More adult isekai
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Are there isekai stories that are more adult? Not hentai but having a more adult theme?
Kind of tired of all the stories written for middle schoolers and otakus. Adult at 15, no sex, OP characters that were losers and slackers before being reincarnated, cute girls that love them for no real reason.Mod edit: Line removed by Mod
Not looking for something as "realistic" as Guardians of The Flame but something a bit more edgy. Mushoku Tensei is close, but Rudy is just so unlikable for me.
I guess it would the Hero versus the Demon Lord where the bad guy is bad, and the hero is not a naive sucker. -
JNC's JK Haru Is a Sex Worker in Another World (for 16+ readers) probably fits the bill in terms of adult, but not necessarily about the characters being likable.
Ascendance of a Bookworm manages is less 'adult' but certainly has more depth than your typical isekai and isn't just juvenile wish fulfilment. Some aspects of the world are pretty dark but it's not all doom and gloom. There are some very likable characters to root for and baddies to root against.
Stay shiny, y'all.
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Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World
Redo of Healer2 titles that come to mind - maybe tread the line of Hentai? but not just sex-stories
I'm sure there are others. Bear in mind that 'Light Novels' as a product category in Japan are largely marketed to teenagers, (say 12-16) and 18+ novels with a good plot/storytelling and not just a smut parade are in the minority. If someone wants to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm open to reading good stories - regardless of the 'category' they are labels
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Ideal Sponger Life might be interesting to you, it follows an overworked adult office worker who is summoned to another world because he is a distant descendant of a prince that fled and the current queen hopes he will make for a better political marriage than the other candidates. At the beginning she promises him that he can just laze around in the inner palace if he marries her and will return him to his world if he doesn't want to, but he chooses to marry her rather than returning to his shitty job despite realizing that her promise won't be possible and he will eventually get dragged into politics despite his preference to avoid it. Their relationship ends up becoming deeper than just a political marriage and the story mostly focuses on his efforts to support his wife while avoiding being manipulated by the nobility and appearing competent enough that factions try to push for him to take over as ruler due to gender biases and people hoping he would be easier to manipulate.
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One of the things I like about Death March is the MC is a 29 year old though now in a 15 year old body. He isn't flustered speechless by someone teasing him or trying to flirt, and he's not overawed by other adults. He sees teens as too young for him so he turns down advances left and right, but is only mildly oblivious.
Realist Hero has a college-age MC who also is an adult. His relationships progress.
Neither one has explicit sex "on screen"
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@Shiny I find it hard to recommend Haru to someone who wanted 'non-op and non-hentai', due to Haru's choice of career...
@Folker46 Personal recommendations... well, for a 'more mature' isekai, I probably would have suggested Spider or Executioner, but as I recall, you aren't a fan of either of those. Bookworm is also a decent choice, but Shiny already mentioned it.
Other than that... Cooking with Wild Game (about the lowest-fantasy Isekai I've ever seen; As you can guess from the title, it is a cooking series, starring a trainee chef), I Refuse to Be Your Enemy (a Vilainess reincarnation story, but its from a strategy game instead of an otome game, so most of the plot involves the fight against a foreign invasion rather than hijinks related to subverting romance flags), Dahlia in Bloom (an isekai who was worked to death by an appliances manufacturer ends up as a magical tool maker in a fantasy world) or Housekeeping Mage from Another World (An office worker finds herself in another world, where she has to make a living based on magical abilities that exist, but are quite weak by in-universe standards).
I think, of those, I Refuse to Be Your Enemy is probably the closest to what you're after.
To Another World... With Land Mines! would have been my recommendation, but it loses the 'this is a serious world that you have to take seriously!' vibe over time, so its more of a maturity tease than anything :(
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No one has mentioned Overlord (probably too OP but the books are well written) or Saga of Tanya the Evil yet? Tanya's LN is some good stuff - the author has studied philosophy, economic, history, etc.
Also +1 for Realist Hero and Ideal Sponger Life. I'd also recommend Outbreak Company.
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I agree with @Jon-Mitchell - the titles exists, but seem to be a minority. How much that’s due to the marketplace, I can’t say.
Aside from echoing some of the series mentioned above, well, I can think of a few names that kind of fit, but each falls short of at least one undesirable characteristic you’ve mentioned in your opening.
The first not-yet-mentioned series that comes to my mind is He Who Fights with Monsters, by “Shirtaloon” (Travis Deverell). It’s a litRPG title instead of a Japanese light novel, which for some people might be an automatic non-starter. But since you mentioned Guardians of the Flame, I figured I’d mention it just in case. It seems to me like it ticks just about every other box you’ve asked for: isekai in the sense he died suddenly in our world (Australia, to be specific), awoke in fantasy world. Game-like stats tracked by a stat screen only he can see, although other people have their own stats that they are aware of in their own way. Starts weak, gets more powerful over time, but dangers scale comparatively at the same pace, more or less, often leaving him struggling to survive. Does his best time and time again to spit in the face of the big bad uberboss mastermind. Few romantic interests without skipping the topic altogether, and adults who date like adults. Arguably, his life was in a rock-bottom dead-end when he gets reincarnated, so it might fall short of what you’ve requested there. And since he’s not a blank slate, his sociopolitical outlook, mannerisms, humor, or personality might be occasionally or consistently off-putting to you. But still, closest work I’m familiar with that might match what you are asking, at least off the top of my head.
Returning to light novels (Japanese or otherwise):
The Faraway Paladin probably gets pretty close to what you’ve asked for as well. It takes the “adult protagonist reincarnated as an infant” approach to isekai, so it’s hard to judge it on a few of your criteria, but since you mentioned Mushoku Tensei, that might be a non-issue for you (but, admittedly, I only know Mushoku Tensei by reputation, so this comparison may be flawed). Aside from his background pre-reincarnation and his physical age post-reincarnation (he grows up fairly quickly, but if I recall correctly is still in his late teens as of the most recent volume), I think this might match what you’ve requested.
Demon Lord, Retry! has an adult protagonist in an adult body. His life before being isekai’ed wasn’t perfect, but it was a life he built for himself and he owned that. He is, however, overpowered, has female characters throwing themselves at him for thin reasons, and a comedic tone which may undercut what you are looking for.
Solo Leveling also has a mature adult protagonist, but while there are both fantasy and modern elements, it’s not strictly speaking an isekai, at least as told so far. It also has a protagonist who is OP (at least compared to his immediate environment - he nearly died once in the opening chapters, and so generally errors on the conservative side in terms of placing himself in risky situations). Plus female characters who could be better written - he doesn’t have a harem, per se, but any non-family woman who interacts with him in any capacity is automatically interested in him. Most are just nameless side characters who disappear after a single scene, but still, it sets a tone that may put your teeth on edge.
It’s been a long while since I’ve read The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind!, so I don’t really recall how well it matches your criteria. My best recollection is that it falls a fair bit short of what you’ve asked for, but I think there’s at least an outside chance you’d enjoy it. Maybe one for your “worth a try when you’re feeling particularly desperate for something new” pile, assuming you haven’t tried it already.
And you may just want to try searching JNC’s series by tags and see if you can’t hit on one or two more good ones, although you’ve probably already tried this. I haven’t tried Isekai Rebuilding Project myself yet, for example, and while it still doen’t seem to be everything you’ve asked for, the description and tags suggest to me it might be close.
Likewise, I get the impression that of those light novel authors that do write for more mature audiences, most (or at least most who get published) try to add some twist to things to stand apart from the crowd, either by breaking part of the standard isekai formula or by writing fantasy or science fiction stories that aren’t isekai at all, but are still published in the light novel format. If, for example, someone mentioned “a light novel series for adults rather than one adults can also enjoy”, the first title that would spring to my mind is Otherside Picnic. But depending on how you define “isekai”, it might not qualify (I certainly don’t associate it with isekai, even if “another world” is involved). It also lacks anything like a hero vs demon lord dynamic, unless you consider things metaphorically and really stretch the concept to its utmost, which is why I didn’t include it on my list above. If that’s not actually a deal breaker, though, that might open up some titles for recommendation from myself or others.
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going a little to left field: all three literary works below are far better than their respective film versions - and all are Isekai with either adult themes or protagonists
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- John Carter of Mars series
- The Wizard of Oz series
also excellent:
- Three Hearts and Three Lions (Poul Anderson)
Less good but a fun read nonetheless is Michael Crichton's Timeline
