Cheat Slayer: Killing the People Reincarnated into the Other World (異世界転生者殺し -チートスレイヤー-, Isekai Tenseisha Goroshi -Chīto Sureiyā-) is a manga by the author of Kakegurui, Homura Kawamoto, and illustrated by Aki Yamaguchi, which debuted in Monthly Dragon Age magazine in 2021.
Lute is a village boy who admires a guild called "Rebels Against God" which consists of individuals reincarnated into the world to fight the Demon Lord and his army. One day, after his village is destroyed by Louis Crawford and the Rebels Against God, he encounters the Witch, a strange woman who explains the Reincarnates are actually horrible and pathetic in their previous lives and then goes on a quest for vengeance against the reincarnates.
However, the manga is particularly infamous for being canceled after just one chapter and involved in a plagiarism controversy when readers pointed out how members of the "Rebels Against God" blatantly resemble characters from other Isekai genre works and are depicted as villains.note
Examples:
- Broken Pedestal: Lute was a massive fanboy of "Rebels Against God" and wanted to help them somehow, even if it meant just carrying their bags. That all changed when Louis Crawford destroyed his village and raped and murdered his childhood friend Lydia, then the Witch revealed to him the true character of each of the members.
- Cast of Expies: All of the 'Rebels Against God' members resemble physically characters from other isekai works.
- Honda Yuya is an expy of Subaru Natsuki (Re:Zero).
- Louis Crawford is an expy of Shin Wolford (Wise Man's Grandchild), but him being a brutal rapist and having a past life as an unattractive, hopeless NEET brings the mind to Keyaru (Redo of Healer) and Rudeus Greyrat (Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation) respectively.
- Flare is an element-swapped expy (fire instead of water) of Aqua (KonoSuba).
- Kilt is obviously an expy of Kirito (Sword Art Online), right down to the moniker and the name. Fittingly, for being an expy of a famous Trope Codifier for the Stock Light-Novel Hero, he's the de facto leader of the group.
- Anastasia Melokva is a nationality-swapped expy (Russian instead of German) of Tanya von Degurechaff (The Saga of Tanya the Evil).
- Imerda Pinata is an expy of Catarina Claes (My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!).
- Roro Sendiger is an expy of Rimuru Tempest (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime).
- Yukiko Shijo is an obvious expy of Aletta (Restaurant to Another World).
- Don Will Dead is an obvious expy of Ainz Ooal Gown (Overlord (2012)) with the head of Elias Ainsworth (The Ancient Magus' Bride).
- Corrupted Character Copy: The members of the guild "Rebels Against God" are very obviously based on other characters from popular Isekai works, but portrayed as villains who commit appalling crimes.
- Cut Short: A particularly extreme case, as the manga was cancelled after a single chapter due to backlash from readers.
- Doomed Hometown: The first chapter begins when Lute's village is destroyed by the 'Rebels Against God' and its inhabitants are subjected to various atrocities.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- We get a clear view of Louis Crawford raping the lifeless body of Lute's childhood friend to showcase how despicable he truly is.
- Likewise, when Honda and Don showed up to search for him, the former was annoyed that Louis had made another "mess" and tell him to clean up after himself while Don is merely unaffected, showcasing just how unempathetic some of the other members can be to the natives of the world.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: According to the Witch, Louis Crawford and possibly the rest of the "Rebels Against God" guild members used to be pathetic NEETs in their former lives.
- Indecisive Parody: Despite supposedly being about taking the isekai power fantasy down a peg, Cheat Slayer also ends up playing a lot of its tropes straight in the case of its own protagonist: a generic everyman who gets suddenly thrust into a journey for reasons that have little to do with his own merit. (The only real difference is him being native to his world and not reincarnated/summoned from Earth.) As well as, being accompanied by a sexy lady who's inexplicably intrigued by him, gratuitous use of sexual assault, and taking on antagonists that are made as irredeemable as possible to not detract from the power fantasy.
- Informed Flaw: Even though the Witch informs Lute that all the members of "Rebels Against God" are scum who are living out their twisted power fantasies at the expense of the people of his world, Louis Crawford is the only one who actually displays this mindset due to the series being Cut Short. Kilt and Flare appear to be genuinely devoted to the group's mission of defeating the Demon King, Imerda Pinata is shown to be thoroughly disgusted by Louis' actions and vulgarity, and even Honda and Don are apathetic at worst, and judging by the former's reaction to Louis unsheathing his sword, possibly even afraid of him. As a result, Louis Crawford comes as the Token Evil Teammate who's only barely tolerated by the rest of the group due to his immense strength.
- Lured into a Trap: The first chapter ended with Lute successfully luring Louis Crawford to the Witch's house, where she claimed she could defeat him.
- Mysterious Waif: The witch Lute meets, not much is known about her other than her hatred for the reincarnated and what is implied to be power on par with them.
- New Life in Another World Bonus: The title refers to this trope through the word "Cheat," thus telegraphing its relationship with the isekai genre.
- Spoofed the Ironic Film Seriously: Two of the franchises parodied, Konosuba and Re:Zero, were already to some degree taking the piss out of the genre. Most of the early portion of Re:Zero is dedicated to Subaru's assumptions about the genre turning out horribly wrong and him having to grow out of his initial dickishness the hard way, and Konosuba is a full-on farce where the lead is an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist and a total loser (And the one copied to be 'Rebels Against God' member wasn't said loser, but his 'cheat item', the 'Useless Goddess').
- Take That!: To the Isekai genre in general, as it was described as a 'revenge story coated in hate and desire'.
