The Killer of the Reincarnated: Cheat Slayer - I Think WE’VE Been Cheated!!!!
Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi – Cheat Slayer also known as, The Killer of the Reincarnated: Cheat Slayer.
Honestly, this was not a bad read; not good, not great just, not bad. I am a devout connoisseur of the isekai genre (with Grimgar: Of Fantasy and Ash being my favorite of the bracket) so when I heard that the author of Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler, Homura Kawamoto, was writing a parody isekai about some of the more prominent isekai protagonists I was all in. Moreover, I was intrigued because this was essentially dead on arrival because of the outrage it caused.
In terms of the substance, there wasn't really anything bad about it. It was a fairly straight forward chapter that established the world, the protagonist, his reason for his call to action, the antagonists of the manga, and the initial means for how he was to go about fighting the first villain.
If anything, I suppose the author didn't develop a better reason for Lute, the protagonist, to start his quest for revenge outside of surviving a botched attempted murder on his person, his childhood friend being killed and raped in front of him, and a witch telling him that he could get revenge on said isekai characters.
Basically, there should have been some real seeds of vitriol planted in order for the revenge angle to sprout (as we've seen done tactfully better in Redo of Healer).
Outside of that lack of preferred substance, in truth, I really don't have much to complain and or gripe with because there is not really much to lament about. It seemed like a fairly solid idea that had decent promise of developing into something more fruitful. It really feels like it should have - at the least - gotten another chapter before the plug was pulled, especially when one takes into account Kawamoto’s writing style. His strengths, at least when it came to Kakegurui, is tied to the dire situations the characters find themselves in, the certain set of rules or parameters chaining them there, and how said characters think, bluff, and maneuver their way around and or out of the situation. I can’t help but presume the same was to be executed in this manga, particularly when we have the parameter of how Lute believed that “it’s impossible to kill a reincarnate”.
Paradoxically, the biggest controversy of the magna is also it’s biggest appeal.
The isekai characters - collectively called the Rebels Against God - are candidly drawn as pastiches to main and supporting characters of other isekai works. The controversy came from the fact that both readers and the editorial department felt that depicting characters that looked so similar to those from other series as villains was problematic, as the respective creators of those works could see that use as denigrating.
Personally, I feel that this is a very poor excuse to cancel the magna because a pastiche/analogue of a character does not - in itself - denote that said user of the parody MEANS that they view said character negatively (I mean, just look at Venture Bros.)
The Rebels of God consist of:
Kilt, "The Dual Wielding Black Knight". (Kirito of Reki Kawahara's novel series Sword Art Online.);
Honda Yuya, "Looper" (Subaru Natsuki from Tappei Nagatsuki's novel series Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World);
Flare, "The Fallen Goddess" (Aqua from Jitakukeibihei's novel series KonoSuba);
Don Will Dead, "The Undead King" (Ainz Ooal Gown from Kugane Maruyama's novel series Overlord);
Anastasia Melkva, "The Young Demon" (Tanya von Degurechaff from Carlo Zen's novel series The Saga of Tanya the Evil);
Roro Sendiger, "The Named Slime". (Rimuru Tempest from Fuse's novel series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime);
Imerda Pinata, "The Daughter Villainess" (Catarina Claes from Satoru Yamaguchi's novel series My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!)
Yukiko Shijo, "Otherworld Restaurant". (Aletta from Junpei Inuzuka's novel series Restaurant to Another World) and finally,
Louis Crawford, "God's Mistake". (Shin Wolford from Tsuyoshi Yoshioka's novel series Wise Man's Grandchild)
As fate would have it, Lois Crawford (the analogue of Shin Wolford) kicks off the revenge plot but, his parodied manga is one of the few I have yet to read and or even be familiar with. Nonetheless, his snide, bloodlust, and scornful dismissiveness toward characters, particularly the other members of the Rebels Against God was the start of a jumping on point.
If anything, I wish Kawamoto would have brought more pastiche isekai characters such as:
Hajime Nagumo from Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest;
Diablo from How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord,
and Rudeus Greyrat from Jobless Reincarnation: I Will Seriously Try If I Go to Another World.
(Granted, Rifujin na Magonote, author of Mushoku Tensei, wrote on Twitter: "'Making characters appear who are recognizably borrowed from characters from other works, and then turning them into villains and making them do vile things' ←This is crossing the line", SO maybe it was good that Rudy sat this one out). Ultimately, this is farewell Cheat Slayer... A great premise with some promise, and now I’m left pondering with what could have been... In summary, I feel cheated.