aw, that's depressing
as soon as Lila/Aki got a foothold, it's over. and dead 3 years ago, at that.
ah well. I said it before, but this is way better than I thought it was gonna be.
since this one's incomplete, does anyone know of any similar stories?
you'd have no idea what kind of story this is from just looking at the tags, so they're no help
Not a manga but a massive novel called 'Light on Shattered Water'. It's cover art is ass and does not do the story justice.
It's an old isekai by a Western author from way before isekais became popular so it's a bit dated. Classic guy gets transported to an alternate reality after death, but this time it's set in alternate America filled with giant anthro cats with his laptop. It's more grounded in reality so 'no magic, no status screen'.
It actually goes more in-depth with the concept of "different species, different culture, different world, different language" than everything I've ever read. Things like the MC can't speak or read in the beginning and has to slowly learn the language throughout the book actually has plot relevance. Even things like physiology or human psychology play a part with things like how we aren't built to speak their language and the way we express ourselves like smiling makes no sense to completely foreign creatures.
It also tackles the cultural and societal ramifications of bringing theoretical knowledge about modern technology without any of the experience or infrastructure that humanity as a whole gained from gradually invented these things from scratch. The otherworlders essentially get access to a mixed bag of information for things that they don't even have the technology to build like metal alloys that we take for granted mixed in with fictional but seemingly plausible stuff for creatures that don't know the actual context like laser blasters. They have to somehow figure out what's real and what isn't with what amounts to an offline version of Wikipedia while wrestling with language barriers that go both ways.
Great book, top-notch world building. And it's free on the author's website, if I remember correctly.