L-R: Itsuki, Solte, and Aina
Slow Life in Another World (I Wish!) (異世界でスローライフを（願望）Isekai de Slow Life wo (Ganbou)) is an isekai Low Fantasy Light Novel series written by Shige and illustrated by Ouka.Chronically overworked Japanese salaryman Itsuki Shinomiya dreams of an easier life in another world. After suddenly dying waiting for the evening train, he's greeted by a goddess who offers him just that. Much to the goddess's bafflement, he sticks to his guns and picks out the skills "Pocket Change", "Alchemy", and "Farming": rather than go adventuring against the local Demon King or what-have-you, he plans to open up a small business and take it easy.
After Itsuki joins the local Alchemy Guild and learns the basics, an altercation results in his first run of product being destroyed. His guildmaster demands recompense, and—to Itsuki's horror—the beautiful knight Aina Vermut volunteers to enslave herself to him to cover the lost business, with her fighting partner Solte coming along to keep an eye on her.
The novels were originally published in Japan beginning 25 March 2018. A manga adaptation drawn by Nagayori entered serialization in Comic Gardo on 12 July 2019, and was released in English by Seven Seas Entertainment beginning 17 August 2021.
Tropes:
- Appeal to Force: Dardarill attempts this after Itsuki wins the bet over Wendy, sending his goons to take her by force. Fortunately, Itsuki brought backup in the form of Aina, Solte, and Shiro.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: There's more than one shot of full-frontal female nudity in the manga, none of which have any of the relevant attributes shown.
- The Bet: Yaschis, the local slave trader, arranges a competition between Itsuki and local fop Dardarill to decide whom he'll sell Wendy to, after the two nearly come to blows in the street when Yaschis loans her to Itsuki for the day. Whichever of them first comes up with the price of 120 million nohl (80 million for Itsuki since Dardarill has a head start) gets to buy her. Itsuki crafts 40 million nohl worth of jewelry and sells them to Reinrich, and comes up with the other half by inventing a bullet vibrator and selling the sales rights to Yaschis.
- Culture Clash: Itsuki has normal modern-day Japanese values and is very much a live-and-let-live type, which causes a lot of problems in the RPG Mechanics 'Verse: the culture in his new world demands that slights and harm be addressed through weregild in some way, even if that means someone ends up enslaved for life. Itsuki dislikes this and only works with this system reluctantly, and tries to at least mitigate the harm done to its victims—meaning buying slaves himself to keep them out of the hands of less benevolent masters, and freeing them when legally possible.
- Did Not Think This Through: The adventurer's guild winds up pissing off Reinrich of the alchemist's guild, a huge no-no, because they attacked Itsuki, destroying his potions, presuming he was coming from the pharmacist's guild, which sells lower quality potions at higher prices, and never bothered to check first. This winds up costing them when their two top adventurers are made Itsuki's slaves to Work Off the Debt. OUCH.
- Fictional Currency: As is common in these settings, "nohl" seems to just be yen by another name, ridiculously inflated value and all.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Itsuki and Wendy have other characters barge in on them nearly having sex a couple of times: first in the bath when Aina and Solte come in just as their Furo Scene moves towards kissing, then a few days later when she joins him in his bedroom and they're interrupted by a sleepy Shiro going to the wrong door looking for the bathroom.
- Hero's Slave Harem: Reconstructed, and initially Played for Laughs. Itsuki has his first two slaves foisted on him to cover the Adventure Guild's debt after his first round of potions are smashed in an altercation in the guild hall. He's actually appalled at the idea and wants to just write it off and come back with more product later, but Aina goes full Honor Before Reason and insists, with her fighting partner Solte tagging along to keep her out of trouble (and because Aina's slave grading comes up short on value). He refuses to call them his slaves and, at his guildmaster's suggestion, frames it as a contract to Work Off the Debt by gathering raw materials for alchemy, promising to free them afterward. Later he starts buying female slaves like Wendy to keep them out of the hands of abusive masters. When they fall in love later and are interrupted a couple times while making out, he directly points out the Questionable Consent problem in their relationship to Guildmaster Reinrich: Wendy genuinely loves him and wants to have sex with him (her Love Confession is shown from her point of view), but Itsuki is still concerned about the power dynamics.
- Internal Deconstruction: Sorte's Hair-Trigger Temper, Unprovoked Pervert Payback, and seeing the worst in Itsuki is mostly a gag for much of the series. During Renge's introduction, it is revealed she sent a letter to her friend Renge that described her and Aina's situation in the worst way possible which incited Renge to try to kill Itsuki. After Renge's capture, Yasis makes clear that Renge is now a criminal and that Sorte is also guilty by inciting her with a very inaccurate letter.
- Made a Slave: There's three kinds of slavery in the setting. Economic slaves sold themselves mainly to cover debts (c.f. Aina and Solte), convict slaves were sentenced to hard labor. Then there's "special status" slaves like Wendy, who come from the aristocracy and therefore have more rights, such as not being able to be sold without their consent.
- The Mob Boss Is Scarier: Ward boss Darwin puts the fear of God into Dardarill by his mere presence, putting an abrupt end to his feud with Itsuki. He proves to have a sense of honor, settling up with him and Reinrich for the damage his underling did by buying Itsuki a nice house in the town, but it's strongly implied that he executed Dardarill for his misbehavior.
- Power Perversion Potential: Itsuki uses alchemy to invent a magic-powered "personal massager" i.e. bullet vibrator. Justified because he was trying to come up with something he could turn into a valuable product on short notice: he sells the sales rights to Yaschis to come up with the other half of the purchase price for Wendy.
- Reincarnate in Another World: For lack of a better explanation, Itsuki seems to have died of exhaustion waiting for the evening train home, and a nameless goddess sends him to an alternate world as himself. This apparently common enough in the other world to have developed its own slang term, "drifter": Itsuki meets another who is a Stock Light-Novel Hero, who saves him from a monster and writes him a letter of introduction to Guildmaster Reinrich.
- Slow Life Fantasy: After slaving away in corporate Japan, Itsuki's highest ambition is to be his own boss and make enough money to live on comfortably.
- Work Off the Debt: Aina and Solte sell themselves into slavery to cover the Adventure Guild's debt to the Alchemist Guild after Itsuki's first batch of potions are smashed in an altercation. By volume 3 of the manga, they're close to paying it back.
