Isekai Walking - Vol. 7 Ch. 70 - Slave Contract

[tomtom78]

This story has gone so off track with this kid arc, so incredibly boring. Feels like a loli/side animal character trope with some slavery kink sprinkled on top...

 

[T-sama]

This story has gone so off track with this kid arc, so incredibly boring. Feels like a loli/side animal character trope with some slavery kink sprinkled on top...

Counter argument, she's adorable

 

[adrianojuniocunha]

Except mangaka never did that, to quote

I understand what you are saying, and I can agree with your statement.

But the story is not placing the slavery plot as just part of how the other world works. Throughout the entire chapter there is clear resistance from Sora to the idea, and all the situations he encounters serve to shape his perception of slavery.

This starts with the idea of the guard saying there is no other option than to turn her into a slave, it also goes from Sora just listening to the word of a total stranger and believing it 100%.

And also the girl immediately accepting the situation, despite the fact that she is coming from a situation that can be understood as even worse than slavery.

From what I'm reading in the episode, there is a clear intention behind this episode to show that slavery works if the parties agree, and things will work out very well.

I thought it was a little disgusting, all that was left was for the author to say at the end "vote for the law freeing the slavery of criminals."

 

[darkrap19]

That's literally how slavery worked for over 5,000 years before slavery got abolished less than 200 years ago because everyone was horrified at how the Americans were abusing slaves.

lol, we got an armchair historian here

 

[T-sama]

I understand what you are saying, and I can agree with your statement.

But the story is not placing the slavery plot as just part of how the other world works. Throughout the entire chapter there is clear resistance from Sora to the idea, and all the situations he encounters serve to shape his perception of slavery.

This starts with the idea of the guard saying there is no other option than to turn her into a slave, it also goes from Sora just listening to the word of a total stranger and believing it 100%.

And also the girl immediately accepting the situation, despite the fact that she is coming from a situation that can be understood as even worse than slavery.

From what I'm reading in the episode, there is a clear intention behind this episode to show that slavery works if the parties agree, and things will work out very well.

I thought it was a little disgusting, all that was left was for the author to say at the end "vote for the law freeing the slavery of criminals."

I get what you mean, but I think you're thinking too deep about it, deeper than the author for sure lol, it's pretty much just a excuse for why Hikari stays with Sora, even though logically speaking she should be in an orphanage or something, or at least be able to follow him without being a slave.

Really, slavery in isekai boil down to "she's officially mc waifu and there's 0 chance she'll ever leave", cause male japanese readers are insecure and fear getting NTR'ed at some point.

The slavery here is just to have Hikari as a little sister, and all the explanation is for Sora, and by proxy the reader, to not feel bad about it.

In short, typical manga escapism, don't think too hard about it, unfortunately far too common with isekai in particular.

 

[T-sama]

lol, we got an armchair historian here

To be fair we're all "armchair x" in here

 

[Nehona]

I don't care about slavery in a manga. It's fiction, who cares. I have dragons and monsters, evil nobles and demons, I can certainly have slavery. It's less bad that human sacrifices, female adventurers raped by goblins or gratuitous gore.

I DO care when it's badly done like here. With flimsy motivations and such, it was completely unneeeded. There was no reason, the author wanted to shove a slavery thing down our throat for no reason.

At the end of the day, everything needs to have a motivation in the story. If there is a compelling reasons to introduce slave companions, sure. But here? That's not what we have.

And let's hope it does not go further down the trope, with a whole harem of adoring slave girls, cause that's even worse...

 

[T-sama]

And let's hope it does not go further down the trope, with a whole harem of adoring slave girls, cause that's even worse...

 

[revengeZN]

Guys did you know that slavery is... le bad?
Shocking!
Quick! I need someone to pat my back and tell me how much of a good person i am for stating the obvious!

 

[Blackspace_2]

if i had a nickel for everytime an isekai manga tried to make slavery seem positive. id have like a gajillion nickels. like dude. why does it keep happening? bruh.

 

[nidaime]

I don’t generally give a shit about slavery in Japanese anime and manga, but it’s so weird how often they put it in. Like here it was 100% unnecessary when it was introduced as a solution for the obstacle provided. Then it was followed up with a chapter showing the MC “feeling bad” and having a guy cheer him up with a Vault-Tec esque “here’s why slavery is great” presentation before then having the slave ASK for it.

Bro that shit was ridiculous as hell.

 

[T-sama]

I don’t generally give a shit about slavery in Japanese anime and manga, but it’s so weird how often they put it in. Like here it was 100% unnecessary when it was introduced as a solution for the obstacle provided. Then it was followed up with a chapter showing the MC “feeling bad” and having a guy cheer him up with a Vault-Tec esque “here’s why slavery is great” presentation before then having the slave ASK for it.

Bro that shit was ridiculous as hell.

It actually makes perfect sense, a lot of mangas in general, but specially isekai, are made with self insert in mind, it's why most protagonists are such generic cardboard cutout, with same fucking hairstyle, and their main trait is being "nice", but who are too cuck beta males to have sex with girls, the entire story is written in a way to make the reader feel good, they can kill a bunch of people, but they're always clearly pure evil so it's okay, slavery is the same, so the entire story goes out of the way to show Sora feeling bad about it, dude explain why slavery is good, and as a bonus even Hikari wants it, so it's totally a-ok.

Why slavery? Probably because at this point is half expected for the genre, half because it makes the girl "safe", she'll never betray the mc.

A  lot of Japanese writing can be explained by self insert and reader being so insecure the story needs to bend backwards to assure them everything is safe.

 

[Blackspace_2]

btw why not just go: "oh you eant to adopt her? well we have truth magic to find out if youre malicious...... and youre good to go. have a nice live with your new daughter"
literally not a single problem and wouldnt need. to defens slavery

 

[T-sama]

btw why not just go: "oh you eant to adopt her? well we have truth magic to find out if youre malicious...... and youre good to go. have a nice live with your new daughter"
literally not a single problem and wouldnt need. to defens slavery

Sora is too young + Hikari is meant to be little sister, so no adoption, he's probably also too young to legally be a guardian.

Also, isekai needs slavery I guess.

 

[Maladra]

Can we not get ONE isekai where they don't try to white wash slavery into a "it's good actually" thing!? Or even better, just don't make it part of the setting?

 

[TheLetterJ]

People can accept complete fantasy elements like magic or dragons, but not that a system of slavery in a fictional world isn't as bad as real-life slavery; it's so tiring. I don't want to hear anyone complain about a lack of creativity in isekai stories while simultaneously not being able to fathom things being different from our own world.

Claiming that using an incredibly common trope is actually a sign of creativity sure is a stance to take.

 

[DarkeLourd]

There's all the difference in the world, since depiction is not endorsement. It's incredibly boring when the utterances of any character in a fictional world are interpreted as what the author really thinks in real life: If a manga features a character who offers a justification for killing criminals, we don't lambast the author for wanting to instate real-life vigilantism; if a character hates women, we don't hound the author because clearly they must hate women in real life. In exactly the same way, a story can feature slavery and characters sympathetic to it without the author justifying real life slavery. Requiring authors to only feature 'acceptable' ideas in their works is merely stifling creativity.

There is also a world of difference between depicting a world in which slavery exists, and having the protagonist accept and engage with it after a man LITERALLY SELLING SLAVES AND SLAVE CONTRACTS monologues for several pages about how good it is actually.

Like, imagine if this was about something else instead of slavery.
"Welcome to the Kingdom of Marlboro, where our taxes, including immigration taxes, must be paid in tobacco! In order to legally enter the kingdom, you'll have to buy tobacco from our local tobacco industry."
"Well gee, my modern Earth sensibilities tell me tobacco is bad. I really don't want to be coerced into supporting an isekai tobacco industry."
"Nonsense! My name is John Tobacco and I own a tobacco shop, so I am financially incentivized to sell you tobacco! Just listen to all these reasons tobacco is good, actually: Smoking looks cool and gets you all the ladies, the people who use it like it, not paying your taxes with it will be bad for you, and you don't even have to smoke it unless you do it voluntarily!"
"Well I still don't think I like it, Mr. Tobacco, but I think you convinced me that it's best for me and my impressionable young traveling companion that we do this."

So yeah, this absolutely sounds to me like it's trying to justify slavery, and unless it's the jumping-off point for a story arc about the protag learning the slaver was full of shit and ultimately taking a moral stand against slavery (which it doesn't sound like based on the claims in spoiler tags in other posts), you're just left with a story where, as one stop on the protagonist's adventures, a guy who sells slaves says "Slavery is good actually" and then the protagonist buys slaves.

 

[thedeadapostle]

guys guys the slavery is actually good don't you know? it's humane and fair to all parties. The manga said so.

 

[Tiypo]

There seems to be a big disconnect. Slavery here is quite simply a system that is both evil and useful. Being "useful" isn't the same as slavery being "good", and history is chock-full with people going along with evil things because said thing is useful until it becomes such a time it becomes clearly abhorrent.

 

[Outflanks10]

I learned to have no expectations for anything in life

That’s what alcohol is for!