Summary
When characters are taken away to a magical or alternate world, they areoften blessed with powersto aid their journey in the new world. These powers are usually a lot, making the protagonist overpowered, but sometimes the opposite is the case. In this sense, the protagonist gets few to no extra powers or special abilities,making them underpoweredin this incredible new setting.
Some protagonists find themselves in their ideal or dream world, likeShiro and Sora inNo Game, No Life,and Kazuma inKonosuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World.However, things do not go as planned, especially when they end up underpowered. This can make their new life quite underwhelming and a bit stressful. Sometimes, these characters get boring powers that they would be better off without, but they make the most of them. These characters use theirunderwhelming powers to achieve great results,making the best of a bad situation.
Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
Most Isekai heroes are spontaneous, as they would not think twice before going after a villain or embarking on an adventure.They might strategizeand put things in place to ensure their victory, but even when the odds are not in their favor, their hopes of gaining victory do not vanish because they believe in themselves. However, things are not that easy for the cautious hero, Seiya. Unlike most protagonists,he takes extra caution before fighting a villain.
Seiya is granted this cautious nature by Risarte, the goddess who summoned him to be a hero. Seiya’s overly cautious naturecan make things boring, as he does not take risks and is not adventurous. However, Seiya makes it work in his favor becausehe gets his strength from being overly cautious. When he eventually battles an enemy, the fight is over from the beginning, as it is certain that Seiya will win.
A smartphone only works in the modern world, but Touya thought it would be equally useful in the fantasy world he found himself in. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. His smartphone is boring and quite limited in the fantasy world where he found himself afterbeing accidentally killed.
The presence of the smartphone in the fantasy world is considered a powerbecause Touya asked God for it, but its enhanced abilities are a shadow of what it used to do in Touya’s previous world. There is not much that he can do to elevate the smartphone, butTouya tries his best. He uses the smartphone to gain information about his previous world and implement it in this new world. He also uses the map on the phone to help him with navigation in the new world.
Return By Death
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.
Subaru’s power might be boring, but it is devastating to have.Subaru is the main protagonistofRe:Zero- Starting Life in Another World,where his normal life is abruptly cut short when his trip to a grocery store ends with him transporting to another world. Upon getting to this new world, Subaru faces a brutal death, but because ofthe return-by-death ability granted to himby the witch of envy,he relives his death over again.
Reliving one’s death is depressing, and after a while, it can be boring. However, Subaru makes good use of this power. He uses it to gather information, strategize, and overcome difficult situations.
A salaryman finds himself in a fantasy world after he is murdered. In this new world, this man reincarnates as a slime named Rimuru, and slimes are considered the weakest creatures. Luckily, Rimuru used his absorption skills to his benefit. On the outside, this power seems very boring as it involves absorbing things, be they objects, animals, and so on. However, it turns out that it isa powerful abilityto have.
Rimuru used this seemingly boring power to gain an advantage over his new world, and he was quickly able to abandon his weak status as a slime. He absorbed monsters, animals, and other creatures,emulating their powers and using them to power up.
Kazuma’s death was quite hilariousand unnecessary, but with no way to go back to life, he is given the chance to reincarnate in another world. However, things do not go right for him. Sadly, he is not blessed with powers, making him fall under the category of Isekai protagonists who are underpowered.
The only power Kazuma was blessed with excess in this world is luck. He has a high stat in luck, and he uses this seemingly boring power to improvehis Steal ability. Steal, as its name implies, lets him steal things from others. The item to be the most valuable thing on the person. For some women, it could be their underwear, while for Mitsuraji, it was his sword.Without this incredible luck, Kazuma would not have been able to gain more abilities and, quite frankly, survive in the fantasy world ofKonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!
