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- Jan 18, 2018
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Preface: I like analyzing things and my condemnation or distaste doesn't mean I feel they shouldn't exist or that there aren't worthwhile qualities beyond the bad parts. I still read several of these despite my dislike of particular elements.
I dunno why exactly, but the slave angle has been featured in the isekai/fantasy fad since the beginning. It's not something new at all. Death March may have only gotten an anime recently, but it was one of the early isekai novels alongside Mushoku Tensei etc. from ~2014-ish. Shield Hero has also been around for about that long and the female lead is a slave. I can think of at least half a dozen off the top of my head I've seen from time to time over the last several years with the slave angle in them besides those.
While I am against the trend in Western fandom where they are overly critical and looking for offense at everything in anime/manga that doesn't match their values exactly, I don't find the slave angle defensible in nearly any of these stories. As others have stated, It's really lazy writing, and IMHO is a sad side-effect of the roots of the isekai craze: Most of these stories were written by amateurs on Syosetu ni Narou as a hobby or way to blow off steam. AKA stress release either from working all week or maybe jilted otaku who are mad at the world/not popular with girls. Then for a first for publishers: they started contacting these people writing "fanfics" and signing them to publishing deals. That may contain some conjecture on my part, but it does explain a lot of what we see in isekai:
#1: MCs who are ludicrously overpowered from the start or within a relatively short period of time. Largely focused on just the one character. Others have very little if any Agency to them.
#2: Fanservice is one thing, but isekai often feature extremely high levels of objectification of women... take your pick in whatever specific fetish tint they have.
#3: Plots move along in a disjointed way, especially with a break between the first couple dozen chapters and the rest of the story. They first write it for themselves then find it get popular then frantically look for a way to spool it into something bigger/longer.
#4: Inherent to the other points and impromptu stress release nature, often wear MC self-insert status on their sleeves in a fairly obviously way.
Getting back to slaves specifically: There really is no excuse because there are so many other ways you could have the girls contrived to associate with the MC. Harem series have been doing that for decades. And even when the MC usually tries to spin themselves as more civilized and buying the slave is to "save them" ... they almost never set them free afterwards. There is always a reason/catch in the story, when the meta realities are they are selling that bondage fetish deliberately. "I can't break the magic collar" (Maou Shoukan) "XP is only shared if they're my possession" (Shield Hero et al) Numerous ones go the "well it's normal in this world, but I'll treat them WAY BETTER!" to justify it, etc.
TLDR: Slave theme has been around the entire time of the isekai fad. It's self-insert fanfic-tier wish fulfillment, peddling bondage fetish. Most isekai in this fad were written piecemeal by amateurs then contacted by publishers, not actual novelists writing them in cooperation with an editor. Having origins like that, making any sizable revisions later is nearly impossible vs. working with an editor from the early stages.
I dunno why exactly, but the slave angle has been featured in the isekai/fantasy fad since the beginning. It's not something new at all. Death March may have only gotten an anime recently, but it was one of the early isekai novels alongside Mushoku Tensei etc. from ~2014-ish. Shield Hero has also been around for about that long and the female lead is a slave. I can think of at least half a dozen off the top of my head I've seen from time to time over the last several years with the slave angle in them besides those.
While I am against the trend in Western fandom where they are overly critical and looking for offense at everything in anime/manga that doesn't match their values exactly, I don't find the slave angle defensible in nearly any of these stories. As others have stated, It's really lazy writing, and IMHO is a sad side-effect of the roots of the isekai craze: Most of these stories were written by amateurs on Syosetu ni Narou as a hobby or way to blow off steam. AKA stress release either from working all week or maybe jilted otaku who are mad at the world/not popular with girls. Then for a first for publishers: they started contacting these people writing "fanfics" and signing them to publishing deals. That may contain some conjecture on my part, but it does explain a lot of what we see in isekai:
#1: MCs who are ludicrously overpowered from the start or within a relatively short period of time. Largely focused on just the one character. Others have very little if any Agency to them.
#2: Fanservice is one thing, but isekai often feature extremely high levels of objectification of women... take your pick in whatever specific fetish tint they have.
#3: Plots move along in a disjointed way, especially with a break between the first couple dozen chapters and the rest of the story. They first write it for themselves then find it get popular then frantically look for a way to spool it into something bigger/longer.
#4: Inherent to the other points and impromptu stress release nature, often wear MC self-insert status on their sleeves in a fairly obviously way.
Getting back to slaves specifically: There really is no excuse because there are so many other ways you could have the girls contrived to associate with the MC. Harem series have been doing that for decades. And even when the MC usually tries to spin themselves as more civilized and buying the slave is to "save them" ... they almost never set them free afterwards. There is always a reason/catch in the story, when the meta realities are they are selling that bondage fetish deliberately. "I can't break the magic collar" (Maou Shoukan) "XP is only shared if they're my possession" (Shield Hero et al) Numerous ones go the "well it's normal in this world, but I'll treat them WAY BETTER!" to justify it, etc.
TLDR: Slave theme has been around the entire time of the isekai fad. It's self-insert fanfic-tier wish fulfillment, peddling bondage fetish. Most isekai in this fad were written piecemeal by amateurs then contacted by publishers, not actual novelists writing them in cooperation with an editor. Having origins like that, making any sizable revisions later is nearly impossible vs. working with an editor from the early stages.
