Why am I chosen to protect the city of Tokyo, which I HATE?!
I'm Standing on a Million Lives (Hyakuman no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatte Iru) is a manga written by Yamakawa Naoki and drawn by Nao Akinari, serialized in Kodansha's shōnen Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine since June 2016 and licensed in North America by Kodansha USA. An anime adaptation of the manga officially began airing on October 2, 2020 produced by Maho Film and directed by Kumiko Habara, with Takao Yoshioka writing the scripts, Eri Kojima and Toshihide Masudate designing the characters, and Ken Ito composing the music.
The story begins with Yotsuya Yuusuke getting lectured by his teachers for having no over-arching goal in life and generally looking like he's not interested in his school studies, because he's not.
During this time, he notices that he's getting side-eyed looks from the School Idol Iu Shindo, who is chatting with Kusue Hakozaki, who was never in her social circle before.
No sooner does he get out of school than the three of them are magically transported to a game-like world by a self-proclaimed game master from the future who doesn't actually explain anything but just gives him a job via roulette wheel and the three of them a quest before disappearing.
I'm Standing on a Million Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: The anime remains faithful to the manga until Episode 7 of Season 2 (Episode 19 overall) where instead of adapting the Drug War arc as per the Manga, they adapted the plot of the derivative Light Novel.
- Adults Are Useless: More like cruel. Most of the character's Dark And Troubled Pasts, namely Shindo's and Hakozaki's, can be attributed to most of the adults involved being horrendous individuals and not Reasonable Authority Figures. In Shindo's, her father and some others all but say that her high school friend, who she looked up to, deserved to die because she had a Butter Face, while her teachers often singled her out and even outright bullied her because they had beef with her father and older brothers. In Hakozaki's, her teachers displayed absolutely No Sympathy towards her for being too sick to do P.E., forcing her to sit through and watch the lessons instead of giving her any alternative tasks to perform and gave her failing grades at it because she technically never took part, despite knowing her reasons for not doing so.
- Alas, Poor Villain: During the final stages of the war against the Orcs on Jiffon Island, the story narrative begins to play up as much sympathy as possible for the Orc Queen and the rest of her kind, showing that they have families and children they care about, despite being previously established as monsters who were eating the townspeople. Even Yotsuya starts feeling bad about what he has to do to them.
- Alternate Continuity: In the story, there is a point where the GM offers the heroes a choice on which mission to take, rescue a town or stop a drug epidemic. In the light novel, the heroes chose one while they choose a different one in the manga.
- Attempted Rape: Implied. In episode 4, Shindo, Kusue, and Yuka have been captured by bandits and placed in a cell. In the middle of the night, one of the bandits opens the cell door as they're sleeping and licks his lips lecherously. The next morning, he and one of his buddies are shown with Amusing Injuries, with the girls pointing their weapons threateningly through the bars.
- Bait the Dog: Episode 10 looks like it's finally time for the main characters to catch a break. Half-way through, the GM apparently has other ideas...
- Blessed with Suck: None of the jobs given to the main characters actually help much or actually fit the characters. The cowardly and sick girl becomes a sword-wielding warrior. The school idol becomes a wind mage whose magic can only generate a gentle breeze. The protagonist, who actually has martial arts training, becomes a farmer with very fragile weapons. The otaku becomes a fire mage whose magic can only warm her staff!
- Dangerous Drowsiness: The party split up to complete their last objective for their current mission: to explore a certain percentage of the map. Expecting it to be easy, they each take leisurely strolls in opposite directions, until a sudden freak blizzard strikes. Not only does this make it extremely difficult to keep uncovering the map, but the cold temperatures starts making them slowly freeze to death. Each of them try their best to keep moving and stay awake, knowing that if they fall asleep that not only will they die, but they won't be able to Auto-Revive while their body is frozen.
- Dark and Troubled Past: All the main characters have horrific backstories, regardless of what their current standing is.
- Death Is Cheap: As long as all the characters in Yotsuya's party aren't all dead at the same time, they will revive after a certain amount of time has passed, aside from some very special circumstances, like being inside the gut of a troll...
- Kidnapped by the Call: All the main characters are dragged to the alternate game-like world without informed consent or warning.
- The Many Deaths of You: The main cast all get killed, a lot.
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Nintendo Hard: The difficulty of the character quests in the game-like world is insane. They can't use each other's weapons, their low rank doesn't give them the offensive ability they need to even think about killing the monsters they face. The resurrection timer is thirty seconds (forty after the fourth member joins), which can be an eternity in a fight, and if they're all dead at the same time, they stay dead, permanently. Oh, and did we mention that there's little to no explanation of what they're supposed to be doing aside from a hearty "good luck"? - The Not-Love Interest: There is no romantic interest between Yūsuke and any of the females.
- Glenn is a lesbian and tries to guide him.
- Kusue sees him as the ticking Tyke Bomb he is and acts as his caretaker/conscience.
- Tokitate shifts between fear and loathing.
- Shindo straight up likes someone else.
- Adding to all these Yūsuke himself shows traits of The Sociopath.
- Poor Communication Kills: Since the Game Master doesn't really explain anything, the main characters wind up dying, repeatedly, trying to carry out their assigned quests.
- Required Secondary Powers: A fantasy adventure version. Jobs may give players equipment and spells but not the necessary strength to wield heavy weapons or a mana pool large enough to cast actually useful magic.
- Shout-Out: At one point, Yūsuke mentions that he played Dark Souls and Fallout games.
- Super Power Lottery: The game master assigns jobs for everyone in the party by using a roulette wheel.
