No Longer Allowed in Another World

The manga and anime by the  Hiroshi Noda and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu 'No Longer Allowed in Another World'

I have enjoyed this work so far, and even enjoy the take on the isekai genera.

 For those reading, what is isekai? Well in the west we would call this portal fantasy. Where people from the real world end up in a fantasy world. Think things like Narnia, and stories like that. Though in Japan, the big trope difference being that characters are not usually ‘portal’ over. Instead they are hit by a truck.

Now that does seem grim, but it does tie off the oblivious point. What about the characters life in our world? If they had already died then there isn’t any thing to go back to, so the character is given free reign to focus on the fantasy world, and the power fantasy that follows.

Next big difference is that the characters are often given some type of magical ability that makes them special or powerful. Like how in John Carter of Mars has super strength. (Which I would argue is another portal fantasy.)

So lets look at the main character:

This is the main character and he has a tendency of trying to take his own  life. Now the show is a comedy not a drama so he is nowhere successful, and it is done to comedic effect.

But what is interesting is why the character the way he is. He is molded and named after. Osamu Dazai 

Which is the pen name of Shūji Tsushima a Japanese’s writer from the 1940s.

 

Seeing this picture I really see how much of the characters design is based by the actually author. Even the title of his more famous books is a referenced in the title of the manga I believe. As one famous story of his is "No Longer Human". The manga of course being No Longer Allowed in Another World.

He took his life along with his lover. This is where we find the character in the manga, in the act about to end it all. When they are hit by a truck… That is design to hit sad people and take them to another world. Which the more I think about this, makes this sound a little morbid. And while these elements themselves can come together for comedic effect, the pay off happens with the first major confrontation with other “other worlders”

This guy life was a sucky and then hit by a truck ends up in a fantasy world, and given the power to absolute control over animals. The thing is that the bullied just don’t become saints, they become the bully. Given outrages powers they are expected to act like heroes, but that isn’t really how people work. So the higher ups of the fantasy world are trying to figure out how to send them home.

Well spoiler, the main character has this power, but it comes with a certain activation condition. That being him being interested in the person enough to write about them and their struggles. Its after this confrontation that we get a scene with the main character using the title of the manga.

I think this plays in nicely with something I say on the Wikipedia page of the real life author: Though Wikipedia states a police officer said: "Dazai was asked to die, and he simply agreed, but just before his death, he suddenly felt an obsession with life"

The scene that follows is the other worlder being sent home, the truck missing him. A renewed sense of life and strength he didn’t have before. Find a new obsession with life. This I think will be a major thing of the story as a whole.

(note: I made this post a long time ago, and just now posting it. Some of this is obvious now within the story. But I still wanted to post it.)

 

The crazy year and half. Summer 2023 to fall 2024

        

I have not made a post in nearly a year. I have started one or two but never pulled the trigger. My own inexperience and fear of failure holding me back. Combined with not sure of the imagine that I wanted to project to the world. Though in the end many of these thing are simply an excuse. A poor attempt at justifying myself. 

The thing that did happen in that time is that I have lived. Done a thing that in the past I wouldn't have thought possible for myself. I was a foster parent of four kids, along with my own little one. A house hold of five!

Me and my wife started fostering in I think 2023, about halfway through. Now there is a lot that I can't say of course. But we started with one. For a whole year. Then we took on their three older siblings.

In a years time, I went from a household of one, too two, and then jumped to five. My household was loud, it was crazy, and there was drama. At times I didn't think I could handle anymore of it, and at other times I couldn't imagine being without it. Damn if I do, damn if I don't.

Then the kids went back home. The whole event was crazy, and sketchy. The legal system being what it is. They were focused on closing a case, even though to us it felt like they where cutting corners. Something someone said to us during this time was, system is what turns people away.

It was true. More red tape than I can count for every little thing. Then those above us, making decisions. Have the 'flexibility' to do as they want so long as no one above them calls them out. Those below don't have voice, and at times we felt like we weren't expected to be parents but glorified babysitters. I don't know if other foster parents felt this way, not many other male foster parents  in my social circle to ask. 

Now I am ranting, but does this all mean I didn't want the kids to go home? No, I am happy that they got to go back to their mom. Is the situation perfect, no. But no situation is. But there is love, lots of love from their parents that truly want to be their parents. And that goes a long way in life. I was more frustrated, that we are held to high standers but those above us who enforce these rules can have 'flexibility'. In how the deal with things. 

We currently are having a break from fostering, while we have a second biological kid. But we intend to do this again after that. The experience was crazy, going from one kid to five kid. In that time I felt more like an adult than I have ever felt in my life.

 I have learned, and grown. Yet I still miss my kids. They are happy, and that makes me happy too. 

There must be a start

 This is the first of hopefully many post. I will be honest for any fool that digs deep enough to find this post. I have tried my hand at doing blogs in the past. But I find that I have a problem with finding words. 

This is funny as I am an author who has some have at the time of this post have one book published, and a second on the way. Yet I am going to try to keep a set of post up this time. The first time I tried this, it was only book reviews, or small updates on the writing process. Then I tried being more serious trying to analyze a certain medium that I enjoy. 

But both of these failed, and I think its because that is not how my brain works when creating something or at least interacting with this medium. Instead these post will be more free form and contain more perhaps ponderings at times, that might border on rants. 

Yet I hope to keep all of this light heater, and about things I really enjoy. the world is a dim place as it is, and I don't feel like adding to it any more misery than can be found out there. So once again for those that foolishly dug to deep. This is the bedrock, the first, and here I hope not the last.