New Isekai Anime Gives A Tragically Dark Twist to the Overpowered Hero Trope

Although a lighthearted anime, the entire premise of Crunchyroll’s In the Land of Leadale is deeply tragic and provides a fresh explanation as to why its hero is so overpowered, as is the case in almost every Isekai. In the Land of Leadale also expands upon this explanation to create a deep metaphor for the series’ already depressing main theme. Fans of Sword Art Online might even appreciate the obvious influence this new anime took from Sword Art Online‘s most heartbreaking death.

One of Isekai’s many recycled tropes involves the hero obtaining some ridiculously overpowered ability either through some sort of cheat, the guise of their main skill being useless, or just because the hero is overly devoted to grinding.

In the Land of Leadale‘s twist is that the hero Keina has spent the majority of her life playing a VR RPG because she’s paralyzed. As a result, her character is unrivaled since that’s where she essentially lives. This justifies Keina’s unique situation to viewers as opposed to hearing yet another humorous “excuse” for the hero’s god-like status. Moreover, Keina’s death, which leads to her inevitable Isekai reincarnation, is directly linked to her unfortunate situation rather than being something random, adding to her tragic story.

In the Land of Leadale’s Hero is Overpowered Because of Her Paralysis

At first, the series ingeniously emulated the Isekai formula where the hero is unfamiliar with their world by casting Keina 200 years in the future after she last logged on. This twist yielded more innovative ways for her to be powerful since few other high elves exist in this new world, and no one can create potions like her since she follows an archaic methodology. Additionally, viewers get to see Keina experience unique situations that come with the passage of time, such as meeting NPC characters she created to be her character’s children. As elves, they live unnaturally long lives, and, of course, they are all important figureheads that garner Keina even more attention and respect.

However, the purpose of this 200-year time skip symbolizes something greater when the series sheds more light on what happened at the onset of this jump. Two-hundred years ago, after Keina’s character disappeared, the game shut down and all the players she knew logged off. Keina now lives in a world with only non-playable characters (NPCs) and no living players. So, when Keina dies, she is reborn in the game she used to live in, but the game itself is essentially dead like her.

Keina Is Just Like Konno/Yuuki from Sword Art Online

The connections between Keina’s initial situation before her reincarnation and Konno/Yuuki’s life from an almost identical story in Sword Art Online are too similar to ignore. Like Keina, Konno suffered from a serious condition that kept her immobilized and spent every waking moment inside a VR RPG. Both girls eventually die, except Konno’s story ends upon her death while Keina’s true tale only just begins ther. In essence, this new anime is Konno’s sequel. Regardless, since it was impossible for fans to not feel devastated by Konno’s death, some can hope that her soul has lived on just like Keina’s does in the world she loved, in the Land of Leadale.

In the Land of Leadale is available on Crunchyroll!

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