Summary
The colorful world ofisekai animehas provided plenty of room for humor over the years. The genre typically follows protagonists who suddenly find themselves transported to new, often dangerous worlds, either through teleportation or death and reincarnation.
In some cases, isekai anime have relied on their lead heroes to bring the laughs. Without necessarily serving as the true comic relief, these lead characters have provided comedic value through their colorful personalities and witty dialogue. Other times, it’s the protagonist’s unfortunate knack for looking foolish that gives viewers a chuckle, as the character goes through one embarrassing mishap after another. Regardless of the style of humor,the following series have perfected the comedic hero in an isekai setting.
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
The socially-withdrawnTakuma Sakamoto’smain passion in life is gaming. His favorite game isCross Reverie, an action-packed MMORPG.
Within the game, Sakamoto lives through hisDiabloalter ego, a powerful demon lord. As is to be expected with the isekai genre, Sakamoto finds himself trapped within the virtual confines of the game world, now living as Diablo full-time. Despite his high stats and strengths within the game world,Sakamoto’s severe social anxiety often gets the better of him, even when he fully commits to trying to act like his gaming character. It is in this struggle between his two identities that Sakamoto often brings the laughs, as his initially convincing demon lord act is frequently hampered by his insecurities and neuroticism.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!
The Devil himself’s attempts to conquer a fantasy worldand this plan has some rather unfortunate consequences for him. In what is essentially an inversion of the usual isekai setup, Satan kicks things off in a fantasy setting and is then relocated to Earth.
Chased out of Ente Isla,Satan flees to Tokyo, where the lack of magical phenomena on Earth causes him to get stuck in a human form. As if that wasn’t enough of a setback for the fallen angel, he now has to worry about paying the bills and takes up a part-time job at a burger joint. For all of his power and experience over the years,Satan in human form- now namedSadao Maou- is frequently shown to be inept, with even the most mundane tasks often proving to be comedically difficult for him. Considering its wild premise and colorful study of the ultimate evil’s embarrassing struggles with human life, this left-of-center series is amongisekai’s silliest and funniest offerings.
Kazuma Satou, an introverted NEET with little going for him, gets a new shot at life after suffering a shocking death. Satou encounters Aqua, a powerful goddess who allows him to begin a new life in an alternate world.
In this new setting, Satou travels with Aqua through a dangerous world chock-full of action and beasts. Satou provides viewers withplenty of laughsdue to his unfortunate habit of constantly getting into embarrassing situations. His dialogue is also brimming with sarcastic wit. Amusingly, he does not even want to take on the series’ primary villain, the Devil King, and instead constantly finds himself stuck colliding with the menacing king when all he wants to do is chill out and relax.Overall, he’s an unconventional characterwho frequently serves as a comedic goldmine for this isekai parody series.
As the rather eccentric title suggests, this series followsSatoru Mikami’sbizarre second life. The Tokyo salaryman falls victim to a stabbing and is subsequently reincarnated in another world.
No longer a human, Mikami now lives as a powerful Slime, able to assume the abilities and looks of all that he consumes. Eventually moving on from his deflating human life completely,Mikami takes on the name oRimuru Tempestupon bonding with a mighty dragon named Veldora. Tempest’s frequently humorous commentary on the situations at hand, coupled with his quick wit, make him acharmingly sharp character to follow.
Re:Zero -Starting Life In Another World-
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-
Based on Tappei Nagatsuki’s popular novel series, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World follows Subaru Natsuki, a directionless and self-conscious teenager who is summoned to a fantasy world and quickly becomes involved with a half-elf princess named Emilia. Blending action, horror, and comedy, Re:Zero is a challenging isekai anime that touches upon themes of perseverance, depression, and self-esteem.
At a glance,Subaru Natsuki’ssituation inRe:Zerodoes not seem like it will be a treasure trove of laughs. Almost immediately upon arriving in a fantasy world, Natsuki is killed.
From there, he finds himself in a grim cycle of life and death, constantly dying in his new world only to resurrect in the not-too-distant past. Starting off as a NEET, Natsuki becomes an ally of Emilia, a potential ruler in this new world. The pair work together on her bid to take over the Kingdom of Lugunica, with Natsuki often learning through his frequent, usually violent deaths.Despite his dark and frustrating situation, Natsuki’sover-the-top reactions and colorful interactionsfrequently provide laughs in this macabre, imaginative series.
