Orv is such a beautiful subversion of the isekai genre but also a love letter to it.
Most isekai is a very sad power fantasy. What if I died, and it lead to something good? What if I could have friends and be loved and worthy of love, it’s just that the thing that makes me special needs to be somewhere else to be useful? But when I’m useful enough, I can be loved?
and then orv takes a guy, who’s life since he was a child was built on being the victim, because he was, and that was the only way to survive. And when that’s not enough this story calls to him and gives him a reason to live.
But it doesn’t make him powerful, not really, because the entire skill of that stories main character is to know everything about this timeline, and here’s three or four other characters like that. But this thing that you love still matters, because you love it and gave it life, because it let you connect to the feelings of others, because it kept you alive.
And let’s bring the people from home with you, because they already wanted to be your friends. You aren’t just now popular, happiness was within reach the whole time, just gasp it, the only thing in your way is you. You are worthy of love, and people are desperately trying to give it, if you would just allow them.
and it isn’t one truck, one death, that gets him here, but he still keeps dying and trying to die.
orv says please stay, we love you. Tell me about your interests and feelings, your reason to stay alive. Please stop chasing truck-chan, everything you could want is right here is you just stop giving up and laying in the middle of the road.
Your life has value. People care about you and acting like this is hurting them. I love the things you love because you love them. Please come home, please stop trying to disappear from this world.