New Manga Shows the Brutal Aftermath of Isekai Stories
A new manga called Hero Has Returned has essentially fast-forwarded through a popular Isekai trope by focusing on all of the tragedies that transpire after the story ends. And it's devastating. In some of the more popular Isekai, the hero, a powerless nobody who possesses some ambivalent innate talent or quality that makes them somehow special, is summoned to a different world by people who need to be saved from an existential threat (normally a demon lord). Then, after saving the day, these heroes are sent back home. The end. Normally, the hero comes to this other world after being hit by a car or truck, and those who are exceptionally weak receive a "cheat" that makes them more formidable while picking up the pace of the story. In Hero Has Returned, the lives of the Isekaied heroes are so bad upon their return home that they end up becoming villains and enslaving their own world.
Within the span of the debut chapter, the first hero named Min Soo Kim saves the world that he had been Isekaied to (of course, he gets there after getting hit by a truck) and returns home after eight months. But his life when he returns is in shambles. His mother died in a hit and run incident when posting flyers for her missing son. His father committed suicide because he had failed to protect his family. His school, which had expelled him for being gone for eight months, won't reverse his expulsion. His friends aren't allowed to hang out with him anymore since he is no longer on their academic level. And he becomes homeless.
Min, after being loved and respected by everyone in the other world for his heroic exploits and usefulness, eventually snaps in the manga due to how bad his life has become in such a relatively short amount of time. When a couple bully him for being homeless, Min somehow summons his sword from the other world, which plummets down from the heavens and just obliterates the boyfriend. This sudden escalation soon culminates in Min endeavoring to lay waste to those who would have continued ridiculing him if he didn't have powers and to make the few survivors feel as empty and hopeless as him.
Incredibly, eight other people from Min's world who were also Isekaied experience the same fate as Min upon their return home and conquer their world with him, eventually dividing the land into nine provinces. Only one other hero, a man named Jung Soo Park whose family Min slaughtered before Jung was Isekaied himself, returns as a true hero, with the hope of seeking revenge on the "hero with the white armor" and killing his eight followers.
What's so wonderfully ironic about Hero Has Returned is that such a unique manga series was able to come out of such a highly saturated and shamelessly uninspired genre. Most Isekai are essentially carbon copies of each other to the point where it's impossible to tell them apart except for the hero's names and skills. Every story either revolves around a summoning, a reincarnation or a video game. And what happens therein is exactly the same. But, of course, the reason why there are so many is because many fans love them. In fact, most of the comments for Hero Has Returned on every manga site were negative for the author changing the tried-and-true formula, but that's what makes it so good. It's different and fresh while taking an extremely devastating look of what could happen if a hero can't acclimate into normal society. When an Isekai ends, the true story is just beginning.
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