Literature / TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy-

"Things don't quite work out, in the way I'd like them to, over in this world (Haiku)."

—Makoto

TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- (月が導く異世界道中, Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Dōchū, lit. "Moon-led Journey Across Another World"), is a Japanese web/light novel series written by Azumi Kei. It was first released online in 2012 on the website Shousetsuka ni Narou, later moving to Alphapolis in 2016.

Ordinary High-School Student and archery hobbyist Makoto Misumi is called into a fantasy world by the god Tsukuyomi, in order to be a hero due to a promise his parents made in the past. However, the Goddess of this world isn't as thrilled to have him there due to his looks, and kicks him to the edge of the world to fend for himself. Now, with his ridiculous amount of Mana and ability to understand every language except the one used by the other world's humans, it's up to Makoto to find his own way!

The novel has been adapted into a series of Light Novels illustrated by Matsumoto Mitsuaki, and a manga illustrated by Kino Kotora; both are published by Alphapolis. It later received a July 2021 Anime by C2C. In March 2024, Hanashi Media announced they had licensed the light novels for English release, with the first volume releasing digitally on March 30, 2024.

Beware of unmarked spoilers!!!

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TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- contains examples of:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Makoto's short sword, can become a lot sharper with his Realm/Sakai. Tomoe's katanas are another example.
• Action Girl: Tomoe and Mio, as well as many other female adventurers and demi-humans, are extremely powerful combatants.
• Adventure Guild: One founded roughly a millenia ago that has spread around the world, providing adventurers with benefits reflecting their rank and strength (e.g. an ID card that contains various bits of information, and can even be used for communication, which is given upon merely joining the guild) through a widespread magical network. Thus far we haven't seen what most of those benefits are, as Makoto and his followers haven't been that interested in them.
  • We later meet the Guildmaster, Falz a.k.a Root, the supreme dragon of Myriad Colors, who powers the entire magical network themselves, who reveals a dark twist to this trope. The guild wasn't founded to empower hyumans, but rather to manage and restrict them, as Root feared that the Goddess's excessive favoritism towards hyumans would lead to the collapse of the world's balance. The "benefits" are traps designed to attract those would be consumed by their greed, who would inevitably die at the hands of a threat that they couldn't handle in order to feed their amibitions and desires. While some do manage to survive and become extremely successful and wealthy, Root views this as a positive as it provides further motivation for the greedy to strive (and perish) for their goals.
• All Myths Are True: Pretty much all mythological gods appear to exist, including Tsukuyomi and others such as Susanoo, Shiva/Daikokuten, Yatagarasu, Athena, the Fates (Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos), Poseidon, and so on.
• Almighty Janitor:
  • Makoto. Level 1 adventurer in a universe where even small children are usually double digits or more. A clueless merchant running a small general store in a universe where the merchant guild system specifically is designed to prevent general stores from working. A somewhat ugly looking, spindly teenager wearing what amounts to noble clothes. And a Person of Mass Destruction who can effortlessly destroy armies, countries, and the landscape around him by accident if he's not careful.
  • Tsukuyomi also qualifies because it's revealed later in the story that he was helping literally every other Deity on Earth with their duties, and now that he's out of commission by sending Makoto to The Bug's world all the other Gods are struggling to do their own jobs, despite, you know, only having their own duties to do and not, what is likely, about 100 or so at once like Tsukuyomi had to.
• Artifact of Death: If anyone else besides Makoto were to wear one of his mana suppression rings or robe, the item would immediately suck their mana dry, and thus killing them.
• Artifact of Doom: After one of Makoto's rings has been filled with his mana, it doubles as a very powerful bomb that can go off accidentally if not handled properly.
• Attempted Rape: Both Tomoe and Mio after "rescuing" Makoto from a prostitute. Both of them are upset by him not making any moves on either of them, yet seemed eager to sleep with a prostitute. Then both start stripping and binding him down, and he barely escapes them by casting an ice spell and simultaneously teleporting out of the inn.
• Badass Adorable: Komoe, Tomoe's kid sized clone that's still just as superhumanly strong and dangerous as the original.
• Badass Crew: Makoto, Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki: a teenager who went through the magical equivalent of Training from Hell by living on Earth, a world without any magic; an ancient giant dragon with Mind Manipulation powers and a Everything's Better with Samurai hobby; a giant spider with a near infinite Healing Factor that used to be considered a living natural disaster; and a centuries old Lich and magic expert.
• Badass Teacher: Makoto and Shiki become temporary teachers in Academy Town. They are incredibly successful in training a small group of students in actual combat, as opposed to the theoretical combat the Academy teaches; their students are considered uncouth for doing things like "moving" or "dodging" during combat.
• Battle Couple: In the backstory, Makoto's parents.
• The Beautiful Elite: Humans of this world are all extremely attractive much in the same way elves are considered in other fantasy settings, due to the ridiculously high standard of beauty of the local goddess. Mio even admits that by the human standards of this world Makoto is quite ugly, though that's not the reason they run from him.
• Big Eater: Mio started as a huge and ravenous spider monster; even after assuming human form, she can still pack away the snacks handily.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Princess Lily and Tomoki, upon encountering Tomoe for the first time. Tomoki attempts to steal her katana, openly gobsmacked that he cannot even draw it from its sheath despite his Goddess granted ability to "use all weapons", while their Dragon Tamer tries to enslave Tomoe. After this doesn't work, Tomoki tries to use his mind control on Tomoe with Lily's permission, which similarly fails.
  • This happens repeatedly to Makoto. Notable examples include Sophia attempting to kill him, thinking he was working for the Goddess, resulting in the creation of a new lake, the Church extorting his recipe for healing potions out of him, but the biggest may be when the Merchant Guild Leader, Zara, tries to crush Makoto's fledgling company at the request of several powerful politicians and companies. This includes demanding 90% of Makoto's profits, knowledge of Makoto's techniques for moving materials around, et cetera. It is only later that week, during the Variant Crisis, that Zara realizes just how much danger he could have been in, had Makoto been less shocked and more angry.
• Call to Adventure: The gods summoned many individuals from Earth to be heroes in other worlds. Subverted with Makoto as he is chosen by Tsukuyomi but rejected by the local Goddess. Played straight with two others who have been chosen by the Goddess.
• Calling Your Attack: Justified, since it's the nature of magic through magical incantation. Magic can be used without an incantation, but it makes it weaker.
• Cast from Hit Points: Several abilities explicitly exchange lifespan for power. The Rose Sign is one of them, burning out the caster's remaining life for a giant burst of magic and power; As are the drugs that Lily researched and has been giving Tomoki and his allies.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The Goddess mentions she already chose a hero from her own world. They did not appear until chapter 23.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Tomoe and Mio become rather violent when anyone threatens Makoto and will regularly fight with each other over who gets to spend time with him.
• Closest Thing We Got: The quest from Rembrandt Company. Mr. Rembrandt actually needs some Ambrosia flowers for the potions but because going after those are dangerous, he must settle for eyes of the strayed insects which mostly consume Ambrosia, which is considered the less dangerous option. It is fit to compare the former by many swarms of middle level monsters and their respective Mooks in an area and latter as just one swarm of a middle level monster Mook Lieutenant and its mooks.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: This when we first see Rembrandt's name uttered by his enemy (in that case, the shaman) and we get to whom or why it happens later.
• Combat Pragmatist: Makoto, in spades, due to his near sociopathically emotionless nature. This comes back to bite him when he idly kills 3 brainwashed assassins, and said 3 assassins had friends who were trying to help them recover.
• Common Tongue: Justified. The language all hyumans use is not learnt but given by the goddess at some sort of baptism, so all hyumans speak one "hyuman language". Non-hyumans can learn it with time. Makoto, who's only been there a few months at most, only learns the grammar, spelling, and words but his pronunciation is off.
• Crapsack World: A world overseen by a flawed Goddess who values looks over ability or character, racial discrimination, Hyumans (humans) and humanoids are preferred by the Goddess and she neglects everyone else, many communities are fighting for "better land" (read: not an arid desert or frozen wasteland) especially the Demon race who even consider a frozen wasteland filled with monsters as better than their previous home, and a war between the Hyuman and Demon race with many people trapped as bystanders.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Those who go up against Makoto, Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki meet a quick and sudden defeat, with some exceptions.
  • When Makoto takes on some bandits attacking a remote village, he first silences the encampment so no one can make or hear a sound, ambushes them with arrows, and then launches a fire spell to take out the rest. Only the leader tries any resistence by throwing a sword at him. It breaks on Makoto's armor.
  • One example of this is the fight with the Variants in Academy Town. After it is established that the local government needs small platoons of troops to take out a single one, Makoto and his friends casually kill 15 of them without breaking a sweat while walking down the street.
  • Makoto vs Tomoki. The latter is extremely rude to everyone he meets, and gets the former alone. He demands that Makoto sell him Tomoe, offering him 3 brainwashed maids in exchange. Upon being refused, Tomoki has the girls pull weapons on Makoto, explaining that he can tell Makoto is weak and just happened to brainwash his 3 strong retainers. Wrong. The latter quietly uses magic to lock the door, enhance the soundproofing of the room, and puts all the witnesses to sleep. Makoto then proceeds to beat Tomoki against the wall, punching him more times than he could count, bashing his face in every time he tried to speak, until he got bored. He then heals Tomoki and walks away. Sadly, this event is just what Princess Lily needs to manipulate him into seeking more, dangerous power. Specifically, the refinement of his mind control skill into a form of drug that can be used remotely.
• Curse: An enemy of Rembrandt placed a curse on his wife and daughters which gradually turns them into berserking monsters. Left untreated, it would eventually kill them.
• Cute Monster Girl: Tomoe / Komoe, Mio, and Shiki start out as an ancient dragon, a giant spider and decrepit lich, only to become highly attractive humans after becoming Makoto's Subordinates. To some extent, Ema and the other female Orcs, who tend to look more like cute pig Funny Animals in dresses and so forth than the more standard monstrous portrayals, also fit the description.
• Deconstruction: Of the typical Story-Breaker Power protagonist that isekai light novels use. Everyone who fully understands how strong Makoto is treats him as a living Doomsday Device, one that absolutely must be kept as far away from politics and taking sides in conflicts as possible, lest he start wiping entire civilizations out. Fortunately for the world, he's more interested in being a merchant... which he's decidedly less than talented at. We even get to see some Alternate Timelines where Makoto does start taking sides, all of which have led to The End of the World as We Know It. Thus, a running theme through the story instead becomes about the consequences of giving teenagers ultimate power itself, rather than how they derail existing plot lines.
• Deal with the Devil: More like Deal with Jerkass God, but still applies as basically sending their kid to a Crapsack World. Makoto's parents, when cornered by danger 20 years before, made a deal with the goddess presiding over their homeworld to grant their wish; she moved them to Earth's Japan. In return, she wants one of their kids to be sent to the parents' homeworld. Tsukuyomi (another god) chose Makoto.
• Death World: Earth is regarded as one due to its extremely low mana, which largely prevents the blessings of the gods from affecting people and its high gravity. Basically all Terran Humans are the equivalent of John Carter of Mars on other worlds, making them superstrong and magically powerful even without the blessing of a deity. This is one of the reasons why other worlds tend to summon Earthlings as Heroes.
• Depraved Bisexual: Falz, the guild leader of the Adventurer's guild, aka Root, the Supreme Dragon of Myriad Colors, the native Crystal Dragon Jesus. As an immortal shapeshifter, he has been married 10 times, to both men and women; he prefers having sex as a woman but thinks love between men is superior. He also has a fetish for otherworlders, his 10 husbands and wives having been otherworlders and openly wants to get Makoto into bed.
• Do Not Call Me Sir: Makoto has this reaction when called by honorifics initially. He wants to object the residents of Asora calling him Waka (Young Master) but decided not to after seeing everyone's enthusiasm.
• Dirty Coward: When a demon general uses a magic item to temporarily erase the blessings of the chosen heroes within an area of effect, despite having the best equipment and party at the time, Tomoki chooses to retreat as his blessings (which include immortality at night) are nullified, meaning he's vulnerable. He would rather see both hyuman armies (and the other summoned hero) die than risk fighting in a battle if there's any chance of losing.
• The Dragon Slayer: Sofia Brago's title, as she killed 4 Supreme Dragons.
• The Dreaded:
  • Tomoe is one of the 7 superior dragons known as the "Invincible" and the second highest level adventurer.
  • Mio is known as "Black Calamity Spider" and is the highest level adventurer.
  • Makoto:
    • Makoto earned the title "Devil" by accidentally destroying both an entire hyuman and demon army, the aftermath of which created a lake, though almost no one knows that it was him that did it. Most only know it was someone who was summoned by the Goddess. After effortlessly dealing with Io, it makes the Demon Lord Zef, his children and the 4 Demon Generals terrified of him especially and Kuzunoha in general. Further, his unconsciously overflowing magic aura is able to terrify a bunch of adventurers when not suppressed. Tomoe compares it to a bunch of Demon Lords appearing out of the blue.
    • The leader of the Lorel Union, having grasped just how powerful Makoto is, quickly goes from interested to worried to openly terrified as she realizes the implications of having Makoto running around free, able to react to untold number of Political, Racial, Religious and Financial factions who don't understand his strength and thus might provoke a reaction by accident.
    • The Water Dragon, Waterfall, is openly polite and nice to Makoto when they meet, up to and including offering Makoto magic books on Interdimensional Summoning and Travel. However, the second he leaves the room, Waterfall turns to Hibiki and begs her to find some way to seal Makoto away, because he's so powerful that nothing in the world — not even the Goddess — can stop him. The Interdimensional Summoning and Travel spellbooks are part of this plot, with the hope that Makoto will simply send himself back to Japan and no longer be a threat due to no longer having magic.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Tomoe being a self-proclaimed samurai, having become obsessed with them based on watching old Samurai and Detective movies in Makoto's memories.
• Extremely Easy Exam: Makoto is told that the Merchant Guild test is extremely hard and barely anyone passes on their first try. He finishes in seconds and scores an unprecedented perfect score. Since the Goddess of the world prioritizes physical beauty above all else, the education level is terrible. Makoto compares the questions to grade school math problems.
• Extreme Omnivore: Mio and the Arkes were insatiable Big Eater Extreme Omnivore monsters with little sanity. Thanks to Makoto's mana they regained their sanity and self-control. In return they swore an Undying Loyalty to him.
• Fake Ultimate Hero:
  • Mills Ace for Zetsuya. The public knows him as the highest level adventurer in there and someone heroic, but in reality, he is the leader of a local crime organization and faked his level.
  • In a variation, Tomoki, despite given various luxuries and indulgences to keep him pliant, is considered by Princess Lily and Gritonia as little more than a Human Weapon to serve their ambitions to wipe out the demons and expand their empire, with him experimented on multiple times to the point he will likely die young. Whatever respect he does have is due to widespread propaganda and exploiting his charm skill.
• Fantastic Nuke: Some of the attacks shown qualify as this.
  • Makoto's magic attack which wiped out 2 armies and created a lake. Specifically, it was one ungodly huge ice spell that froze everything in a very large radius, shattering it all into component atoms, and then melted, filling the resultant crater and connecting several rivers. Only a handful of people survived on both sides, and the lingering mana from the spell drives monsters away for miles around.
  • One of the heroes, Tomoki, has one too, actually called "Nuke." It literally summons a nuclear blast, complete with radiation aftereffects, which Tomoki can ignore due to his immortality blessing at night — but as a status effect, it can be simply cured away with magic.
  • Makoto eventually figures out how to use the material his rings are made out of as ammunition, causing huge explosions whenever he does.
• Fantastic Racism: The Goddess and Hyumans towards demi-humans. Makoto simply not grasping how racist the Hyumans are bites him on multiple occasions.
• Field Power Effect: Makoto's Realm can apply all sorts of effects, from increasing his power, hiding his magic power, healing others, negating magic, and can expand to let him see and hear anyone within it. Sadly, he's restricted by how many things he can do at the same time, and he has to use a good portion of it to restrain his own mana.
• Foil: Hibiki, the Heroine of Limia and Tomoki, the Hero of Gritonia are a study in contrasts. Both in turn emphasize the traits of Makoto, chosen by Tsukiyomi and those chose by the Goddess.
  • Hibiki is a female take on the Stock Light-Novel Hero. A natural Genius Bruiser who found nothing at all challenging in her homeworld, Hibiki nevertheless remains essentially The Paladin even after being brought to this world. Noble, courageous and skilled, Hibiki seeks to enact social change for the better gradually through progressive reform. Her party is very conventional being a Damager, Healer, Tank combination of a White Magician Girl, a Black Mage, a Stone Wall fighter and a Lightning Bruiser warrior. A member of the Limian royal family secretly fights within Hibiki's party out of love for her. Hibiki fights as part of the vanguard in her party but is versatile enough to drop into any role that is required in battle.
  • Tomoki is a deconstruction of the Stock Light-Novel Hero. He is chosen solely for his good looks. He lacks any special skills and has been bullied heavily throughout his life. Unlike Hibiki who was transferred "as is", Tomoki was radically transfigured by the Goddess into a blonde, older form. A Dirty Coward who ran away the moment his life was even at the slight hint of danger, Tomoki rapidly slides into evil under the machinations of his party members. Tomoki basically seeks to use his charm powers to rule Gritonia as his personal harem and treasury without any heed for the welfare of the people. Tomoki's party consists mainly of people with rare and unconventional classes. Aside from an Imperial Guardsman to serve as a tank, the rest of his party are a Gadgeteer Genius who fights using golems and a Dragon Summoner. The member of the royal family in Tomoki's party is openly affiliated with it but does not fight on the front lines serving as The Strategist and logistician. Tomoki in battle is basically a one trick pony, blasting the enemy with high level firepower.
  • Makoto is functionally a Heroic Neutral more interested in cooperation and harmony between the various races. In chapters set in the Lorel Union, we learn that many other Japanese Otherworlders also held similar beliefs. This implies that Makoto acts more in accordance to how most Japanese would act as opposed to the heroism of Hibiki or the hedonism of Tomoki. In addition, while Hibiki and Tomoki's struggle involves gaining strength for their purposes, Makoto's trouble lies in controlling and restraining his massive amount of mana, lest he frighten or hurt people by accident. Finally, Makoto's "party" is made up of his servants, non-humans (given a human appearance due to the effects of the servant contract) who are individually strong or skilled enough to be the Final Boss (or at least Elite Mooks) in another story, including the would-be samurai/Master of Illusion Tomoe, the former Black Spider of Calamity Mio and the knowledgable lich Shiki.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With:
  • In general, when two individuals make a contract, the weaker contractor will always assume the image of the stronger contractor's race. Tomoe, Mio, and Shiki assume hyuman form when they made a servant contract with Makoto.
  • Mio's Arkes gradually learn to disguise themselves as hyumans.
• From Bad to Worse: The Goddess transporting Makoto in the middle of a battle where the hyuman army is retreating from the demons had the effect of causing the destruction of both.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Makoto in spades. He starts off as an Ordinary High-School Student with very plain looks and some talent at Archery. By the time he lands in the new world, he's such an overwhelming magical force of nature that he has to wear special clothing and jewelry to suppress his aura, lest adventurers instinctively recognize him as a threat and attack. He just gets more powerful from there, to the point that a major plot point is that he can't interfere with world events or he'll accidentally cause The End of the World as We Know It.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The ultimate fate of Sofia. Root destroys her memories, leaving her as a happy, if somewhat innocent, young adventurer.
• Giant Spider: Mio, before gaining a human form, and the Arkeys were all large arachnids.
• Gilded Cage:
  • The Lorel Union is a secretive country that respects, supports, if not outright worships lost otherworlders that end up in their world, who they call "The Wise." They are also of the opinion that The Wise should only be in Lorel, and are not opposed to using manipulation to imprison them there.
  • Sairitz, their leader, recognizes Makoto as a Wise after he uses Kanji in his sign, and confirms it later during the Variant Crisis when he uses absurdly powerful magic. Her immediate thought is that she needs to convince him to go to Lorel, where they can properly restrain him via emotional blackmail into staying there forever. Shortly thereafter, she starts reasoning how strong he is, the reactions of politicians and racial groups to him and his company, and the very bad things that would occur if things went sideways when Makoto is involved.
• God Is Flawed: The Goddess hands down. Other gods are also seen as beings with their own individual flaws.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Tomoe and Mio fit this trope when someone gets too close to Makoto.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Averted. Hyumans are noted to be incapable of breeding with other species, like Greater Dragons. However, as Makoto is human due to how he was raised on Earth, he is capable of breeding with Tomoe. Root confirms to her as Root once bore the child of her first human lover centuries ago.
• Happiness in Slavery: Tomoe, Mio, Shiki, and Tamaki make a servant contract with Makoto and are content with it.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: On a national scale. Human armies can pray for the Goddess' Blessing before any battle. The side favoured by the Goddess due to their good looks gets their strength doubled while the opposing side gets their strength halved. This four fold change in combat ability pretty much determines the winner before any engagement. This means that logistics, training, strategy, tactics and equipment are all invalidated in warfare involving human nations; regardless of how much demihumans may develop their military, overcoming this gap is simply unrealistic.
• Hate Sink: The hyuman supremacists, their leader Elaine in particular. They were a trio of hyuman adventurers that tricked Makoto into taking them to the Illusionary City so they could steal some of the weaponry there. They not only attack an orc child just for seeing them, their recklessness causes one of the Draupnir meant to be disposed of to detonate, killing Hayato and Tomoe's fragment, as well as near fatally injuring Hokuto. While two of them are likewise killed in the explosion, Elaine manages to escape, not caring her comrades perished and more focused on the equipment. She then tries berating the clearly unhinged Makoto when he finds her, and has the gall to beg for mercy right before Makoto kills her. Safe to say, the only tears shed at their deaths were Makoto's own, not because he felt remorse, but because his body had been conditioned to cry at death.
• Hero's Slave Harem: Downplayed with Makoto's main love interests, Tomoe and Mio, who formed 80/20 "servant" magical contracts with the massively-overpowered Makoto to mutually-benefit from the power the contract provides, and both are extremely eager to service him sexually. However, exactly how bound to the servant contract they are is hazy, considering that Tomoe and Mio both regularly ignore Makoto's will or outright coerce him into going along with their whims instead. Makoto also gains additional servants like Shiki and Tamaki who are not romantically interested in him at all.
• Heroic Lineage: Played with. Makoto's parents are indeed something special. However it was not him who was groomed to assume their legacy and fulfill their bargain with the Goddess; it was his elder sister.
• Hidden Depths: Mio turns out to be quite the foodie, not surprising given her original nature as a gluttonous eldritch abomination; this translates into her being an incredible chef as well. Hibiki helped teach her about Japanese food, which Mio finds infinitely more admirable and interesting than Hibiki being one of the two heroes.
• Hollywood Homely: In universe example as most humanoids fall under this. Justified because the goddess is a Jerkass who dislikes ugly things. So she definitely put some influences to "brush off" humanoids who don't meet her beauty standard.
• Identical Stranger: Hasegawa in Japan and Toa the adventurer look very similar despite living worlds apart.
• Improbable Weapon User: Mio uses a fan in battle.
• Irony: Shiki is a Lich who specializes in healing magic.
• Jerkass God:
  • The Goddess whom Makoto saw before "landing" to the new world is one. She insulted him, threw him at the wasteland, and gave him the ability to speak with non-humans but not the ability to speak Common Tongue which she gives to any other hyuman.
  • Later, when forced to give him the ability to speak Common, she does so via brute force, basically hammering it into his soul. This is a problem because the combination of both equates to a high divine tier, "speak to anything with a mind" blessing, and a mortal soul can barely contain a blessing that powerful without self destructing. It's to the point that the other Earth gods can't give him a blessing because of it, and openly instruct him to use his Zen Meditation trick to power up as fast as possible before his soul explodes.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Not really a katana but a curved one-edged blade is what Tomoe prefers to use to complement with her samurai identity. It was made by the best craftsmen around obviously.
• Kidnapped by the Call: Makoto was scooped up and dropped into this adventure with little time to pack up and think it over. His choices were: He goes, or, one of his sisters must take his place. He's then promptly abandoned by a Jerkass God who promptly kidnaps two other people instead.
• Kill the Cutie: The death of Tomoe's first offshoot. Particularly brutal, as the explosion didn't even leave a corpse to be buried.
• The Klutz: Hazal is unbelievably clumsy, regularly tripping over his own two feet and accidentally injuring himself when collecting loot from monster drops. Ties into him being the Butt-Monkey of Toa's party.
• Language Barrier: Makoto is able to understand and speak to any non-hyuman beings but is unable speak and understand the common (hyuman) language though he manages to get through understanding only. He later bargains the Hyuman language from the Goddess.
• Language of Magic: Magic is worked through a system known as Ancient Language.
• Lizard Folk: Tomoe brings a tribe of reptilian humanoids to the demiplane, the Mistio Lizardmen.
• Loads and Loads of Races: It's fantasy so this is bound to happen. The main one that matters is the "Hyumans," which are distinctly NOT Humans, being incredibly attractive but generally weaker and more attuned to magic than the outrageously physically strong humans. They're cheap knockoffs created by the local sociopathic deity. Others include the local native demi-humans, which due to influence of the local goddess, are openly oppressed, as well as the local Demons, which are in open rebellion to the Goddess (and thus, her hyumans). It's later revealed that the demons is just the term for demi-humans who are the target of genocide from the Goddess / Hyumanity.
• Magical Incantation: Known as arias and they come in different varieties, depending on which language they are spoken in.
• Manipulative Bastard: Princess Lily, full stop, who has Tomoki wrapped around her finger with promises of power and glory. She has no intention of letting him live past the wars she plans on using him to win.
• Meaningful Rename: Makoto renames Shin as Tomoe and the Calamity Spider as Mio after they became his subordinates.
• Meditation Powerup: A more permanent variant than normal for this trope. By using the meditation technique he was taught for Zen Archery, Makoto is able to increase his already ridiculous amount of power past 'multiple demon lords' to 'just shy of a god'. Each time he does it he also causes Aurora to grow and warp to become more like Japan. Allowing the growth of Japanese foods. He didn't even realize he was doing it until his companions caught him in the act. It is hinted that his growth was exponential or geometrical, which means a single additional meditation session would have easily put him above the Goddess in terms of pure magical ability, which Tomoe and Mio were worried would result in her immediately attempting to kill him. Given that he's Unskilled, but Strong, he would not have been able to fight her off at that time.
• Miko: Included with the Shrines and Temples that were gifted by the 3 gods; one of them was Touda who later on becomes Makoto's subordinate and is renamed as Tamaki.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The reaction of anyone who is released from Tomoki's mind control. It is explicitly compared to a drug addiction that results in its victims having betrayed friends, families, loved ones, and their morals and beliefs in their single minded devotion to Tomoki. To the point that the most common reaction after coming to their senses is suicide.
• My Greatest Failure: Root's reaction to Sophia deciding to absorb the other dragons. He specifically points out that this was one of his plans that he tossed aside after getting married to Sophia's ancestor, so he feels some serious remorse over it.
• Official Couple: Come chapter 305, Makoto finally takes the Adventurers of Origin advice to be honest with the people he loves about how he feels about them, and finally confesses to and starts an honest-to-goodness relationship with Mio and Tomoe.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: So far in the manga and novel, the goddess's name hasn't been revealed yet. So the characters and readers call her "The Goddess". It is implied it is a name the reader would know.
• Orbital Bombardment: Makoto's ultimate spell, Moon. He summons, by asking the Moon for assistance using his blessing that allows him to talk to anyone and anything, an infinite number of flaming, homing meteors that explode as miniature nukes.
• Otaku:
  • Makoto and Tomoe. The former for having books, games, things on his hard drive, and watching so many period dramas. The latter for actually becoming Makoto's subordinate so she can watch his memories of above and record the projections for later viewing.
  • Later, Mio became a fan (preferring Anime and Westerns to Tomoe's Samurai and Detective stories) after Tomoe lent a copy of Makoto's memory recordings of Japanese media. She and Tomoe then fight over watching them.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Supreme Dragons are closer to incredibly powerful spirits or low-level gods, with the capability to shift forms, control entire elements, never age, and reincarnate even after their physical bodies are destroyed. Tomoe is a large Eastern Dragon who has the ability to read peoples mind, create mists of illusions, can create an empty pocket dimension, and is into Japanese period dramas. Root is considered by most to be an equal to the Goddess, can make massive magical networks like the Adventurer system, and can shift between a giant golden dragon, a woman, and a man at will.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Short stature, powerful facial hair, talented craftsdwarfs, you know the drill. The manga currently has one group of Elder Dwarves who join "Asora" and a named dwarven adventurer.
• Our Elves Are Different: They're supposedly descended from an older group called the Forest Ogres (who are themselves still around and fit elvish stereotypes of being secretive and isolationist). The manga currently has one named elven adventurer.
• Our Liches Are Different: Admittedly not that different in form, but markedly so in skillset. While still an undead spellcaster, the resident lich Shiki specializes in earth magic and healing magic instead of the more harmful kind. He also gets awful pretty after forming a contract with Makoto.
• Our Orcs Are Different: The local orcs are boar-like, and more peaceably agrarian than one might expect from a High Fantasy setting. The tribe Makoto encounters early on is primarily concerned with not getting wiped off the map.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • Makoto, as a deconstruction of the trope. He is capable of reforming the landscape or wiping out entire armies or countries with ease — and the people who realize this are all openly terrified of him.
  • Mio and Tomoe as well. They leveled Zetsuya to the ground in an evening in a strength contest.
• Playing with Fire: Fire Magic, natch. Makoto in particular has summoned a bow made of flames, and fought Mio in their first fateful encounter by firing off a series fireballs like a rotary cannon.
• Pocket Dimension: The mist town Asora, which is its own little universe contained outside the worlds of the Goddess or our Earth, though it's only the size of a town and later a small countryside.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Makoto has so much mana that he is unconsciously leaking it out at all times, to the point that people witnessing this instinctively recognize him as a lethal threat - a monster in human form. (Described as "like seeing a group of demon lords appearing all at the same time.") This becomes a hindrance to him, as he has to use his Realm powers constantly to restrain his mana, meaning he can't use it for other things like detecting things or defending himself.
  • The Three Gods who arrive to deal with the Goddess wish to give Makoto their own blessings, but realize due to him stopping his Zen Archery Meditation he is dangerously close to a Super-Power Meltdown; due to the Goddess having shoved another, overpowered blessing in without any care to his safety.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Ilumgand regains his sanity after being destroyed, his Hyuman body reforming — with superpowers, but deformed — in the core of the Variant that he became. Unfortunately, Mio was the only one to notice, and despite his stated goal of surrendering his life to support Hibiki and make up for what he did, Mio casually slaughters and eats him for the crime of upsetting Makoto.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: The strongest hyuman adventurer is Sofia Bulga who earned the epitaph of "Dragon Slayer" for killing a Greater Dragon. It turns out, Lancer, her supposed victim, isn't dead. He is now her comrade and they are fighting against the Goddess' agents.
• Restraining Bolt: The Goddess is given one in the form of a choker or collar by the other gods. Makoto is warned that if they ever do fight, he must not damage it, because it restricts her divine abilities.
• Retired Badass: Makoto's parents were former adventurers, but in Japan, they became a children's storybook writer and illustrator.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Lily, the third princess of the kingdom of Gritonia, became an adventurer to help the kingdom's Hero, Tomoki. Note that this does not, in any way, make her GOOD. She is a manipulative sociopath, openly hoping to use Tomoki to deal with the Demons and then manipulate him into killing her rivals and taking over the world.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The Adventurer's Guild has a level based EXP system and a rank system, as is typical of isekai novels; however, this one is explained as Root, the local Crystal Dragon Jesus, having decided to implement the system as a way to organize — and restrain — the Hyumans, based on his first husband being a video game fan from Japan who loved role playing games. A major reoccurring plot point is that the levels are just that — a number — and have nothing to do with skill, talent, or the like. It is implied that the Adventurer Guild system has other benefits for rank, such as unlockable skills, titles, and the like, but Makoto and his allies are completely and utterly uninterested in looking into any of it.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Ilumgand, due to the influence of the Demon Army's cursed drugs. His side of things is shown in a POV chapter, including that Makoto jumping in to "save" Ruria before Ilumgand could recover emotionally from discovering she wasn't dead destroyed his life. He recovers, in the end, but sadly is not able to redeem himself.
  • Everyone who recovers from Tomoki's mind control has this general reaction to the things they were forced to do, usually ending in suicide.
• Self-Made Man: Rembrandt started as a small merchant and clawed his way up to where he is now.
• Shout-Out:
  • The dungeon sprites are all sprites... that are cosplaying as 2D video game characters. I.e., Sprites. The first one Makoto encounters is dressed up ... in red. With overalls. And a mustache. Which looks really weird on the very female sprite.
  • The dungeon sprite's final attack is to teleport Makoto into a wall. This is a reference to an infamous total party kill permadeath in the Wizardry series of games — if you teleport into a wall, your characters are all instantly dead and the game immediately saves, preventing you from recovering them.
• Shrines and Temples: A Shinto shrine, a Buddhist temple, and a Pantheon were gifted to Makoto by the 3 gods that visited Asora.
• Small, Secluded World: The mist town Asora isn't that much secluded as per se since Makoto, Tomoe, and eventually Mio and Shiki can create a mist gate that leads to the outside world which lets them enter and exit the mist town whenever they want.
• The Stoic: The most unnerving part about Makoto isn't his absurd power, it's when one finally realizes that he is, for the most part, completely and utterly dead emotionally. He takes no thrill or joy in combat, seeing it as nothing more than a chore — and having no more an emotional reaction to killing someone who is attacking him than he would cleaning off a countertop. This, combined with his power, is what makes him The Dreaded. He could kill everyone he meets: nobles, warriors, heroes, anyone — and wouldn't feel even the slightest bit of distress at doing it, if he felt the situation called for it.
• Story-Breaker Power: Makoto and his party. Makoto especially could single-handedly end the hyuman-demon war if he wanted to, but ultimately decides not to get involved with it at all and just wants to live as how he sees fit. Daikokuten actually temporarily gives Makoto the ability to see Alternate Timelines where he did stop the wars by taking various sides. It ends poorly in every single instance.
• Token Mini-Moe: Komoe, a child-sized clone of Tomoe that helps manage Asora. All the other main characters are least teenagers in appearance.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: In their human forms, Tomoe acts and dresses as a samurai, and loves her name because it comes from a female samurai in Japanese folklore. Mio wears a more feminine kimono and is a Yamato Nadeshiko. Mio also attempts to be a good housewife by learning to cook meals for Makoto, though this is hampered by her Extreme Omnivore nature making it hard to tell what other people can actually eat.
• Trapped in Another World: Played straight and inverted. Makoto is the former, his parents is latter as they were ones trapped in Earth. See Deal with the Devil for more info.
• Undying Loyalty: Tomoe, Mio, Shiki, Tamaki, and those of Asora are extremely loyal to Makoto to the point that they would kill anyone who would disrespect and/or hurt him.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Makoto, having a stupidly strong body and near infinite magical power... doesn't understand much more than the most basic of concepts of magic, tactics, combat, et cetera. His most common tactics are "cast the most basic spell at it," "punch it using magic," and "shoot it with his bow," in order of annoyance.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Many adventurers of Tsige become tools of a conspiracy after Rembrandt made a group who takes every single low-ranked quest. Low ranked adventurers have no choice but to take quests which are above their ability, which given that Tsige is on the border of the wasteland, leaves them without any options to earn a living. Compounding this is that most adventurers are from orphanages or otherwise destitute, and have no life skills other than adventuring.
• Wizarding School: Academy Town teaches magic, in addition to swordplay and general education topics.
• What If?:
  • Daikokuten gives Makoto dreams of what he could have done and its effects on the world if some things had happened differently. Daikokuten, when talking to the other gods, mentions parallel worlds, so these may be visions of what might have actually occurred in other timelines.
  • "What if Makoto actually goes after the Goddess?" He becomes a revenge obsessed sociopath who murders in cold blood; the Heroes try to stop him and fail, utterly.
  • "What if Makoto had gone south instead of north when landing in the world?" He is found by the kingdom of Gritonia and their hero, Tomoki — and Lily, who manipulates him into being the third hero. After genociding the demon race, he turns on humanity.
  • "What if Makoto allied with the Demons?" In this timeline, he never recruited Shiki, and the Heroes, Mio, and Tomoe are all killed during Makoto's rise to power.
  • "What if [UNKNOWN]?" We aren't given any specifics on this timeline, other than it was apparently very close to the current one. Rather than see what the other Makoto sees, he feels the other Makoto's emotions and hears his Motive Rant... as the other Makoto, an Omnicidal Maniac, decides to kill all life in the universe.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Makoto's reaction to Apple, the group of Immortal Japanese Adventurers hiding in a dungeon. This is also his reaction when offered a Golden Apple from the realm of the dead, which if eaten in the realm of the living, would grant eternal life. He is absolutely disgusted by the idea of immortality. Root also is very clear that making a mortal live too long leads to nothing but tragedy. It's one of the few times he's seen not happy go lucky and flirty in the series.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Differently colored hair is common in the Goddess' world. Tomoe is depicted with blue hair on the Light Novel cover, as befitting her water elemental alignment. She wishes it was black like a Japanese samurai.

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