Slow life

Kyle Tam on the popularity of Japanese isekai stories as an escape from your crappy job.

Dahlia put down her ale and picked up her seafood and fish sauce crespelle… She opened her mouth wide and took a great big bite. A burst of sweet and savoury seafood flavors filled her mouth instantly… Even in this sweltering weather, a light lunch and a mug of ale out in the fresh air was hard to beat. (Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools, vol. 1, p. 224-225)

Humanity toils in cubicles and hot desks in order to survive. In Japan, where so-called “black companies” are notorious for the strenuous hours placed on the current and former working population, it is no surprise that isekai is nurtured. Isekai, better known in English as portal fantasy, literally translates to another world or other world and revolves around protagonists who suddenly find themselves flung into a new and fantastical reality.

But an interesting and ever-growing trend has appeared in these other world narratives. A fantasy that isn’t always about slaying the overlord, rescuing the princess, or gathering a party to save the world. The fantasy of a slow life.

In its purest form, a slow life isekai is one where the protagonist comes to a fantastical world with the intention of living a more relaxed life. Some of these books are identifiable through titles that contain the terms slow life, quiet life, or taking it easy. Titles like My Quiet Blacksmith Life In Another World, Drugstore in Another World: Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, or The Ideal Sponger Life are incredibly self-explanatory, with the narrations detailing these slower, and ultimately more rewarding lives, for their protagonists.

Take Drugstore in Another World, which begins with the protagonist narrating “Ugh, I’m so done with work. I just wanna skip it till the end of time.” He is then mysteriously transported to a fantastical realm with “no more worrying about oversleeping, no more crowded trains, no more crappy job,” spending the rest of the novel fulfilling medical requests using modern pharmaceutical knowledge.

Newsletter continues below

BLANK X URBAN STEMS

“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” This first line is among the most famous in literature, echoing across 100 years of Virgina Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, a novel that takes place in the course of a single June day.

In celebration of the book’s centennial, we partnered with Urban Stems on The Mrs. Dalloway—a bouquet for true literary lovers, available through the end of the month. We also asked six of our favorite recent authors to tell us what Mrs. Dalloway means to them! Hear from Cora Lewis, Ling Ling Huang, Ilana Kaplan, Stephanie Wambugu, Rax King and Rebecca Fishbein.

SLOW LIFE