Best Isekai Anime & Manga With Otaku Protagonists

An otaku is typically someone with a deep interest. This is generally something along the lines of manga, anime, video games, or nerd culture. These people tend to let their hobbies consume them, and it becomes part of their identity. The term was coined in Japan in the 80s, but is now used worldwide.

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By  Patrick Armstrong

There have been many anime and manga characters who fit this profile, and it is usually interesting to see them in a world of fantasy that, unlike more grounded characters, isn’t such a thing of suspended disbelief for them. However, visiting these worlds also takes them away from their hobbies, making for a stressful journey.

8 Shinichi Kanou (Outbreak Company)

MAL Rating: 7.18

Outbreak Company is not a typical comedy, but rather a hilarious one with several interesting themes. The protagonist, Shinichi, is an out-and-out otaku, and it is his personality that drives the plot of the series.

He is taken to a new world, the Holy Empire of Erdant, where he is tasked with bringing otaku culture to that world. Outbreak Company is a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is a great watch for otakus, with several anime references littered across its 12-episode run.

7 Katarina Claes (My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom)

MAL Rating: 7.36

Katarina Claes is a spoiled brat who is mean to everyone, until one day, when she suffers a fall, she bumps her head pretty hard, which then causes her to remember that she is actually an unnamed character from another world that was reborn into the one she currently inhabits.

Katarina also remembers that she is now playing the role of a villainess in an Otome game, and she will end up either dead or banished. So, she starts to do all she can to change her fate. Not only that, but she also prepares for the possibility of being exiled and how she would still be able to make her life work if that were to happen. While not portrayed as an otaku in the current story, it is revealed that she was one before dying, and that her hobby, otome games, had consumed her life.

6 Shiroe (Log Horizon)

MAL Avg. Rating: 7.36

Shiroe is the calculating member of the Debauchery Party, one of the top guilds of Elder Tale. When several players find themselves transported into the world of the game, they must figure their way out of a difficult situation.

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Shiroe is a great protagonist, a 23-year-old who typically stays indoors and knows all there is to know about the game Elder Tale. Log Horizon did something different, in that it removed the stakes of life and death that are common with such shows, and instead raised other narrative stakes, including getting along with the now-living and breathing NPCs.

5 Yousuke Shibazaki (Uncle From Another World)

MAL Rating: 7.80

There can be no argument that the protagonist of Uncle From Another World is Yousuke, the uncle in question who fell into a coma 17 years ago, and spent that time in the world of Gran Bahamal.

Now, with a nephew he never really knew, and powers that make him OP, the uncle must acclimatize to life back on Earth. Uncle From Another World considers its otaku protagonist seriously, as Yousuke is especially distressed when he realized that his beloved Sega lost the console wars. His social awkwardness and love for all things gaming shine through in each episode, usually with hilarious, and sometimes disastrous consequences.

4 Suzuki Satoru (Overlord)

MAL Avg. Rating: 7.92

Trapped in the world of YGGDRASIL, Suzuki, now known as Ainz Ooal Gown, leads his dark forces to more or less take over the world. Viewers of the Overlord anime are only given tidbits of the life Suzuki lived before, and his real name is only revealed in a bonus volume of the light novel.

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By  C.M Edwards

Suzuki is an otaku who gives his life to YGGDRASIL, and it also shows in some of his tendencies, like programming Albedo to fall in love with him, and how awkward he gets in many situations. Ainz’s slow descent toward becoming a true Overlord is one of the more interesting aspects of the show, and is what makes Suzuki such a compelling protagonist.

3 Sora And Shiro (No Game, No Life)

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.06

No Game, No Life is one of those shows that everyone has wanted a second season for, yet the show has just never gotten one. It is also one of those shows that hasn’t aged all that well, considering the suggestive relationship between Sora and Shiro.

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That said, as protagonists, they were otakus, and it was their extensive knowledge of games that gave them the power they had in the world of Disboard, where games decide everything.

2 Kazuma Satou (KonoSuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World!)

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.29

Kazuma Satou is introduced to viewers as a NEET and otaku, who dies and is transported to another world. Accompanied (not willingly) by the goddess Aqua, Kazuma makes a new life for himself.

What makes Kazuma so fascinating is that he is unlike a lot of other protagonists, who want to become better people due to being in a new world and having a fresh chance. Kazuma, though more extroverted once in the new world, still retains a lot of his anti-social tendencies. This is how the comedy of KonoSuba is achieved. Add to that the antics of Megumi and Darkness and one can see why KonoSuba is one of the funniest isekai anime out there.

1 Rudeus Greyrat (Mushoku Tensei Jobless Reincarnation)

MAL Avg. Rating: 8.41

Mushoku Tensei surprised many people when it came out, as it was an isekai that did things differently from many others while still retaining a lot of essential isekai tropes.

One of the high points is Rudeus, the otaku, NEET protagonist who is reincarnated as a genius in a new world. Rudeus is someone who strives hard to change his life for the better after regretting how he lived while on Earth. This has led him to grow in so many ways, and is why he is highly regarded as an isekai protagonist, despite being an otaku.

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