This Anime Takes “Isekai” to its Logical Extreme

In Japanese media, there’s a popular fantasy sub-genre known as “isekai”—which refers to any story about a person from our world being transported to another one. There are hundreds of works of fiction that use this basic setup—and many work hard to put their own interesting twist on the formula. But one aspect is almost universal: the person from our world has a massive impact on the world they have arrived in.

Image source: アニメ『処刑少女の生きる道(バージンロード)』 on Twitter.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life takes this isekai trope to is most logical extreme. It features a world where not a single but rather unending stream of Japanese teens has been unleashed upon a hapless fantasy world over the centuries. Technologically, the world was largely modernized—to the point where space exploration became possible. But the massive impact of these sweeping changes largely destroyed the native culture. In fact, in the current era, the entire world speaks only a single language: Japanese.

But that’s not the only isekai trope taken to its furthest extreme. In many isekai stories, the Japanese protagonist is overpowered in some way. Perhaps a god grants them bonus powers to help them out in their new, unfamiliar setting or perhaps their knowledge of modern science allows them to use magic in a revolutionary way.

Image source: アニメ『処刑少女の生きる道(バージンロード)』 on Twitter.

In The Executioner and Her Way of Life, every Japanese person to crossover is granted a superpower of staggering power—one that’s far beyond anything found in the normal, pre-existing magic system. It can be anything from being able to nullify something’s very existence to control over time itself. Worse still, the more they use these powers, the more of themselves is lost. Eventually it hits the point where all these kids become nothing but husks as their powers rage out of control—with the effects continuing even after their deaths. This has caused large portions of the fantasy world to become uninhabitable at best and downright hostile to human life at worst. In fact, the sole reason that the fantasy world has monsters in the first place is because of a Japanese teen’s out of control powers.

Thus, it’s no surprise that the structure of society has become one built around eliminating otherworldly travelers as quickly and ruthlessly as possible. At the top of the hierarchy is the church who are tasked with making sure that neither nobles nor commoners summon Japanese kids in the hopes of exploiting their powers. Should that fail, it becomes their job to punish the summoners and eliminate any summoned teens.

Image source: アニメ『処刑少女の生きる道(バージンロード)』 on Twitter.

What’s interesting, however, is that just outright killing these kids is a dangerous game. While they don’t initially know they have powers, many will activate on instinct and could cause major damage in the seconds before brain death occurs. Thus, it’s important to know what the teen’s superpower is before attempting assassination.

Because of this, the church plays into the fantasy world stereotypes that Japanese teens would expect. Their agents are cute girls or kindly old women—the perfect people to put a confused teen at ease. They don’t forcibly capture the Japanese teens, they simply guide them around and build a bit of trust before bringing them to an isolated location to spend the night—like an old church. They then explain about the superpowers and how to activate them. Once the type of power has been confirmed—and the teen is completely distracted from having basically done magic—the church’s executioner kills them with a quick, fatal blow.

Image source: アニメ『処刑少女の生きる道(バージンロード)』 on Twitter.

Of course, the twist with the story in The Executioner and Her Way of Life is that our main heroine has a power that prevents her from being killed—meaning her executioner must keep up the friendly priestess act while traveling in the hopes of finding a way to kill the girl. This allows us to explore this planet ravaged by isekaied teens and the effects it has had on both the world and he people. It’s simply a fantastic ongoing thought experiment and one absolutely worth checking out for yourself.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life can be seen on HIDIVE.