Manga / No Longer Allowed in Another World

On this day... a certain literary legend and his lover departed this world.

Annette: You are far too weak in your current state. Magical creatures will kill you the moment you set foot outside!
Sensei: Thanks for the concern. But you must not worry. As I mentioned, I merely seek a place to die.

In the magical world of Zauberberg, the Cleric Annette is duty bound to magically summon a hero from another world to protect mankind from the destructive influence of the Dark Lord, just as she has done many times before. All previous adventurers she had summoned were proven to be selfish and inept, but one more can't hurt, right?

The newest hero brought to their world is a man who goes by Osamu Dazai, or Sensei. He's an author by trade, his stats are below the bare minimum, he has no special skills or magic, and all he wants to do is kill himself. In fact, his only goal in life is to die a beautiful death with his lover, wherever she may be now. The trouble is, doing that's rather more difficult than it seems...

No Longer Allowed in Another World (異世界失格 / Isekai Shikkaku) is a Black Comedy-Isekai Fantasy Manga written by Hiroshi Noda and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu. It's published by Shōgakkan and licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.

On July 11, 2022, an anime adaptation of the manga was announced for 2024, later confirmed as airing in July of that year.

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Tropes:

• Accidental Hero: Sensei accidentally slays the Death Tree, saving both his life and Tama's, by passing his "Poison" status effect on it, reducing it to a burnt stump.
• Admiring the Abomination: After seeing Zuk's rampage, Sensei becomes fascinated by his fall from grace and voices his intentions of writing a novel about him, even as an unamused Zuk tries feeding him to his wolves.
• Angel Unaware: It's after Toneriko village drives away Esche for allegedly helping the casino's otherworlders exploit their town that she reveals herself to Sensei as the spirit of the World Tree, making Sensei's nickname for her — "goddess" — equal parts accurate and ironic.
• Anti-Hero: Sensei is a suicidal weirdo who found himself summoned in a Standard Fantasy Setting, his only goal in life being to find his lover so that they could attempt their Suicide Pact again. That said, he won't let innocent people die with him if he can help it, his lack of a verbal filter is often mistaken for Brutal Honesty and his weird luck makes him come across as someone whose blasé attitude toward danger comes across as confidence. Annette decides to leave her post at her chapel and become his traveling companion both to protect him (since his stats are garbage and he has no self-preservation) and because he isn't like any other otherworlder she's ever met.
• The Atoner: The Cowardly Man was usually ignored and alone most of his life, not made easier since he had to use a wheelchair. When he makes a friend who defends him from bullies, he panics in a situation where he could have returned the favor, this being when he is summoned as an otherworlder. Feeling immense guilt for this, he anonymously donates food to an orphanage and uses his "Werewolf" gift to deter bandits and monsters that would do them harm. Sensei returns him to the moment when he was summoned, with implications that he and his friend will make-up and be just fine.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: An otherworlder's divine gift usually reflects what kind of person they are, though it's vague whether or not the divine gifts reflect who they were all along or if the power itself corrupted them.
  • Zuk is a tyrant that preys on the helpless and desires nothing more than to lord over everyone else, so it should come as no surprise that his special gift "Obedience" grants him the ability to Mind Control people merely by petting them. The more good and innocent they are, the more susceptible they are to his power.
  • Kashiwahara is the "Fallen Angel of Gluttony", his divine gift being the ability to summon a giant set of fanged teeth to eat who or whatever he wants, from whole people to even an entire building. He shows up to conquer Grün just because he likes the taste of demi-humans, bluntly telling the crowd of onlookers that he plans on eating all of them.
• Banishing Ritual: After managing to defeat Zuk, Sensei gains the divine gift "Storyteller", which allows him to send otherworlders back to whence they came.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Kashiwahara's skill "Eat or Be Eaten" gives him the ability to replicate the strength and abilities of ant enemy he eats, using King Siberian's own martial arts skills on Tama after having eaten his arm.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Lacking any fighting skills or experience (not to mention his suicidal tendencies), Sensei usually lets his opponents attack him without so much as a flinch. That said, his perpetually poisoned status effect makes him a giant safety hazard, instantly poisoning to death any monster that tries to eat him. His dark disposition and No Sense of Personal Space also makes for effective psychological warfare, managing to scare off three thug otherworlders who were perfectly willing to kill him by goading them into doing it.
• Death Seeker: Being suicidal, this is Sensei's whole deal. When something dangerous comes after him, he'll just stand there and let it happen. He only agrees to travel with Annette so that he can find his girlfriend Sacchan and finish their Suicide Pact.
• Decon-Recon Switch: While a lot of the plot pokes of fun or deconstructs tropes associated with the Isekai genre, beneath it all it's still a story about a person from our world being Trapped in Another World with unique abilities meant to save this fantasy land from threats both mythic and domestic. While the Demon Lord is slain at the very start of the story, The Chosen Many that slew him replaces him as a Legion of Doom, each of whom is dispatched one at a time by the protagonist and his party with The Power of Friendship.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: All of the otherworlders, Sensei included, for The Poorly Chosen One. While the narrative initially presents the vast majority of them as turncoats who immediately tried their hand at conquering the world once the Demon Lord was dead and they realized nobody could stop them and the rest as distorted stunted individuals, Sensei's "Storyteller" ability tells a very different tale. All of the otherworlders summoned were people who had exceptionally miserable lives on Earth, with all the emotional baggage and turmoil that entails. And while the church tries to tell their chosen heroes to be happy to receive this second chance at life, their new lives often turn out to be far worse off due to the added weight of being forcibly tasked with saving the world. Whether they're recruited to be Child Soldiers for countries that treat them as disposable human weapons, forced to fend for themselves in the wilderness fighting monsters, or helplessly trying to navigate through a fantasy world filled with people who despise and want them dead around every corner, the majority of them go insane and abuse their cheat-like skills to obtain the happiness they were promised in their own twisted way. Ultimately, despite the harm many of them have caused with their immense power, they're still ordinary people being forced to totally abandon lives that while miserable were still their own. Notably, when Sensei uses his skill to banish the otherworlders back to their original world, it's depicted as an incredibly merciful act that allows them a true second chance at turning their lives around.
• Drunk with Power: If Ysha is to be believed, Suzuki was a stand-up guy when he was summoned. By the time Sensei encounters him, his power had turned him into a monster who sees the native inhabitants as either enemies or animals to be tamed under his divine gift "Obedience".
• Eating the Enemy: Being the "Fallen Angel of Gluttony", Kashiwahara posses the Divine Gift "Glutton", manifesting a massive pair of jaws capable of eating anyone or anything.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Sensei introduces himself by his title (in this case, used as a respectful term of address for an accomplished author) rather than use his name.
• Evil All Along: Partial example. Bishop Elton presents himself as a Good Sheperd, but it's revealed that he's been organizing the kidnapping of child otherworlders and subjecting them to hellish conditions to mold them into his own personal superpowered army. While he had been an actual Good Sheperd at one point, the combination of his belief Kaoru had stolen his place, and his self-loathing over being a goblin, resulted in him making a Face–Heel Turn.
• Evil Hero: Most otherworlders tend to be this, using their powers for personal gain and to bully the helpless residents of their world. Both Annette and Ysha lose their faith after having so many corrupt individuals, hoping one of them would be worthy enough to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all. After seeing Sensei's "Storyteller" ability in action, Ysha believes that he was summoned specifically to rectify this problem.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Sensei is really good at seeing through facades people put up, recognizing that most of the villains he faces are Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, the supposedly selfish witch Esche is actually a benevolent goddess trying to protect Toneriko and that Bishop Elton's whole "Good Sheperd" front is a giant charade and that he's been trying to manipulate his party since the moment they met him.
• Fallen Hero: Kaoru was originally an otherworlder without a divine gift, but under Elton's tutelage, became Blau Kingdom's most talented knight. After Elton, in a fit of jealousy when he replaced him as the Queen's personal guard, sent him on an Uriah Gambit, Kaoru survives the event and goes on to become the Fallen Angel of Vanity.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps: After Sensei saves Nir from a band of otherworlders, Nir decides to join his party as their amateur swordsman.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Zuk was originally a repeat victim of bullying back in Japan. After he was summoned with a Mind Control ability at his disposal, the sudden lack of helplessness went to his head and he became a tyrant.
  • Kashiwahara was originally a Lonely Rich Kid that became violently abusive to those around him (a maid and a homeless man just being two examples) in his attempts at filling the void, his wealthy parents shielding him from any consequences. When he came to Zauberberg, that void manifested in his Gluttony-themed divine gifts.
  • Yuriko spent most of her life taking care of her ailing younger sister and felt resentment that she couldn't have a life outside of that. When she was summoned, she dedicated herself to being Bishop Wolf's apprentice until her sister appeared as another otherworlder. Feeling betrayed, her divine gift "Cruel Avarice" blossomed and she tried to kill her.
    Yuriko: Consumed by Greed... murdering an innocent girl... I'm already... no longer human. All that's left is... to continue my descent into depravity until I can fall no further.
  • Eliza was harassed and bullied by boys her whole life for standing out, causing her to develop a hatred of men, and sought refuge in her only friend's fantasy stories, but it came crashing down when her friend's boyfriend attempted to rape her, her friend caught them in the act, and blamed her for being a whore, based on Eliza's false reputation for getting around. When she arrived in Zauberberg, she gained Lust-themed powers that let her bring others under her thrall, losing themselves in blissful memories. Although initially one of the Fallen Angels, she had the opportunity to make a new life for herself with elf girl Diantha, but having other elves come looking for the otherworlder - officially as an enemy of the church, but unofficially with lecherous thoughts on their mind - pushed her to return to her original mission.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: When Sensei overhears Kashiwahara's sob-story, he's unwilling to write his story and banish him with "Storyteller" because of how unimpressive his motives are.
• Good All Along: Everyone in Toneriko village sees the witch Esche as a Category Traitor for siding with the otherworlders who set up Toneriko Casino, when really she only worked for them in exchange for leaving the villagers alone.
• Historical In-Joke: Sensei's perpetually poisoned status is a reference to the real-life Dazai's major opiate addiction—in Japanese, "addiction" uses the same word as "poisoned."
• Homage: The title is a pastiche of the real-life Dazai's most famous novel, No Longer Human.
• Insistent Appellation: Initially, Sensei doesn't give the Cat Girl he meets the chance to tell him her name, instead calling her Tama, a common Japanese cat name. Even once he does discover her original name, it doesn't matter to him, and he continues to call her Tama.
• Knight Templar: Yamada is an otherworlder who embodies the more traditional take on what a "hero" is; a classically handsome Knight in Shining Armor who wields his blade to cut down corruption wherever he sees it in the name of justice. Sensei, being the type who recognizes the nuances of others, thinks he's nothing more than a moralizing blowhard. That's not to say that he's a bad guy, recognizing that his rallying unwittingly led to an innocent woman (Esche) to be villainized for her attempts at protecting the village.
• Laser-Guided Karma: When the elder of Toneriko village decides to resume the casino's business and sell World Tree leaves as a drug the World Tree dies instantly, the villagers having unwittingly driven off its guardian spirit when they assumed she was a witch who sided with the otherworlders.
• Legion of Doom: The Seven Fallen Angels are a team of otherworlders who, after killing the Dark Lord, took control of his territory and use it to continue his campaign of conquest across Zauberberg, treating the world and its inhabitants as toys for them to play with.
• Major Injury Underreaction: When Waldelia runs Sensei through him her claws, he manages to stand back up and emotionally connect with her before collapsing from blood-loss.
• Meta Power: Sensei's "Storyteller" ability, which several characters have noted appears to be made specifically to fight otherworlders. It normally can't even be seen on Sensei's status screen, but automatically activates in the presence of otherworlders Sensei has taken an interest in. Even then, the ability to write down someone's backstory doesn't look impressive until it's shown to be a requirement to performing a magic ritual that banishes an otherworlder back to their original world without fail. The same power can be used on the natives to power them up by reviewing their full history and revealing their Hidden Depths.
• Money Mauling: An Otherworlder Annette and Ysha encounter in the market — Kotaro — has a skill called "Minting", where he magically generates money from his hands.
• Narnia Time: There's apparently no correlation between the timelines of Zauberberg and Earth - Otherworlders seem to come from any point in Japan's history where there are trucks, but arrive in present-day Zauberberg. Additionally, no matter how long an Otherworlder's been in Zauberberg, "Storyteller" returns them moments after they left, without any sign of aging.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike most otherworlders, Sensei possesses no fighting skills or combat-applicable divine gifts, not to mention lacking any innate survival instincts. Instead, his party does all the fighting while Sensei observes and delegates. The closest he ever gets to fighting is when he poisons any monster that tries to kill him.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Yuriko, the Fallen Angel of Avarice, possesses the gift "Cruel Avarice", manifesting as a vicious dark slime that does her bidding. It attacks, defends, generates portals, summons skeletons to do her bidding and can even induce Rapid Aging.
• One-Winged Angel: Having eaten a portion of the Dark Lord's flesh, Kashiwahara is resurrected in a monstrous "Apex Predator" form after Tama kills him.
• The Poorly Chosen One: All Otherworlders were people from the modern world who were unhappy with their lives, only for the Isekai Jackpot Truck to transport them to a RPG Mechanics 'Verse with a special skill or ability. Deconstructing the "Zero to Hero" aspects typical of an Isekai protagonist, being granted a second chance at a new life with fancy new powers doesn't make them any less of a loser than they were in their old lives, resulting in manchildren and womanchildren using their powers and position to live out power fantasies. Even the more benevolent examples (Sensei, Yamada, and the Cowardly Man in crutches) show concerning habits and instability that aren't made much better by their divine gifts. Wolf goes on to surmise that for as miserable as they were in their old lives, the pressure of being yanked from their world and suddenly being expected to save Zauberberg took its toll on their mental health, making them more tragic than truly despicable.
• Running Over the Plot: Parodied. Every Otherworlder was brought to Zauberberg by what's called the Isekai Jackpot Truck, a vehicle that's the product of a summoning ritual called the Isekai Transport Service.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Real Life, Osamu Dazai and his lover Tomie Yamazaki committed suicide by throwing themselves in Tamagawa Canal (having been full from rain) and discovered six days later in 1948. Here, they were both brought to an RPG Mechanics 'Verse by a truck (It Makes Sense in Context) right before their suicide.
• Stay in the Kitchen: King Siberian believes that his son should toughen up so that he could become king of Grün while his daughter — who is far more athletic and willing to learn martial arts — should act more like a princess. This behavior became even more strict after his son and wife died in a tragedy.
• Suicide as Comedy: Sensei's suicidal tendencies are always Played for Laughs, whether it's him ingesting the nearest poison he can get his hands on, or spending all his time lying back in a coffin while his companions drag it behind them.
• Title Drop: When Sensei banishes Zuk back to Earth, he announces his final title for the novel he's written about him is "No Longer Allowed in Another World".
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: While Sensei lacks any skills of his own, his perpetually poisoned state ironically saves him whenever a monster tries to kill him, killing a Death Tree, a Great Wolf and a giant scorpion instantly.
• When Trees Attack: The first monster Sensei encounters is Death Tree, a monstrous tree that grabs anyone who gets close to it and drains the life out of them.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Part of Sensei's "Storyteller" ability is how he acknowledges that otherworlders his power affects aren't the straight-up villains or losers they are initially made-out to be, but rather broken people that can be mended (the Cowardly Man is more brave than he thinks, Yuriko isn't greedy, but wants to be acknowledged, etc) before tearing up the rough-draft, sending them back to live their old lives with renewed hope in their futures.

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