world. She just wants her parents and her brother – her normal life. Even those isekai protagonists who want to go home still enjoy the benefits of their new lives and statuses. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Yua's decided that there's no place like home.

I wouldn't necessarily call this series a deconstruction of the isekai genre, but I do think it has a lot of interesting things to say about it. It's delightfully understated about most of them up until the moment it needs to say things out loud – and a lot of small details, like the quiet singing that denotes the use of magic, are left unexplained for the audience to simply absorb as part of the worldbuilding. While it has plenty of tropes, such as Ist the magic nerd or the idea of random evil miasma, it tries to use its genre to tell a slightly different story.

Of course, Aresh is determined that this will be a romance with a happy ending. I suppose we'll have to see how that genre switch works out for him.

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