I've said before that I'm hardly a fan of the isekai genre. Partially because of the blatant power fantasy aspect a lot of them have; especially the ones with milquetoast yet OP protagonists with more waifus in their harem than they have notable character traits, and how many are set in interchangeable RPG fantasy worlds. I've got nothing against people who do enjoy them of course, but they're just not for me. 

After spending years as one of the biggest trends in the anime and manga world, it seems others are starting to get tired of isekai, including Homura Kawomoto of Kakegurui fame and artist Aki Yamaguchi. Their latest work, Isekai Tenseisha Goroshi -Cheat Slayer- (Killing the People Reincarnated Into the Other World -Cheat Slayer-) is basically for isekai what The Boys is to superheroes.

It follows a villager named Lute in Fantasy World #3263 who looks up to a guild of heroes that come from another world called the Rebels Against God. After one of their members wipes out his village and rapes his childhood friend's corpse, he awakens to find a witch who tells him all the Rebels are as fucked up as they come, even in their previous lives, and only got this far due to cheating. Thus, Lute sets out to kill the Rebels. And just like how The Seven are clearly based on the Justice League, the Rebels Against God bear more than a passing resemblance to existing isekai heroes.

L-R: Subaru from Re:Zero, Shin from Wise Man's Grandchild, Aqua from KonoSuba, Catarina from My Next Life as a Villainess, Kirito from Sword Art Online, Tanya from The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Rimuru from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Aletta from Restaurant to Another World and Ainz from Overlord

The editors of Kadokawa's Monthly Dragon Age must've picked up on the similarities only after publishing the first chapter and suddenly got cold feet due to potential copyright infringement and the possibilty of being seen as insulting to the original works and their creators. The manga was swiftly canned and apologies were issued to the creators whose characters were parodied here. Kawamoto also apologized on Twitter, saying:

"I deeply apologize for all the pain, concerns, and fuss I have caused to everyone related to this incident. I created a work that was lacking in due consideration, and I am ashamed to have caused an incident like this. Going forward, my shame about my actions will encourage me to create better works. I am deeply sorry."

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime author Fuse responded to the apology:

"I have received an apology from the Dragon Age editorial department. For an author, the character's image is important, so I request that if you do a parody, you do not overdo it."

So where does parody end and copyright infringement begin? Maybe Kawomoto would've gotten away with it if the Rebels weren't so obviously meant to be stand-ins for other characters. Flare may have red hair while Aqua's is blue (not that that matters if it's printed in black and white) and changing Subaru to Honda is admittedly kinda amusing, but Kilt? Not only does he look exactly like the SAO protagonist but native Japanese speakers would probably pronounce his name almost identically to Kirito. In any case, parody and copyright laws in Japan are completely different to what we're used to in the west, and honor being so prevelant  in Japanese culture means it's hard to find works that explicitly mock other media, especially to the degree Kawamoto did. Like what Fuse said, no writer wants to see someone else turn their characters into rapists or murderers.

What do you guys think? Should Cheat Slayer have been canceled? Would you have liked to see where the story goes? Let us know in the comments!