For ease of understanding, I’ll call the story Escape - like the namesake of its game world.

Escape is a very interesting case. I’m sure we’ve all come to know, and for a lot of us hate, the wish-fulfillment nature of what we perceive as “isekai”, or in a harsher word, “slop”. The main character is inexplicably OP, why is every girl fawning over a walking piece of white bread, etc etc. The modern isekai isn’t exactly what I would call an aspiring genre, despite what sales might lead you to believe.

And this is exactly where Escape chooses to tackle, and an impressive job of tackling the problem it did. I personally don’t *really* want to use the word “deconstruction”, but “deconstruction” might really be the best word to describe it. The author clearly knows what makes an isekai, and they have chosen to portray the isekai wish-fulfillment through the lens of the most “real” cast you can get.

Every, and I mean *every* character in Escape has some sort of problem. But not in a writing sense mind you, “problem” as in these are as close as you can get to an escapist target being brought their wish fulfillment as you can get. Sek is essentially a loser incel, Ko is extremely affection deprived that she latches onto anyone she can find, Lila is a control freak, Mile is gay (I kid xD), but you get the idea. It paints this very interesting picture where you’re seeing a story, but you’re not exactly “rooting” for anyone - because frankly, everyone has something that grinds your gears that you almost don’t want them to succeed. But that’s exactly what makes this story so good: you’re watching the isekai losers getting the wish fulfillment they’ve always wanted, do fuck all about **like how they’re supposed to react in the normal sense**, realize their mistakes, and “grow” as normal people (the grow is in quotations because in the end they actually haven’t gotten rid of their traits yet, and this is another good thing - it’s a long process, but progression has been made).

For those who have read the story for a bit, you can see that I haven’t mentioned a certain character: Eshu. And there’s a good reason - Eshu is what I believe to be the weakest of the cast, purely because of the fact that she has not had her development yet and is pretty much very blatant sequel bait (tho if I were to put it outside of the context of the contest, it should have just continued on).

And as for the plot itself… honestly I don’t think this story shines with its plot. I’ll say that this is, funnily enough, very similar to slow life isekai, in that despite “things happening”, nothing *really* happens. There are stakes, there is action, there is a main plot and all, but to me those are merely spices added on to accentuate the growth of these characters as people.

Overall, this is a very strong entry. It knows what makes the isekai, and instead of catering to it, the story tackles it head-on with a bold declaration “what I do is how isekai is *supposed* to be about”